WHO: Jacob Frye and Serefin Meleski WHAT: Sometimes when you're in Aeor and severely injured, you just have to fuck around and find out with the Rejuvenation Chamber. WHEN: November 22 (backdated) WARNINGS: Some talk of wounds/blood, but pretty minor. STATUS: Complete! ART CREDITHere!
Aeor had so far been incredibly unwelcoming. The cold went bone deep and the enemies did too. Normally, that was a benefit to exploring strange locations – the challenge, the violence, the loot. Jacob Frye didn’t miss the Assassin life all that much, but he did get antsy without adventure from time to time. One would think his time dying in the world of time fuckery would have sated him for a year, but here he was, dragging a bloodied Serefin through a shadowy doorway after a too-close-for-comfort fight.
“So I know that didn’t go entirely to plan, but you were incredibly attractive, shredding those things with stars,” he whispered as he propped Serefin up against the wall next to the door. He looked around the room’s gloomy darkness. No enemies seemed to be about, but they’d been overwhelmed so quickly outside that he was reluctant to believe they were safe. He crouched next to Serefin and examined his wounds. It wasn’t good, to say the least, but he wasn’t actively dying.
“That said,” Jacob frowned, “you have looked better, love.”
Serefin did not, at the moment, feel attractive for shredding monsters with his stars. In fact, he was concerned that the stars had only been provoking the already aggravated problem. He did not usually shy away from monsters, especially when Jacob was involved and being arrestingly handsome with his flashy moves and assassin maneuvers, but Serefin would rethink his penchant for battle, just to be out of this place.
He had never been so thankful to take a second to breathe in the dark corridor, even if his breathing sounded pained and haggard. Serefin leaned heavily against the wall, not trusting his feet to keep him upright. A single dim starlight lit from the end of his index finger, using it as a small, unassuming torch. He glanced down at himself to see what Jacob was looking at, decided he didn't like it, and then smiled up to Jacob instead.
"Does this not do it for you?" Serefin asked, going for humor, even in the face of immediate and uncertain danger. "I was going for a rugged, unpredictable former royal who barely has any self-preservation skills." That was too many words, and he winced. "I do not suppose you remember the fastest way out of here?"
"Well, you know. You always do it for me, but I do prefer your blood be inside your body, shockingly enough." Jacob's natural sass wasn't gone, but it was tempered by concern. He pulled aside Serefin's jacket and got a better look. "I have a general idea where we need to go but we need to get this under control first and make sure that swarm is gone."
As if on cue, there was a crash outside and Jacob covered Serefin on instinct. His eagle vision confirmed there were a number of enemies outside but they didn't seem to have caught their scent yet. Without saying anything, he bent down, made very direct eye contact, and then pulled Serefin up into a fireman's carry as gently as possible.
"Sorry about this," he whispered, carrying Serefin deeper into the room towards the glass chamber near the center.
The noise nearby had caused Serefin to throw a hand out, waiting for whatever to crawl from the darkness and blind them with stars. His own protection instincts were still on high alert for Jacob, just like Jacob's were for him. But nothing came, and the adrenaline that had been keeping him upright was waxing and waning rapidly. He didn't know if he could keep moving more or if his wounds would get under control before escape. Part of him wanted to tell Jacob to leave him here and run.
But before he could say something so ridiculously stupid, Jacob was looking at him, then lifting Serefin up and off his feet. Serefin clutched at the parts of Jacob's clothes for extra support, though it was fruitless in the position Jacob was carrying him. He had him, he had him.
"One of these days," Serefin said, "I'm going to be the one to carry you and you're going to find it incredibly romantic and it will not be while your blood is on the outside." He was still managing to keep the dim starlight up, just enough to see where they were going and what else was in the room. Nothing good.
"Just—you can put me down there." Serefin was pointing awkwardly over Jacob's shoulder, gesturing to the glass chamber. His voice was softer, concerned, as he said. "I will only slow you down if they catch up to us and you need your hands free."
