A fresh, salty breeze swirled in the ruined room in the port city of Honeydew. A tall, bronzed-skinned man stared at the chaos of wood splinters and broken glass. Ben’s jaw was similarly slack, and his eyes wide. He ignored the throbbing agony of his broken wrists as he looked up at his presumed dead, Keeper. Ann rushed to kneel before him; her hands cupped his bearded face, and her glistening blue eyes met his.
“Annie… I thought you were-”
“I was, my darling,” she reached for Ben’s hands, and he flinched. “What…”
Ann glared with furrowed brows and flared nostrils at Kieran, whose face fell into his hands.
“What happened? I was gone for only a bell,” she scolded.
The red-haired man whined softly into his palms and shook his head as if he denied the scene of destruction before him.
“I don’t know,” he said, voice muffled by hands covering his mouth. “Miss Vasylius was looking after him…” his head snapped up, and he sniffed the air, black eyes fixed on Ben. “What did you two do?”
“We had a bit of a disagreement,” Ben said with a wince of pain as the Keeper inspected his shattered wrists with a frown.
“Remind me never to disagree with that woman. Or you, for that matter.” Kieran placed his hands on his hips and sighed.
Ben turned his attention to the blond-haired woman and noticed darkened skin on an exposed clavicle. He couldn’t see the full extent of the scar as the modest, long, flowing robe covered the rest of her considerable chest.
“Ann, what happened? Back at the embassy. I saw… I felt as if I lost you.”
The Keeper stopped her fussing and met his eyes with slanted brows. “I felt it too. I awoke within my domain after the Usurper’s spell hit me,” she said, glancing at the rubble beneath and around him. “First, let’s get you taken care of. Should we move somewhere a little less…”
“Destroyed? Ruined? Obliterated?” Kieran supplied helpfully.
“Yes, thank you, Mr Jaste. Could we perhaps use the adjacent room?” Ann asked sweetly.
“Miss Blackwood I-” the bronze-skinned man began, exasperated, before being interrupted by the Keeper.
“Call me Ann, won’t you?” the Keeper tilted her head and spoke with a tender, motherly voice.
Blackwood? Why haven’t I made more of an effort to get to know her? Sure, the first week or so was eventful, but still.
Guilt ate at his empty, growling stomach, and Ben resolved to try to get to know the blond-haired woman.
“Absolutely not!” Kieran protested firmly. “Please, Keeper, don’t use such formalities with me. Just Kieran is fine.”
Ben would’ve snorted at the irony if not for the fading adrenaline that brought his agonizing injury to the fore.
The handsome man sighed again and motioned with both hands to the door of the room in shambles. “Please make yourself at home. My… bedroom,” he winced, “is on the left.”
“Thank you, Kieran.”
“It’s my pleasure,” Kieran said, tone indicating that it was not, in fact, pleasurable.
Ben ambled to his feet with Ann’s help, who lifted him by his shaky elbows. Ann led the young man through the debris to the door when the red-haired man stopped Ben with a hand on his chest.
“Ben, I’m glad you’re doing well,” he glanced at the young man’s limp hands, “well… relatively. But-” He paused again to meet his gaze with a grave scowl. “-No sex in my bedroom... and no disagreeing either.”
Ben stared at Kieran for two heartbeats with a slackened jaw before giving up on trying to explain that he was in no state, nor did he have the intention, to sleep with the woman. “Yeah. Got it.”
Kieran seemed satisfied as he nodded and patted the young man’s chest with a grimace of sharp teeth before turning his attention back to the offending scene.
The pair entered a passageway of what Ben surmised to be the second floor of a modest townhouse. Wooden railings lined the walkway above the ground floor, and he saw bookshelves line the pale-pink stone walls near a cozy hearth below. He followed Ann to the room next door and found it bare except for a single bed with clean, beige linen sheets. She motioned for the young man to sit before settling down beside him.
The Keeper opened a satchel tied to a thin leather belt around her waist and retrieved a small vial of black and silver, swirling liquid. She uncorked the glass tube and held it to his lips. Ben drank the offered concoction without a word and immediately felt a wave of nausea slam into him. He made to retch, but the Keeper placed a hand on his back and rubbed softly. The gesture was effective as he felt the nausea abate at her soothing touch.
He coughed. “That was… vile. What was it?”
“It’s a numbing elixir, my sweet,” she cooed.
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“Numbing for what?”
The Keeper smiled ever so slightly and grabbed his left hand firmly. Ben flinched but soon realized the draught was as effective as its namesake. She pressed and pulled at his fingers before nodding to herself and repeating the process with his right hand. Ann placed both of his hands on his lap, palms down.
“We have to set the bones correctly first. As you know, I can’t necessarily Heal, but I can increase your body’s natural recovery.” She hummed as she wiggled her hips to get comfortable on the firm bed. Are you ready, my darling?”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
“Good,” she smiled once more, “because you’re going to have to be as still as possible while I work, okay?” Ben nodded in affirmation before she continued. “It’ll give us some time to talk.”
A soothing radiance cascaded over his body, and the young man felt comfort nearing bliss at the caress of the blonde-haired woman’s Aura.
Ah. She’s gotten better at this.
He closed his eyes and reached out with his will toward her presence. He found her to be a bright, white beacon in the dark, and various emotions he could only describe as elation were felt through their bond. He opened his eyes to find Ann’s own closed. A peaceful smile occupied her delicate face, and the young man mimicked the expression. She opened her eyes and met his gaze in silence for a heartbeat. Suddenly she broke out in pleasant laughter, and Ben couldn’t help but join her in the relief and contentment of the moment.
