Sairek braced his weight as Balgira roared angrily. The Prince’s little quips and taunts had apparently struck quite the nerve. Sairek smirked slightly and shifted his stance, lowering his left arm to help grip his staff when the man brandished his sword and began charging towards him.
It was all going according to his plan so far. Sairek’s grip on his staff tightened and he began concentrating ethereal into the weapon, more than he found himself even usually able to do. When Balgira got close enough to attempt to thrust that broadsword of his right at his stomach, Sairek shifted his weight, twirling around much like he did in the monastery to swing the staff back around to try and drive it into Balgira’s ribs.
Having seen this move before, Balgira was able to react this time, twisting his grip with his wrists to switch the grip of his broadsword as he stepped around to meet and parry Sairek’s attack. Both staff and sword clanged loudly like both were made out of metal as they locked with one another. Balgira sneered at Sairek. “Like I would fall for the same cheap trick a second time…!”
"Oh, I can use plenty of new 'tricks' since you last saw me a couple hours ago now...!" Sairek spat as he looked up at Balgira and let loose a wide, sly grin before abruptly yelling out “Vulkenhai!”
Balgira could see the head of Sairek’s staff glow a bright fiery orange for half a second before there was an abrupt loud pop and an explosion that from Nayleen and Cyial’s perch, covered both Sairek and Balgira in a brief puff of black smoke and dust.
Out of the smoke, Sairek had been launched outside of it, landing with a small grunt on his back and skidding two feet along the ground before coming to a quick stop. He shook his head and looked down the length of his torso from the ground. It did not take long for the plume of smoke and dust to clear and when it did, Balgira was laying on the ground on his back as well, looking far more worse for wear than Sairek was. His hair was disheveled and half covered in what almost looked like soot. The groan of pain Balgira let out as Sairek picked himself back up first was like music to his ears…
Sairek stood up onto his feet and positioned himself to be ready again as Balgira began to shift too. He doubted the man would not have been unable to continue after just one attack, though. “Stand up. Your punishment is not yet over. It's only just begun.” Sairek snarled.
“Oh, just listen to yourself…” Balgira chuckled as he sat upright, moving his left arm to wipe at the corner of his mouth before he stood back up onto his feet. “The little Prince thinks he is so high and mighty…! How cute.”
“Not at all. I just think of you as being incredibly low.” Sairek shot back.
“Hah… you hate me that much, huh? All for a petty monster that you just met that’s probably controlling how you feel anyways?” Balgira scoffed.
“I don’t care to try and convince you anymore. All I care about is how cathartic it will be kicking your ass.” Sairek glared. He slowly moved his staff to point it at Balgira. “You clearly have no grasp on the concept of what empathy is and are delusional. That makes you dangerous and unfit. So if you’re not going to willingly stand down, then so be it. I’ll make you stand down by any means necessary.”
“Delusion? You little shit… it’s not a damn delusion! What good has any demon done for us humans?! They put the world at risk! They are poison to us — to Yggdrasil!” Balgira argued. "Not even their own filthy society cares about them! They banish them and throw them into the Overworld like the garbage that they are!"
“Even ‘poison’ can save lives, while ‘medicine’ can be used to kill, given the right circumstance.” Sairek countered. “Regardless, you are not the one who is allowed to play judge, jury or executioner. Who are you to decide what is 'good' and what is 'evil' based on just what someone is born as? That’s nothing more than blatant discrimination!”
It was then that Sairek realized that he had made a terrible, terrible mistake and that Balgira was perhaps a bit more smarter than he had given him credit for.
Balgira had evidently had just been buying time, talking to him, because he suddenly swung his sword in the air shouting “WILRAIE!” and a damn wave beam of wind energy shot out of the blade with the swing, slicing and cutting through the air in its own right and sailing directly at Sairek at an alarming rate of speed.
“Shit–!” Sairek hissed out loud, instinctively taking a step sideways to his left and diving as best as he could out of the way, thudding against the ground with a grunt. Just as quickly as he crashed into the ground though, he shifted his weight to roll and stagger to push himself back up onto one knee and looked back where the wave beam of wind had whizzed by him. He glanced to see he had only just managed to get out of the way in the nick of time.
"What the Flaming Lands?! He’s a Spell Sword?!” Sairek thought to himself. He glanced back at Balgira, who was walking towards him, sword lifted and still pointed in his direction, a smug smirk on his face.
“SAIREK—BEHIND YOU!”
