---- Eva POV----

Eva walked towards Zoa, she watched as he sat there animatedly talking with the figments of his imagination. She worked the scenario over in her head multiple times yet she still had no clue as to what the best move would be. She thought about straight up telling him that he was hallucinating, she wasn't a shrink but she was pretty sure that would be a bad idea. She thought of casually sitting where one of the figments were supposed to be. She sighed, she needed something more subtle, something that would hopefully not make him flip his shit. Yet she drew a blank, she had no idea what to do to make him aware.

She walked up to him, she blinked as he turned towards her. He grinned, the same idiotic grin she had gotten used to. It foretold of a mischievous side. “Eva! Come sit, they got some interesting tales to tell. You should hear them out.” He continued his conversation with the siblings. Eva took a breath, she called out to him softly.

“Zoa..”

He either did not hear her or ignored her. She shifted in her seat, inhaled and tried again.

“Zoa.”

A blink, he turned to her and cocked his head. He raised a questioning eyebrow, she took another deep breath. “The siblings that you see, they are a hallucination.”

She cursed at herself in her mind, this was not the way to do this. She couldn't help it, she had panicked. She watched Zoa freeze for a moment, her heart pounded her hands clenched into fists as she watched his face.

He raised an eyebrow, “I think you might be sick Eva, the dwarves are real. I mean they gave me supplies, we fought together. I remember killing darkspawn with them. Hallucinations can't do that now can they.”

She blanched at his retort, did they kill darkspawn. Her mind was blank as she stared at him unsure of how to continue. Kardol walked up next to her, “How many Darkspawn did we face?” He calmly asked.

She saw Zoa tilt his head, “About a dozen?” He shrugged.

Kardol shook his head, “We fought five of them human, you used your crossbow to kill two, while Grom and I handled the other three.”

Zoa raised an eyebrow, “I used a crossbow? I don't even have a crossbow.”

Kardol took a breath then exhaled, he scratched his beard. Zoa stood up and stretched his arms, “Look, I have a few mental issues, I won't deny that, but I have never had hallucinations of this magnitude, not even close. I mean, there is no way I could imagine three whole people and a Spider of that size.”

Eva blinked, “The spider was real, the siblings are not!”

“You're telling me the spider the size of a building is real, while three dwarves out of an entire army are not...?” Zoa asked.

Eva cursed, it did not make any sense when he put it like that. How did you defeat the logic of insanity. She didn't know, she could only remember her other bad idea.

---- Zoa POV ----

I flicked my gaze from Eva back to the siblings. I was trying to wrap my mind around the fact that they could be hallucinations. It made no sense to me, I felt them, talked to them. I fought with them! Hell, I could even smell them sitting next to me. The spider as a hallucination, possible... I wasn't completely unfamiliar with hallucinations, I did have Schizophrenia. However, my symptoms were nowhere near this severe. Some moving shadows, figures from the corner of my eyes. I had a mild case, if I put it in perspective.

I tapped Thorik on the shoulder and felt cold, hard iron beneath my fingers. I frowned, the siblings were staring at Eva. They were going on about how blind she was, waving their hands saying hello. Why would Eva lie to me? She wouldn't, I was fairly sure of that. She didn't seem the manipulative type, so was what she said true? I could feel, hear and even smell these so called hallucinations. Was that possible? I don't know. I blinked. What if I wasn't the one hallucinating, what if she was the one? I looked at her, she was frowning and clearly looked uncomfortable.

She took a few steps towards the siblings, I opened my mouth. “What if you are the one hallucinating?” She froze, she stared at me, her jaw wide open. She looked idiotic, I sniggered. “It's possible isn't it? I can feel, touch, even smell these so-called hallucinations. How do you know you're not the one hallucinating.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

She kept staring at me before she frowned and then walked towards the bench with stomping feet. She stood in front of Korma, turned to face me and sat down. My mind went blank, I saw her sit down, Korma should have been there, she wasn't. A gaping hole opened in my stomach, I grabbed at it, my mind ITCHED. Something was wrong, no... no... NO! Something is wrong. It's dark why is it so dark! Thorik! I turned around to where he should be. Nothing... I saw nothing. My skin itched, it burned. I start panting, I try to calm down, I take a deep breath. Can't Breathe! I desperately dig deeper for a breath, I manage to inhale a little. But now my skin Itches, It burns, why does it burn! I scratch at it. It's making it worse, I try to scratch some more but I can't move my arms. Something is holding them down. I desperately struggle to break free. Noise, cascading noise is filling my mind, I can't think. Where was I, can't remember. Try to focus. Where, don't know, can't remember. I scream in an panicked release of tension.

Suddenly I see some light, a heavy weight is pulled of my chest, little by little I gain the room to breathe. I stare around, my sight blurry. I see a figure. It's struggling to do something, I try to talk but instead gargle as something bubbles up inside my mouth. I panic, I struggle, I try to breathe but I can't. The figure rushes over to me, it lifts my head, I cough out more of the bubbling warm liquid. I spit it out. Something wet is forced into my mouth, I cough as it fills me up. I try to spit it out but I can’t. The figure helps, it pushes me upright, I can spit out some of the liquid now. The figure forces some new liquid into my mouth, it's the same as before. I can’t swallow, she forces it into my mouth.

