Nelfkin Down

A/N: I can't resist writing Blue/Alaster stories. Lauren suggested a story where one of them was seriously injured. Alaster gets injured fairly often, so I decided it would be Blue this time. - Rachel

Nelfkin Down

Blue had just gotten to sleep when she was woken by Kael giving a sharp yip. She forced herself upright, rubbing at her eyes, and looked over at the wolf in concern. Shadow was awake as well, and the sisters were both staring into off into the darkness, their ears laid back against their heads. Both were softly growling.

“What's going on?” asked Fae. She and Artemis were already on their feet, reaching for their respective weapons.

“Something's out there,” Shadow said, her voice gruff. “They are... familiar. Kael and I have met their kind before. We are all in danger.”

They roused the rest of their company in short order and gathered together. It hadn't been a very dark night when they first went to sleep, but it seemed now as though a cloud had covered the moon. Blue found herself wishing for the keen eyes of the wolves in this lighting, or lack thereof. She kept a hand on Alaster's elbow, keeping him close without thinking about it. The idiot couldn't protect himself if they were attacked, after all.

“When you say you've met their kind before,” said Kniles, “what, exactly, do you mean?”

Shadow cast him a glance. “They are corrupted. Creatures who were exposed to the deep evil and tainted by it. Kael and I... Our pack were exposed to the evil, and we were the only survivors. They are mindless beasts bent on destruction.”

Merely wondering about what “corrupted” were, exactly, had Blue's brain filling with information. She knew what Leffi knew about them in an instant. She knew that receiving a wound from one was dangerous. She knew the treatment that Wyndal, the witch, had used for such injuries. She knew that the crystals they most needed in order to fight the corrupted were still mostly dormant.

The Cerebrum Crystal was useless against the corrupted. Sentinel could form a barrier, but the corrupted would beat themselves against it without ceasing until they wore it down, which could be quickly if there were a lot of them. Codex could give Blue all of this information but otherwise, there wasn't a damn thing it could do either.

Nostrum could purify the corrupted, when it was fully mastered. Blue had never seen Shadow make use of Nostrum and the wolf had said before that she could not control it. The Null Crystal could cancel out the evil power corrupting them, make them harmless, if only Zi could use it. And Void could have utterly destroyed them, but Artemis couldn't use her crystal yet either.

A howl split the quiet of the night, sending a child down Blue's spine. “We are completely screwed.”

“We should make a run for it,” Alaster suggested nervously.

“No, we're surrounded,” said Shadow, shaking her head. “If we try to run, we'll be slaughtered. Our only chance is to fight.”

“But they can't be stopped with our weapons!” Blue exclaimed. Her eyes were wide as saucers. “None of us is strong enough to fight them yet.”

Alaster stared at her, looking equally spooked. “We're all going to bloody die, aren't we?”

Before they could make any sort of plan, the corrupted seemed to fly out at them from the shadows, their red eyes gleaming in the darkness like beacons. Fae only just managed to throw up a shield around them, which the slathering beasts proceeded to throw themselves against. Fae was sweating with the effort to keep the magical barrier up within seconds.

Up close, the monsters were horrific. They were hulking, mutated creatures whose true identity, Blue could not have guessed. They were unlike anything she'd ever seen before and their howls and shrieks filled the air, a sickening cacophony that Blue thought might cause her ears to bleed.

“I can't read their minds,” Alaster said, confirming what the Codex had said about the Cerebrum Crystal. Alaster didn't sound surprised either. “They're still animals, I guess.”

“They have no independent thought,” Blue corrected. “Even if they weren't animals, there would be nothing for you to read.”

It was hard to talk when the noise the creatures were making was so intense. Fae was quickly wearing out, and Blue still had no idea what they were going to do when the fairy's defense inevitably failed. She looked to Shadow, who seemed to be the only other person who might know how to fight these things.