Sairek glanced up at the cliff hearing Nayleen’s voice shouting at him, then he turned back around and his eyes widened in dismay as the giant wave of energy that he had just dodged was coming back directly at him in five different, smaller waves!
“Are you serious?!” Sairek grunted in disbelief. “Wilraie isn’t supposed to do that!” He gritted his teeth. Balgira was far more skilled in magic than he ever gave the man any credit for.
Needing to think and react fast. Sairek twisted his body back towards Balgira, pointed both his staff and his left hand at the man—then screamed in sudden reaction that Balgira was much closer to him now than he realized as when he had looked back to in front of himself again. It was a pincer-style attack of Balgira's magic threatening him on one side, while the man had begun to sprint in a charge at Sairek and was already swinging his sword downwards. It was all Sairek could manage to do to quickly bring his staff up, gripping it with both hands overhead of himself to stop the incoming sword from coming down onto his head.
Sairek realized in this moment that Balgira wasn’t just trying to subdue him like in a normal duel; this man was fighting to kill him. A chill ran down his spine at that realization and he felt himself beginning to break out in a panicked sweat. It was quite possible that if he hadn’t looked back in time, he would have that sword right down the middle of his head…
Seeing that realization and expression of fear in Sairek’s eyes caused Balgira to grin viciously and wildly. He pulled his sword back and continued on the offensive, moving to swing from his right to the left. Sairek could only roll down onto his back to dodge the swing overhead and roll backwards along his spine so he could be on one foot and knee again. When he did that and Balgira was readying up yet another swing, he quickly brought his staff and hand out to point at the man just like he had done before he was abruptly attacked and shouted “ETHIRUL!” at the top of his lungs.
Balgira visibly flinched and hesitated at Sairek chanting the spell out with such ferocity behind it, and having managed to channel the energy so quickly as well. Having been expecting something large to come out, Balgira stalled his attack and reflexively moved in a defensive position and… all that came out of Sairek’s left hand was a mere pebble which thwarted Balgira’s defenses and bonked him right on the forehead, causing him to emit a surprised little “Ow…!” as it bounced onto the ground harmlessly.
Sairek took that quick little distraction time while the man was hesitating and had fallen for his feint successfully to quickly get up and begin running for his life in a panicked sprint away.
“Y...You… YOU LITTLE SHIT!!” Balgira yelled angrily after him. “ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE FUN OF ME!?”
No. Sairek was just running for his life.
“BASTARD, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!”
Sairek gulped. He didn’t mean to make the man anymore furious at him...
After sprinting a good distance away, Sairek quickly spun around to face Balgira again. The man was still standing there; in the pathway of his own spell as the five little wave beams continued to approach them.
“Oh, so THAT is your plan, is it?! You dumb ass! It doesn’t work like that!!” Balgira snarled angrily as he held his sword upright, pointing the tip of the blade at the sky whilst having his left hand against it but an inch away for a moment, then he pulled it back with both hands gripping the hilt of the blade and swung it again. At his motion of movement, the five waves that had been coming at Balgira changed their trajectory and moved back towards in Sairek’s direction yet again. “You are going to DIE!”
Sairek growled. Dodging and fleeing from them would be hopeless at this rate. He needed to disperse the energy of the spell somehow... and the only way he could think of doing that was by sending a big rock at Balgira for real.
Sairek resumed his stance like he had the previous two times, but this time poured the energy into it much more massively, taking a bit more time as a large rock began forming and growing and growing in front of his left hand. As it grew bigger, his left hand began to shake and he panted from the effort. As these sharp waves of wind magic got closer and closer to him, Sairek clenched his teeth, pushing one last oomph of energy into the spell before he shouted “ETHIRUL!!” at the top of his lungs and let the boulder loose, being about eight or nine feet in diameter all around.
The boulder despite Sairek’s aim being true, only hit three of them. Sairek gasped out as when he launched it, the wave beams swerved out of the way and he could see that Balgira was still controlling them and the man managed to save two of them while the other three were “smashed” into little green glittering particles. Sairek noted behind his boulder that Balgira was reacting to his own attack and moving out of the way, but Sairek himself was too concentrated on the two projectiles aiming for him still. There was no time left to put up any resistance to stop them. The only thing he could do now was attempt to minimize the incoming damage.
Bracing his staff in front of himself with one hand was an attempt to cover as much of his body as possible, even if that cover was just a large stick. Secondly, he grabbed his jewel in his left hand, and poured the energy out of it in front of him. It wouldn’t stop the attack, but it would buffer the energy, like a projectile going through water.
