A heartbreaking struggle

The fury in the sky raged for an eternity, or only seconds. The passage of time had no meaning anymore. Death, life, illness, poison, reunion and separation… all these things mingled in bursts of grief, confusion, joy, and sorrow.

The people were stretched to the breaking point. The city was long past its ability to hold on. Rubble marked the ground, interspersed by spreading cracks and chasms which continually belched darkness and enemies from the pits of the earth.

Shayn could only hold onto Simone and pray that somehow, she would pull through.

Ashmayne had disappeared with Kyler some time before, and Shayn had pulled his love to a semi-sheltered outcropping of a broken building. His arm continued to bleed. 

The city was in such disarray he couldn't even rightly say which building he was under now. Roughly, he knew that the bizarre macabre throne Beast had inhabited was made from the stolen stones of City Hall, but beyond that, all was destruction. Given several days and adequate maps, he would be able to find what he wanted, his home, even, but in these strobing shadows, this chaos of light and dark…

He was disoriented and utterly lost.

There was little he could do now. His sword arm was all but useless, and with his other, he kept pressure on Simone's wound. She'd long fallen unconscious in his arms.

"I love you," He whispered to her, like a chant. If she were to die, that was the last thing he wanted her to hear. Not the explosions of falling stars or the screech of bats or the buzzing of those infernal, venomous locusts, or the death cries of various creatures of evil or good.

"I love you," He said again, over and over. In between crashes of rubble disturbed by the titanic battles of creatures too enormous for him to have dreamed of challenging, even in his prime. Between the keening wails of grief as people lost loved ones to the killing field. Between the roars of the Dragon high above, gnashing and crying out for blood.

Did the Sorcerer bleed? He did not know.

There was so much he did not know, that it overwhelmed him.

Useless and broken, he could only watch the worlds clash before his eyes. The collision had broken it all. How could Roland have said that beauty would come from all of this? There was nothing but death, and hopelessness within his view.

"I love you," The words ran together as his blood mingled with Simone's. The wound Kyler had inflicted on his dominant arm was crippling, the pain wreaking havoc on his ability to focus.

Kyler.

His brother.

His killer?

Would he die here, bleeding out with Simone? There were worse deaths than fading away with the woman he loved in his arms. At least he wouldn't live without her. He wouldn't want that.

A sob worked its way up from his core, shaking his body.

"I love you."

With the city all but razed, his view down into the conflict center was clear. The battle in the sky above was harrowing and intense, but the war below was far bloodier and more personal.

If he knew his eldest brother at all, Riley was likely in the center of everything. He held a deep grudge against Beast and was probably trying to take the seven-headed monster down single handedly.

Shayn's exhausted eyes sought the gigantic thing, and found it at the core of the conflict. 

The shadows played across his heads, two of which were missing. Shayn didn't look for them on the ground, disgusted by the fact that the monster fought on without any regard for its seemingly mortal wounds.

A man who could only be Riley seemed to be attacking it with mad ferocity, first from one angle, then another.

"He's out of his mind," Shayn said quietly to Simone, glancing down at her. She'd grown still, but he could feel that she was breathing. He was grateful. "I love you. Stay alive."

He would give anything for help right now. A doctor, a nurse, a fae, anyone who could heal Simone, restore her to health. The Sorcerer himself was busy at the moment; if he did not prevail, there was no use in anything, was there?

The ground shook, and Shayn's eyes drifted back to the center of the war. The giant, Awarnach, had fallen.

Good riddance.

The worlds were better off without him.

Or world? Were they all one now? It seemed so. He was so tired.

"I love you," He repeated to Simone. She stirred lightly, and murmured something.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" He leaned closer to her ear.

"Wa…water." She said thickly.

"You're thirsty?" He looked about, and saw the waterskin from Lily still at Simone's side. Hopefully it was not yet empty.

It was a strain to reposition her so that he could uncork it and lift it to her lips without damaging his dominant arm further. Eventually he managed the task, and she drank a few sips as he tipped it toward her mouth.

"Better?" He asked.

Simone nodded faintly, her eyes still closed. "You."

"You're welcome," He responded, assuming she meant to thank him, but her words had gotten muddled in the cacophony of war.

"You," She said, a little stronger. Her eyes slid open to stare at him. "Water."

"Oh," His brow knit together, but since she was watching him, he took a short swig from the skin.

It was remarkably refreshing. Soothing to his raw throat, cool to his stomach, yet spreading a warm kind of peace through his limbs.

He frowned.

"What exactly did Lily do to this?" He wondered aloud.

"Saved us," Simone's voice was stronger still, and she began to sit up.

"Woah, slow down," Shayn chastised her, tipping more water into her mouth. "Please don't hurt yourself."

"Did you see him too?" She asked.

"See who?" He was worried about her trying to do too much too quickly, but maybe it was better this way. It was a miracle nothing had attacked them while they had been incapacitated on the ground. But then, maybe they had looked like they were already dead and didn't pose any sort of threat.

There were higher priorities in this war than two immobile humans.

"The Sorcerer," She breathed. "Did you see him?"

"Yes," Shayn nodded quietly. "Before my father came."

Simone's face cleared for a moment, and he wondered if she had been conscious enough to absorb what had happened with Kyler.

"He glowed," She said thoughtfully.

"Yes. He took Kyler with him," Shayn filled in the apparent gap in her memory.

"Forever?" She sat up a little more. "Kyler's… gone?"

"Yes." Shayn's throat went dry, and he took another sip of water as he processed his strongly conflicting emotions.

"I'm glad, but I'm also sorry," Simone frowned, and then leaned into him. He flinched, and she pulled back. "You're badly hurt."

"It's not so bad now," He shrugged one shoulder.

"Drink some more," She encouraged. "It seems to be helping me quite a bit."

He complied by taking a small sip, but he did feel considerably better. "That's so strange." He murmured.

"The royal children are more special than we knew," Simone smiled.

"I'll have to get Lily a great present at their next birthday," Shayn teased. "Do you think saving our lives merits a pony?"

"I should say so," She responded with a grin, "but with all the new exotic creatures around, maybe we could do one better. Perhaps a baby griffin to raise."

Shayn nodded thoughtfully. "Young girls do tend to like cute animals, don't they?"

Simone giggled, and Shayn thought, not for the first time, about Riley's use of humor in dire battle situations. It wasn't out of place at all; it was almost necessary to keep the tension and carnage from overwhelming his senses. Even now as he refocused, the stench of death over the city brought his mood back down to a serious tone.

"If you're feeling well enough, we'd better rejoin the fight," Shayn stood to his feet and stretched his arm. It was already much better; the bleeding had stopped and he could grip his sword again.

He offered his other hand to Simone, who took it and gingerly rose from her seated position.

"I like the way you say 'we'," She whispered, rising on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips.

It seemed strange that so short a time before she was on the brink of death, but Shayn shook off the dark thoughts and turned towards the war. Hopefully they would both live long enough to enjoy many more kisses, but just now, there was something far more important to do.

"We need to rendezvous with whatever of our troops are left," He decided, looking around. "Though the city is so broken and scattered, I'm not exactly sure how."

Simone gazed across the strobing landscape, and finally pointed down towards Beast.

"The most severe fighting is probably where the most soldiers will go, right? Surely we can join up with some there."