Darkest Night [DragonSong] [M]

[Zero]

As she eased him down to the floor Cole didn't protest her touch or her help. It wasn't clear that he even still realized she was there. The brief moments his eyes managed to open revealed a glossy red stare, the fever had swept over him quickly and forcefully during their brief slumber.

"Why won't they stop?" His voice cracked, tears still escaping from his eyes as they slid into his pale hair, the soft strands absorbing them. Cole curled up on his side, wrapping his arms around himself and paying no mind to if the position was aggravating the wound along his ribs. In his feverish haze he couldn't even feel the pain.

Cole started to shiver lightly, and his eyes didn't open again. He wasn't able to stay conscious any longer.

[DragonSong]

Oh no.

Oh no no no no no.

"Help!" Zahra twisted to call to the other travelers in the wagon, eyes wide and face suddenly pale. "Please, I need herbs, healing supplies, anything you have, please!"

Her arms clutched Cole to her chest, trying to force him into a position where he wouldn't be tugging at his bandages. "I'll make then stop," she whispered, half-sobbing as fear tightened in her chest.

She couldn't lose him, not now. Even she didn't entirely understand why-- she'd like to think a sort of bond had begun to develop between them, but even so by all rights she really shouldn't care if he lived or died. Even as her patient...she'd lost patients before, but if she lost him, it would break her.

"I'll make the dreams stop, Cole, but you have to stay with me, okay? Just hold on a little longer." Zahra cast her eyes around frantically. "Someone help us, please!"

[Zero]

Cole didn't, couldn't, resist as Zahra pulled him against her chest. His body was limp as his head fell against her.

The other passengers had already begun to cast strange looks at them before the outburst, but some of them actually recoiled as Zahra called for help, trying to put distance between them. The drow was clearly unwell, if he had some sickness they certainly wanted no part of it.

Only the old cook that had given them the basil leaves at the beginning didn't balk at the plea for some kind of assistance. The elderly Essyrni woman grabbed her bag and moved over to the desperate pair, looking a little uncertain. She wasn't a healer and didn't know what of her things might even be helpful to the sick elf, but at least she was willing to do something.

"Here, whatever I have you can use, but I don't know what help it would be." Her bag was full of small jars of spices and some nutrient rich nut and berry bars. "Maybe there is a healer of some kind in another wagon with better supplies. Let me see if I can get more help."

She rose and scuttled to the back of the wagon, calling to one of the guards traveling outside.

[DragonSong]

"Thank you, oh thank you." Zahra was nearly sobbing as she took the bag that was offered. Water was at the top of her priority list, as was getting Cole out of the sun. She shifted them back into the shade of the wagon cover, the drow now positioned so he was laying back against her chest, her arms to either side of him. With a small grunt of effort, she lifted his shirt up and off him, craning to peer at the bandages.

He was starting to bleed through already. That wasn't a good sign. "Cole, can you hear me?" she begged quietly, smoothing his hair back from his forehead. Gods, he was burning up. She scrabbled for the water skin and poured some out onto a strip of cloth, pressing it against his brow. "Please, Cole, wake up," she begged softly, pressing her brow to his temple for a brief moment.

"You're sick, and I want to help but I don't know how. You've gotta hang in there for me, Cole, okay. Stay with me, just a little longer, please..." she continued her soothing rambling as she groped at the bandages, trying to get a better look at the wound. There was no way it could be so infected, not already...

[Zero]

 Being dragged back to a better spot caused Cole to groan softly, brow furrowing and eyelids fluttering rapidly for a moment, but he settled back against her chest without waking. Whatever ailment had overcome the drow had clearly taken deep root within the few short hours since they had joined the caravan.

Sickness and infection did not typically spread so quickly.

Peeling away his shirt brought out another wordless sound of protest from Cole. Despite being unconscious he was clearly in a great deal of distress from any jostling, but the sounds of her pleas were simply lost on him.