The wolf was holding her hands like claws, her lips drawn back in a snarl. But the thing that really caught Blue's attention was the Nostrum crystal, pulsing green from beneath the cloth that kept it bound to Shadow's arm.

Sentinel's shield flickered and died out, and Blue leaped backwards from slashing claws, dragging Alaster along with her.

There were about a dozen or more of the creatures, and although the rest of their companions could fight back against them, Blue and Alaster were sitting ducks. The most Blue could manage was to wield her walking stick in self-defense, but she couldn't hope to injure the beasts with such a weapon.

Clarabelle brayed in panic, her eyes rolling in terror, as Borli did his best to hold onto her lead. Blue turned to make certain the dwarf still had hold of her, when one of the corrupted suddenly lunged at Alaster, claws set to tear out the fairy's throat.

Blue didn't think, she just acted on impulse, throwing herself bodily at Alaster and slamming into him just in time to knock him clear of the beast's attack, but not in time to avoid having its claws rake across her own arm, sending fiery pain screaming through her body. She cried out and fell to her knees, dropping her staff to grab at the wound with her other hand. Blood gushed from between her fingers and she gritted her teeth to keep from screaming.

The area around them was suddenly illuminated and the shrieks of the corrupted rose up to a higher pitch. Blue's eyes blinked rapidly as she fought to adjust to the onslaught of light, and then the sounds of the corrupted were gone and all Blue could hear was her own harsh breathing.

The light died down enough that Blue could see again, although her vision was still extremely spotty. She was both relieved and horrified to find their party surrounded by the corpses of wild animals. Most of them were predators, one being a huge mountain bear. There were a couple of gray wolves as well, and a single deer. None of them were left breathing but they'd gone back to their original forms. Blue looked to Shadow and found the wolf was panting like she'd just run a marathon.

“Did it work?” Shadow asked breathlessly. “Did I purify them?”

Kael crept forward and nudged one of the prone gray wolves. She whimpered and backed away again, taking shelter behind her sibling's legs.

“They're all dead,” Fae spoke quietly, sheathing her sword. She knelt down next to the bear and checked its pulse, just to be certain, but shook her head. “How terrible. They were just innocent beasts and now they're all gone. Oh Shadow, I'm sorry.”

“No,” Shadow replied with a growl. “It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean that our pack is...”

Blue would have asked the Codex about that but she was lightheaded from pain and blood loss.

“Shit! One of you, help! The nelfkin's bleeding all over the place!” Alaster looked positively green, hovering near Blue as though he didn't dare get too close to the blood. Blue had to smirk at how much of a wimp he was being after she'd just saved his life.

“Relax, Al. It's only a flesh wound,” she quipped, though she felt like passing out.

“Let me see.” Fae knelt down beside Blue and gently pried her hand away from the wound. Alaster lurched away at the sight of the gashes and Blue could hear him retching. She hissed when Fae tore away the sleeve of her blouse to treat the wound, grateful that she'd been using her overcoat as a pillow, otherwise it would have been as ruined as her shirt.

Fae tutted in dismay as she used the tattered remnants of Blue's sleeve to bind the gashes and hopefully stop the bleeding. “I'm not much of a healer and this is a nasty wound. It would be best if we could try and find a town with a person trained in the healing arts.”

Blue could recall what Wyndal Thorne had done to treat such an injury, but the man had used a magical treatment. No one among them was proficient at healing magic. Fae was the closest they had to a healer and her skills in the area had been born of pure necessity and tended towards field dressing.

“How are you feeling?” Fae asked.

“Just peachy,” Blue replied, before groaning in pain. “Okay, not that peachy...”

“That's disgusting,” Alaster whined. “The cloth is already soaked through with blood. She's going to bloody die at this rate!”

“It'll stop,” Blue promised him. Of course she was still comforting him when she was the one possibly dying of a mortal injury. “I'm going to be fine.”

“You're not fine!” Alaster sounded angry but his face told a different story. He was scared, scared for her, and the thought actually made Blue smile. “Don't look so bloody happy about it, nelfkin, you'd damn well better not die and leave me here alone with these idiots!”

