Fight, or flight?
He still couldn't decide, still couldn't do either. This was how natural selection worked, wasn't it? People who were too stupid to confront danger when they saw it ended up being killed. Perhaps he was not fit to survive, a person like Reks, someone who allowed strangers to win him over with the promise of neutralizing a curse. She couldn't have been telling the truth, of course – because she was a mage. He couldn't trust her, and if he couldn't fight, then he'd have to leave... So then why, why could he only stand here, hoping that what he had just seen was a lie?
Despite everything, she still drew out that damned knife. He remembered the first time he had seen it, just this morning, and had wondered just what it was for. He had figured it would be for him now, to inflict some sort of unnatural, magical pain on him, but imagine Reks' face – when she did not advance towards him with the knife, as he had surely thought she would. What had she said before, at the tavern? That this would take quite a toll on her, or something, and he had wondered what she meant...
"You idiot, don't –!" He started, but it was too late – she had done it, she had took the knife to her own wrist. His eyes widened as he watched her, confused, afraid – but not for himself. Despite this damned green light that surrounded him – light from magic, light that was unnatural, powerful, sick, and wrong – he was not afraid. In fact, the light seemed to be... helping him? Healing him... Taking away all of his pain.
He almost felt dizzy, from being free from a pain that he had felt too long, constantly, for every waking moment of his life, since he had been cursed. Was this what it was like, to not feel the poison running through his veins? He pressed a hand to his head, and realized that this cat ears were gone, as if they had never even existed in the first place. Had ... had Solae really?
Her yelp of pain reminded him – she had really hurt herself, had shed her own blood, for him. To help him – a stranger, who she barely even knew, who called her a goddamn mage – she hadn't even hesitated.
"Solae!" he cried out, knowing that she must've been in a world of pain, if she had took on his curse. He ran to her side, and, as she did not hesitate to hurt herself to help him, he did not hesitate to help her in return. Reks, biting his lip, took the bandages from her bag, and swiftly, efficiently, wrapped them around her wrist. He pulled the bandages tighter, and as he wrapped them, could not bear to look her in the eye.
"Solae, I'm..." He hung his head, shaking it, biting his lip. A few droplets of tears fell on her freshly bandaged wrist, despite Reks' best efforts to keep them inside. "I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice hoarse, small, and scared. He put pressure on her wrist, to stop the bleeding, and tried to stop himself from shaking like a leaf. "I'm so sorry..."
She was the most courageous person he had ever known.