“You came back to me,” she said, still chuckling.
“Yeah, though for me, it was just yesterday that I watched...” Ben said, his tone sobered at the recollection of the events involving Eric and Jor. “What happened?” He paused. “And why did Kieran allow Jor in?”
“Well,” she began, “What do you mean, allow Jor in?” Ann’s brows furrowed.
Ben recalled the moments before he lost consciousness after the woman shot him.
She lied to them. Ann doesn’t even know.
The young man frowned at the thought of withholding the incident from Ann.
Why would I even defend her?
“Hmm,” Ben almost absently placed his hand on his chin before chiding himself that it would be a bad idea to interrupt the setting of his bones. “Would you tell me what happened from your perspective? I just want to get the bigger picture before I mix perception with fact.”
The Keeper considered him for a few heartbeats before relaxing her frown.
“Of course. Where should I start?” she asked herself aloud. “As you know, I was hit by a particularly lethal, necromantic spell. Fortunately, I was able to cast a sympathetic ward in time to diffuse most of its potency. I believe I lost consciousness around that time and awoke in my domain, as I told you earlier.” She began to absently twirl the tip of the thick, single braid that hung over her shoulder as her eyes gazed out the window to the clear blue sky.
“Did anything happen? In your domain. I recall you mentioning that most Wielders can’t enter at will, so I assumed it’d been a while since you were there?”
“Yes. Well, nothing of note, in honesty. I spent time in meditation with the Martyr. We… felt your turmoil. It was as if your essence dispersed…” She turned from the window to meet his gaze.
Ben noticed subtle shadows under her eyes, as if she hadn’t had a good night's rest in a while. She continued.
“It was only until recently, about five days ago, that I felt your presence coalesce once more.” She leaned forward with slanted brows. “I stayed at your side every night these past two months. I believed. I never stopped believing.”
Ben felt her sorrow and eventual elation through their bond. He wanted to say that he believed too. That he held out hope that she’d survived, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to the woman.
I just assumed she was dead. She’s tougher than that, Ben. Don’t ever give up so easily again.
“I digress,” she cleared her throat, “The Squad Leader awakened me. Former Squad Leader. She’d taken the healing draughts from the corpse of Lucianna and administered them to you and I.”
What? Jor healed me?
Ann sniffed and held back tears. “Your condition was… dire.” She touched his scarred chest through his tunic where the arrows had been. “If she hadn’t gotten to you in time…”
The Keeper shut her eyes tightly and let out a barely audible whimper. Ben leaned forward to allow her to rest her head on his shoulder, taking care not to disrupt the healing of his wrists.
“Shh. It’s okay. We’re okay,” Ben comforted the woman with a gentle voice.
After a few heartbeats, Ann sniffed once more and sat upright as she regained some of her composure.
“Ainsle carried you here, and Kieran has been gracious enough to allow the both of us to stay for as long as needed.”
“Do you know what happened to Eric?” he asked, and he noticed the Keeper’s eye twitch at the mention of the name. She scowled and looked down at her hands.
“The Usurper fled before I was revived. Likely due to the presence of the Red Maiden.”
“I see. Did Ainsle give chase? Do you have any leads as to where he might’ve gone?” Ben found himself mimicking the woman’s expression.
“My heart, you should recover fully before you consider pursuit. He should be at the Capital now if what Jor said is true. And yes, according to Ainsle, she did attempt to engage him, but he fled. The Squad- former Squad Leader disappeared after ensuring both our conditions were stable. I’m of the opinion that she met with her kin and sailed to the capital as she had planned.”
“So, today was the first time you saw her since then?” he asked.
Ann nodded and lifted his hands to inspect his wrists.
“You should be fine now. The bones seem to be healed, and the swelling is gone.” She frowned.
“Already? You’re on a completely different level now,” Ben praised the woman, voice reflecting genuine awe at the strides his Keeper had made in the two months he had been unconscious.
Ann’s lips twitched in a slight smile, yet her frown didn’t abate as she met his gaze.
“How did this happen? Was it that woman?” Her tone grew cold awfully quickly, Ben thought.
Don’t lie to her, Ben.
The young man recounted an abridged version of the events, excluding the Archer forcing herself on him, leading up to their meeting earlier that day. The blonde-haired woman seemed more and more incensed as he spoke, and her breaths grew deeper and deeper, yet she remained quiet, only nodding or affirming with a ‘hm.’
“It's as I said. She only cares to satisfy her own desires.” Ben winced as Ann spoke with the same frigid tone he had experienced during her interactions with the raven-haired Archer.
“Yeah… but I can’t help but feel something is wrong with her... different. She was strong. Too strong, I think. It felt like I was facing a Wielder.”
The Keeper’s eyes went wide. “That’s… unprecedented. I don’t recall ever learning of someone losing an Avatar and then acquiring a different one.”
“So, it’s rare then,” Ben said as he considered mentioning the insanity he felt from the woman, but he decided it would be best to let the matter lie for the time being. “Any news about the Tear’s expansion?”
The Keeper’s demeanor changed from anger and frustration to worry. “Yes. Much has changed during your slumber.” Ann stood and motioned for Ben to follow. “Come with me. It’s best if you see it for yourself.”
The young man followed the woman out of the room and across the passageway to a balcony that faced East, towards the Shattered Tooth Mountain range.
What Ben saw sent a shiver down his spine.