“I'm not going to die.” Blue was amazed herself at how she was managing to stay so calm. “But if it's all the same to the rest of you, I think I might pass out now.”

As though speaking the words had given her body permission, Blue felt herself sag. A pair of hands caught her and lowered her to the ground but she didn't have time to figure out how they belonged to before the world around her slipped away.

–

Alaster had blood on his hands and he was freaking the fuck out. The nelfkin had already bled through the makeshift bandage and now she'd passed out, though he wasn't sure if it was from blood loss or shock. His heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest and he was gripped with fear that Blue was going to die. Her wounds were deep and somehow already looked infected.

“I can stop the bleeding,” Fae assured him, and as always, he knew she wasn't lying. This helped him to relax a little.

“Even if you can stop the bleeding, those wounds don't look right,” Alaster muttered.

Fae was rifling through her pack for medical supplies. She produced some antiseptic to clean the gashes and some fresh bandages. “For now, we're not going to worry about that. When I get the bleeding stopped, it might buy us some time to figure out how to treat her injuries, or at least find a healer.”

“We can't stay here,” Shadow said. “More corrupted will be drawn here.”

“So you can just do that light thingy again!” Alaster snapped, gesturing to Shadow's arm, where the Nostrum Crystal was tied.

Shadow's ears drooped and she looked despondent. “I don't know how I did it and I'm not sure I could do it again any time soon. Besides, something went wrong. They weren't supposed to die.”

Alaster did not understand why Shadow was so upset about some dead animals. Sure, she was a wolf, but she was a Red Wolf, a sentient being. She wasn't the same as these mindless beasts by a long shot. Was she afraid that her corrupted kin would come to the same end?

Actually, now that Alaster thought about that, it did seem likely that this was what Shadow was really upset about.

“The nelfkin is unconscious, we can't move her,” he said desperately. Alaster understood that they couldn't just stay here and wait for another attack, but Blue couldn't exactly get up and walk.

“I'd say put her on Clarabelle, but ye can't just tie the lass on like we did with him,” said Borli, jerking a thumb in Alaster's direction. “With a wound like that, it'd be the death of her.”

“One of us could ride with her,” Fae suggested, “to keep her still and avoid aggravating her injuries.”

Borli patted his donkey's neck and looked the group over with a calculating eye. “It'll have to be someone small, else we'll have to carry some of the supplies ourselves. Either you, Miss Fae, or your brother or Miss Zi.”

“I'll do it,” Alaster spoke up. He promptly blushed and hurried to explain, “well, I'm useless anyway. Ana, you and the elf need your hands free in case we're attacked again. I might as well be the one.”

The nickname just slipped out, like it often did when Alaster was stressed, but he pretended not to notice and Fae didn't comment either. Neither could she argue with his logic, so it was Alaster who ended up riding the donkey, doing his best to keep Blue's unconscious body from toppling to the ground.

Fae had cleaned and dressed the nelfkin's wounds and the bleeding was gradually slowing, but Blue was still completely out of it. Alaster decided this was probably a good thing because he was confident she would have made merciless fun of him for riding with her. As it was, even Sir Gwuryn was keeping his distance, as though sensing that his tasteless jokes were better left for another time.

“It's alright,” Fae assured her brother, walking beside them, one hand on Clarabelle's flank. “Blue said we were less than a day out from a village, and they will surely have someone there who can help. I know you're worried but we're not going to let her die.”

It wasn't that Alaster doubted her sincerity, it was just that the nature of the wound troubled him. What if an ordinary healer couldn't treat it? He tightened his grip on the nelfkin, feeling more helpless than usual. Why couldn't one of these magic crystals just heal Blue's injuries? Better yet, why had they never bothered to recruit a healer to travel with them?

“Why the hell did she throw herself in front of that thing?” he complained, though he knew she'd done it to save him. “If one of us had to be mortally wounded, it should have been me.”

