Chapter Text
-Kendal-
They should have realized something was wrong. Alinua clearly did. She looked like she was watching something they couldn’t see and her arms were held close to her body. When Kendal asked if she was okay she admitted she wasn’t but didn’t want to make a fuss about it.
She said “We’re just passing through anyway.”
Their next stop on their journey was the city of Tolcon, Vash didn’t know much about the city; he had only heard its name in the third person. Erin knew it was home to a large mage academy, not as big as Asera but it shared a lot of its qualities. And the main one they were looking for was a distrust of the paladins, they needed a place that wouldn’t send a message to the paladins as soon as Erin was in public. They needed a place where they could buy supplies and everyone needed a night in an emissary without the threat of getting attacked, well everyone who needed to sleep but even Kendal could appreciate taking the night to look at the stars instead of looking out for threats.
There were a few roads to the city but they all curved around a large forest that was in between them and their destination. Everyone in the group didn’t see the need to avoid it so they took their own route cutting through the forest. At first it was just a walk in the woods. It was quite peaceful, grass softly brushing their feet, tree tops shielding them from the sun, and the background noise of bird calls. But, after a while the bird calls stopped. The grass dried and crunched under their feet. And the trees thinned into tall wisps without leaves, one of the sturdier trees held an empty bird’s nest in its branches. Alinua got more uncomfortable the longer they walked through, so Kendal offered his hand and she took it. While walking Kendal noticed that Erin also seemed to be unnerved. He still walked straight with his head high like he usually does, but his steps were longer and slower, like he didn’t want his feet to meet the ground.
When the sun started to set Erin staggered to stop, like he was fighting something.
“We could start to make camp,” Erin gave the suggestion but clearly didn’t want to, even though his voice was steady. “Or we could see if we can get to Tolcon before it’s too dark.”
Everyone agreed to keep going.
Even Tess said “to be honest, I want to sleep in a bed. This place is kind of spooky.”
They walked. And the sky got darker. And darker.
Once Erin needed to ignite a fire in his hand to see where they were going, he admitted that they probably weren’t going to make it to the city and they should set up camp. Everyone agreed, with the same barely concealed disappointment.
Even Falst let out an exasperated “yeah, whatever.”
Erin started raising the ground into their shelters and Dainix offered to get wood for the fireplace, usually Kendal would but it was easy to grab one of the thin trees out of the ground and break it into pieces.
Erin immediately tucked into his tent to go to sleep. Tess followed suit a few minutes later, picking a spot near Erin’s tent and throwing a sleeping bag on it. Dainix sat cross legged by the fire for a while, staring into it and breathing slowly. Before he found a blanket and put it on the ground near the fireplace to sleep under the stars. Falst curled up under a tree shortly after. Then it was just Kendal and Alinua.
Kendal knew what Alinua was going to ask and knew that he would agree before she said anything.
“Could you…” She started. “Could you stay in the same tent as me?”
“Of course I can.” He gave her a reassuring smile and she reciprocated. They both knew it was surface level but still appreciated it.
“This place… it feels like there’s something wrong with it,” Alinua explained.
“Because there’s no life?” Kendal offered. Even he could feel the death that spread across this place like vines.
“I think.” She took a deep breath and stood up. “I hope I’m just being paranoid.
They both settled into the tent. Alinua tucked into the floor bedding and pulled the cover up close to her face. Kendal laid over the top of the whole thing. He stared up at the ceiling of the tent, sort of testing to see if he felt tired. He closed his eyes and didn’t move his body. He’s done this enough times that he can welcome that falling feeling instead of flinching from it.
He laid there for a few hours and didn’t really sleep that whole time. Maybe he didn’t need it yet or maybe this place was still making him a little alert, preventing him from real rest.
It was probably the latter because as soon as he heard a skitter he sat bolt upright, as quick as the fire of a crossbow. Now that he noticed it he kept hearing it, in every direction. It was a ‘ssssssss’ sound, like lots of ants walking in a line or a snake. He stood up and walked out of his tent, waving the curtain ‘door’ away.
