Day 20:
Coral
Everything was heavy and he hated the fact that he was waking up. It took a moment before he realized that he couldn’t remember taking whatever the healer had wanted to give him, let alone actually falling under its sedation. At least his head didn’t hurt and his thoughts seemed rather clear compared to the last time he had done this.
There was something on the edge of his hearing that he didn’t quite understand until the voices became discernible. It took the words a bit longer to make sense.
“...seen him that shaken before.” Elias’s voice was low, rough, but he took comfort in the fact that they had done their best to keep their promise to him.
A voice he didn’t recognize drifted through the room. “You asked him what had happened, then?”
Elias snorted. “Of course I asked. Sheer curiosity would have driven me to ask had my duty not.” There was a heavy pause. “I’m going to write up a report but I don’t think I can repeat what he had told me. If you want the story, you’ll have to ask him or Artemis.”
“Do you think he remembers?”
Elias sighed. “I’m not sure. I never verified if there had been any memory loss the last time he had sustained a similar injury but a whole hour?” There was the sound of fabric shifting. “The healer’s not even sure if the two injuries can be compared at this point so we’re going into this blind.”
“If he doesn’t, is Torra-”
“Shhhh.” Silence fell at Elias’s command. A part of him that didn’t dare breathe. “Do you hear that?”
The silence stretched through the room. There was a spark to it, a touch of adrenaline as those in the room waited for whatever Elias had heard to get clearer. A noise started to leak through the door and very quickly it started to sound like shouting.
“What’s going on out there?” Elias questioned. There was the sound of footfall against the floor as the shouting started to sound oddly familiar. He opened his eyes in time to watch Elias open the door.
“-my brother right now or so help me-”
“Bethany?” Elias inquired, sounding skeptical.
Artemis was skeptical. There was no way his older sister was there but as he pushed himself up, he could barely make out his sister around Elias. The woman Elias had been walking with got up from her chair and walked over to the side of the bed. She didn’t force him to lay back down but she did get him to lean back on some pillows as they both watched the confrontation between Elias and Bethany.
“YOU,” Bethany snarled. “Where’s Artemis. And don’t say you don’t have any idea. Lora called me in a panic almost four days ago now about some stranger having kidnapped Artemis and, lo and behold, I recognized the description of the man who had taken him.”
“Bethany, let me explain-”
“No! How bout you listen because, God damn it, Mom may have forgotten but I couldn’t. I still remember every little thing she deemed worthy to teach me and every little trick you had shown me. But when all of that changed after Artemis was born, I left this all behind and now I’m being forced to look back to get my brother out of here. You had no right bringing him here. Especially not like that.”
“He didn’t give me much choice-”
“Bullshit he-”
“He was attacked by a Kret!” Elias’s bellow made the silence that followed deafening. He watched the man’s chest expand with a breath that shook. “A strong one. Beth, if I hadn’t brought him here, he probably would have died from the mental damage it had dealt him. He slept through the last three days and only woke up because the medication the healers were giving him worked to keep him from going brain dead or suffering anything worse. So don’t tell me I was in the wrong bringing him here. Not when you won’t hear me out.”
“Elias?”
Tolnoran’s voice drifted in from down the hallway. Elias took a step into the hallway clearing Artemis’s line of sight to his sister. She looked fierce but he could make out the exhaustion at the edge of her pissed expression. “Tolnoran-” Elias started breathlessly.
“Is everything alright?” Tolnoran asked, voice a bit louder due to proximity alone.
“More or less.” Elias gestured to Artemis’s sister. “This is Bethany, Artemis’s older sister.”
“And his niece,” she added with a pointed glare at Elias. She turned a more neutral expression towards Tolnoran. “He’s our mom’s older brother but he doesn’t care much about being around family anymore.”
Elias let out a sharp breath. “I told you when I left that it was better that I didn’t associate with you or Artemis after-” The words stopped but Artemis - and clearly Bethany - knew exactly what he was referring to.
“So you just abandoned me to deal with everything that came our way on my own!” Bethany shot back, infuriated. “Dad never saw the damn things - couldn’t even feel them! - and there was no way Mom was going to be able to even know how to start helping him!”
