Memshare

[bloodwords]

(Content warning: torture, death, violence/blood)


Kell knew it was his fault that he was here. That he couldn't feel Rhy. He'd taken Okja's hand and came with her to White London because she said he could help. Had he really wanted to help? Did it appeal to his ego or was he just angry and bitter. Either way, he'd taken her hand and he'd left Red London. It'd been a trick, a trick he should have seen coming. A second time in such a short period that he's been fooled, a second time he'd had to resist a mad magic.

And he had, he'd not given into Osaron, hadn't surrendered to him and Holland hadn't been able to fight him to take back control. The pain had been too much for Kell to bear, along with the fading connection to Rhy as his back was gone with the device that had been put on him.

He'd been trapped, trying desperately to free himself. There was more than enough blood for blood magic but nothing, no blood word could work in his bindings. He couldn't feel magic at all.

He fought. He had to keep fighting to get up, to go home, to stop Osaron. He had to save Rhy somehow, he couldn't let him die, not for Kell's stupid mistake, not for his willingness to let them both die to not let Osaron into Red London -- only, he'd do it anyway. He didn't need Kell for that. He had to fight but there is too much blood, too much pain and no magic and all he could do was lay down on the marble that was bone-chillingly cold.

But sometime later, no telling how long it had been that fading connection to Rhy was gone completely, severed. Kell feels Rhy die. The pain rips at not just his heart but his soul, the threads that bound them together leaving him in shreds as they seem to sever.

The ceiling above him seems to blur, he feels like he's falling, fading. All that seems to pull him back is Lila's voice. Somehow, he finds the strength to try again, to try and get up, every movement as he pushed to one knee was torture. He can hear wood cracking, a lock breaking as he made it to his feet right as the door opened but when he took a step forward the blood was too slick and he slipped, pain exploding in blinding wave as his sight went blurry and he fell. He could feel arms around him, Lila telling him "I've got you."

Kell's head ends up on her shoulder when they get to the ground. Words are desperately trying to form, the desperation to get the collar off, to let his magic be restored for the pain to stop, at least some of it. Words were hoarse, weren't fully formed and Lila didn't know what he's trying to ask, so his bloody broken hands went to the collar and he choked, "Take it ... off." When she looked at him there is something not quite right but he can't focus on it. His power surged back when she released him, painful and electric, he was doubled over, and the world was all too much for him. Tears covered his face.

Now that he was free he tried to focus, trying to feel the second pulse, the echo of his own. His hands were still dripping blood, magic pouring out of his veins because his blood is magic but it didn't matter. It didn't matter because he couldn't feel Rhy's heartbeat. His hands pulled desperately at his chest, his shirt ripping over the only spot that mattered. The seal it's still there, on his skin but everything else? Beneath it all the spellwork, the scars, only one heart beat.

"Rhy..." he sobs, the name a plea. "I can't..., he's..." dead

Lila didn't let him get the word out, taking hold of his shoulders and forcing his attention in the way that she's so good at doing.

"Look at me. Your brother was still alive when I left. Have a little faith." She said that but it didn't feel like she had more hope or faith than he did. He was afraid and it ran rampant inside of him in a way it never had, not even that first night, the first time Rhy died. Now, there's nothing else he could try, nothing he could do to save him.

His eyes are on her as she looks around and the one... it has cracks where it's normally brown like the other.

"Your eye..." he started...

"Not now, come on we have to go." Because, yes, Kell had not noticed Lila Bard had a glass eye even as he had been falling for her.

He couldn't go, all the same, he couldn't move. His body isn't healing fast enough and he's still losing blood. Lila tried to help him up but his legs kept buckling. Frustration and pain left him gasping.

"This isn't a good look on you, hold still. I'm going to patch you up," Lila's fingers went to a wound above her ankle.

"wait..." Kell recoils slightly from her touch.

"Don't you trust me?"

"No."

"Too bad," Lila presses her hand against his shoulder. "What's the word, Kell?"

The room was spinning, swaying. "Lila, I don't..."

"What's the fucking word?"

The answer from Kell is shaky. "Hasari. As Hasari."

"Alright," and then her hand tightened. "Ready?" He didn't get the chance to answer before Lila spoke the blood word, "As Hasari." At first nothing happened but this particular thing takes time, he knows that. He'd learned the hard way but he still didn't know if he believed it could work, that it would work when Lila did it on him.

"Did I do it ri--" That's when the power of their magic sent them both flying in opposite directions. Kell's back hit the floor hard and he could hear Lila thudding against a wall. Kell could barely breathe, gasping and his thoughts were so hazy that he wasn't sure at first if it had worked or not. Then he flexes his fingers and he can feel the mangled mess of his hands and wrists knitting back together, his skin becoming smooth and warm again, he could breathe easier. He sat up again and the room didn't spin. He could hear his blood rushing but it was no longer pouring out of him. he hears Lila groan, rubbing her head.