"Ugh...!" Sairek grunted as he felt the second one hit him right in the chest and it caused him to stagger back half a step. The second one however hurt much, much worse, and caused him to cry out in pain as it sliced his left leg right open. His stance buckled and he crumpled to down to one knee from the impact. His little makeshift shield was stronger the closer to the gem the impact was and his legs were about as far away from the rest of his body as could be. Though the energy did not cut through the clothes, Sairek glanced down at his leg and could already see blood beginning to soak through his blue pants.
And… it was beginning to burn. Bad. Real bad. Not just his leg, but his chest too… Did Balgira add something else to the spell… fire maybe…? But no, he couldn’t sense anything else…
Sairek tried to push himself up, using his staff as leverage, but his leg wasn’t having it. All he could do was hiss in pain as he attempted to move and fall back down onto his good knee in pain. He glanced up, seeing Balgira confidently walking towards him, apparently having also dodged Sairek's attack…
...There was no way he was going to just let the man come and chop his head off without a fight. As Balgira approached, Sairek began charging energy into his staff…
“Two hits and that’s all you can take before you go down? Pathetic.” Balgira tutted. “I’m going to enjoy hearing you scream in more pain until you’re start begging for surrender for all the damn trouble you have put me through today!”
Balgira raised his foot, and kicked Sairek’s staff right out of his hand before he was ready, causing Sairek to stumble forward without the weapon supporting his weight, but before Sairek could fall over completely, Balgira reached down, gripping him by the back of his hair and forcing his hair to support the majority of his weight, causing Sairek to scream in pain… and also grip the royal jewel as he shouted out “BALINZER–!!”
Then it was Balgira’s turn to scream in pain, letting Sairek go to begin desperately trying to pat out hot liquid flames that shot out from the royal jewel that had drenched all over the man’s head while Sairek collapsed onto the ground, just managing to prop himself up by one hand and elbow. “Not as much as I’ll enjoy hearing yours, Balgira...!" Sairek growled through clenched teeth. Desperately, he began to crawl away from the screaming man and move over towards his staff, while Balgira collapsed and rolled on the ground, still clutching his face with both hands. Each movement caused Sairek to groan or grunt. His wounds were burning and aching so badly. This—wasn’t... normal…
“I’ll kill you… I’ll kill you…! I’ll kill you!!” Balgira chanted behind Sairek like a mantra. The flames by now either died out or Balgira managed to pat them out, and he pulled his hands away from his face as he picked up his sword off of the ground. Sairek glanced back as he reached out and managed to grab his staff. Burns covered Balgira’s face and quite a good chunk of his hair was burnt or singed off in places...
Sairek turned around, sitting up, trying to channel energy into a spell, but all he could do was clutch his chest with his left hand and pant. He felt so dizzy as Balgira approached him, sword raised overhead. He felt so woozy… he—
”Rapola!”
Sairek collapsed onto his back on the ground, defenseless against Balgira who moved to swing down at him, but out of nowhere, a translucent dome made out of ice appeared in front of Sairek's body, interposing between himself and Balgira’s sword as he swung the weapon down. It bounced right off of the dome harmlessly. Balgira looked at his sword, confused for a moment, then he craned his sword back as the ice around Sairek crumpled into powdery like dust and snow, being carried by the wind. With another attempt, Balgira swung his sword to strike Sairek down.
“Rapola–!”
Once again, another dome of ice appeared and shielded Sairek. Balgira roared in frustration as his sword once again just scratched the surface of this shield before it once again shattered into powdery dust. Balgira spun around and Sairek managed to lift his head off the ground, managing to see a small figure in yellow robes and gray-gloved hands standing behind Balgira, who had both of his hands clasped together between the large book he held in his hands. “C...Cyial…?” Sairek whispered under his breath. There was something else, which Sairek blinked his weary eyes to try and see through the fog of his dizziness. As he forced his vision to focus, he could see it—a small, long and black thin tail was wagging and wriggling in the air behind Cyial, with the end being a pointed, iron tip, shaped like a spade. It took a moment to realize that was Cyial's incubus tail.
“You–!” Balgira growled venomously. “Cheating in a duel…?! You’re even more scum than I thought–!”
“If I’m cheating, then how do you explain the poison you have doused all over your blade, Balgira?!” Cyial demanded. "With that spell you cast, it caused the winds to shift updraft to where Nayleen and I was... My nose is more sensitive than a human's— and right here I can smell it as clear as day!!"