“You were plenty strong enough-” he tried but she cut him off viciously.
“I was still a kid!”
“You were 14!”
“I was barely old enough to take care of myself, let alone try and protect my kid brother from things that still give me nightmares! I ran away from all of it as soon as I could because I couldn’t do it anymore! I couldn’t protect my little brother because you dropped that responsibility into my lap before I was ready and now you’re acting like you care now?!”
“Bethany-”
“No! I’m taking Artemis home, and that’s final!”
There was a faint ringing in his ears when silence fell in the room. The woman was still standing at his bedside but he didn’t care. He shifted to the edge of the bed, his movement drawing his sister and his uncle’s attention. Both spoke his name, though Bethany’s was far more frantic than relieved. She closed the distance between them faster than Elias and Artemis wasn’t sure he was happy to see her or simply confused.
He went with the confused while it was there. “Why are you here?”
Bethany pulled back, hands gently gripping his shoulders. “I’m taking you home. Lora called me in a fit when you were kidnapped.”
He shook his head. “No. In the Second Plane. You know how to get here?”
Confusion bled into her expression. “Of course I do. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
“So you’re a Walker, then?”
A dark look pushed the confusion out before she managed a neutral expression. “Was a Walker. I gave that lifestyle up a long time ago and you’ll be able to do the same. Whatever he’s told you-” she sent Elias a glare- “has been lies.”
“Now see here, miss,” Tolnoran started, now in the doorway. Elias put his arm out, stopping the other man.
“Beth,” Elias spoke up, voice soft. “Where’s your Jaun? Toll-something, right?”
Bethany’s entire demeanor turned to ice. “Touley.” She turned a hard glare onto Elias. “And they’ve been dead for years. Died protecting my brother somewhere around the two year mark.”
Pain laced through Elias’s expression. “I’m so sorry.”
“Are you?” she challenged. “Do you know the pain a Walker feels when their bond is broken like that? I thought I was dying when their core was crushed between teeth. Probably would have if Artemis’s Dlmor hadn’t finally stepped in.”
“I distinctly remember being told to go handle the little guys while you took care of the large one, Walker,” Dlmor remarked, voice drifting up from under the bed and startling him. Bethany and the others seemed to already know Dlmor had been there.
It may have been years since he had seen his sister but she still had the same signs as their mom and dad when getting riled up. He stepped closer to her, drawing her attention away from Dlmor. “You knew this entire time? Of what I was? What Mom did?”
Several emotions flickered across her face and he caught the flicker of regret and anger. “Of course I knew. I was 14, old enough to be bonded, old enough to know. She didn’t tell me her plan, though.” She turned a glare to Elias but standing that close allowed Artemis to see the hurt that was under the anger. “She just up and didn’t remember any of it one day. Couldn’t even see Toley. Broke their heart when she didn’t even respond to them.”
Elias shook his head. “I couldn’t convince her to not go through with it.” He opened his arms wide, expression closed off. “I never want anyone to become what I am.”
Annoyance flittered across her face. “Yeah, well. Look at where that’s gotten us.”
“You had a Jaun?” he asked, wondering if his attempt to change the subject was too obvious or would be fought.
Bethany smiled weakly at him. “Yeah. You liked Toley. You could see them for the first few months before the pact fully settled. They had coral colored fur and you had taken to anything coral colored when you weren’t able to see Toley anymore. I managed to convince Mom and Dad to let me buy you a stuffed monkey in the color. You wouldn’t do anything without it.” A slight frown pulled at her lips as her expression turned thoughtful. “I’m not sure what happened to that stuffed monkey. I hated it after Toley was taken and I left a few years after anyways.”
“I don’t remember it,” he offered honestly. “Sorry.”
She smiled at him again. “It’s alright.” She gestured towards the door where Elias and Tolnoran were still standing. Elias looked defeated with Tolnoran’s hands on either shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
He couldn’t get Elias’s gaze so he met his sister’s instead. “I want to stay.”