At first it didn’t look like there was anything out of the ordinary, the darkness made it hard to see details and he could see Dainix sleeping by the now unlit fireplace and Falst a little further away and if he turned his head he could see Tess by Erin’s tent. But when he kept looking there was something wrong that he couldn’t put his finger on. Looking at Dainix, it was like looking at an old photograph, where the colours had blended together and washed out, or like a memory where you didn’t have all the details.
He didn’t have to walk that much closer to see what was bugging him. It wasn’t darkness obscuring the details, there were black vines wrapped around his body. Kendal rushed over as soon as he saw them, kneeling over Dainix. They were like fingers, they looped around his arms and his torso, brushing against his hair, and crawling under his clothes. They came from the ground, like upside down roots.
“Dainix! Dainix! Wake up you’re…” He didn’t know how to finish that sentence.
He did the first thing he could think of. He gripped one of the vines around Dainix’s arm, and pulled. He ripped the vine out of the ground that it came from but Kendal stopped short before he pulled too far, because the tip of the vine pulled Dainix’s arm along with it. Kendal held the vine in his hand with Dainix’s forearm handing off it like a puppet’s arm lifted by a string. With the vine in his hand Kendal noticed that they weren’t completely black, they had almost a colorful shine to them like oil.
Kendal stared at the vine attached to his friend’s arm. He felt stuck. If he tried to rip more vines off of Dainix would they take pieces of him with them?
A light in his peripheral vision made him whip his head around. There was green light shining from the tent that he had come out of, the one that Alinua was still sleeping in. He ran back and threw the curtain open, finding Alinua asleep with the same vines wrapped around her. But her birthmark was glowing green and any part of her that the vines touched glowed green too.
Kendal walked over and kneeled over her, much like he did with Dainix. It felt wrong seeing those fingers grabbing her while she peacefully inhaled and exhaled in her sleep. But the green glow gave him hope. Life has intervened before to save her from danger, he hoped she was being protected from whatever this was.
Kendal put his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently.
“Alinua. Alinua,” He whispered.
He tried not to get his hopes up but when she stirred and lifted her head, his shoulders could finally fall.
“Hnn… Kendal? What’s–”
She cut herself off when she noticed the roots around her arm and screamed as she flung it off herself. She did it easily, as though it was just a bit of string that had landed on her. As she found more on her, she threw them off too and crawled towards Kendal. She leaned backwards onto his chest and he put his hands on her shoulders.
“What?! Oh my gods! What are those?” She screamed and her eyes widened in horror at the vines now limp on the floor.
“I don’t know,” Kendal answered. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
“I…” She took a second to answer. “I think I’m fine actually. Like physically, nothing hurts.”
“Great, that’s good.” There was still a lot to worry about but at least Alinua was fine.
“What’s going on? What are those things?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” He stood up and helped her up too. “But they’re everywhere and they’re on everyone.”
“What? Oh no.” Her ears drooped in worry.
They both ran out to check on the others. They found Falst and Tess with the vines attached to them too, and when they threw open Erin’s tent and lifted his covers the roots had crawled into his bed. They were all in the same positions they were in hours ago when they went to bed, just with the addition of these things.
Kendal led Alinua to Dainix and showed her the vine he ripped out.
“I tried to just rip it off him but it’s attached to Dainix’s arm,” Kendal explained.
Alinua’s eyes darted to each branch spread across Dainix.
“I know it sounds simple,” she hesitated. “But could we just cut it off them?”
Kendal’s hand lifted to the sword on his back.
“I didn’t want to risk hurting them.” He pulled it cleanly out of its sheath. “But it’s worth a shot.”
Kendal gripped and pulled one of the vines on Dainix’s arm. It was awkward trying to thread the sword under the vine without hurting Dainix, it felt like using an axe to cut a piece of bread. Once he got the angle right Kendal started cutting into the vine. It scared Kendal when he met no resistance and kept checking that he hadn’t cut into Dainix’s skin. Relief filled Kendal when he lifted the vine off Dainix’s arm, without taking any of him with it. But the relief didn’t last long when as soon as the vine lost contact with Dainix a new one grew out of the ground to wrap around his throat and spread up his cheek.
Alinua sighed and rubbed her face with her hand in frustration.
“I don’t know why I expected that to work,” She said. “I don’t know what to do, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Me neither.” Kendal almost returned his sword to his back, then looked at it as it dawned on him. “But maybe Vash has!”