“P—Poison…?!” Sairek managed to gasp out. It all suddenly began to make sense why his wounds burned and were crippling him so much...
“I don’t know what you’re talking about...!” Balgira glared. "This is just another manipulation tactic you demons do...!"
“You doused your blade in venom and used wilrae to remotely send the poison into Sairek! As an acolyte of Lamen, I deal with medicines and herbs every day, Balgira! I know the smell of poison!” Cyial shouted with a vicious snarl.
“Seriously… poison…?!” Sairek inhaled and then broke into a wheezing chuckle. “W-Wow… you don’t fail to impress me… for how shitty you can be…!”
“Shut… UP!” Balgira yelled, moving to stomp his foot down onto Sairek’s chest.
“Rapola–!!” Cyial shouted again, causing Balgira’s foot to plant on the dome of ice and almost comically nearly trip as his boot slid off of it uselessly and it caused him to nearly lose balance.
“GRRR!!” Balgira approached Cyial with his weapon raised. Cyial in reaction to this spread both of his arms out, holding his book in one hand, before clasping his hands back together and bowing his head, his eyes closed.
“HahahaHAHAHAHA–!!" The man laughed manically. "Yeah, that’s right! You better start praying, you worthless demon! You worthless monster! You worthless piece of trash! That’s all you’ll be when I finally dispose of you!!”
Balgira marched closer and Sairek grunted out as he tried to push himself up but it was no use. Where was Nayleen…!?”
Balgira was only a few paces away before Cyial opened his eyes, spread his arms out, and yelled “Shenkalin!”
An almost anti climatic little *clink* sound was heard and Balgira paused in his tracks in confusion as two blue, metal shields formed about a foot away from both of Cyial’s hands, levitating in the air. They were both slightly translucent, as if not fully or completely formed, and the average size of a normal kite shield. Balgira hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to exactly process this new development before he simply began to let loose a deep laugh.
“Shields…? Shields?! What... What the heck are shields going to do for you?!” He laughed. “Are these toys of yours or something–?”
Cyial bowed his head slightly, but his gaze remained locked onto Balgira. The demon’s garnet eyes burned with an intense passion and through the evening sky of the setting sun and the darkening of the environment as evening turned into dusk, his eyes glowed as if they were projecting light like a flame.
“It is as Sairek said… I may not control what I am… but I will control who I am…” Cyial began, his voice low. “But there was one thing Sairek was wrong about…”
Balgira smirked in amusement at Cyial. “Oh, and tell me, what is that…?”
“That he needed to duel you… because you are not his responsibility… you are my responsibility–!”
Sairek watched as Cyial moved both of his hands and as he did, both of the shields moved along with Cyial’s movements. Balgira was so close to Cyial, that Sairek doubted Balgira even knew what hit him, as Cyial 'clapped' both of his hands, and thus the shields together on both sides of Balgira’s head. A loud *DOOONNNGGGG…* reverberated throughout the air. Balgira stood for a moment, before dropping his sword and crumpling on the ground in an unconscious heap.
Cyial dropped his hands slowly as the shields disappeared into particles and glitter of deep blue. He braced both of his hands on his knees, panting and heaving for breath for a few seconds. When the air caught up with his lungs, he half staggered as he moved forwards, reaching down with his other hand to grab Balgira’s sword as well as he moved to kneel himself at the Prince’s side. “Sairek—Sairek! Are you okay–!?”
“F-Felt… better…” Sairek rasped weakly. “Chest and... leg… hurts…”
Cyial moved to pull Sairek up off the ground some and dragged his head onto his lap. “You’ll be okay… this is a snake venom, um… of a neurotoxic kind, I think. I don’t believe enough could be put in you through that method to kill you—”
“Sure feels like it…!” Sairek grunted in retort. What a dirty, sly trick Balgira managed to pull on him; yet in a way, frighteningly intelligent despite all of the crazy. Sairek hadn’t even known what hit him until Cyial had come out and spelled out what happened. That nasty little trick even went through not just his clothes, their enchantments but even through the royal jewel's defenses! Sairek didn’t know that was even possible. It was probably only a small amount, but that was all that was clearly needed to subdue him.
Sairek lifted his gaze up, which felt like it took most of his strength to do as he heard footfalls approaching. Cyial looked up too. Not only had Nayleen come back, carrying what looked to be a basket of herbs in her hands, but Lavian and two other knights, one of which was the one Sairek had asked for directions, were with her.