Jacob was keeping one eye on the outlines of their attackers through the walls and one on the dark shadows of the room. The starlight helped but it also cast everything farther away into deeper darkness. Thankfully, his vision didn't need light. Hopefully, he could keep using it. There'd been a moment earlier when butterflies and flower petals had surrounded him when he'd used it and he was afraid worse would happen soon enough.
"Don't rush me," he teased somberly. "This is much better than watching you bleed on the wall." Jacob quietly grunted as he lowered Serefin to the base of the chamber. "But you're welcome to try carting me around the train when you're all healed up. I could fake a limp to keep it exciting?"
A crash sounded outside and Jacob crouched down to where he'd set Serefin, making them both as small as possible. He had no idea what the chamber behind Serefin did, but it wasn't broken despite the general disrepair of the room. The other chamber had a crack but it was still standing too.
"That glass might be magic or something," Jacob murmured. "Or at least shatterproof?"
"You always keep it exciting—" Serefin cut himself off with a sharp hiss. He had been trying to put on a brave face because he was certain he had been through much worse, but every instance had quickly evaporated from his mind and all Serefin could think about was this moment. This pain. His reactions had become increasingly slower, and without Jacob to crouch above and around him protectively, Serefin would be vulnerable to whatever was continuing to lurk in this place.
Jacob might not have needed the light as much as Serefin, but at the mention of the unbroken chamber, Serefin lifted his hand, with more dim starlight winking to life across his fingertips. He wanted to get a better view of the thing. He should've been more careful, but caution was for other people who didn't have their insides on the outside.
"Perhaps? Get inside? At least to act as a barrier, so it is not our bodies taking the damage and it is this glass," Serefin said, but he was already attempting to move. They needed a second to recalibrate, get their bearings, not worry about getting chased and worry about getting out. He squeezed his hands into fists, the meager starlight going out and plunging the room back into complete darkness.
Serefin pushed himself up onto the top of the chamber base with an agonizing grunt. "If it incinerates me, remember me fondly."
"If it incinerates you, I'll be razing this entire place to ash," Jacob replied, not an ounce of humor in his tone. He was second guessing the idea he'd helped put in Serefin's head, but he really did need to get a look around for a different exit and it would be easier if Serefin had a little protection. The chamber glowed in his mind's eye too. Like something of value.
Jacob exhaled and leaned down to help Serefin into the chamber. The moment he was inside, the chamber lit up with bright purple light, startling Jacob backwards. He could see the outline of Serefin's bones and it terrified him.
"Serefin!" He pushed forward again but the chamber had closed with Serefin inside. Jacob banged his fists against the glass. "Serefin, please. For the love of God, say something!"
He was dead, he was certainly absolutely, irrevocably dead. His whole body probably disintegrated and now he was ash, and Jacob was going to violently ruin the whole place so that another terrible monster would never be able to come near it like a fallout zone. That thought was actually strangely attractive, and Serefin was going to be upset that he missed it. That was when he realized he was still thinking inappropriate thoughts about his boyfriend.
Dead people didn't have thoughts. Right?
The bright purple light had been startling, and Serefin regretted making a joke about incineration in that brief, blinding moment. But the panic in Jacob's voice was worse than any pain he had endured, and Serefin pressed his palms against the glass as if he could catch Jacob's banging, urgent fists in his hands. But the casing was unbreakable, that was the whole point of this thing.
"Blood and bone," Serefin breathed out in relief. "I'm all right, towy nóżczko, I promise, I am all right. I'm—" Another abrupt realization, but his body didn't hurt. He could breathe easier. The blood on his hands seemed to be gone. Serefin scrambled to lift his shirt and show Jacob his side where the worst wound was. Or, well, had been.
"Perhaps I will be well enough to carry you after all?"
Relief felt a bit like getting punched in the gut, but Jacob took a shaky breath and kept his hands pressed to the glass. His eyes dropped to where Serefin’s shirt was lifted – his bloody shirt, torn by claws, and yet there underneath was smooth skin. He’d seen that wound with his own eyes. He’d catalogued the grisliness to figure out how much time Serefin had to get to a healer. But it seemed they’d accidentally stumbled upon one in the form of a damn glass jar.