One thing did manage to drag some greater kind of reaction from him. When the wet cloth pressed against his forehead the drow took a ragged breath, eyes flickering open for a moment, but they closed almost as quickly. A soft sigh escaped Cole, his face easing just slightly into a more relaxed expression. It was small, but at least it was something. Any kind of relief, no matter how small, was better than none.

The gash along his ribs was still slowly weeping blood, obscuring the view, but the veins around the wound were becoming obviously darkened and discolored.

[DragonSong]

No. Not infection.

Poison.

Horror swamped her so thoroughly that Zahra hardly noticed when the old woman returned, one of the caravan's healers close behind her. Oh gods, no. Please, no no no...

"Cole?" Her voice shook as she smoothed his hair back from his sweat-slicked brow. "Oh gods, please, you have to hang on, please, please..."

The healer was suddenly beside them, demanding to know what had happened. As quickly and concisely as she could-- without revealing too much-- Zahra explained how Cole had been wounded, and that she had only just now realized the blade had been poisoned.

Despite their best efforts, neither she nor the healer were able to identify the toxin. The elderly man shook his head as he divided up a few jars of herbs and poultice between them. "There is nothing more we can do from him," he murmured regretfully. "Other than to treat the symptoms. You said you are a field medic, of sorts-- keep him cool, hydrated, and the wound clean. Other than that..."

He sighed and shook his head as he got to his feet. "Pray."



Zahra did not rest until nearly midnight, working frantically to keep Cole's condition stable. By the time she did sleep, it was only because she'd literally worked herself to exhaustion, and she more or less passed out curled beside Cole's form, her hand resting on his chest, feeling the rise of his breath and the beat of his heart.

The emptiness greeted her almost immediately, but for the first time in her life Zahra tried to manipulate it, rather than letting it play with her at its whim. Cole. Show me Cole, I need to see him. Cole. Cole...

[Zero]

Zahra and the healer had a very cooperative patient as they examined him, even if it was relatively fruitless in the end. The poison used against him wasn't common, and unknown to most who were not advanced apothecaries or poisoners.

Cole couldn't resist or protest to Zahra's gentle handlings as she cared for him long after the caravan stopped for the night and the sun dipped beneath the dunes. His muscles had gone slack, the drow limp and almost lifeless, save the burning heat radiating off his skin and the ragged rising and falling of his chest as he took rasping breaths. Once or twice his eyes would flutter, as if attempting to wake, and occasionally he seemed to try to murmur something unintelligibly, but in all those hours he never became conscious again.

Internally he was completely adrift, succumbing to fever dreams, terrible shadows of memories, or nightmares of fears that hadn't come to pass. Part of his fevered brain couldn't recognize them as mere conjured horror. Cole honestly couldn't recall leaving camp with Zahra, or killing Jarvis, or fleeing Essyrn.

Instead his mind was filled with a burning pain and the terrible sound of her screams, or was it his screams? Cole was able to vividly imagine what the others would have done to them, and that was all he could see in that terrible fog of unconsciousness. Sure, for a brief, flickering moment he thought he almost heard Zahra calling for him. It was that strange fleeting feeling he had sensed before.

Wait, before?

Zahra would only see Cole enter the void for a moment, a hazy, insubstantial flash of the image of the drow turning his head to look at her in terror, and then he blinked out of it again, unable to hold onto that strange, tangible dreamscape they seemed to share together for whatever reason.

[DragonSong]

"Cole!"

He was there, and then he was gone. And it was morning, the sun slanting across her eyelids, and she hissed and shrank back from the light instinctively, her hand clenching on Cole's chest.

He was still unconscious.

Gods, what was she supposed to do?

With no better ideas, Zahra fetched the water skin and carefully dripped a few mouthfuls through Cole's lips, cradling his head in her lap and stroking his throat gently to make him swallow. "I think we'll be stopping to rest at midday," she told the unconscious drow almost absently after a moment. "It's too hot to keep going all day. Least that's what some of the others are saying..."