She pushes against my throat, I cough as I spit out all the liquid. I try to talk, my tongue is too thick It's all garbled, the figure pushes away the weight on my chest. It drags me to the corner, it holds me, soothing sounds are whispered in my ear. I calm down a little, I hurt, I itch, I don't understand. But for now it's okay, the figure will take care of me. It's okay to let the dark seep in... It's okay now, I feel safe, at ease. So safe... The blackness takes over my vision and I pass out.

I groan, pain dominating all sense. I blink, trying to clear away the blur before my eyes. I see the figure next to me, I breathe a sigh of relief. Still safe, the figure tries to speak with the smooth voice. I don't understand, I can't think straight. The sound of the voice relaxes me, the pain sends another wave of shock through my body. I twitch at the feeling, my chest burns. I start coughing, feeling as if I am coughing my lungs out. I cough something semi-solid out, I winch at the feeling. Perhaps I actually AM coughing my lungs out.

I try to focus my mind on what is going on around me. My body burns and erases away all the focus I try to gather. A flash of pain is felt in my neck, I see something smaller scuttling away from me. I twitch and try to do something, to no avail. The figure whispers soft words of comfort, hands stroke my hair as I do my best to calm down. A new surge of pain flares up from my neck, my body trembles, my muscles contract. I start flopping on the floor like a fish, I try to scream, instead I am assaulted by a new wave of coughing. Pure agony fills my body, the pain has somehow gotten worse. My cells are tortured, everything hurts. Time expands as I lay there jerking in pain, the figure does its best to calm me down and hold me still. It does not work very well, a flash of white blinds me and I lose consciousness once more.

I wake up for a second time, or is this the third. I cannot remember, my body is no longer under the torment of flaming agony. Everything remains sore from the experience however. I open my eyes and to my surprise I could actually see something beyond simple blurs. To my left I see the figure, I smile as I realise who it is. Eva, a spider the size of a small dog perched on her shoulder, is staring at me curiously. I try to move but she hushes me, She tells me repeatedly not to move and helps me sit up. I look around, I frown while I take in the surroundings. I am no longer in the dwarven camp, I am in the burrow made by the large deep-stalker. How did I get here? I ask as much.

“Well, after the battle ended, you got dragged in her by the deep-stalker over there.” She holds my hand as she tells me this story, pointing to the dead deepstalker with her other. She looks into my eyes, I admire the colour of her emerald eyes. “I met a ….. friend. Who told me you were here.”

I opened my mouth, coughed a few times then asked.“Venatoria found me?”

Eva raises an eyebrow, “You know Venatoria?”

“Kinda hard to forget a spider the size of a building. If my memory ever gets that terrible then may god rest my soul.” I joked.

She frowns, she squeezes my hand and continues my story. “Well when I found you down here...”

I interrupted her“You found me down here?”

She nodded, putting her other hand over mine.“Yes, you were passed out. You had swallowed some darkspawn blood and the taint spread throughout your body. A deepstalkers paralytic poison had seeped into the bite wound of your leg, it somehow cause the Kabane blood to expand again.”

“But last we talked we were in the camp? How did I end up here with all the poison and taints and stuff.” I stared at her and saw her moment of hesitation. I squeezed her hand to urge her on and she sighed. She looked me in the eyes and continued.

“You haven't left this burrow since the attack. I don't what was happening but you were having fever dreams, you were muttering about things. If you remember anything else then that was... imagined.” She bit her lip as she waited for my reaction.

“Well shit, my imagination really runs out of hand huh.” I mumbled forcing a grin.

She blinked at my reaction, she stared at me for a few moments, worry plastered on her face. “How can you joke about something like this.” She whispered

I frown for a bit, then get a violent coughing fit. I sit back up and stare back at her. “Honestly, I have to. If I don't keep a smile on my face... Let's just say this works for me. Keeps me sane, keeps me happy.”

She smiled a bit, “Sane is up for discussion.”

I grinned, “I guess it is at that. But uuuhhh, poision, fever, yet I'm not dead?”

She nodded, “Venatoria sent one of her brood, this little one.” She gently tapped the spider on her shoulder, “One of her daughters, to bite you. Her venom counteracted yours somehow. Honestly I had fully accepted the fact that you would die. Adding another poison to the mix seemed... unhealthy. Yet God looks out for you and you still live.”

“Yea well my body hurts so much I'm regretting the living part a bit.” I grinned at her, “Thanks for coming for me.”

“Anytime, insanity is best shared together after all.” She winked at me, the shy christian character I had thought she was melting before her mischievous grin.

I laughed, the laugh turning into a cough halfway through, “I do not suffer from insanity..” I put on my best movie narrator voice. “I enjoy every minute of it.”

She chuckled, “I like that phrase.”

I grinned, “Me too.”

“Where'd you get it from?”

I laughed, “It was from one of this inspirational board thingies, we had it hung up on our bathroom wall.”

She grinned, “Well I guess the bathroom really is the place for unconventional wisdom!”

I chuckled. For a moment, life wasn't so bad.