“Blood and bone is right,” Jacob breathed out, halfway to a laugh. “Alright, you rudding doctor cage, open up and let him out now!” Jacob searched the base of the chamber and the display panel nearby. Everything looked inert and unhelpful but he bashed his palms on everything until finally the chamber opened. He rushed forward, one hand immediately drawn to Serefin’s stomach, to feel for himself that the wound was not just visually gone.
“I think you might have to. Carry me that is. I feel a little faint,” he joked. Dropping his head to Serefin’s shoulder, he pulled him into a tight hug. “I don’t ever want to see your bones like that again, just so that’s on record.”
Serefin followed Jacob along the tight, interior circle of the chamber as he looped around to find an open button. It would be ironic to be healed this quickly only to be trapped in the tube forever. But before Serefin could spiral into that dark, terrible thought, the glass was sliding away and Jacob's hands were on his body. Serefin had put a hand over his to feel for the wound just the same.
"No fainting, not yet, not while we're inside here in case I have to find a way to get us out," Serefin said, but there was no heat behind it, just gentleness in the midst of chaos, much like holding Jacob in his arms felt like. "But consider it on record, written in ink, etched on my skin, unremovable by even the most difficult and complicated magic. I'll put it to paper the moment we are out of here, in the place where I am now going to keep records, and—" He was rambling, Serefin knew it, but it was his own sort of way to expel his relief at not bleeding out.
A loud noise, still in the distance though noticeably closer, echoed down from the hallway. He swiftly kissed the corner of Jacob's mouth, before pulling away. "We shouldn't linger," Serefin said, then frowned as if he didn't want to say the next part out loud. "I do not know if this thing has any side effects. It could be only temporary and I'd like to make the most of it if it is, yes?"
Serefin rambling put an enamored smile on Jacob's face and he met the brief kiss with one of his own. His voice was quiet and careful. "Half of me is very annoyed you just brought up the idea of side effects but the other half knows Evie would've done it too, soon as we get out of here," he sighed.
Climbing out of the chamber, Jacob held out a hand to help Serefin out after him. He might have been healed but he'd lost a lot of blood before that. His balance could be shaky. It gave Jacob a moment to search their surroundings for a path out that wasn't the way they came as well. As he scanned the area with his eagle vision, he suddenly felt a terrible draft. On his head.
"I don't think I like whatever just happened," he whispered, nervous reaching up to his now completely bald head. "Bollocks. I'm beginning to really hate this place!"
"I have saved you the trouble by bringing it up now, instead of staying blissfully ignorant until it all went to absolute shite," Serefin said, enunciating the swear with all the British he could muster. Despite bringing up side effects, Serefin felt good, healthy and strong in a way he did not feel going into Aeor. He could have sworn that the chamber could have reversed every injury possible if not for the fact he was still half-blind.
He had taken Jacob's hand in the dim dark, and lifted a starlit palm when Jacob swore again. This silhouetted version of Jacob was not what Serefin expected when he got some light on him. It startled him. "Oh," was all Serefin got out, and abruptly extinguished the stars, casting them back into darkness. He touched his own head briefly to make sure his hair was still there.
"You still have your handsome face," Serefin offered, like a consolation. He tried to keep the humor out of his voice, but he was incredibly endeared as he asked, "Are those my side effects or yours?"
"I hear you trying not to laugh, you prat," Jacob whined. He tugged Serefin's hand to pull him towards a side door that would hopefully lead them away from the glowing shapes in Jacob's eagle vision. "But thank you for the pity compliment. I'm taking it, gratefully, and hoping this nonsense is temporary."
He sounded petulant, but still relieved. It could have been worse, he supposed. But as the bitter cold of Aeor began to reach his bare head, he was really struggling to remember how it could've been worse.
"Just warm up those magic hands of yours as we move here, alright? I might need you to keep away the chill."