"Told you it would wor-" Lila has a cocky grin.

But Kell didn't let her finish, his bloodstained hands cupped her face as he pressed a desperate kiss, one that was filled with blood, with pain and panic and fear -- relief. It didn't matter how she'd found him. He wouldn't scold her for this. "You are mad."

Her smile then exposes the exhaustion. "You're welcome."

Kell helps her up and goes to grab his coat as Lila looked around. "What happened, Kell? Who did this to you?"

"Holland." His name was like a physical blow to Lila, he could see it land.

"Holland's dead."

"No, He survived. He came back. He's-"

Lila cursed as they heard the sounds of people coming and they really had to go so the discussion was tabled in favor of escaping back to Kell's London.

Comments

voice; un: littlebird

[toivory]

I've spoken with your brother before, Rhy. We've become friends here, but I confess I still do not understand your world, the sort of magic you possess.

But I offer my condolences for what you have suffered. There are terribly cruel people out there.

[bloodwords]

There are many who don't. There is an entire world that does not have magic at all.

Justice had it's turn.

[toivory]

My world has very little. Certainly nothing most people are able to use as a weapon.

[Sans dragons.]

[bloodwords]

Sometimes I wonder which world is better off.

[toivory]

I doubt it is mine.

Private Video - un: detwatts

[gadaboutdetective]

[Llewellyn can’t help but feel a certain sadness at the memory share. Rhy had mentioned dying several times, the torture Kell had endured on top of the pain the loss had put Kell through. But it was different seeing that pain and trauma, especially now that Llewellyn had become acquainted with him. After all, he knew the pain of losing a brother and feeling responsible for that life lost. Twice now in fact. It haunted you, kept you up at night...

He really hated how the sphere did this, sharing such pain against one’s will. In some ways talking about what they’d been through could be cathartic, but in other’s it only brought that pain forth anew and reopened a wound. So he opens the feed, expression vaguely concerned and somewhat sympathetic.]

Mm... Seems the sphere continues to share things without discretion...

I’m uh— sorry for the loss you were forced to suffer, Kell. Even if your brother came back, that’s a particular pain on top of everything else that one shouldn’t have to endure.

[bloodwords]

[ Kell is exhausted of all of this, of reliving it of people responding to his pain with sympathy that he didn't really deserve. ]

He never would have had to come back if I had not been so foolish.

[gadaboutdetective]

[Unfortunately for Kell, Llewellyn was the sort to worry and check in with people. This probably wouldn’t be the last time.

Especially upon realizing just how much these two brothers seemed to blame themselves for everything that happened to themselves or the other.]

Perhaps not, but he did. And you certainly never meant for it to happen in the first place, it’s clear that you care too much for that.

[bloodwords]

You really don't need to try and ease my guilt.

[gadaboutdetective]

No, but I don’t do things out of obligation, Kell.

[He does things because he tends to care, in his sometimes weird own way. He thinks that’s genuinely obvious, and so he doesn’t bother adding that detail. Another habit of his...]

voice; TheFunOne

[morethanatrickster]

My, you really do take your shortcomings hard, don't you?

[bloodwords]

It's more than a mere shortcoming.

[morethanatrickster]

A mistake you both actually survived, at least in some form. Don't repeat it and all's well.

Voice

[minus1twin]

[The pain of losing someone you're connected to... a brother. It's too real and Wanda feels the severing of her own bond again as the memory plays behind her eyelids.]

I'm sorry. I know what it's like to feel a brother die.

Rhy is here. Please take comfort in that.

[bloodwords]

He is alive in my world too. It was a close call that I never wish to repeat again.

[minus1twin]

I'm glad.

My brother died... I was worried the same happened for you.

Was the connection completely severed then?

[bloodwords]

Rhy did die, twice. He only lives because he is tied to my magic now.

[ If Kell dies or loses his magic, Rhy will perish. ]

Nearly so.

[11calls]

I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that you needed to go through that and that the network is showing it to you.

But at least Rhy is here and okay, right?

[bloodwords]

He came back after I got home as well.

[ It doesn't really change the fact that it reveals his mistake and that he relive it all. ]

[11calls]

I know. And I know it still sucks.

[bloodwords]

I guess that is an accurate way to put it.

[unbreakable_king]

Yes, that was a very eventful night, was it not? I begin to think that you and Tieren were correct to say I should not put you in the Element Games.

[bloodwords]

And yet you would do it again and I would let you.

[unbreakable_king]

You needed it, brother. I needed it as well. I do not believe you would have accepted the agreement that you could travel after I took the throne without the realization that I could handle it.

[bloodwords]

Were you already planning that then?