dang me coming back in 2026 and realizing this is trash.... don't judge. Hi! I'm back... After literally a year. Let's go IOR! I decided to just abridge it and post it. Yay! TW: a little graphic description of being beaten. Nothing much ~~~ Worth was dreaming again. It was always about a man, his shoulder-length blond hair falling across his face like water. Usually, the man was smiling, watching his youngest daughter run around him in circles, but this time it was different. He was walking down a hallway lined with bars on either side, and had something glistening in his hand. He crept along, one hand outstretched to ward off an invisible enemy and his eyes darting wildly about. He stopped, confused, and turned, one hand absently scratching the tip of his ear. Then he started, his whole body jerking to attention, and sprinted down the path in front of him, skidding to a stop at the last cell in the row, one with thick iron bars that were dripping with condensation. The dim light filtering through the barred window in the corner of the cell illuminated a boy: sitting slumped, his large blue eyes watchful and afraid. He was thin, his ribs jutting painfully and the angry red streaks on them looked sore to the touch. Whispering a prayer under his breath, the man knelt, thrusting the object (Worth thought it might be a key, but she couldn't be sure) into a lock and twisting it. The bars slid apart and he rushed inside, hoisting the boy to his feet and half carrying him, half-dragging him outside the cell. ~~~ A tentative rap on the door startled Eryn awake from her place at the kitchen table. Brushing a strand of hair from her face, she put on a smile and opened it, prepared for the worst. It wasn't the worst. It was her husband and... "Prince Caelleu-" "Shh!" Kellin shoved his way inside, striding quickly to the chair and gently helping, half lifting Caelleum into a chair. The boy stirred and moaned, slumping over so that his head rested on the table. "I got him out, now... What do we do with him?" Eryn rolled her eyes, left the tiny, dingy-lit room, and returned minutes later with a bowl of water, a cloth, and some bandages, setting them on the table. She knelt by the Prince, examining his back and exclaiming softly under her breath. "My lord... may I help?" The boy gave her a weary smile and made a motion to take the bandages but she tsked, swiping them away with the air of a mother who's confiscated things from a child more than once. "No, sir. You've been through enough, it's my turn now." His back was a web of black lines, puffy and blistered. Little lines of blood trickled down it where the scabs had ripped to show raw flesh underneath. "This is going to hurt." She dipped the cloth in warm water and started dabbing at his back, working to remove the layers of dirt and grime that had set in over the course of his time in the dungeon. ~~~
Caelleum was awakened rather rudely. Someone small but with great amounts of gusto was trying to pry his eyelid open and (unfortunately) succeeding. "AtTAR!" a shrill voice bellowed into his ear. "HE'S WOKEN UP! WHO IS HE? WHY IS HE ASLEEP ON THE TABLE? WHY IS HE WRAPPED IN WHITE STUF-" Her words were cut off short as Kellin appeared, clapping a hand over her mouth and smiling apologetically before looking down at his daughter. "This is a guest we'll have for a little while. It's very important that you don't tell anyone about him." "WHY?" Kellin bit his lip, casting a desperate glance at his wife, who took over as she smoothly slid the chair Caelleum had sat in last night, splattered with blood, out of Leila's line of sight. "You see," Eryn began, "this is your uncle... Mallin and he's playing... hide and seek with a very big group of people. In order to win, he needs to make sure that none of those people find him. So we can't tell anybody that he's here, or he could be found, right?" Caelleum, who had gingerly sat up, nodded weakly and smiled as best he could down at the girl. "Right."
