Exemplary punishment pt.1

The whole day had gone by rather quickly. Dalia had remained locked up in the house of Cragar's children and no news had been received from Shirei. Marina felt responsible for what had happened, so she had organized a surprise evening to hang out with her and watch films all night. At two o'clock, Lilia also joined, having met Ien's daughter by chance as she left her house.

Around three in the morning, the demigods had collapsed and Marina had climbed into Shirei's bed without even thinking about it.

Cragar's son materialized in the thirteenth house about an hour later, standing with his shoulder against the wall. He was dripping with blood and had wounds all over, his clothes were worn as well as battered and torn. The boy didn't have the strength to move but, before falling, he managed to summon the blade of discord and hold on to it as if it were a stick. With difficulty, he turned around, looking for his sister. He saw Marina and Lilia still sleeping. The bathroom light was on, a sign that Dalia was awake and would see him soon.

Shirei tried to stand on his own legs and reach the door, but fell to the ground before he could take more than three steps. He gritted his teeth and tried to get up again, however he collapsed to the ground and passed out permanently.

Dalia opened the door and discovered her brother's body lying on the floor. Cragar's daughter shouted for the two demigods to wake up and threw herself at her brother's side. As gently as possible, she tried to slap him on the cheeks to bring him back to consciousness.

"O'dear father! Shirei!"

She narrowed her eyes into slits, "This time we'll talk, of course we'll talk, but now I have to take you to the infirmary."

Marina woke up with a start to Dalia's repeated screams filling the entire room. As soon as she saw Shirei lying on the ground, she gave her raven-haired friend a shake and rushed to Dalia's side. She only became aware of the blood soaking the floor after she crouched down.

"He lost a lot of blood! What the hell happened?"

"How can I know! What are we doing? Marina! Marina, what do we do?" The little girl was about to have a hysterical reaction.

Ien's daughter stared at the boy, trying to figure out whether he could survive the journey or not. Lilia remained on the sidelines silently watching the scene. Marina wondered if she was jumping for joy and really hoped she had made an incorrect assumption. Dalia, on the other hand, had tears in her eyes, she wanted to kill him with her own hands.

"Okay, then," Ien's daughter tried to reason, "We could… Dalia, you have to use the spectral travel."

The little girl widened her eyes and replied: "Eh!?"

"It's the fastest way if we want to get Shirei to the infirmary."

"But I-I don't know how to do it..."

Marina squeezed her hands, "Yes you can. Dalia, I believe in you."

The little girl didn't seem very sure of herself, but they had no alternative. She hoisted her half-brother onto her shoulder, took a deep breath, and said, "Meet me in the infirmary."

Shadows swirled quickly around the two, and in the blink of an eye, the children of Cragar disappeared into the Interworld. Marina grimaced.

"Let's hope so..." then, turning to Lilia, she said: "Come on, let's go to the infirmary."

Dalia and Shirei reappeared crashing onto an infirmary bed. The little girl immediately turned to the side and ended up vomiting all the popcorn she had eaten a few hours earlier. Trying to ignore the rancid pool of yellowish liquid she had just regurgitated, she looked around, then set to work getting her half-brother to lie down. Cragar's daughter rubbed the bridge of her nose, still shaken by the spectral travel, forgetting even to acknowledge her success.

"Where will the representative of Mardi's children be... I didn't think I had such a foolish brother."

Dalia left the infirmary in search of some demigod who could help her. Shirei remained still, while the most varied images filled his mind. Although it was night, nothing was dark around him.

He saw people next to him intent on fighting, mysterious figures battling with ferocity and cruelty. The tenebrae were there, they rose to attack lines of enemies, among them there was a dark angel in armor that the boy connected to the description of Marina and Dalia.

A female voice called him softly. Shirei tried to get closer, but the girl's face remained blurry. She was repeating his name, of that he was sure. Every time her lips opened to spell out the letters, however, a distorted sound filled the boy's eardrums.

"Who are you?" The demigod asked.

The mysterious figure smiled again: "******, are you still sleeping? It's morning."

Shirei started running towards her.

"Who are you?" He repeated, almost shouting.

"You need to wake up."

The ground beneath Shirei's feet disappeared and the boy ended up in free fall. Below him was a blinding light, he was getting closer and closer. Shirei looked up for purchase. He tried to travel to the Interworld, but failed.

The light encompassed him, forcing him to cover his sight due to the too much intensity.

When he took his hand away from his eyes, thinking he was still in that strange place, he noticed some familiar elements and realized he had been wrong. His arms were bandaged and he felt inexplicably stiff. He was looking at the ceiling of the twenty-second house.

"The infirmary..." he said with a grimace of pain.

"The infirmary," Dalia mimicked as they checked his wounds.

"How long have I been here?"

"Since you appeared in our house and fainted."

Cragar's son tried to get up, ignoring Luxy's complaints, and sat down. He looked away, he hadn't been strong enough to handle himself. Dalia still had blood on her hands and some parts of her face, she had probably touched herself to remove some strands of hair from her profile. Cragar's daughter took a cloth and wiped the blood, but also the sweat, from her face.

"Thank you, but you didn't have to bring me here."

"Indeed! Let's let my brother die, bleeding and without strength, in front of my best friend. That's what people who love each other do."