“I’m back, I got it…!” Nayleen shouted through pants of breath, she did not stop her sprinting as she ran by the downed Balgira until she ran up to Sairek’s other side with the basket in her arms. “Is he doing okay?!”
“He’ll be fine...” Cyial said.
“Like a… jack-rat on fire... that I’m fine…!”
“See…? He’s fine…” Cyial said.
They were silent before the three of them broke into an uneasy little chuckle at that. Even Sairek managed to laugh, even though it hurt his chest more to do so.
Cyial took the basket of herbs and rummaged through it for a bit as he set Balgira’s sword and book down. As he rummaged through, he gave the sword a few sniffs with his nose. “Yeah, it's definitely a neurotoxin…” he growled under his throat. He rummaged through the herbs with one hand while pulling out a mortar and pestle with his other hand. Grabbing two herbs, he placed them inside the mortar and began to crush them up. “N-Nothing a mint herb, green herb mixed with a pint of ethereal can’t fix in a hurry…” He explained with effort as he did his best to ground the herbs as quickly and thoroughly as he could.
While Cyial worked to concoct an antivenom for Sairek as quickly as possible, Lavian moved to look down at Balgira. She sighed and shook her head in disappointment, then signaled the two other knights with her to arrest and take him away. She moved over towards Sairek, looking down at the sword. “Nayleen explained everything to me... I think. Does the sword still have the poison on it?”
“Yes.” Cyial answered, not looking up from his task.
“May I?”
Cyial nodded. She reached down to pick up the sword carefully, examining it. She took a sniff herself and scrunched her nose. “I suppose all that’s left to do now is search his room to see if he has any of this stuff in his possession… If he does, then it’s a pretty open and shut case.” She lowered the sword down to her side before looking down again. “Your… name is Cyial... Cyial Rylai, correct?”
“Yeah…” Cyial replied, still busying himself with grinding the herb down into a paste.
Lavian moved down, putting Balgira's sword aside on the ground as she knelt onto one knee and bowed her head, hand on her chest. “Please forgive me, I… I must apologize… for the way that one of my knights has treated you. If I had known any sooner, then—”
“It’s okay… I know the knights had nothing personally to do with it... And... I never told anyone but Father abbot... I was—I was too scared to...” Cyial hiccuped with a gentle shake of his head. He moved his tail to wrap it around himself, almost as if he was hugging himself, or trying to hide it from view. Feeling that the herbs were crushed a sufficient amount, he pulled away for a moment, reaching into his robes again to pull out a clear bottle of water that was about 3/5ths filled, and another one which almost looked like water, if it had not been tinted green. Cyial poured a small portion of that green liquid into the mortar and began to aggressively stir with the pestle. Then carefully, he poured the contents into the bottle of water, resealed the end of it with a cork and shook it quickly and vigorously with both hands to mix it for thirty seconds or so. “Okay, this is the best I can do without brewing it over a heat source. This won’t taste as bad as the ethereal did yesterday Sairek, I promise.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Sairek groaned.
Cyial stopped shaking the bottle and unsealed the cork. He tilted Sairek’s head back, pouring the contents slowly into Sairek’s mouth. Sairek began to obediently gulp it down. Cyial was generous to pull back and let him have a moment to pause after three to four gulps. The demon was right though, it didn’t taste pleasant, but not overwhelming so. Slightly minty, and bitter, but mostly just water.
At first his chest protested and swallowing was hard, but it seemed to work quickly over his chest at least as he drank when Cyial offered him more. Over time, Sairek managed to grab the bottle himself and finish drinking on his own pace, until it was empty.
“Are you feeling better?” Cyial asked him gently.
“Yeah, already… my leg is still screwed for now, though…” Sairek grumbled tiredly with a wince of discomfort.
“Just give it a little more time…” Cyial eased him, looking down at the bleeding leg. “We need to clean and bandage that wound, though… Ethereal should be able to mend most of it back up— S-Sairek…?”
All he could manage was a groggy grunt. It was no good for Sairek. He was so worn out by everything that had transpired in the past few minutes. He felt dizzy and everything sounded so distant, until finally a veil of darkness overtook him and he slipped gently into unconsciousness…
* * *
Sairek came to with a sudden lurch and gasped. He found himself sitting upright on a bed, with a thin film of sweat layering his forehead. He saw Cyial sitting on a stool at an apothecary bench right beside the bed, with Nayleen standing at a doorway. They were in an otherwise relatively small room.
“Wh–What happened…?!” Sairek breathed.