Bethany rolled her eyes. “You can’t be serious. Artemis, this is nothing more than a bunch of people playing war. Let’s go and get you out of this nonsense.”
He shook his head, taking a step back towards the bed. “No. I can’t leave yet. You didn’t see what I saw yesterday, what I fought yesterday.”
Her face paled even as her rising anger colored her cheeks. “You’ve got to be joking. You’re joking, right?”
“Why would I joke about that?” he asked, genuinely confused by her comment. “Bethany, I went up against a…” The word - like Dlmor or Jaun - wouldn’t form right on his tongue so he translated it… “against an Echo, a shadow being that no one else could see until we brought it to light.”
“Are you sure?” Elias spoke up, weight shifting as if he wanted to step towards them. “There were plenty of accounts from the soldiers and Tolnoran saw it.”
“Very clearly,” the large man confirmed, shuddering.
He shook his head, adamant. “But not before we collided with it. Ask the medical staff. They’ll tell you there was nothing there until I was already leaping over the person it had attached to.”
“I can go do that.” He looked over his shoulder at the stranger he had forgotten about. Her expression was curious but there was a seriousness to it that made her look fierce. “I’ve got a few things to ask them about all this anyways. Colonel wants to know how it got in in the first place.”
Elias nodded. “If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” The woman moved around the bed and came to a stop at his and Bethany’s side, offering her hand. “Seems right I introduce myself before I dip out. Lieutenant Colonel Cass, Second in Command to Colonel Albert Conner.”
Bethany shook her hand, demeanor shifting into a professional one that was probably a tad colder than needed. “Bethany Augustus, nee Lorncroft. Thank you for your assistance.”
“My pleasure,” the other woman assured her with a smirk before offering her hand to him.
He shook it politely. “Artemis Lorncroft. Pleasure to finally be acquainted.”
This pulled her smirk into a grin. “I hope my reputation precedes me well.”
He shrugged finding a small smile pulling at his lips. “Seeing as there has only been mention of you and high praise from Torra, I would hope it did with accuracy.”
She laughed at that. “I’ll take it.” She stepped back and gave them both a nod. “Hopefully I will be able to see you both off. If not, have a good rest of your day.”
There was something on the edge of his hearing that he didn’t quite understand until the voices became discernible. It took the words a bit longer to make sense.
“...seen him that shaken before.” Elias’s voice was low, rough, but he took comfort in the fact that they had done their best to keep their promise to him.
A voice he didn’t recognize drifted through the room. “You asked him what had happened, then?”
Elias snorted. “Of course I asked. Sheer curiosity would have driven me to ask had my duty not.” There was a heavy pause. “I’m going to write up a report but I don’t think I can repeat what he had told me. If you want the story, you’ll have to ask him or Artemis.”
“Do you think he remembers?”
Elias sighed. “I’m not sure. I never verified if there had been any memory loss the last time he had sustained a similar injury but a whole hour?” There was the sound of fabric shifting. “The healer’s not even sure if the two injuries can be compared at this point so we’re going into this blind.”
“If he doesn’t, is Torra-”
“Shhhh.” Silence fell at Elias’s command. A part of him that didn’t dare breathe. “Do you hear that?”
The silence stretched through the room. There was a spark to it, a touch of adrenaline as those in the room waited for whatever Elias had heard to get clearer. A noise started to leak through the door and very quickly it started to sound like shouting.
“What’s going on out there?” Elias questioned. There was the sound of footfall against the floor as the shouting started to sound oddly familiar. He opened his eyes in time to watch Elias open the door.
“-my brother right now or so help me-”
“Bethany?” Elias inquired, sounding skeptical.
Artemis was skeptical. There was no way his older sister was there but as he pushed himself up, he could barely make out his sister around Elias. The woman Elias had been walking with got up from her chair and walked over to the side of the bed. She didn’t force him to lay back down but she did get him to lean back on some pillows as they both watched the confrontation between Elias and Bethany.
“YOU,” Bethany snarled. “Where’s Artemis. And don’t say you don’t have any idea. Lora called me in a panic almost four days ago now about some stranger having kidnapped Artemis and, lo and behold, I recognized the description of the man who had taken him.”
