As the grogginess faded, Dyo pulled himself up, his heading whipping around in the murky early morning air to Hreysti as his heart began to race.

He was sat up on his bed roll, eyes and body almost still if not for a slight, wavering tremble. Dyo’s gut started to sink as he felt his eyes grow wet. He dashed to him, hands outstretched ready to embrace him.

Hreysti jolted away as Dyo’s fingers touched him, scrambling backwards with wide, wild eyes.

“Get away.”

The words were barely audible as they slipped from his lips, as cold as the biting air.

Dyo’s heart stopped, his arm mid-way to Hreysti.

“Get away.”

His tone cut deeper.

“Hreysti-”

“Did you hear me!?”

Hreysti’s head snapped round as he snarled, his blood-red eyes’ cutting glare forcing Dyo to stumble backwards. He- He looked feral, afraid, angry. Flashes of the beast that tore open a man’s gut visible in his bared teeth and tense posture, ready to pounce if Dyo moved from his spot, cowering from his friend.

A tear rolled down Dyo's cheek as his mind screamed out that he needed to go forward, to wrap his arms around Hreysti as he had done before, but his body remained frozen for the first time in his life, as still as the trees. “I did,” He whispered, his breath shaky, “I just want to help you.”

For a moment the vampire seemed to soften, recognising Dyo’s fear. It looked like he was returning to his senses, almost like when Dyo had pulled him out of his flesh craze, but then it faded. The pain welled back up and returned with a few words. “I don’t deserve it.”

He thought he caught tears welling in those red eyes, but they were gone too fast, Hreysti picking himself up as he turned, then ran, bolting out of the clearing away from Dyo and the others. Where he deserved to go.

It stung. It stung and cut deeper than almost anything else Dyo had ever seen; Perhaps only surpassed by the last moments he had with his mother before running himself.

“Dyo!?”

He gazed around, finally noticing Agrippa kneeling beside him through his blurred teary eyes.

“Dyo, are you okay!? Talk to me!?”

They grasped his shoulders, pulling him in close as their own eyes started to well in turn, looking at him for anything, anything at all.

The flehm welled in Dyo’s throat as he summed his words, “I’m… Not okay…”

Agrippa’s arms wrapped around him in a bear hug in an instant, pulling him close against their warm chest. “I fucking hate that fae…”

“What in the god’s name has gone on!?”

They both whipped around, spotting Shani slowly rising from their sheets.

“He- He’s-“

“Hreysti’s ran off!” Agrippa replied, cutting off Dyo’s warbling response, “Because some stupid fae that lives here showed him exactly what he shouldn’t have seen!”

Shani’s eyebrows furrowed, “Fae? Is this another magical thing I’ve gotten embroiled in!?”

“Spirits,” Dyo swallowed, pulling himself away from Agrippa’s chest, “Creatures of the forest that live here in Enois. They showed us a meeting between the gods: Caeru, Ishtart, Yaawha, my father, and Ƿó… The one who created the vampires and he- He called them monsters and-“

“I get it!” She raised a hand, massaging her face with a groan, “He’s letting poison into his ears and thinks he needs to run away to protect us, right?”

The two nodded in unison.

“Agrippa, look after the sleeping cunt. Dyo, if you can, come with me and we’ll find your pasty crush.”

A new flame started to rise in Dyo’s chest as he pulled himself up, his tears starting to slow, “I’ll go, I’m not leaving him alone.”

“Good man. Do you think he’ll be, you know-“

“No.” He said resolutely, “He doesn’t want to do that, not around us, that’s why he ran, and don’t you dare hurt him if he is like… That. I’ll face him.”

“It’s your funeral.”

----------------------------------------

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They’d dressed themselves in their travel clothes and started off as soon as they could. Grabbing a knife, sword and water skin before following Hreysti’s footsteps into the woods.

He hadn’t concealed his tracks in the rush to get away, that much was certain. Heavy footprints and scattered dirt showed a clear path taken by him as he scrambled through ditches, climbed over root-riddled ridges, and slid down grassy slopes. A half-mile of a desperate escape.

Dyo could imagine it in his head, every step and every struggle that Hreysti had taken with tears rolling down his cheeks. His clothes must be covered with dirt by now, his hands scratched, all while he let his heart be consumed by self-hatred.

He couldn’t know what it felt like to live like Hreysti. He couldn’t tell him exactly what Hreysti needed to hear. But he could try. He could try to get him back, to try and wipe those tears from his eyes.

Pushing forward, the two went on further, seeing the trees thin as more of the morning light penetrated the forest. Out in the distance was the treeline just over the crest of the hill. The place where the tracks ended.

The sight of the rising sun met them, as they exited the forest, hovering over the rolling hills scattered across the landscape. They could see them all from flower blanked field upon the side of theirs. He could smell the scent of the flowers, the cool breeze, the tingle of the sun.

Things that Hreysti could not feel stat on a small rock a little way down the slope. Dyo wanted to run to him, to grab him and bring him into a hug telling him everything he needed.

