The world bled back into colour slowly.
Enid opened her eyes to choas surrounding her- the council in a disarray display at watching her wake up, the blood beneath her on the floor. Her own trembling hands, slick with blood greeted her as she opened her eyes to the world, to the real world.
The relic, the silver circlet that had bound her mind in a trial she had completely forgotten about lay on the floor in splinters.
For a beat no one moved. She could hear and see nothing aside from the way people around her.
And then Kaelith was there.
"Enid." His voice cracked as he crouched beside her, his hand tenderly brushing the hair away from her face. She looked up at the movement, her bleary eyes making out just enough of his face to recognise the fear there, to see the tearful eyes.
Was the calm and cold Kaelith...crying?
She didn't realise yet how she looked to him. She looked half-dead- pale, lips colorless, eyes distant. But she was breathing. Alive.
Thorien stood a few steps away, his jaw tight, every muscle straining to hold himself back. "She's burning up," he muttered, voice rough with something that wasn't only anger. "We need to get her out of here."
His eyes roved over the prone form of the woman who had somehow come to not be just another empty face he saw in the sea of strangers that surrounded him.
This woman, this woman who was not yet anything to him, yet still enough to make him feel this way was lying in her own pool of blood...
...because of the Council.
Something inside him snapped.
"Take her and go, Kaelith."
His brother looked up from Enid, meeting the eyes of Thorien. Some unspoken communication passed as Kaelith nodded, jaw tightening, as he lifted the woman, his mate, up from the floor and turned around to leave the room.
"Wait! Where are you going? She can't le-" Kaelith barely looked at Lady Seris striding his way before she was cut off by Thorien standing in her path, his eyes enough to make her cower.
"Don't test me, Lady Seris."
Her blood stained Kaelith's hands as he lifted her, the scent sharp and metallic. It drenched his white shirt, as she lay in his arm, not yet completely aware.
Without hesitation, he made his way to the door.
With Thorien standing in the way of the Council, he knew none would dare follow them. With his penchat for violence and threats and his liking towards their mate- Kaelith was for once in his life trusting of his estranged sibling. For the time being, she would be safe.
The council's murmurs followed them like ghosts, though.
"She survived it."
"The mark has chosen."
"She should have died!"
Thorien's voice was just loud enough to reach them as they exited. "She didn't."
The heavy doors shut behind Kaelith and Enid with a final, echoing thud.
---------------------
He brought her to his private chambers, where moonlight spilled across the marble. Kaelith laid her on the bed, his touch careful, reverent. He dipped a cloth in water and pressed it to her temple, wiping away sweat and blood as she lay there- barely coherent. Barely responsive.
There were no more wounds on her, as he surreptitiously checked. His hands hovered over her wrists, her arms, as he spied long marks of wounds that had not been there previously, probably where she had bled from in the dream world. They had somehow been healed, and were clearing up as he watched, until only thin white lines remained.
But there was so much blood...
His eyes filled with tears again as he stared down at her, at how massively he had failed. Destiney had chosen him, out of his many many ancestors, they had provided a mate to him- and he had been too weak to protect her. Too cowardly. He knew the trial would likely break her, but he had simply watched from the clutches of the guards. Of his guards.
And now she was lying in her own blood. His breath shuddered.
It took however many minutes before her lashes fluttered, and for a moment, she looked at him- not through him, but at him. Words could not express how relieved he felt.
"You stayed," she whispered. As if he could go away now.
Kaelith's throat worked. "You think we'd leave you after that?"
She tried to smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. "You might've been smarter if you had."
He huffed softly, though there was no humor in it. "You underestimate our stupidity, then."
Her hand brushed his wrist- light, barely there. Hesitant, but real. But the touch lingered, grounding him. Something passed between them- quiet and raw.
Respect. Maybe even awe.
She had passed the trail. She had survived what should have killed her.
----------
Later, when she stirred again, Thorien was the one sitting beside her. His jacket hung loose, sleeves rolled to his elbows. For once, he wasn't smirking. As she pushed herslef up again, her eyes went to his bruised and bloodied knuckes that gripped her free hand.
"What..." She looked at his, astounded.
"You shouldn't be awake," he mereley smiled as he said softly.
His eyes pleaded with her not to ask him, and for some reason she listened.
"I couldn't sleep," she murmured instead. Her voice was still rough, but steadier now.
Thorien studied her, eyes flicking to the faint pulse at her throat. "You shouldn't have survived that."
"I know."
"Then why did you?"
She met his gaze, the answer simple. "Because I wanted to."
Something in him stilled. No one had ever said it like that before- without arrogance or defiance, just quiet certainty.
He leaned back, exhaling slowly. "You're a strange girl, Enid."
"And you're a terrible liar," she whispered.
He smiled, just slightly. "Maybe."
Silence stretched between them, thick and heavy with the weight of things neither dared to name.
The door creaked open as Kaelith entered, taking in Enid in his bed and Thorien, holding her hand.
He swallowed, but didn't say a thing as he rounded to her other side, sitting on the chair.
Outside, the moonlight shifted. The world felt different now- smaller, more dangerous.
More dangerous for this young strange woman sitting before them. This undeniably brave and stupid woman, who had just defeated the undefeatable trial. This world would try to break her, to bend her and destroy her.
But now they knew. For the first time in their life, they knew. That for her...
...they would destroy the world.