[YOUR H—]
The agonizing screams. The horrible stench of burning flesh. The searing sounds. The suffocating air. The sound of burning wood and collapsing buildings. How the wooden rubble cackled and creaked. The silence was just as loud as the miserable cries of pain went out one by one– extinguished by the flames.
Ahhh. His heart would not be able to handle it.
It replayed in Altair’s mind over and over. He finally had the time to process some of it. Someone who was in the vicinity at the time, a foreigner– a spirit. Someone who did not belong in his home. A person who had crept into his haven. The only place that had accepted an abomination like him. It had all been taken away from him and here was a stranger. Before him was the most likely culprit. With her hood now removed, her cloak did not mask her identity. Instantly, he knew what she was. A [Dragon Spirit]... An abomination, a Heartbound, a spirit. Unconscious from the sheer exhaustion from healing him, the woman was in his arms. Her breaths were heavy and out of sync. They only served to annoy him, to fuel his rage. His mind now began to focus on one thing. Altair was looking for something to blame. Wind.
“Ahkk!”
[YOUR HEART CORE IS—]
Pain and regret. He was met with suffering for attempting to use magic in his injured state. Though his physical pain had subsided after being healed, the pain of the warning was still crippling. His body refused his command to use his wind. Thus, he had no choice but to finish things with his bandaged hands. As his hands approached the spirit’s neck, he heard a strained voice to his left, where Tobi was.
“Altair!”
Altair paused and saw Tobi now trying to sit up, pushing himself up with his arm and resting on his elbow. There was a sense of urgency in his tone.
“She. Not. One. Attacked. Home.”
Tobi began to cough violently, barely managing to spit out those words. He looked to be in more pain than Altair was.
“She’s a damned [Dragon Spirit].”
“I. Know.”
“Then what the hell is–”
“Her. Wounds. Not caused. By fire.”
“Even more reason for her to be the culprit!”
Altair covered his eyes with his hand as a horrifying memory resurfaced.
“They…”
At first, Altair didn’t understand what Tobi was trying to get at. She wouldn't be injured if she was the one attacking. [Dragon Spirits] are spirits with command over fire. They could produce fire magic without the need to use mana. Similarly, [Cloud Spirits] could use wind, water, or lightning magic without the need to use mana. All of the Heartbound spirits had such a capability. [Dragon Spirits] with command over fire would naturally have a high tolerance for blazing temperatures. Altair looked at the woman with bandages wrapped around her body. On her, he could not find a single burn, unlike himself or Tobi. Then why was she wounded? Altair recalled seeing the woman on a roof right before the attack so she couldn’t have been injured by the collapse of a building. It doesn’t matter.
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“Listen.”
“Listen? Even then... What if she’s like them? That may be the only reason she even bothered healing us! So we would look our best. Something like that wouldn’t be beneath a Heartbound!”
“...”
“She could always be like…”
“...”
Tobi did not utter a word. He knew what Altair was talking about. Something they wished they could forget. Something they wished would never happen again. What they saw. What they did. What they had to do to survive. The possibility Altair was talking about was something Tobi could not fully refute. However, I saw her. Tobi needed to convey this one detail to Altair. His throat hurt from talking but it didn’t matter. He needed to say this.
“She–”
However, Altair had cut him off.
“The only thing we had was our home… and that’s… gone. The only place that had accepted us. Even after we failed them, they allowed us to stay. Our debts. Could we ever repay what was given to us? Everyone had worked so hard for us yet we couldn’t anything in return when it mattered.”
“...”
Altair’s eyes narrowed and his [heart] was filled with anguish. His legs wobbled. He wanted to vomit. He wanted to fall. He wanted to die. He wanted to cry. He needed to be saved. He needed to find something that would save him. Anything he could think about. Someone who would save him– and save his heart. Tobi cast down his gaze and closed his eyes, unable to see Altair in such a state. This was out of respect and consideration for Altair– who was a [Cloud Spirit] that wanted to cry. No longer was Altair filled with rage, but instead, it was despair and loathing. Who did he loath more: himself or the girl before him? He needed to let Altair get this out, and then he could tell him.
“Julio… he…”
Tobi froze. He had been unconscious the whole time. He was not like Altair who had witnessed the horror of that night. Ignorant to those who had perished was his only salvation. Altair never finished that sentence. He grabbed the collar of the woman’s cloak with one arm as his other arm was reaching back with an open palm. A violent wind now circulated him, his power returning. Now he would be capable of–
“Wait!”
Tobi had to act before his friend ended up doing something unforgivable.
[YOUR HEART CORE IS–]
“Ugh”
[–BEING REPAIRED BY FOREIGN CORE]
As he squinted his eyes, Altair pressed his hand against his head to try and soothe the piercing words ringing in his head. With his other hand, he grabbed his chest, the source of the wound. The words themselves were now hurting more than the pain in his healed chest. What? The glowing in his chest has stopped. However, the painful warning message was still there. But then, he was able to notice another glowing light.
“Don’t tell me…”
He realized what had happened. What the girl had done. She…
“She. Saved. Your. Life–”
Tobi, confirming Altair’s thought, used every ounce of strength he could muster and continued,
“–by giving part of hers.”
At that revelation, all of Altair’s confused rage was blown away from his body. What Tobi was talking about was…
“...”
Shaking, he slowly laid the young woman down on the floor, more carefully than he had ever been with anything in his entire life. Tobi quietly silently. She stabilized my [core]… by sharing hers. Something so dangerous that all spirits looked down upon it. Something taboo. A spirit’s [core] is the physical manifestation of its soul. Akin to splitting apart one’s soul and giving a piece to someone else, such were the dangerous actions of the [Dragon Spirit] before him.
“...”
Soon after, a tiring wave of sleepiness. His body needed all the energy it could get to help him recover.
“Altair!”
Tobi called out to him with a worried voice. He tried to get out of his makeshift bed. He struggled at first but the worry for his friend conquered the pain.
“I…”
Altair’s body felt like it was melting. His mind began to sink as the comforting darkness embraced him. The last thing he saw was the glowing light radiating from the girl’s [core]. As his vision grew darker and darker, the light became brighter. As his consciousness slipped, the last thing Altair saw was a faint and tiny star trying to hold on to its last glimmer of light.
He wanted to cry.