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| Details |
| Author: | Saaron |
| Summary: | After Estel and Ekorenine's ritual involving mind vision, Helyn dismisses her succubus and tries to talk to Sandy one more time. |
| Rating: | A for Adults Only 18+ |
Arc: The Sandysappearance
A wave of sickening bright green magic spreads through the little cottage. The succubus raises an eyebrow.
“Mind vision, now?”
Helyn startles, turning on her heels to stare at her demon with a very intense expression on her face. “What?! They did what?!”
“Have no fear, master. There’s a reason why he’s not allowed to look at yo—”
“Stop!” Helyn interrupts her. Even Sandy, who has seemed almost unresponsive to them tenses as she screams. He trembles softly, his head spinning. The girl runs her finger on the side of her face, coming close to fully covering her ears. “I’m tired of this. You’re always downplaying whatever bad thing is happening with your plans, and it’s not reassuring. At all!” She takes a step back, her back glued to the front door. “It’s making things worse. I’m terrified, I’m feeling sick, and for what? He hasn’t said anything!”
The succubus approaches the girl as she speaks. “He’s about to break, master. Look at how miserable and pathetic he is,” the demon attempts to put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You have pushed him to his limi—”
The girl screams again, hitting the succubus’s hand away. “I said stop! You keep telling me I’m extraordinary, that I’m smarter than everyone else, that I’m strong… Well, I fucking need that strength you say I have right now because all of this is eating me alive,” the girl begins crying, looking at the succubus with intense anger.
“Is that how you feel about me?” The succubus takes a step back, her eyes teary. “Because I’ve been trying my best to serve you, to support you, and this is how you treat me back? This situation is a nightmare for me too, you know. You’re not the only one struggling.”
“Stop…” Helyn whispers.
“After all the work I’ve put into finding your missing brother, I can’t believe you’d blame me for whatever is happening here. How ungratef—”
“I said stop!” she screams again, throwing her hand to the side and dismissing the demon back into the Twisting Nether.
The room grows silent. Helyn’s shoulders shake silently as she stares at her feet, and Sandy looks up at the ceiling, shivering, his body feeling cold despite the summer weather. Helyn’s home almost looks completely frozen in time. Until Sandy lowers his face, and risks looking at the girl directly. A sudden movement Helyn immediately perceives. “Don’t look at me!” she shouts at him, both because she doesn’t want to be looked at, and because of a fear of being seen by a mind vision spell again. Sandy, however, doesn’t look away. He stares at her, genuinely concerned. Helyn almost runs at him, ready to make him look away. “I said don’t look at m—”
“I… don’t think she is struggling,” Sandy’s voice is weak, soft, slow, as it takes him a lot of energy to even just speak. Helyn stops rushing at him, surprised to hear the sound of his voice out loud.
“What?” Helyn stops in her tracks.
“She’s fine…” Sandy keeps speaking as if about to fall asleep, and even his face looks almost disconnected from his body. He doesn’t seem to care about what might happen to him for speaking now.
Helyn doesn’t answer and avoids his gaze. She’s the one who can’t look at him, now. She turns her eyes to the lit fireplace, watching the flames dance.
“She’s manipulati—”
“She’s not.”
“She’s a demo—”
“She’s all I have,” Helyn says, turning around to glare at him. “You’re the lovable, cheerful Gausanders Spellbond, one of the many sons of house Spellbond, one of the first members of Cobalt Company. Dozens, maybe hundreds with all of your family’s money, are looking for you right now.” Helyn’s arms tense and her hands turn into fists. “Where were all these fucking people doing mind vision spells, or trying to summon my missing brother? Who was helping me look for him? No one helped us! No one… helped me.”
“But…” Sandy begins, raising his eyebrows sadly at the girl.
“No! We’ve been trying to get you to speak for weeks and you didn’t! So it’s my turn now!” She takes a few steps closer. “If demons are the only things that promise me they can help me, I’ll fucking take their help because that’s the only one I’ve got.”
Sandy looks down at the ground.
“I wasn’t lucky enough to be born into a wealthy, noble family living protected from the wars, and I didn’t get the chance to join some big, righteous company,” Helyn stomps her foot, her voice getting louder. “And the worst thing is that the person who’s responsible for leaving me all alone in this fucking world by taking my brother is standing right there, trying to tell me who I should or shouldn’t trust, refusing to admit to his crime even with a wound on his leg rotting in his own filth!”
Sandy doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t object to anything, doesn’t deny any claims, or agree to anything. Like he has been doing for weeks, now.
“So, now that I know you can still speak…” Helyn gets a full loaf of bread from the table and comes to sit in front of Sandy, handing him the food. “Tell me what you did to my brother.”
Sandy throws himself at the bread, folding in half to reach his chained hands, ripping his meal to pieces, and eating it as fast as he can, fearing it might get taken away.
Helyn patiently waits for him to finish his meal. When he finally does, she reiterates her question. “What did you do to Carden?”
Sandy looks at her, silently, his eyes empty if not for the look of sadness he gives her.
She asks again, this time with impatience rising in her voice. “What did you do?!”
“I’m sorry,” Sandy finally answers, his voice and his head shaking. He stares at her, again, with a sorrowful look. He doesn’t seem to feel sorry for himself. All his thoughts, all the emotions he seems to feel in his body, they are all for her. All to share in her pain and suffering. “I— I didn’t…”
“Tell me!” Helyn gets up, staring down at him with disdain. “Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!” she repeats, stomping her foot again, and tears overflowing from her eyes. “You have to tell me what you did because it’s you! It has to be you! If it’s not you… then who was it? Who?” Helyn falls to her knees, wiping the tears from her eyes. Her voice breaks. “Who?”
Once more, even with all that she has put him through, Sandy feels terribly sorry that he can’t give her the answer she so desperately seeks.
A feeling of regret passes through his mind; regret that he wasn’t the one who took Carden so that he could finally give that girl that closure she’s been looking for over a year. So that she could have someone to burn her tears into until they finally stop pouring.