A rough and even warmth, then a sudden scream that rang in my ears.
"Hey! HEY! HE- Oh, good, I thought I lost you for a second there."
It was strange opening your eyes and seeing your face looking down at you; then again, it was never mine to begin with. Looking around and seeing a vastly different scene, a deep pain gnawed at the back of my head.
"Where am I?"
"Come on," their tone was both sarcastic and genuine, "did you really hit your head that hard?"
My memories of the fight trickled in, and most of it was a blur. A clash, priced, then thrown, before another clash, and being sent into the air again. The Fallen should have been killed. Or was it?
"Where-!" Sitting up, a hand stopped from rising further.
"Hey, we're safe, I think." His head turned, and I followed. The Fallen was positioned how I remembered, ignoring the silver pool around it. My head lay back down, and my body wanted to melt into the stone. Though my mind was still turning, and the image of the blurred medallion flickered. Almost like a dream, but that was impossible. A sigh left me, and my eyes wandered. It was another thing to add to the growing list of weird occurrences.
Rising again, their hand stopped me. "I've rested enough, and closing my eyes is the last thing I want to do." Their hand left my head, and I stood up, then went to the Fallen.
"Are you sure you're comfortable going, unarmed?" Felix said with a breath escaping from his nose.
"Really?" I replied, glancing back, Felix kept their distance as they followed. Their eyes avoided mine, turning to the Fallen as if it still had the chance to move, even when its head was cut in half. A part of me believed that as well, looking at its unfaded and still appearance. It seemed alive rather than dead.
Taking another step, a rough hand grabbed my ankle before it left the ground.
"Don't…" A voice broken yet still assuring, their face appearing out of the ground as if it were liquid. "That. Would be u,unwise dear." Their once faceless feature is now decorated with cracks and Fallen chunks. A twisting feeling formed in my gut.
"It's ok, I'll keep my distance," I said, and they let go, their hand and face submerging back into the stone. It was the first time I had seen them damaged, and as much as I had treated them before. It filled me with an odd distaste.
My eyes snapped back at the Fallen, specifically to their arm that was still caged by my flesh, then to the silver pool down at their feet.
"Give me my hand," I said, turning my head back at Felix.
"Don't mean you mean. I need a hand?" They asked.
…
With the silence thick. They broke it with a question. "How am I supposed to return this?" Shyly, and looking at the back sword fused to their hand.
"Just let it touch me," I answered, then turned my head back to the Fallen. A flat, warm edge touched the side of my neck. It grew hotter as it stuck onto my skin, then, like a starved wyrm, it burrowed deep into my skin, and my right arm grew back into place.
Extending my arm, my fingers touched the remains of my flesh on the Fallen's arm, and like with the sword. The flesh went into the skin of my hand, and my left arm grew back into place. Back in one piece, a breath left me as one problem had been solved, and my eyes moved onto the next.
"Just what kind of idiot are you? What kind of person makes a deal with a Fallen? Don't tell me that's how you died? "
"I'm not that stupid!" Felix snapped, then sighed. "And don't you have my memories. You know how I died."
"Yes, but I didn't see this in your memories," I said, pointing a finger at the Fallen.
"I don't remember ok. Don't you think I would remember making a deal with something like that?" He retorted, crossing their hands over their chest.
"But you moved as if you fought one before,"
"I'd moved like how I fought any other monster."
"Then why weren't you affected by its magic?"
"Do I look like a scholar of vanity or a mage?" Felix said with a sigh. "Maybe because I'm dead or who knows."
A sigh left my nose as the conversation led nowhere, and my eyes turned back to the Fallen. A creature both material and not. Books describe them as dark spawns of vanity, all light-absorbing black creatures of intelligence and malice, though others say they are mindless malevolent creatures born from the hollows. Most of, if not all, say something different, but most agree that they were ancient and unkillable.
Unkillable, and yet the one before stood completely still and dripping silver. Was all of it wrong? Then again, I have heard stories of people encountering them in their dreams, but all of them always ended with them being saved by waking up. Their stories made no sense and seemed totally different from what the books say.
'Authority of the body. Vanity of the soul. Sanctuary of the mind.' The phrases again weaved in my mind and flesh. Runes again appeared on my skin and spread through the floor like spiraling roots.
"By my-"
A rising blur of white and the runes on the ground shattered to star dust, and a finger sealed my lips. "N,now, son, I wouldn't do that now if I were you." 'Father' said, their form just as battered as 'mother' if not more. "It's better if you leave this to the adults."
A hand grabbed my wrist. "Just say the word," Felix said, their eyes sharp and ready.
"This is a m,matter outsiders like you should not be involved in." 'Mother' said as they appeared, their voice strict with hands grabbing on Felix's arm and shoulder. A twinge flickered across his face, masked by a smirk.
"I wouldn't consider myself an outsider, doll."
"Leave this to the adults? Where were both of you when it attacked!" I snapped, and for a moment they glanced their heads at each other.
"You'll know when you're ready." They both said in unison. Unseen runes appeared on their skin, and of a different script from mine, cursive and flowing. Shimmering with sandy gold, and before I could say another word, they exploded in a blinding flash of light.
"Goodbye, Son."