“We can't afford for either of you to die,” Fae reminded him. “We all have to be alive in order to seal away the dark force. There's no point in thinking it would be better if you were in her place. Chances are you'd be dead already, anyway. I saw her push you out of the way, that beast would have torn your throat out.”

Alaster grimaced and had to admit that it wasn't exactly the way that he wanted to die. Preferably, he'd like to live a long, comfortable life and die peacefully in his sleep as an old man. But he wasn't sure that life would still be worth living without the nelfkin around.

“I know how much you care for her,” his sister murmured. “I will not let her die, Alaster, I promise.”

“Don't talk about such things,” Alaster snapped, because like hell was he okay with his sister getting so sappy about this, like he was in love with the nelfkin or something. He wasn't in love with Blue, he just liked having her around, though he wasn't going to admit even that much.

“Whatever you say,” Fae replied with a sigh, and she fell silent.

–

It was nightfall once more before they reached the village. It was lucky there had been a road sign to direct them, because Blue was the one who'd known the path and she was still unconscious. Alaster was worried about her. Her breathing was labored now, and her skin was cold and clammy. If there wasn't a healer in this village, he was starting to understand that there was a real chance the nelfkin wouldn't make it, and the thought make him sick with fear.

They stopped at the first cabin they reached, where Kniles pounded on the door until a frightened human couple opened it and peered out at them in alarm.

“Please,” said Kniles, “our friend needs a healer. Tell me you have one in this village.”

One of the humans, a tall, bearded man, looked at Blue and gestured for them to bring her inside. His companion, a slight blonde woman, bit her lip as she watched them.

“We have a healer,” said the man. “I can ride to fetch her. In the meantime, my wife, Amrys, can help you make her comfortable.”

Alaster was relieved to have his feet touch the ground again, although riding all day had turned his legs to jelly and he wobbled and barely managed to stay upright. He tried not to act like it bothered him when Kniles picked up Blue and carried her into the cabin like she weighed nothing.

“Here, let me put some blankets down by the hearth,” Amrys offered, hurrying to make Blue a makeshift bed on the cabin's dirt floor. She looked worried by the sight of Blue's bloodstained bandages and her pale visage. “Has she lost much blood?”

“Some, but I managed to stop the bleeding,” Fae replied.

“I'm sure the healer can help her,” said Amrys.

Sitting down heavily on the floor near Blue, Alaster glanced down at his hands and noticed that they were still covered in the nelfkin's blood. His stomach lurched at the sight. This was his fault. If he'd been able to defend himself at all, if he had at least seen that beast coming for him, maybe they wouldn't be in this situation. Shit, he really wanted to wash his hands.

“Here, Pansy, don't say I never did anything for you.” Sir Gwuryn approached Alaster with a pail of water, which Alaster assumed he'd gotten from outside, and a washrag. “You look ghastly covered in blood like that.”

Alaster didn't need to be told twice. He snatched the washrag and dunked his hands into the cold water, scrubbing furiously. The water in the pail started to turn red, but Alaster couldn't tell that his hands were any cleaner. He scrubbed harder and harder, trying to rid his skin of the staining, his breath hitching in his throat.

Hands gripped his own and made drew them out of the water. Alaster looked up to see his twin staring at him in concern.

“Hey,” she murmured, gently squeezing his hands. “It's okay, you got all the blood washed off.”

Her mind whispered soothing thoughts to him and Alaster couldn't help but relax a bit. He nodded and pulled his hands free, tucking them under his arms.

“Blue is going to be okay,” Fae said. “She's tough. Have some faith in her.”

Alaster nodded absently, though he was far from reassured. The nelfkin looked even more like a child than usual when she was unconscious, but at least she didn't look like she was in pain, despite how pale she was. She wouldn't like knowing that, he thought. She so proud, even more than he was in many ways. Well, if he was being honest, she had more right to be proud than he did.

