Dreaming Ends

Sabina accepts the orb from Luna, taking a moment to survey its darkened color, the way it smokes and burns and glows and boils from within like a nebula. She holds it in one hand and turns her focus to Luna, within her white raging flame.

Wordlessly, Sabina lets her free hand hover over the top of the licking flames of Luna's form, bringing her hand down slowly and steadily until it rests on top of Luna's head. At the contact with her, the flames start to move in slow motion, glowing a light blue color as the crypt walls start to dance with the slow, rhythmic shadows.

The cave floor rumbles slightly, and Sabina smiles, humming in her throat like one would at the sight of something precious. Inside the flame, inside the slowed down time, there is a calm and a peace that washes over Luna with the licking of the flames as she starts to feel the heat less, the deep rest and relief more.

When Sabina removes her hand, the effect stays behind her and she turns toward the stone tomb now. She brings the orb to float overtop of Shand in his crystal casing, and the dark glow of the orb refracts light within the solid crystal, casting a gray glow on what is still recognizable of Shand's face.

Sabina whispers, words that seem immaterial, more notes of a song than a formed language, and the orb settles itself right on top of the crystal, spreading out upon contact until it covers every exposed surface of it, completely covering the box and Shand in a thick blue tar-like substance.

Slowly, after several agonizing seconds of nothingness, there is the slightest cracking sound that gains speed, picks up momentum and volume until the whole cave is full of the noise of crystal breaking apart.

The crystal that had been level with the top of the tomb starts to sink, as if it's dissolving as it's fracturing, until the only thing left in the stone box are puddles of blood and Shand.

He doesn't move. His eyes are still fixed open in a blank, cold stare at the ceiling and his neck is positioned at a painful, awkward angle at the absence of a huge formation of crystal that had been growing out of it and around it.

His fingers are mangled by it, almost every bone he has obviously crushed and shattered by the parasitic growth.

Sabina reaches into the tomb, pulls his body out delicately, holds him in her palm, dripping remains of her blood and his on the ground below.

She lowers him toward Luna, still flaming in her blue white glow.

Sabina holds Shand out to her, making it clear that Luna is to take him inside her flame with her.

The fiery form turns its blank face towards Shand then back up at Sabina, two unnaturally blue eyes the only visible thing through the flame.

Luna shakes her head fearfully, the smoking fire for her hair trailing like chaotic waves with the motion.

She’s afraid of what this may do but the look on Sabina’s face, how she smiles in patient understanding, stands standing there while Luna works this out, eventually moves her hands into action.

With as much tenderness as she can, she slips a hand under and around his neck then the other under his back. It takes some assistance from Sabina, but she finally manages to hold him, his lifeless form still much taller than she is, even with him slumped on her.

She tries to ignore the smell of burning flesh as she hugs him close and his body is absorbed into her form.

Her physical body is long gone, all that remains is the fire itself, formed together to appear like a being, so he easily sinks into the flames with no resistance.

Every part of this is despicable to her, burning him like she is, but she won’t argue with the goddess on this. Sabina has lived much longer and knows much more. She’ll have to trust her.

With that thought, her eyes close and Shand is gone from sight.

Sent from Topic'it App

As Sabina watches the flame dance, Luna's form lost inside it and Shand's broken one hovering there in the melting heat, she hums a consistent note, loudly enough that it echoes off the stone around them and grows, becoming nearly deafening.

In response, the pearl that's been hiding inside Shand's bloodied shirt starts to levitate, the chain pulling at the back of his broken neck as the small glowing sphere hovers in the air above his chest.

Sabina is smiling, as if she has no concern, and hasn't from the start of this. She brushes her long, dark hair back behind her shoulders and crouches, one hand held under her chin as she blows a breath out on the flame like a child blowing bubbles in a field.

The breath is gentle, shallow, but the flames react strongly, flicking with more energy and burning brighter, even more intensely. The pearl starts to vibrate within the fire, taking on a note that harmonizes with Sabina's. It's glow grows until slices of light are jolting out of it like Shand's lightning, striking at the inside of the flame, which keeps the electric display contained.

Slowly, very slowly, his body is starting to look like him again. His veins curl back into his skin, which welds itself back together in the heat, under the direction of the simple, mind-numbing song.