“It’s alright, you are fine now.” Cyial said gently, placing his hands on Sairek’s chest, which Sairek only realized right now was currently bare of any clothes. Cyial gently eased him back down on the bed.
Slowly, Sairek raised his right hand to his head as he was inflicted a sudden wave of dizziness and it caused his consciousness to waver a bit and the world around himself to spin. “Ugghh… What… What happened?”
Instead of answering right away, Cyial glanced towards Nayleen. “Can you please do me a favor and get the soup? I’ll fill him in.”
“Uh, sure. Turn left from here, take the next right and there’s the kitchen, right?” Nayleen asked for clarification.
“Yup, you got it.” Cyial smiled gently.
“I’ll be back in a jiffy.” Nayleen replied with a thumbs up, then ducked herself out of sight.
Cyial turned around on his stool to turn his attention back to Sairek. “First... How are you feeling?”
“Um… good enough, I guess. Probably starving… how long have I been out for…?” Sairek rasped.
“A few hours. It’s around midnight right now so... I guess about four hours. You’re in my room at the monastery. We carried you back here and took care of your leg for you while you were out.” Cyial explained.
“I, um… noticed…” Sairek grumbled, peeking under the sheets. Well, he still had his underwear on, at least.
“Don’t worry, nobody else but me saw you undressed, if you’re worried about Nayleen." Cyial reassured him. "Your clothes are being cleaned. They’ll be ready for you in the morning. You wouldn’t want the blood to stay on them, right?”
“I suppose not… I guess it was impossible for you guys to get my pajamas out of the jewel while I was out of it, anyway.” Sairek reasoned.
Cyial smiled gently. “Balgira had his wounds you delivered to him taken care of, then was held as Lavian had an investigation conducted as to what happened. There was poison found in Balgira's quarters. It’s not illegal to use poison for hunting monsters or even criminals, as long as it's not lethal dosage, but it is illegal to use something like that for a duel and the amount found on the sword was considered to be a dangerous amount with intention to kill... so he was arrested of course, while the investigation is still on-going.”
“...So he really did try to kill me.” Sairek grumbled.
“Yeah, well… the poison is enough to lock him away for at least a couple of years at minimum. Probably more, if you wanted with your order to give him the maximum sentence of five years. That's just for using the poison on a person... There's the cheating in a duel, the intent to seriously hurt you and—”
“I’ll leave that up to you.” Sairek said.
“Huh?... Why me?” Cyial asked, looking slightly uncomfortable.
“He’s the one who was harassing you, right?” Sairek asked.
“Yes, but that’s still getting looked into. You’re the one he tried to poison.” Cyial said.
“Meh… I don’t feel like thinking about all that right now...” Sairek sighed, then looked up at the doorway as Nayleen came in, carrying a bowl which had a gentle puff of steam coming out of it. “Food on the other hand—”
“Oh, what a surprise! And here I was worried you never eat enough. Maybe you should get knocked out more often.” Nayleen teased him, kneeling down to hand the bowl over to Sairek, which he reached out to cup in his hands. It was a type of vegetable soup. She gave him a spoon as well.
Immediately Sairek propped himself to be more seated on the bed and began to dig in. He felt hungry, but after smelling the food and taking his first bite, his appetite came out in full force and he immediately took two, or… maybe it was three bites immediately afterwards. He had already lost count.
“I guess he likes it.” Nayleen smirked, crossing her arms as she leaned against the back wall next to the doorway again.
“It’s not bad.” Sairek said, looking up at Nayleen. “...Why are you grinning so much?”
“I made it myself, that’s why. And you're wolfing it down like it's the best meal you had.”
“Huh...? I don’t believe you.”
“I did!”
“She actually did…” Cyial cut in. “I’ve been too busy caring for you here, after all.”
“Really–?” Sairek asked in a bit of disbelief. “You can’t be serious.”
“Why is that so hard to believe?” Nayleen frowned.
“I mean, you were unsure for the directions to the kitchen–! How can you cook, yet not know where the kitchen is located?”
“Hey, I'm just bad with directions. It’s a character flaw, I know.” Nayleen waved dismissively with a hand.
“Not the only thing that’s flawed about your character…” Sairek grumbled.
“Boy, I’mma about to knock you right back out by delivering you a knuckle sandwich.” Nayleen warned him with a raise of her left fist. Sairek wisely sealed his mouth shut by shoving another spoonful of soup into his mouth and left it in there. Nayleen gave him a bemused grin at that.
“An-y-way~” Nayleen sang, pushing herself away from the wall. “It’s past midnight and I’m tired. Some of us didn't get to sleep yet. I’mma hit the hay.”