Over the course of this quest, Alaster had grudgingly made friends with all of his companions, with the possible exception of Gwuryn. Then again, Gwuryn had brought him the water to wash his hands. The knight was at least an ally.

But Blue was different. She had been from the start.

At first, he'd hated her so much for kidnapping him and forcing him to leave his home. And yet, she had been kind to him. Even when she lost her temper with him, she still went out of her way to make sure he was alright. She'd probably pitied him at first, or maybe she still did, Alaster wasn't sure. Whatever the reason, she'd become his confidant, and a source for good advice, and she always had a bottle of liquor on hand when Alaster's flask ran dry. It hadn't occurred to him before how much he'd come to rely on her presence.

A short time later, Amrys' husband returned with the local healer in tow, a wizened older woman with thinning gray hair.

“Let's see the damage,” murmured the healer as she knelt down beside her patient, though she glanced around at their group with undisguised curiosity. She carefully pulled away the bandages on Blue's arm, revealing the angry, infected gashes.

Thin, spidery veins of black had spread out from the wounds, and a dark ooze welled up beneath the healer's prodding fingers. Alaster tore his eyes away from the sight and barely made it to the door of the cabin before he was sick again.

Still nauseous, he glanced over his shoulder and found that Zi was watching him. Alaster hadn't been paying much attention to the rest of their group, he'd been so focused on the nelfkin's injuries, but Zi looked like she'd been crying. Good, he thought bitterly to himself. It served her right for not being able to help. What good was having an elf sorceress around if she couldn't even perform healing magic?

Sure, he knew it wasn't fair of him to blame any of this on Zi, but he didn't care. He needed someone to blame, and he couldn't very well blame the mindless, now dead, creature directly responsible. Nor could he blame the nelfkin when he was terrified that she might share the creature's fate.

Don't die, nelfkin, he silently pleaded. I swear I'll never forgive you if you do.

–

Zi noticed the hateful glare that Alaster sent in her direction, and it made fresh tears well up in her eyes. He didn't know, did he? No one had acted like they thought Zi could heal Blue, except for maybe Kniles, who kept shooting her disapproving looks. Kniles didn't understand. Sure, Zi was proficient in the healing arts, in theory. But she hadn't cast a spell of the magnitude that it would take to heal Blue since the incident with Yuna.

She couldn't cast magic like that in such a delicate situation and risk it going horribly wrong again. She had very nearly cost Yuna her life, and she'd yet to work up the courage to try and restore the woman's body. What if she tried to heal Blue and made things worse? Zi knew she'd never forgive herself if she hurt her friend. She was hoping and praying that this village healer knew magic.

“There's nothing I can do,” the healer said at that moment, dashing Zi's hopes. “This wound is cursed. I can't heal it.”

“What do you mean, you can't heal it?” Alaster stalked back over to the healer, looking even angrier than usual. “She's going to die if you can't heal it!”

The old woman just shook her head and rose to her feet. “Then she will die. I am sorry for your loss but I have no magic, and I'm the only healer for many miles. You have my condolences.”

Zi felt tears slipping down her face unbidden.

The healer's words served to silence Alaster, whose expression had gone blank.

A large, familiar hand settled on Zi's shoulder and she looked up to see Kniles frowning down at her. She swallowed hard, because she knew he was right. There was no other choice. If Zi didn't at least try, her friend was going to die.

“You have to do something,” Kniles said, squeezing her shoulder. “I know you can do this.”

“What if I mess up?” she asked softly. “What if I make it worse?”

“You will only make it worse if you do nothing,” Kniles replied. He gave her a reassuring smile.

“Hurry up and help,” Yuna snapped. “You're wasting time.”

Terrified, but knowing she had no other choice, Zi walked over to her unconscious friend and knelt down at Blue’s side. She peered at the uncovered wound, comparing it to the illustrations she remembered seeing in her studies. When Shadow had referred to the monsters that attacked them as “the corrupted,” Zi had immediately thought of a volume written by Wyndal Thorne, a famous witch and healer who’d authored several books on potions and the healing arts. His works had influenced every healer who came after him.