What was she doing? He couldn't hear her, what did it matter if she told him what would be happening in the caravan. Tears pricked at her eyes and she hung her head, pressing a fresh damp cloth across his forehead.

"I don't know how to do with without you," she whispered, sniffling. "Please, Cole. Just wake up..."

[Zero]

Of course the feverish drow had no answers for her as she spoke while gently tending to him. Despite the wet cloth pressed against his forehead, Cole's skin burned even hotter than it had the day before, and he shivered periodically despite the desert heat.

Zahra wasn't alone, however, most of the other passengers still shied away from them, despite learning that the sick gray elf was afflicted by poison rather than disease, but the elderly cook moved to sit closer to them, gently patting the crying woman's shoulder. "There, there child it will be alright. It will be as Hakeshna wills it."

She moved her hand and rummaged through her back, pulling out a linen-wrapped block from her bag. It was a loaf of bread made from fruits, nuts, and honey. With a gentle smile she broke off a small chunk and offered it to Zahra. "Eat. You can't take care of him if you don't take care of yourself. Here, I have some spare cloths and more water. The place we are stopping at midday has a deep well, we'll be able to refill our skins, so don't fret about being sparring with it. There's a small trading post there, maybe you can find another knowledgeable herbalist."

[DragonSong]

"Yes... Yes of course, thank you." Zahra took the offered food, but she seemed distant, her attention always returning to the unconscious drow beside her.

When they stopped at a small trading post to rest, she quickly dismounted the carriage and began looking for more supplies, anything she could add to her own painfully meager stock of poultices and herbs.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much that could be found, not even another herbalist or hedgewitch. Thoroughly disheartened, Zahra returned to the wagons, settling herself beside Cole once again-- ignoring the stares of the other travelers-- and pulling his head into her lap so she could painstakingly feed him a bit more water.

Gods she was just so exhausted. As she wet a fresh clothe and pressed it to his brow, she allowed her head to lull against the side of the wagon, and her eyes fluttered closed. Cole...



"Cole?" Once again she was in the emptiness, the nothing. I promised. I promised him I'd make them stop...

But she couldn't, that was one promise she just couldn't keep. She had to speak with him, she had to know if what she'd begun to suspect was true. "Cole, can you hear me?"

[Zero]

The nightmares dragged on forever, unending. At least it had felt that way. Cole actually wondered if perhaps he had died after all, and this was his eternal torment for the evil things he had done. It would have been a fitting punishment.

But it seemed that wasn't true.

He had no idea how long he had been dreaming, but eventually the nightmares faded away until he felt like he was simply floating in that strange void. Cole thought he knew what was coming next, because these exact dreams had haunted him for days – almost since he had met Zahra – but the pretty young desert elf didn't appear. Maybe his subconscious had finally decided that the visions of her had been enough.

Instead he just hung there, suspended in blackness for what seemed ages. Could you fall asleep while already asleep? He wasn't sure, but that was sort of what it felt like. Was he dying? Well he had said he deserved it often enough. Seemed hypocritical to be afraid of it now, but he was.

Nobody wanted to die, even when they thought they should.

Cole had no idea when, but somewhere, sometime, in the darkness a familiar voice washed over him. It was her. Of course it was her. It was always her.

Suddenly he didn't feel as if he was drifting, it was like a noose attached to an anchor wound around his neck, jerking him out of that dreamless dream. It was jarring and unpleasant, but he found himself standing there in the blackness, looking around as his ears twitched.

"I'm here."

[DragonSong]

...

It worked?

"Oh my gods!"

Without thinking about what she was doing at all, Zahra flung herself forward and wrapped her arms around Cole, clinging to him as she shook with relief and barely repressed sobs. "Oh my gods, you're here, you're really here!"

[Zero]

Cole didn't really see Zahra until she had flung her arms around him. That was the moment the void started to lighten, it felt like it wasn't bearing down on him, crushing and dark and cold. Suddenly it wasn't just emptiness.