The sound of his bones jerking back together is visceral and raw, popping and clacking as the hard surfaces collide and repair. In several moments, Shand's body is whole again and his veins are glowing to match the pearl as he hovers horizontally within the flame.

Sabina smiles again, and although Luna's form is indiscernible within the fire that has taken over her, Sabina stares into the middle of the flames where Luna had been, a tenderness in her gaze.

Then, she reaches out a single finger, pushes it into the flame, and taps the levitating, electric pearl, and the flames goes out and everything fades to black.

When Shand opens his eyes, he's back on the rooftop terrace and the last thing he remembers is Luna's face, silently screaming at him through feet of solid crystal.

Her consciousness drifts in and out like a wave crashing on the shore then retreating back to the sea, head throbbing, each and every single nerve she has alive with their own sparks.

Eyes flutter open then close tightly with a groan, even the gentle brightness of the world at night pounds against her head and seems to be heating her up further. There’s never a single second she feels like she isn’t burning alive, new sweat forming on her face and neck, mixing with the old that had consistently built while they were both gone in their minds.

Luna feels absolutely disgusting, slumped back against the lounge with breathing that would rival a marathon runner’s after a race.

But it doesn’t stop her from blindly patting the cushion beside her, looking for his hand and, when she finds it, she quickly takes hold of it.

He’s here and, from his breathing, alive. A shaky laugh pushes out of her mouth and she can feel her hot breath warm the air in front of her face, which makes her highly away of the difference in their temperatures.

She takes her hand from his, moving to gingerly rest just a few light finger tips against the back of his wrist, too afraid to break all contact but too concerned to lock her grip on him and never let go.

“Are we going to do this forever?”

Sent from Topic'it App

A laugh tries to bubble out of him, but Shand's ribs protest with deep aching, so it comes out stifled and more like a drawn out exhale.

Are they going to keep throwing themselves at death itself to shield each other for the rest of forever? Probably.

But still. His head feels heavy and even the dim nighttime light makes his eyes sting, like he's staring into the sun. He can see her staring down at him through the crystal, face frozen in terror, mouth moving, no sound.

This is the closest he's ever come. Of course he's almost died more times than he could count, times to fill up countless volumes of dumb reckless choices and violent vengeance and extreme clumsiness.

But it had never happened before with that look on her face. He'd never been so close he could taste it, the feeling of forever of nothingness sucking him in almost to consuming him. He can't lie to himself, the closer he had gotten to it, the more appealing it had become. The more ravenously his soul hungered for it.

But that was before he'd seen her face. It was beyond desperate, broken and there was a wildness in her eyes beyond reason. He could see it so clearly. She would have done anything in that moment, thrown herself into any kind, any level of hell for any amount of time to keep him here with her.

He knows because it's not a feeling unfamiliar to him. It's still a pretty fresh feeling for him, one he's only just started to be able to push down and settle around without feeling the threat stalking in the back of his mind.

She'd described it all to him, only moments before all this. The agony of seeing it on someone else's face. He'd never known the cutting truth of it before now. When had anyone else felt that for him, been so invested in his existence that they'd been willing to give up theirs.

No one ever, except for her. It washes over him in warm waves of something. He's not sure what it is, but it dulls his pain and it calms his mind and he takes a deep, deep breath of the night air.

She's pulled her hand away from his tentatively, carefully, although it lingers protectively close to his still. Even though it's burning hot, he grabs it and holds onto it tightly.

"If you promise to never almost die on me again, I️ won't on you either."

“You couldn’t have promised that sooner?”

A laugh escapes her, ringing clear, shaking her burnt lungs into a fit of pain and she coughs in response but the laughing doesn’t stop.

They’re absolutely ridiculous and here they are planning to be ridiculous forever.

She doesn’t take his hand back, letting him hold hers as tightly as he feels comfortable with, allowing him an exit should the hold start to burn, but the thought aches and doesn’t settle well.

Her laugh settles into a hummed groan, head lulling to the side, smacking into into his shoulder and resting there. She’ll have to apologize for getting her sweat on his shirt and jacket later, currently just happy she can rest against him with layers between to protect him from direct contact.

He still has to feel the heatwaves, but there’s nothing she can do about that one.

“I promise.”

Luna’s hand finally grasps his again in return, forgoing her own caution in a desire to keep him close and always feel him near, as final as their promise.

Sent from Topic'it App