She’d memorized his spells and potion recipes, but there had been one or two she’d questioned the relevancy of. After all, the spell for healing a wound inflicted by the corrupted had not been used in many, many years. Zi had never even known exactly what the corrupted were supposed to be, aside from a brief description of them that Thorne had included in the volume.

“Zi? Is there anything you can do?” asked Fae, her expression beseeching. “You’re our only magic user.”

“There’s something I can try,” Zi admitted. She avoided meeting anyone’s gaze. They were all going to be angry that she hadn’t done something sooner, but she’d known the skill that the spell would need, and while she was proficient at healing magic, she had little hands on experience. “What I have in mind requires a potion but I don’t have all the necessary ingredients. I can pack the wounds first, to draw out the toxin.”

Taking out a piece of parchment and a bit of charcoal from her pack, she scribbled down the ingredients she needed to create the potion. There was a chance that the village healer had some of them. Handing the list to Fae, she said, “ask the healer first, then check the rest of the village, but gather as many of these as you can. The more I have, the better the chances are that I can successfully brew this potion and save Blue’s life.”

Fae nodded and dutifully took the list. Zi took a deep breath, hoping against hope that the fairy could find the ingredients she needed. Performing such spells without the required ingredients was how she’d destroyed Yuna’s body. The elf sorceress’ hands trembled as she took out the necessary healing herbs from her supplies to pack the wound.

Grinding the herbs together with her mortar and pestle, adding a bit of water to rehydrate the dried plants, she carefully applied the mixture to the gashes on Blue’s arm. For the first time since she’d passed out, Blue reacted, crying out and flinching away as though burned by the medication. Otherwise, however, she did not stir.

“Is that hurting her?” Alaster demanded.

Zi glanced up at him and bit her bottom lip. Despite Blue being their mutual friend, Zi and Alaster were not particularly close. He was difficult to get to know, and so Zi still didn’t quite know where she stood with him. But she knew how he’d react if Blue died and Alaster found out that Zi hadn’t done everything she could to save her.

“I’m trying not to hurt her,” she murmured, focusing her attention on tending to her friend’s wounds. “I can’t promise this will work. I haven’t attempted a spell of this magnitude since…”

She trailed off, unwilling to speak it out loud. Yuna was mercifully silent, for once taking pity on her host, it seemed. Zi spoke a whispered “thank you” to her under her breath.

When she’d finished applying the herbal mixture, she took a piece of chalk from her pack and set about drawing a magic circle on a flat slab of stone by the fireplace. This part, at least, she knew well. The circle was a common one for healing spells. She had a couple of the ingredients she needed among her supplies, and these she took out and placed within the magic circle.

That done, she sat back on her haunches to wait. Blue looked like she was losing strength. Her pallor was ghostly now and her breathing labored. A lump developed in Zi’s throat as she observed her friend’s condition.

Zi’s life before this quest had been consumed by her studies. She’d had Kniles for company some of the time, but mostly she’d felt very alone. She had long since accepted that this was necessary, for her people needed her to advance quickly. And when she’d set out on her journeyman’s journey, she’d been overwhelmed. Then she’d met Blue, what seemed like a lifetime ago now, though it had only been a few months.

Blue was nothing like anyone Zi had met before. She wasn’t a great warrior or a refined scholar, and she didn’t have an ounce of magic, but somehow she made Zi feel safe. Despite her childish appearance, Blue’s attitude spoke of years on the road and she knew a great many things that Zi had never learned about in her studies. Zi sometimes felt a little jealous of Blue’s experience, but mostly it was nice to have an older female friend to take counsel from.

Maybe Alaster thought he was the one who cared the most about Blue these days but Zi had known her first. She was Zi’s friend before anyone else in their group and Zi was terrified that her own ineptitude could cost the nelfkin her life. If Blue died, well… Zi could hardly fathom it.

