Opening Up

Aurelia wasn’t planning on doing this with Sylvain.

She was more than capable of handling herself out in the wild. Spending most of her childhood practically alone led her to be more than self-sufficient enough.

Or at least that was what she always told herself.

Her task was simple. When the traveling group sent by Selina reported seeing suspicious individuals in Silver Dapple Grove, Sen requested that she go and weed them out so that they didn’t have to deal with another Vedia’s Blight situation. At this point, she had spent around 30 years as the protector of the grove so she knew her way around.

Hence why she was so irritated by Sylvain’s insistence to go with her.

As it turns out, these travelers can’t keep quiet about some things leading to Sylvain very quickly finding out about the Tri-Flower Frond situation.

“We don’t know if they’re all gone!” He had said, “What if you get poisoned again and there’s no one else to fend them off! I’m coming with, end of story!”

And Sylvain must’ve been a prophet from Lanesia herself.

Aurelia winces as Sylvain cleans out a rather nasty axe wound on her back. She really hated axes.

“Can’t you just let me cast cure wounds and get this over with?” Aurelia grumbled, yelping when Sylvain pressed harder against the raw skin.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” He sighs,  pulling the rag he was using away to rinse the blood off of it, “You can’t just cast cure wounds without cleaning out the injury. I can’t believe that you would just cast that without even running water over it!”

“Again,” Aurelia hisses softly when she feels the rag touch her injury again. “I’m always on the move and have stuff to do, it’s easier to just cast the spell and go.”

She hears Sylvain sigh again before continuing to work in silence. The silence gives her a moment to collect her thoughts as she sits there.

They sat in a small campsite they set up in the Grove to recuperate. It was well into the night so they had a fire set up to chase away the darkness and the cold that comes with the night. The light from the flames flickered across the trees surrounding them and the pot that bubbled with some sort of soup Sylvain had made.

She supposed that was something else Sylvain was good for. Aurelia had never been culinarily inclined. She really just tossed together whatever she had and made it edible enough that she wouldn't get food poisoning after eating it. Sylvain, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy making complex, flavorful meals. Even Aurelia had to admit that they were pretty good.

A particularly sharp pain in her back causes Aurelia’s thoughts to shift, recalling just how she ended up like this.

Alex, or whatever his name was, was right about the corpse. It was rather easy for Aurelia and Sylvain to find it. The people that ridiculous old man had reported on the other hand? Not so much.

Even with Sylvain’s advanced tracking skills and her familiarity with the forest, they still struggled to pinpoint the location of these people. It took them about two days to find and finally catch up with these people and even then, there were still struggles to be had. Unsurprisingly, these people weren’t about to let themselves be apprehended easily.

While there was no sign of the fourth person mentioned by the travelers these three proved to be more than enough for Aurelia and Sylvain to handle. Seeing as Sylvain had less combat experience than Aurelia, she had him deal with the one with the crossbow while she handled the two with the greatsword and the great axe. Not the best idea now that she thinks back on it. Sylvain likely thought that too judging by the look on his face when she told him that at the time.

But he went along with it. Likely because Aurelia was in one of her ‘Don’t argue with me’ moods.

She was able to handle herself for the first bit of it, used to only having herself to rely on. That was until she heard Sylvain yelling causing her to look away from her opponents to check on him. It was only for a second but it was more than enough time for one of them to grab her and for the other to take the chance to charge with their axe.

Normally Aurelia would’ve been able to easily break free but something about it, whether it be her being bound or the axe itself, but it set her off. Suddenly, it didn’t feel as if she were in Silver Dapple Grove. It felt as if she were thousands of miles back across the sea, days from land and trapped, drowning under the sea.

Her vision was blurry from the salty water but she saw him coming at her with crystal clarity. The way his axe glinted in the light of the sun above the water before coming down on the tentacle that held her below the water…

…And Aurelia herself.

She barely made it out alive. Weak from blood loss and a lack of air, what happened after that was a blurry mess of memories. She dully recalls being pulled out of the water, onto a ship, and into the arms of her aunt before vomiting the water that she had inhaled and swallowed.

Of course, what happened after that didn’t really matter to Aurelia at that moment as all her brain replayed over and over again was her getting nearly cleaved in half. She froze up and if it weren’t for Sylvain shooting at the person who had her grappled…she didn’t want to think about it…

Aurelia is rather rudely jolted from her thoughts by a horrible burning sensation in her back. She jumps up from her place on the log she was seated on to whip around and glare at Sylvain.