“Alright. Good night Nayleen.” Cyial said. “Thanks for bringing the soup to Sairek for me.”
“Nighty-night.” She called to Cyial, before she began to step out of the doorway and outside of the room.
Sairek quickly pulled the spoon out of his mouth and swallowed. “Thanks,” he called out to her. A second later, he saw her hand reappear in view of the doorway, giving a little wave, before ducking out of view again.
Cyial watched the empty doorway for a moment, before standing up to go and close the door quietly, locking it, and then taking a seat next to Sairek again on his stool. “You two are pretty good friends, aren’t you?” Cyial asked.
“We’re um… ‘something’ friends.” Sairek blinked, taking another bite of his soup. "I'm not sure 'good friends' exactly defines our relationship, though."
“Huh?”
“I haven’t even known Nayleen for a week yet.” Sairek explained before taking another spoonful of stew swallowing. “It’s been only five… or six days now since I first met her? And she met me when I was bawling my eyes out on the beach in Marid after I snuck out of the castle—Erm, bad argument with my father.”
“O-Oh.” Cyial blinked. "With the way you two tease each other in stride, it gives the impression you've both been friends for years."
“Yeah, it's weird, but I strangely don't dislike it. She helped cheer me up... in her own personal way, I guess. And she also helped me try to run away, though we were kind of caught in that attempt, we made it work out and... here I am now, I guess. I don’t know why she does what she does. Maybe she’s just bored.” Sairek said with a shrug.
“Does she… like you? Like, a lot?”
“No...? I don't think she does... she was pretty adamant on telling me she didn’t think of me that way, even though she teases me that I feel that way about her. I don’t. Or... at least not yet anyway, if ever. She’s a complete enigma to me. Maybe she’s just that free-spirited.”
“Huh...”
Sairek took time to grab his bowl by its sides and slurp the rest of the stew up in one go, downing the rest of the contents. His tummy was happy with that. “Phew… that sure hit the spot, though...”
“I guess I should leave you to sleep now, then. You still should be getting more rest.” Cyial said, beginning to stand up.
“But what about you? This is your room and your bed isn’t it?” Sairek protested.
“Yes, but you clearly need it more than me right now.” Cyial answered. “Besides… it’s the very least I can do… you ended up getting hurt because of me, for standing up for me against Balgira…” Cyial said, looking away a little.
“Either way though, you don’t owe me anything. I didn’t stand up against Balgira so you would have to repay me any favors. Helping friends is what friends do, Cyial. You don’t need a reason to help people.”
“F-Friends?” Cyial repeated the word.
“Of course!” Sairek smiled.
It took Cyial a moment, but he smiled weakly and nodded. “But still… it’s okay. I’m an incubus, remember? I don’t need to sleep as often as humans do, and well, after everything that happened today, the truth is that I’m kind of running behind on my work schedule. It’s okay. I can go up to three days without sleep. Any sooner than that is just a luxury.”
“Geez, a whole three days? I wish I could do that!" Sairek exclaimed, causing Cyial to chuckle nervously. "How about you come to bed after you finish, then?” Sairek bargained.
“I wouldn’t want to accidentally wake you up.” Cyial said.
“You didn’t when you slipped out of bed at the inn.” Sairek reasoned.
“You woke up when I rolled over to your side during the night, though…” Cyial mumbled.
“You, uh, you noticed that?” Sairek asked.
“Your breathing pattern changed.”
“Well… look, just do it, okay? It’s been a hard day for you too, you know. I don't know why you're acting like being with me is an inconvenience.”
Cyial sighed, but shook his head with a weak smile. “No it's not like that... I—Alright if you insist, Sairek… but again, only after I am done my work, okay? Which means I can't make any promises, but I'll try for you.”
“Yeah, sure.” Sairek smiled again.
“Okay.” Cyial agreed with a nod and reached for his book on the table, then he walked over towards the door and opened it. He looked into the room one last time, glancing at the Prince who lay in his bed.
“Good night, Sairek.” Cyial said softly.
“Night, Cyial. You were amazing today.”
