While falling Rem heard the voice of the Spell, sweet, and caring as if it was proud of him. He couldn't tell if that was real or just something his own mind had conjured out of exhaustion.
[You have slain an awakened demon! Shrouded Larva]
[You have received a memory…]
Rem barely registered the name, and heard even less of what came after. The pain pulsing through his torn arm was eating every ofher thought. He had managed to utter a few words earlier — less for valdo's sake than his own.
He'd half hoped, the way the novels he'd read always promised that the world would go dark and the pain would vanish with it. It didn't. No matter how long he waited, he could still feel the cold blood that pooled beneath him, the pain in his arm, his heart that slammed against his ribs, and every muscle in his body screaming in protest.
He heard hurried footsteps, then the thud of someone dropping to their knees besides him, and lastly the tear of fabrix before Valdo started treating him.
He pressed a strip torn of his own clothes against the wound, then binding it tight to stop the bleeding.
"Stay with me Roeselle!" His voice cracked. "Don't you dare close your eyes on me."
Rem tried to answer but only a rasp came out which Valdo seemed satisfied with. The world swam in and out of focus for Rem, he could barely hear Valdo. Where his right arm had been, there was only a ragged stump, bound tight in strips of torn cloth already soaked through with blood. Pain came in unending waves, each one dragging his eyes back open whether he wanted to or not.
A few feet away, Cathan stood motionless among the wreckage, as if he was still being controlled by the monster, he was staring straight ahead at Niall's corpse and Doran's lifeless body that lay on the ground a few feet behind Niall.
Valdo looked at him for a long moment, unsure if he should close the distance or talk to him. Usually he would observe as Roeselle made the final decision, he looked over at Roeselle and took a deep breath before slowly standing up and walked slowly towards Cathan making sure to not startle him.
Rem was propped against a block of broken stone, conscious enough to watch, too spent to do much else.
"Cathan?" Valdo's voice had gone deliberately gentle, a faint, unfamiliar nervousness hidden beneath it. "What are you going to do now?"
Cathan didn't answer.
The silence stretched long enough that Valdo looked ready to ask again. Until Cathan spoke first, his voice low and thick with something close to venom
"None of this" he started quitly at first then he started screaming. "NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF NOT FOR YOU!" He spat the words like daggers. "The Warmongers. Your war. Your God. You dragged yourselves here, and now Doran's dead, Niall's dead, Bruinn's dead. And now only I'm left…"
He drew his sword from it's sheath as he pointed it towards Valdo.
At first the tip shook slightly then the whole sword as he started to yell. "At first it was our parents they were sent to fight YOU! Then it was our brother's and sisters and now it's us! We were the last line of defense. Left to protect the old and young who couldn't hold a blade themselves."
The sword slipped from his grip and hit the stone. Cathan let out something that was similar to a chuckle, as he stared at the holes in the ceiling where thin rays of light still bleed through.
"I wanted to be a scholar, did you know that? Write books. Poems" He looked down at his own hands as if they belonged to a stranger. His hands were scarred, and bloodied, nothing like a scholar's hands at all. "I never held a sword before this. Not once. I only made it this far because of Doran — he led us, watched for each and every single one of us, and he probably grieved harder than anyone when we lost somebody." His voice broke entirely as he said as if reluctantly. "And now he's gone too."
Valdo was quiet for a moment, before he walked to Cathan and picked the sword that had fell to the ground. He turned it around as he spoke.
"I used to help my father cut wood." Valdo said. "Roeselle used to hunt boars with his older brother, his father died in an accident when he was younger. Just like you, the Warmongers attacked our realm and took the rest as slaves. We fought in their arenas to survive and found ourselves one day fighting side to side with other Warmongers as part of the Unblooded."
He held the sword out, helt first towards Cathan.
"If you want to put a stop to this madness then join us Cathan. If you want to blame somebody then blame the Gods, who sit by and watch as we die for nothing. Help us Cathan, help us tear them apart from the inside." He nudged Cathan gently with the handle when he didn't answer. "Please…"
"I don't know..." Cathan said at last, barely above a whisper. " I, I ne— I have to bury them first. Doran. Niall. Even Bruinn, who we left alone back there." He looked up, something flashing in his eyes. "Go on ahead. I'll meet you up there."
Taking that as a yes Valdo crossed back to Rem, he hauled him carefully to his feet, and together they started moving towards the surface.
***
The climb up was slow, Rem's weight leaned hard against Valdo's shoulder the entire way, every step a fresh jolt of pain coursed through Rem. They walked in silence for a long while before Valdo spoke.
"Thank you Roeselle…" He said, his voice barely audible.
"And I'm sorry for never realising how much you were carrying on your own." He drew a breath as he continued. "But i understand now, having been responsible for this expedition, being the one responsible for the death of Doran, Niall and Bruinn. I bet if you were here, you would have done a lot better than me, I'm sorry."
Rem said nothing at first. He wasn't Roeselle and didn't need to comfort him, but he still wanted to. Valdo had his back through the entire trip and always made sure to protect him.
"You did your best Valdo, I'm sure Roe—" He corrected himself in time. "I'm sure that if the me before the fall was here, he'd have been proud."
Valdo chuckled, a sweet smile appearing on his face as he said. "Hahaha, Thank you."
And that was the last thing Rem heard before the Spell spoke again.
[Wake up, Rem! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal…]