But before he could do it Shani laid a hand across him as she placed a hand on her belt. To the gladius she brought.

Don’t you dare think he’ll do that…

Her eyes met his glare, locking together for what felt like a minute as his glare didn’t give up. Her hand pulled away.

Good.

He took a step forward, his boot sinking into the dew-coated flowers with a soft crunch.

Hreysti snapped around, getting upright in mere moments at the sound and he was just how Dyo expected him to be. The dirty clothes, the scratched hands, the still weeping eyes that poured tears down his cheeks.

“Hre-“

“What did I tell you!?”

Hreysti’s yell felt like a wave crashing into him, but he pushed forward, taking another step.

“D-Dyo! I told you to get away! I don’t want you here!”

Shani groaned, “We all know you don’t mean that Hreysti!”

“And you didn’t see what we saw!” He yelled, his gaze flicking from Dyo to her, “You didn’t hear the father of your entire ‘cursed’ bloodline say that he never wanted you to live! You never heard them tell you exactly what you have known about yourself for your entire life! That you’re just part of a taint brought upon this realm! A monster!”

“But I did!” Dyo called out, pulling Hreysti gaze back to him, “I saw it too. I saw the other gods tell him he was being too harsh. I was there when you were starving in Pygus and you were telling me to go away just like now! No monster or tainted being would try to protect people-“

“From whom!?”

Dyo swallowed but was unable to answer before Hreysti continued, the tears streaming faster and heavier than they ever had down his pale face.

“From me! Who else needs to eat other people and drink their blood to live!? Who else can turn into a wild animal at the scent of an open wound!? Who else can’t feel anything normal, happy people can!?”

“Hreysti!”

But it seemed like the floodgates had completely broken as his chest heavied with sobs, “Who else kills and eats the closest thing they had to a mother by accident!”

Dyo’s heart dropped, “What..?”

“Do you remember!? Zúriš, the amphitheatre! I said I was raised by an Emoran slave, Accia, ever since I could remember she was there for me! She raised me and fed me small bowls of blood, blood that I didn’t know where it came from. It didn’t matter what happened with my father, my blood mother, my clan she was there, and she loved me…”

A hard lump formed in Hreysti’s throat as another series of sobs blocked his words.

“When I reached eighteen, I was starting to have trouble controlling myself... S-so when she fell and cut herself I- I lost it, the craze just took over and all I could sense was the taste of her, the taste of the blood I’d been drinking for every year of my life. She’d been forced to give it to me, but she didn’t resent it, she gave it to me with a smile and I just tore her apart at the smell of a cut! I just ate her while she was kicking and screaming and begging me to stop! I ate and ate until I finally awoke from it with her bloody body ripped apart in front of me with her blood and flesh covering me and, in my mouth…

I- I just ran! I threw up all I’d eaten and ran as far and as fast as I could from the town, my fucking family and Accia's corpse… It was midnight when I finally stopped in a cave. I cried myself to sleep and when I woke up everything had changed. That is how I know those words are true.”

Near silence fell across the field, even the wind it seemed had gone quiet as all that filled the air was Hreysti’s quiet sobs.

“What is it!?” He cried out, “Do you finally realise what I’ve been telling you!?”

Dyo took a step forward. Then another. Tears were dripping from his cheeks as he slowly walked forward and said, “I know why you’ve been saying it Hreysti, but I’m not letting you go. It wasn’t your fault you were born like this, it was never your fault that you did that.”

“I coul-“

“You couldn’t, you didn’t know that she was going to fall. You’re not a monster because of the way you were born and you’re certainly not a monster because of your actions! You’re kind and you look out for people, even now! I have driven people mad by just trying to give them nice dreams and I can hear their voices in my head when I think of them! I can rip innocent people apart in the most painful way possible with my mind!

But despite all that I’m not a monster, and you aren’t either. You’re the first person whose mind I’ve been able to touch and give the experience I wanted to. Your smile when I did that is something I want to see from you again, the smile of someone who has not deserved any of the pain they’ve had to face getting what they finally deserve. Happiness. That’s why I’m not going to leave you! I want to travel with you, and I want to give you the joy you deserve in whatever way I can.”

“B-but- I still need blood! I still feed off of people like a parasite!”

“I don’t care that you need human blood to drink! I wouldn’t have let you feed on me if I did. It isn’t a reason for you to not come with us again. You just need it, and I will always give it to you if I have any to give when you need it.”

“And I-“

Dyo had finally got close enough. He lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Hreysti in a hug, pulling him as close, and as tightly as he could.

“You are just you and you don’t have to apologise for it. You’re not a monster, you’re Hreysti. Do you want to come back with me, Hesti?”

Tears stained his doublet as Hesti bawled into his shoulder, letting out a shuddering, whimpering, “Yes…”

A broad smile spread across Dyo’s face, but it faltered as Herysti added, “But please… I don’t want you to use that nickname… At least for a bit… I- I don’t feel I’ll fit it again for a while…”