Cyial turned his back, smiling quietly at Sairek's compliment. He closed the door behind him, releasing a shaky breath that was filled with tension while he walked down the hallway. Despite the troubles being over, guilt was still gnawing at him badly on the inside. What was he going to do…? People—Sairek had gotten hurt because of him, even if Balgira was perhaps deserving of it, the man’s career and life as he knew it was probably over; it certainly at least was for him in his immediate future. Was destroying one life for another what ‘justice’ was? He wasn’t so sure…
Even now, he could not find himself hating Balgira. Disliked him, sure, but hate…? Hate... was a strong word. He would have just preferred if the man would have just left him alone. People hated demons... and to him, that was fine. Everyone was allowed to have an opinion and everyone was allowed to believe what they wanted. Cyial just wanted the harassment to stop. How did everything blow up to be like this...?
And now even more, perhaps he was starting to get too… attached. After all, the Prince after he recovered would visit his mother’s grave and then he and Nayleen would be on their way… right? They wouldn’t be staying here for very long.
Cyial sighed again, shaking his head from side to side to rid himself of these thoughts. He didn’t want to think about it right now. It would affect his work. Right now there was medicine he needed to make for other patients, too. He knew Father Abbot was very understanding and would forgive him, especially due to the circumstances, but that didn’t mean he could just hide behind excuses.
Reaching his destination, Cyial opened the door to the main brewery and hesitated for a moment when he saw another man already there. The reason he usually worked with medicine at this hour was because most people would already be asleep. After all, Balgira was not the only one who thought ill of his kind, though Balgira was certainly the most aggressive and upfront about it. Most of the other people here just… tolerated him. Some a bit more friendlier than others, but not to the point where they wanted to associate themselves with him, unlike Nayleen or Sairek. Father Abbot obviously being the exception.
The man Cyial saw was wearing a robe design like his but different, showing he was of higher position than him, darker browns around the robe with a red collar and the robes was more like a coat, the fabric splitting into two and parting shortly below the belt line.
How odd though... Cyial didn’t recognize him from before. However, he supposed with how much he often avoided most of the other members—or how most members avoided him, he reasoned it could be possible that even all of the higher members working here he had not seen before.
“Come on… just a few drops more…” The man muttered as he tilted a vial of green liquid into a bigger bottle to house his potion in, which was light blue.
Cyial was about to step back out and just leave the man alone, but the man let out “Ack–!” in surprise as he noticed Cyial and the small demon boy flinched.
“...Oh. It’s just you. You startled me! Nearly made me spill the potion onto my pants!” The man said, before glancing down for a moment. “...I mean my robe!”
“Uhm…” Cyial hummed with a slow blink. “I’m sorry—”
“Shoot! It’s turning green already!” The man piped. The solution he had in his bottle which had been blue, shimmered and went from turquoise to a deep green. “Agh! That’s way too much! Um... Just... wait there for a few seconds, I need to finish this and then you can have the brewing station, ‘kay boy?”
“Um… okay.” Cyial mumbled. He glanced over to his left, spotting a stool and slowly shifted himself over to sit on it, waiting for the man to finish. Cyial glanced over and eyed the man over. He looked pretty simple. Light brown hair, clean shaven, roughly six feet tall, dark eyes… Maybe the reason he didn’t recognize him was how uninteresting he looked. His gaze shifted instead to eye the ingredients he was using instead.
“Mudwort and etherweed? Mudwort is a fairly poisonous herb… but I suppose etherweed could balance it out into a sort of muscle relaxant if used very sparingly… but that’s way more powerful than what we would normally use… I think? I suppose I’m only an apprentice at potion making after all…” Cyial thought to himself.
Cyial watched as ‘just wait a few seconds’ turned into ‘wait a lot of minutes’ while the man continued to mix both etherweed, a blue plant that looked fairly similar to seaweed, though much more thinner, usually found in lakes or the shores of beaches, and mudwort, a green plant usually found in polluted swampy regions. The solution switched between deep green, to light blue, back to deep green depending on how much he mixed them in. Apparently the man was trying to get the mixture to be an even balance of both.
Cyial released a silent sigh in impatience. His butt was starting to get numb from sitting on the stool for so long... “I… I don’t think my potions are going to be getting done tonight..." He thought to himself bitterly.
After another fifteen minutes, Cyial was becoming so bored that despite what he had said to Sairek, he began to nod off. The man had been shouting “Turn blue, damn you!” For a while now…
“Yes! It’s happening—I think–!”
Cyial popped his eyes open, alert. “R-Really!?”
...It was not happening.
Another thirty minutes later since he had sat on the stool, Cyial was soon snoring gently in a seated position, his book being held loosely in his lap. The man looked at the now sleeping boy, chuckling lightly to himself.
“...Well, that took longer than I thought it did, but I guess it worked out. And now at least, the tonic is made…”
