—
"She's not looking too well sir. It's progressed a lot more than we'd hoped."
"I don't care what it takes. Get her the best treatment possible, right now!"
"We're trying, but it's–"
"That's an order!"
"Y-yes sir!"
The man quickly ran off from the bedside as the others continued casting their healing spells. Fatigue began to build in the room as the mages power began to dwindle. Pained groans arose from the bed as the woman laid in bed, clutching her stomach within her arms. Beads of sweat fell quickly from her head as she continued her struggle.
Suddenly the door swung open, revealing the two children running into the room. Both stood next to the bed with their father, the smaller with teary eyes, and the older holding a stern face.
"You two—!"
"What can we do to help!? I'll do whatever!"
"Y-yeah! We want to help mommy…!"
Sniffles were heard within the room from Iris, who'd seemed very stressed about seeing her mother in such a pained position. Rowan held a strong face as he wanted to help soothe her pain. Their father wiped his forehead, as the stress of the situation had fatigued him, and the use of his magic reserves to keep the problem at bay for so long had been used up at this point.
"I don't know what we can do…to stop it. Neither of you are capable of using my own techniques…"
"I don't care! We have to try!"
"..."
A small tug pulled on the fathers clothing, revealing themself to be Iris. Who held a scared, yet determined look on her face. His eyes lowered at the sight of the children before a weak voice spoke up in the tense moment.
"Sorry…you two have to see your mommy be so weak…"
"Marie, we have more specialists on the way…just hold on!"
"We're here to help!"
"You're going to be okay…I've been practicing!"
A small smile flushed on Marie's struggling face, filled with a small sense of joy of seeing her children's faces in the circumstance. She reached her hands out as she pulled the two into her bosom, the children didn't know how to react as tears began to fall.
"Mom, let go…we can heal you! We've been practicing as hard as we can…come on Iris, help me!"
"I…I don't know…"
Her grip on the two became tighter as tears began to fall from her own eyes. It was as if no matter what the two did, it wouldn't have made a difference. She kept them close as Alister reached over and held the three in between his long arms.
"There…won't be much that you guys can do, mommy messed up and is…just paying the price."
"You did nothing wrong–!"
"Listen to me you two…"
She pulled herself away from the three with the dwindling strength she had left, looking at them with tired eyes. She wore her small smile as tears continued to stream down her freckled face in the moon's light from the window. Rowan quickly pulled out a wand and began to chant to himself, with tears leaking out of his eyes and shaky breaths. Though with each word, the power from his wand wavered in and out, as if it wasn't stable enough to hold the spell. He tried multiple times until he felt two hands grab his face. Fingers slowly wiped the tears from his eyes, as he dropped his wand to the ground.
"Rowan, you're the brightest petal in the garden…don't let that get to your head…you'll be a fine mage, I know it, just do your best and rise to the top. Like I've always known you could. Do it not only for yourself and everyone else…do it for me…okay?"
His eyes closed as he began to cry louder than before, Iris had never seen her brother lose his composure. He reached out his arms, grabbing a hold of her and hugging her tightly. She returned the hug with favor, letting him cry on her shoulder as she slowly rubbed her hand through his sleek hair.