When Fae at last returned, the fairy looked tired but triumphant. She presented Zi with a small burlap sack.

“I found everything on the list,” she said, looking hopeful. “Is there anything else I can do?”

“The next part’s up to me, I’m afraid,” Zi replied with a strained smile. She was relieved to have all of the ingredients she needed, at least. There was no reason why she could not adequately perform the spell now but fear still sat heavy in her gut as she took out the items Fae had gathered for her, setting some amidst the chalk circle and placing the rest in a cauldron over the fireplace that the human woman, Amrys, had brought out for the village healer’s use.

Artemis came over, pressing a hand against Zi’s shoulder in a rare show of support. It was a welcome comfort and Zi leaned into her friend’s touch.

“I didn’t know you could heal,” the huntress remarked in a quiet tone. “Are you certain you know what you are doing?”

“I’ve learned as much from books on the subject as any person could,” Zi replied. She was not offended by her friend’s question. Artemis had always been uncannily capable of reading Zi. “I would have preferred to let a more experienced healer try but we’ve run out of options.”

“Like Kniles always says, it will be alright.” Artemis cracked a smile, though it looked out of place on her. She looked more weary than usual and Zi wondered if she’d been resting well.

It was a great reassurance to have Artemis at her side as Zi brewed the potion and chanted over it. She let her magic flow from her, pushing back her fears as the liquid in the cauldron began to bubble and softly glow.

Dipping some of the mixture out into an old china teacup, observing its bright yellow hue for a moment before carefully pouring it into Blue’s wounds.

A soft whimper escaped the nelfkin as her wounds began to foam, the potion drawing out the rest of the infection, causing a black ooze to weep from the gashes, thick and possessed of a powerful stench, like rotting flesh. Trying to keep from gagging, Zi carefully spoke the words of the next spell and then placed her hand in the center of the magic circle.

Blue’s arm pulsed with light for a just a moment and the black ooze gushed out faster. Zi hurried to clean it away with a damp rag, breathing a sigh of relief to see that her patient was already less pale than she had been.

Artemis’ hand on her shoulder gave a gentle squeeze. “Did it work?”

“Yes. Yes, I think so.” A genuine smile finally spread across her face and she raised her hand to wipe away the tears of relief gathering in the corners of her eyes. They weren’t out of the woods yet. It would likely still be several hours before Blue regained consciousness and the gashes would be slow to heal, but at least Zi was fairly confident the nelfkin was no longer at death’s door.

Alaster dropped heavily to his knees, opposite of Blue’s still form from Zi. He looked relieved for a moment, but then his expression grew dark again and he looked up at her with an accusatory expression on his face. “If you knew how to do this, why didn’t you do it before? She almost died.”

“I didn’t have all of the ingredients,” Zi defended, and that part was true. Performing the spell with less than half of the things she needed would have been tantamount to killing Blue with her bare hands. But that wasn’t all of the truth. “... I was afraid too. It’s a complicated spell. If I had messed it up, it could have been bad. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of my magic. Please understand, I wanted to help but I wasn’t brave enough. I’m so sorry.”

“You were brave enough,” Kniles spoke up. His gaze held endless sympathy for her, but also a hint of pride, and Zi’s heart swelled at the thought of Kniles being proud of her. “You were scared but you faced your fear and now, thanks to you, Blue isn’t going to die.”

Zi sniffled and nodded. She was tired now. The spell had taken a great deal of energy.

“Good job, kid,” Yuna remarked, making Zi’s smile broaden. Praise from Yuna was rare indeed. For the first time since casting that disastrous spell that had cost Yuna her body, Zi felt at peace with her own magic.

--

Awareness came back to Blue slowly, brought on by the pale light of early morning filtering in through a curtained window. As her vision cleared, Blue stared up at the window, her fuzzy brain trying to comprehend where she might be.