“Bethany, let me explain-”
“No! How bout you listen because, God damn it, Mom may have forgotten but I couldn’t. I still remember every little thing she deemed worthy to teach me and every little trick you had shown me. But when all of that changed after Artemis was born, I left this all behind and now I’m being forced to look back to get my brother out of here. You had no right bringing him here. Especially not like that.”
“He didn’t give me much choice-”
“Bullshit he-”
“He was attacked by a Kret!” Elias’s bellow made the silence that followed deafening. He watched the man’s chest expand with a breath that shook. “A strong one. Beth, if I hadn’t brought him here, he probably would have died from the mental damage it had dealt him. He slept through the last three days and only woke up because the medication the healers were giving him worked to keep him from going brain dead or suffering anything worse. So don’t tell me I was in the wrong bringing him here. Not when you won’t hear me out.”
“Elias?”
Tolnoran’s voice drifted in from down the hallway. Elias took a step into the hallway clearing Artemis’s line of sight to his sister. She looked fierce but he could make out the exhaustion at the edge of her pissed expression. “Tolnoran-” Elias started breathlessly.
“Is everything alright?” Tolnoran asked, voice a bit louder due to proximity alone.
“More or less.” Elias gestured to Artemis’s sister. “This is Bethany, Artemis’s older sister.”
“And his niece,” she added with a pointed glare at Elias. She turned a more neutral expression towards Tolnoran. “He’s our mom’s older brother but he doesn’t care much about being around family anymore.”
Elias let out a sharp breath. “I told you when I left that it was better that I didn’t associate with you or Artemis after-” The words stopped but Artemis - and clearly Bethany - knew exactly what he was referring to.
“So you just abandoned me to deal with everything that came our way on my own!” Bethany shot back, infuriated. “Dad never saw the damn things - couldn’t even feel them! - and there was no way Mom was going to be able to even know how to start helping him!”
“You were plenty strong enough-” he tried but she cut him off viciously.
“I was still a kid!”
“You were 14!”
“I was barely old enough to take care of myself, let alone try and protect my kid brother from things that still give me nightmares! I ran away from all of it as soon as I could because I couldn’t do it anymore! I couldn’t protect my little brother because you dropped that responsibility into my lap before I was ready and now you’re acting like you care now?!”
“Bethany-”
“No! I’m taking Artemis home, and that’s final!”
There was a faint ringing in his ears when silence fell in the room. The woman was still standing at his bedside but he didn’t care. He shifted to the edge of the bed, his movement drawing his sister and his uncle’s attention. Both spoke his name, though Bethany’s was far more frantic than relieved. She closed the distance between them faster than Elias and Artemis wasn’t sure he was happy to see her or simply confused.
He went with the confused while it was there. “Why are you here?”
Bethany pulled back, hands gently gripping his shoulders. “I’m taking you home. Lora called me in a fit when you were kidnapped.”
He shook his head. “No. In the Second Plane. You know how to get here?”
Confusion bled into her expression. “Of course I do. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
“So you’re a Walker, then?”
A dark look pushed the confusion out before she managed a neutral expression. “Was a Walker. I gave that lifestyle up a long time ago and you’ll be able to do the same. Whatever he’s told you-” she sent Elias a glare- “has been lies.”
“Now see here, miss,” Tolnoran started, now in the doorway. Elias put his arm out, stopping the other man.
“Beth,” Elias spoke up, voice soft. “Where’s your Jaun? Toll-something, right?”
Bethany’s entire demeanor turned to ice. “Touley.” She turned a hard glare onto Elias. “And they’ve been dead for years. Died protecting my brother somewhere around the two year mark.”
Pain laced through Elias’s expression. “I’m so sorry.”
“Are you?” she challenged. “Do you know the pain a Walker feels when their bond is broken like that? I thought I was dying when their core was crushed between teeth. Probably would have if Artemis’s Dlmor hadn’t finally stepped in.”
