Brother, my sentinel, the tempest is upon us
We are now each other's responsibility
We are now each other's responsibility
It was Theodosia that arrived first, the lavender of her eyes terrified but alert, clearly startled by the fact that it was him screaming and bellowing and not his brother. Marisol arrived only moments later in a clatter of noise, placing herself at his side and lowering her head so that their eyes could meet. The steadfast shine to her brown eyes did nothing to soothe or calm the panic rising in his heart, causing him to tremble and shake. He shook his head.
“I don’t know!” He wailed, the might of his words emphasized with a stomp of his hoof into the snow, his chest heaving, eyes wild and manic. If he had his magic, that wild, terrible magic that only Erd could properly control, the world would be falling down around their shoulders. The skies would grow cloudy and dark, thunder and lightning raining down from the heavens. The ground beneath their very hooves would break and shift, the earth reshaping into vast chasms and fissures.
It was lucky for Novus that his magic had abandoned him, leaving him with nothing but the wild, terrible feelings tearing him apart in his gut. Erd was not here to save him from that.
Erd was not here.
Madness threatened to steal his sanity, because he couldn’t lose him, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t survive it. He didn’t want to survive it. They had to find him. They had to.
“I-I…” The rasp of his tone was thick, garbled and breaking and he took a moment to spit the collection of blood and saliva to the ground. It stained the snow at his hooves a diluted pink, but he didn’t care. No. Right now everything inside of him was screaming to be reunited with his twin brother. They had to find him. They had to.
Theodosia’s question finally registered through the fog his brain was becoming. “Our room.”
Marisol’s own inquiry, pressing for details. Details meant progress. He stuttered. “N-no.”.
His breath hitched and he began to ramble on upon a croaking whisper. “I-I waited. All night. He left yesterday afternoon to go and get, get… He g-got something. He wouldn’t tell me. He just said it was a ’surprise’.” Every word was agony as it passed his lips, his throat sore as though he had been swallowing daggers. Ard was shaking, trembling. Shock? Stupor? The physical connection between he and Erd so terribly thin that he was falling apart?
“I f-felt him. I felt him. He was scared.” But where? Ard didn’t know where, and that was the worst of it all. What had frightened his brother? What had happened? Was he out there, lost and hurting? Had someone taken him? Dread filled his heart, mixing in dangerous doses with the adrenaline, rage, and terror. Vreis? Was it Vreis? Had he come to Novus? Out of everything, the dangerous rage won out, and there was no one else around to feel it other than the Commander and the Champion of Battle.
Tearing his gaze towards Theodosia and Marisol both, he bit out a croaking, bitter statement, his ears slipping back and his lips drawn up in a dangerous snarl, his spittle stained with pink. Turquoise eyes narrowed in a vehement glare.
”You were supposed to keep us safe! The soldiers, the Halcyon! You promised!” And they had failed.
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