She felt sluggish and sore, but she forced her body to move, pushing herself upright with her left arm and marveling at her inability to feel her right arm at all. She looked down to make sure the arm was still there and noted the bandages secured around it. The memory of the wound she’d sustained came back to her and she realized that someone must have healed her.

Glancing around, she took stock of the small cabin she appeared to be in. Her companions were spread out across its floor, curled in sleeping bags or propped up against the wall, all sound asleep.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the body next to her begin to stir. It was Alaster, of course, and she smiled to herself, wondering if he’d stayed by her side the whole time. She reached out with her good arm and stroked the fairy’s unruly hair, relishing the feel of it beneath her fingers.

Alaster grumbled and batted her hand away, his eyes snapping open. He froze when he saw her looking down at him, his mouth falling open in surprise.

“You’re awake,” he muttered, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, as though to make certain he wasn’t dreaming. “Fuck, nelfkin, do you have any idea how close you came to dying?”

“I told you I wouldn’t die,” she reminded him with a soft chuckle.

“Which was utter bullshit, you had no way of knowing you weren’t going to die,” he replied. He sounded pissed, as per usual, but his relief was was visible on his face. “... How are you feeling?”

Blue hummed and considered the question. “My arm’s numb but the rest of me is sore. And my mouth is dry. Other than that, I’ve certainly been worse.”

“The elf did something to keep you from feeling the pain,” said Alaster. He grabbed a nearby water canteen and passed it to her, which Blue eagerly drank from. “She’s the one who healed you, by the way. It took her long enough to get around to it, but she did it.”

“Huh,” Blue remarked. “Not surprising.”

Alaster stared at her incredulously. “What do you mean, not surprising? No one had any idea she could do that, except for that bloody boyfriend of hers, I guess.”

“Mm, it makes sense,” she said. “Her studies in Ar would have included the healing arts. I didn’t know she kept the ingredients she would have needed, though. The spell for healing a wound like this is rather obscure. I don’t think anyone’s used it since the last quest.”

They kept their voices soft to avoid waking their companions. It wasn’t often they had a little time to themselves.

“You got blood all over me, by the way,” Alaster muttered, glowering at the memory.

Blue remembered the hands that caught her just before she’d passed out. “Thanks, Al. For looking out for me while I was out of it.”

“I didn’t do anything,” her partner muttered, uncomfortable with the praise. His hand rested on the floor near hers, as though he’d wanted to reach out but hadn’t quite worked up the courage. Knowingly, Blue took his hand in her own, intertwining their fingers. Alaster didn’t pull away.

“Well,” he said, “I did have to ride that donkey all day and hold onto you. By the way, you’re fucking heavy. Go on a diet.”

“You’re a rude little shit,” Blue told him cheerfully.

She leaned over and closed the distance between them with a kiss. Alaster returned it with fervor, his free hand reaching up to cup Blue’s cheek. She could feel how tense he was. Poor thing, she thought, imagining how stressed he must have been.

Breaking the kiss and pressing their foreheads together, Alaster muttered, “You have no idea.”

“I’m proud of you for being so brave,” she told him with a grin. She squeezed his hand to reassure him. “I said I wasn’t gonna leave you, Al. Not yesterday, not today and not tomorrow. I promise you that we’re gonna survive this quest.”

Alaster’s gaze fell to their joined hands. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep, nelfkin.”

“When I make a promise, I always keep it,” she replied stubbornly. “Face it, buddy, you’re never getting rid of me.”

He sighed shifted closer to her. Blue rested her head on his shoulder, and Alaster let his cheek fall against the top of her head. This moment of peace wouldn’t last long, she knew. When their friends started to wake, Alaster would put distance between them again. She understood this. It was hard for him to be open about how he felt.

“Hey Al,” she murmured. She felt like testing something. “Love ya.”

Alaster tensed for just a moment before relaxing against her. He let his thumb stroke Blue’s hand in an unusually affectionate gesture. “... Yeah. Me too.”

FIN