Alinua perked up too. Kendal leaned back to sit cross legged, with the sword on his lap, and Alinua stayed on her knees but leaned towards him. Kendal took a deep breath and his eyes glowed a bright cyan.
He searched. Trying to match up what is before him with the images in Vash’s mind. Diving into the ocean, to look for a specific bubble.
Eventually he found it. A small memory. A old memory.
But it was never forgotten because in it he couldn’t save all of his people.
“It wasn’t long after Vash had defeated Tynan and obtained his sword. One of the farms on the outskirts of Windscrest was silent. It was almost time for harvest and all the farms had to report what they had grown that year and how much can be given to trade with other cities. But a farm growing apple trees and plums didn’t report and no one had seen the farmers in weeks. When guards were sent to check on them they found almost their entire farm dried out and dead. The family was in their house and sleeping as though it was a normal day, except that black vines were wrapped around their bodies. One of the guards, a life mage, tried to connect to the vines to free the family but she was lost to them too. When the other guards told the magistrate what happened he personally went to Vash to beg for the god’s help, and of course Vash agreed. Vash, and his own emissaries that had come with him, found the flower that all the vines had sprang from. Vash destroyed the whole thing in a blaze of star fire and the vines crumbled and limped. Those that woke up said they were stuck in awful nightmares that consumed their entire being with fear and despair. But not all of them woke up, one of the family’s children and the guard that tried to help them, their sleep lasted eternal.”
The glow faded from Kendal’s eyes, he looked down at his sword and returned it to its sheath.
“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel confident,” Alinua commented.
“No, but at least we know what it is now,” Kendal said. “These come from a void corrupted plant that traps mortals in nightmares to put them to sleep and eat them.”
“Oh great,” Alinua shuttered. “But you’re right, we know what to do now. We find the flower of this plant and destroy it with your starfire.”
Kendal looked at Dainix.
“Right?” Alinua prompted.
“Actually, I think I have to go in there.”
“What!” Alinua’s ears shot up in surprise. “In where?”
“In their nightmares,” Kendal answered.
“Why?” Alinua’s arms and fingers tightened inwards in frustration.
“Because when Vash destroyed the flower not every person affected woke up,” Kendal explained. “Some of them were still stuck in their nightmares. The guard tried to help them but she got stuck too. But I wasn’t created with any void. I could go in and get them out.”
“Or you could get stuck like she did.” Alinua’s voice almost became squeaky. “But… you do have a better chance.”
Alinua’s fingers softened into fists and she sighed deeply.
Kendal reached out and put his hand on Alinua’s.
“I know. But I’m not being reckless. Or I’m not trying to be.” He added when Alinua gave him a look. “I really think this is the best that I could do. I can’t defeat it without knowing that they’re all going to wake up.”
Alinua took a moment to ready herself.
“You’re right,” she said. “I trust you. I’ll take care of the flower.”
He meant what he said, he was confident in what he had to do, but he also felt reassured that he had given Alinua the job with the least risks. And for her, taking down a big evil flower is easy.
“And I trust you,” Kendal said.
Alinua smiled. He thinks that she already knew that but it was very true and he liked saying it.
“So, how are you going to… get there?” Alinua asked.
“I think I just have to let them get me,” Kendal said, Alinua’s face grimaced when he did.
Kendal and Alinua walked back to their tent, and Kendal climbed into the bedding that he had been given as though it was a regular night.
“Should I do anything?” Alinua asked.
“I don’t know. It might take me a bit to figure out sleeping again.” Kendal answered. “But you can stay if you want.”
“Thanks, I will.” Alinua sat cross legged on her bed.
Kendal closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles.
Kendal recalled one of his own memories. When Erin told him about the trick where you imagine sheep and count the sheep to get to sleep. He didn’t really understand how that would help but Erin explained that the purpose was to think about something mundane enough to calm your mind into sleep. Kendal didn’t start counting sheep but he did think about when he and Alinua saw the ocean in Argist. He thought about how the sun touched the water. He thought about the wind brushing against him. It was all gentle, as though the primordials were just saying ‘hello’. And he thought about Alinua, pointing out the beauty and adding comments to whatever he said. That day they didn’t have gods or monsters to worry about, they could indulge in the time they spent together. That was his favourite place to be.