"Don't cry over me, Sweetling." He soothed, wrapping his arms around her gently and rubbing at her back. Why would he dream about her crying over him? "...is it that bad?"

Maybe he knew he was dying. Cole could believe maybe he conjured her in his mind to cry over him, because nobody else would have. He couldn't have imagined his mother doing so.

[DragonSong]

Zahra forced herself to pull away, though she kept her grip on his shoulders, eyes searching his face.

"Why do you call me that?" she asked softly, apparently having utterly lost the filter between her thoughts and her voice.

Realizing what she'd said, she shook her head quickly and ducked her eyes. "Um, it's...well, it doesn't...look good," she murmured after a long moment. "You're so sick Cole, and I-- I don't know if I can stop it--"

Tears welled up in her eyes and then she was hugging him again, clutching as tight as she could. "I don't know how to help you, I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

[Zero]

Why did he call her that?

It was sort of a pet name.

Probably highly inappropriate, but she was a very sweet little thing.

Cole shook his head and brushed it off. It wasn't that important next to what she was saying now. He was so sick. How sick was so sick? Well, he had started to suspect he was dying, hadn't he? Zahra's words were a tentative assertion to that fact.

"It's okay, it isn't your fault. I'm sure you're doing everything you can, even though you have no reason to help me." He gave her a gentle hug. "Thank you."

[DragonSong]

Zahra shook her head against his chest, hugging him tighter. "It is my fault," she sniffed. "You only got hurt because you were helping me, and he-- he poisoned the dagger, and I don't know how to fix you, I'm sorry."

Her fingers curled in the fabric of his shirt. "Cole...before you-- you passed out...you said you wanted the dreams to stop." She took a breath and cautiously lifted her head. "Did you-- did you mean that?"

[Zero]

Of course!

Cole should have known Jarvis would have poison on those damn daggers of his. The man was a slimy, cheating bastard. It was exactly like him to resort to low, dirty tactics like putting poison on his blades to finish off an opponent.

The drow shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Things he learned in these dreams were sketchy at best, because he was only sleeping. Zahra wasn't really here, just like he wasn't really here.

"How sick am I?" He ignored the question about the dreams, because Cole honestly didn't know what to say. If he was dying anyway it hardly mattered how much he tormented himself with the kindness of this girl that owed him none.

[DragonSong]

She swallowed painfully and shook her head. "I-- I don't really know. It's...bad. B-but--!"

She set her jaw and fought back another wave of tears. "I'm doing everything I can, Cole. I promise. Sometimes...sometimes people get lucky. If the poison hasn't killed you yet, there's a good chance it's not going to."

But she didn't know how long he would remain unconscious. Or what the lasting effects of the toxin might be.

[Zero]

"Sure, unless it's a slow poison." Not all toxins were made to work quickly. Of course that was probably insensitive to say. Zahra was clearly very upset; even if it was just a dream and Cole had no idea why, he didn't want to cause her more distress, figment of his imagination or not.

"Sweetling, I'm sorry. You shouldn't have to take care of me. I know you're doing your best, and I know this is all a dream and nothing I say actually matters, but for what it's worth, please don't feel bad if I don't make it. I sure as hell won't blame you if I die. This is all on Jarvis, that sneaky bastard. I should have known he'd pull something like this." Cole didn't know what else to say, or how to comfort her, considering he didn't think she should need comforted over his fate.

[DragonSong]

Zahra bit back an instinctive urge to shout that this wasn't a dream, not just at dream at least, and shook her head.

"You're going to live," she said firmly, grabbing his upper arms and looking up into his face. "You're going to live, Cole. I will not let you die."

She hugged him again, pressing her ear against his chest so she could hear his heartbeat. "I know-- I know you don't think you deserve it, but I do." She couldn't pretend to not know some of the things he must have done with his father's band, but she also knew him, at least a little. She knew how desperately he hated it, hated himself.

And despite everything, she knew she needed to save him.