“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Etienne asked.
The taxi ride home had been a weird experience to put it lightly. We would have made a proper scene with the workers at the dungeon, but considering Cain’s shaken state, we made do with throwing out weapons and a few insults at them. Then we had to argue with one of the few taxi drivers who was still out despite the storm, which wasn’t made any easier with our various states of disarray. In the end, no skill worked better than the magic blue card.
We made a stop at an emergency potion shop. Neither Etienne or I were keen on hospitals, me due to my past sub-par experience, him due to his class, so several health and MP potions, and a calming rune for Cain had been used instead. Well, the boys were the ones to drink those. I only took their strongest over-the-counter Dafalgan, as I did not want any of my injuries to permanently scar. I was going to restore my luck with a good stab in the chest once I got home, hopefully fixing the injuries in the process.
We’d gotten to my apartment, and Etienne helped me put Cain to bed. I was pretty sure he was only pretending to sleep, and had snapped out of whatever skill he’s been under in the car, but I wasn’t going to tell Etienne that. I felt horrible for getting him involved to that extent, on what was meant to be a fun day out, and after telling him – no, promising him – that he wouldn’t have to fight.
“Stop worrying,” I told Etienne after he went to turn on the heaters in the living room, which were already on the highest setting. “You can stay if you want?” I offered.
“No, I’ll leave you two to it. I might try and get a job tonight.”
“After all that happened?” I exclaimed.
He gave me a tired smile.
“I need to pay you back for the potions, and the taxi.”
“Nonsense,” I cut him off. “Please rest tonight, alright, for me?”
I took his hands in mine, with a very obvious ‘I won’t let you go until you agree’ expression.
“Oh, so this is a hostage situation?” He smirked.
“Just until you come to your senses. Otherwise I would have to use more advanced tactics,” I smiled in turn.
“What if I use those tactics against you first?” He seemed to have caught my stream of thought, and leaned in with a kiss. “Let’s celebrate this, us, with a glass of wine somewhere nice next time, alright?” He winked, before heading out.
“No objections here,” I smiled, letting my fingers linger on my lips for a few seconds, as I watched him walk down the stairs. “Text me when you get home!” I yelled at him once I heard the front door open.
I headed back inside, locking the door and distractedly scratching the corner of my eye with my free hand.
“Cain?” I softly called out as I entered his room. A grunt came from the nest of blankets he’d made around the foldable bed, and I knelt beside it. “How are you feeling?” I poked what I assumed to be his head.
Moments later, he shuffled around, poking his head out. His eyes were red and puffy, and he still had traces of dirt over his face and in his messy red hair. For a second, we stayed like this, me expecting an answer, him expecting me to say something else. Being the adult, I pulled him into a hug.
“It’s okay, we’re out of the dungeon now, you’re safe,” I muttered the usuall combo of reassuring nothings. I wasn’t lying, but it felt as if my words had no weight behind them. I was responsible for him, and I should have stopped him. Maybe I shouldn’t even have allowed this whole endeavour to begin with…
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“I’m sorry,” He whispered, his voice ever so slightly shaky.
“Shhh, it’s okay. It’s my fault for letting you go alone in there. I should have found you sooner. I-” the realisation of what I’d done finally fully sunk in. I pulled him away, so as to face him, as tears formed in my eyes, and I sincerely continued, “I’m sorry. I betrayed you again, I said that I would look out for you and not let you fight for me, but the opposite happened.”
“I can take care of myself,” Cain interjected, almost offended.
“Yeah, I know you can. But I shouldn’t let you. I’m the adult, I should be looking after you.”
“I have the higher rank. And luck. And MP. And skill, no offence.” He shook his head, burying himself in his blanket fort once more. “Plus it was my fault. Had I not insisted on going to the dungeon, had I turned back when you told me,”
“Don’t worry about it, you wanted to have fun, you deserve to do that once in a while, all kids do,” I tried to rub his hair but he pulled away.
“Had I fought at full strength earlier…” He added in a whisper.
I put my hand down, and gave him a soft but forced smile.
“Yeah, we would have been out earlier, but we got out eventually and Etienne and I got to have a heart to heart, which would not have happened otherwise.”
Cain nodded towards my side.
“I did that do you. And that too,” He mimicked the scratching motion I had been doing with my hand.
I jerked my hand away, having not noticed that I was at it again. I was hoping the eyes would go away after my ‘Long Voyage’ reset.
“Well,” I was about to tell him that the eyes at least were not his fault, when a more pressing question popped on my mind, “You lost control when you started to fight seriously?”
“I didn’t loose control!” Cain burst out in a sudden fit of uncalled for rage. Had I not been sitting, I would have taken a step back. “And before you give me the lecture on not sacrificing precision for power, I know all of that! I was aware of what I was doing, my speed, my stats. Do you really think a mindless monster would be able to shift forms mid-combat like I did!?”
I was taken aback by the outburst, unaware that there was a nerve I could strike. Before I could react, Cain buried himself in the blankets, turning his back to me.
I took a second to collect myself, and to reassure myself that he wouldn’t bite or attack me for what I was about to do, because despite his shifter abilities he was still a 12-year old kid. Then, I got up, and lifted him off the bed, and spoke:
“I didn’t say any of that, Cain. And I wasn’t about to lecture you. You did what you did, and we won the fight in the end. I’m not saying that’s all that matters, because in this context it’s clearly not, but it’s a big factor. That was a messy fight. The dungeon was getting into all of our heads, and-”
“It wasn’t getting into your head!” Cain argued, but didn’t try to wiggle away. “You clearly didn’t even know that man.”
“That’s true…”I put him back down, and sat next to him. He spun around almost immediately, turning his back to be again. “There is a complicated reason behind that.”
I was pretty sure he’d been Luara’s dad. His appearance and powers matched that of the boss in the ‘immoral immortality’ spin-off, albeit in a much more toned-down version. I wasn’t sure if that’d been caused by the dungeon only pulling out partial memories, or because Cain had weakened it. I caught myself scratching at my eye again. Maybe it had gotten to my head, just in a different way.
“have some rest, we’ll talk about it more tomorrow okay?” I said, getting up.
“A debrief, huh?” Cain scoffed, his upset expression half-hidden in his knees that he’d pulled up to his chin.
“Or we won’t.” I stated. This wasn’t an issue I should be letting go this easily, as it related to everyone’s safety, and Cain’s first and foremost, but the kid had been through too much in one day – or in his lifetime for that matter, and the Dafalgan was starting to wear off. “Goodnight Cain. Nothing that happened today was your fault, don’t think of it that way, okay?” I ruffled his hair, and headed out.
I didn’t see him burry himself in his fort again, but I heard it, followed by soft sobs. I stopped in the doorway, feeling my heart being squeezed tight, but unable to do anything more about the situation.
“I’m going to use one of my skills, I might be gone for a few hours. Will you be alright?” I asked.
My tone made it seem as if I was asking permission, and perhaps on some level I was hoping he’d ask me to stay, at least until he’d fall asleep, like a normal kid. But he didn’t. Instead, he quietly replied:
“Yeah, that’d be the sensible thing to do. You’re in awful shape.”
I nodded, turned off the light in his room, and left the door ajar, as I headed out.
----------------------------------------
I wasn’t sure on the distance restrictions around ‘Long voyage’ so I went to St-Lazzare, and took a teleportation circle to the other end of Paris. There, in a deserted and snow-covered alleyway, I unzipped my jacket, and stabbed myself in the chest.
You have died.
[https://i.imgur.com/OHMyQo0.png]