“I distinctly remember being told to go handle the little guys while you took care of the large one, Walker,” Dlmor remarked, voice drifting up from under the bed and startling him. Bethany and the others seemed to already know Dlmor had been there.
It may have been years since he had seen his sister but she still had the same signs as their mom and dad when getting riled up. He stepped closer to her, drawing her attention away from Dlmor. “You knew this entire time? Of what I was? What Mom did?”
Several emotions flickered across her face and he caught the flicker of regret and anger. “Of course I knew. I was 14, old enough to be bonded, old enough to know. She didn’t tell me her plan, though.” She turned a glare to Elias but standing that close allowed Artemis to see the hurt that was under the anger. “She just up and didn’t remember any of it one day. Couldn’t even see Toley. Broke their heart when she didn’t even respond to them.”
Elias shook his head. “I couldn’t convince her to not go through with it.” He opened his arms wide, expression closed off. “I never want anyone to become what I am.”
Annoyance flittered across her face. “Yeah, well. Look at where that’s gotten us.”
“You had a Jaun?” he asked, wondering if his attempt to change the subject was too obvious or would be fought.
Bethany smiled weakly at him. “Yeah. You liked Toley. You could see them for the first few months before the pact fully settled. They had coral colored fur and you had taken to anything coral colored when you weren’t able to see Toley anymore. I managed to convince Mom and Dad to let me buy you a stuffed monkey in the color. You wouldn’t do anything without it.” A slight frown pulled at her lips as her expression turned thoughtful. “I’m not sure what happened to that stuffed monkey. I hated it after Toley was taken and I left a few years after anyways.”
“I don’t remember it,” he offered honestly. “Sorry.”
She smiled at him again. “It’s alright.” She gestured towards the door where Elias and Tolnoran were still standing. Elias looked defeated with Tolnoran’s hands on either shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
He couldn’t get Elias’s gaze so he met his sister’s instead. “I want to stay.”
Bethany rolled her eyes. “You can’t be serious. Artemis, this is nothing more than a bunch of people playing war. Let’s go and get you out of this nonsense.”
He shook his head, taking a step back towards the bed. “No. I can’t leave yet. You didn’t see what I saw yesterday, what I fought yesterday.”
Her face paled even as her rising anger colored her cheeks. “You’ve got to be joking. You’re joking, right?”
“Why would I joke about that?” he asked, genuinely confused by her comment. “Bethany, I went up against a…” The word - like Dlmor or Jaun - wouldn’t form right on his tongue so he translated it… “against an Echo, a shadow being that no one else could see until we brought it to light.”
“Are you sure?” Elias spoke up, weight shifting as if he wanted to step towards them. “There were plenty of accounts from the soldiers and Tolnoran saw it.”
“Very clearly,” the large man confirmed, shuddering.
He shook his head, adamant. “But not before we collided with it. Ask the medical staff. They’ll tell you there was nothing there until I was already leaping over the person it had attached to.”
“I can go do that.” He looked over his shoulder at the stranger he had forgotten about. Her expression was curious but there was a seriousness to it that made her look fierce. “I’ve got a few things to ask them about all this anyways. Colonel wants to know how it got in in the first place.”
Elias nodded. “If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” The woman moved around the bed and came to a stop at his and Bethany’s side, offering her hand. “Seems right I introduce myself before I dip out. Lieutenant Colonel Cass, Second in Command to Colonel Albert Conner.”
Bethany shook her hand, demeanor shifting into a professional one that was probably a tad colder than needed. “Bethany Augustus, nee Lorncroft. Thank you for your assistance.”
“My pleasure,” the other woman assured her with a smirk before offering her hand to him.
He shook it politely. “Artemis Lorncroft. Pleasure to finally be acquainted.”
This pulled her smirk into a grin. “I hope my reputation precedes me well.”
He shrugged finding a small smile pulling at his lips. “Seeing as there has only been mention of you and high praise from Torra, I would hope it did with accuracy.”
She laughed at that. “I’ll take it.” She stepped back and gave them both a nod. “Hopefully I will be able to see you both off. If not, have a good rest of your day.”