“What the hell are you doing?!” She snapped, one of her hands pressing against her wound. It didn’t help the burning sensation but it soothed Aurelia as she tried to process what happened while she was lost in thought.

Sylvain seems genuinely shocked by her sudden volatile reaction. “I…I was just cleaning out the wound…” He holds up a small flask of alcohol.  “I was just getting rid of all the blood before…”

“You should’ve warned me!” The rational part of Aurelia knew that she was overreacting but the scared child in her was in control, especially after reliving such a horrible moment.

“I-I did!” Sylvain seems unsure of how to handle the situation. “I said ‘Hey this is going to burn’ and you nodded your head.”

“You should’ve double-checked!” She snapped, “You know what? Screw this! I’m just gonna heal myself!”

And she was absolutely going to do that. Her hands shone with green magic and she was about to reach back and heal herself when she saw Sylvain’s face.

He had focused his attention away from her, looking at an unseen object with a hurt look on his face. A pang of guilt shot through Aurelia when she saw it. She bit her lip nervously before taking deep breaths. She was overreacting.

She sighed as she sat back down in front of him. She felt him jolt slightly, clearly not expecting her to sit back down. She could feel his confused gaze on her.

“I’m sorry,” She sighed, “I overreacted.”

She could sense Sylvain’s hesitance as he reached up to gently move her hair to the side. He’s quiet as he does this before after a few minutes he speaks.

“It’s…it’s alright…”

“Except it’s not,” Aurelia grumbles quietly, “I was being a douche. And don’t you dare try fighting with me, I don’t have the energy to fight with you…”

Sylvain hums slightly as she says this. “Well, then it’s good that you’re too tired to fight with me, 'cause I have to disagree with you.”

“Sylvain…” Aurelia murmurs, a warning tone to her voice.

“You’re not a douche, Aurelia.” He says picking up the cloth again. Now that Aurelia is paying attention, she can hear him pour some of the flask’s contents onto it. “Heads up, this is going to suck.” He says before gently pressing the rag to the wound on her back.

A low hiss of pain crawls its way from Aurelia’s throat, her nails digging into her palms as she forces herself to sit still for Sylvain.

“But as I was saying,” Sylvain continues, cleaning out the wound. “You’re not a douche, Aurelia. You’re…” He sighs slightly, it’s clear that he’s struggling to find the right thing to say. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“It doesn’t give me the right to lash out at innocent people.” Her words are heaved out, filled with pain as she feels him disinfect the wound.

“It doesn’t,” He agrees, “But it gives it some understanding.”

“What is there to understand?” Aurelia chuckles miserably, “I’ve done nothing but be rude and cold to you since we’ve met and you’re…” She sighed as she rested her elbows against her knees, looking at her hands. “You’re you.”

“Aurelia,” Sylvain says, his voice surprisingly firm considering it was coming from him. “You’re traumatized. I don’t know from what, but I know a traumatized person when I see one.”

That causes Aurelia to bark out a laugh before groaning when even that makes her hurt more. “Traumatized? Sylvain, I’m not traumatized.”

“Then what was that before?” Sylvain fires back, putting the rag down and patting her back. “I’m done, you can go ahead and heal up.”

“I…it…” Aurelia struggles to find something to say to defend herself but comes up with nothing. Instead, she silently reaches back and presses a hand to her wounded back as she casts cure wounds.

Once she’s done she pulls her hand back and places it in her lap, clasping them together tightly as she tries and fails to find something to say to Sylvain. She nearly loses herself in her thoughts again if it weren’t for Sylvain wrapping his arms around her waist and resting the side of his face against her back.

Aurelia naturally ran cold, so the sudden warmth of him snapped her out of her thoughts. It was an unexpected thing and very much so something Aurelia would normally hate, but strangely enough, she didn’t feel her usual desire to escape. If anything, it was a strangely pleasant feeling.

“I won’t press you for answers,” He says after a moment of silence, “I just want you to know that I’m here for you.”

Aurelia isn’t sure what to say to that, so she just places one of her hands over the ones interlocked around her waist.

The silence is comfortable and it draws on into the night. While the nip of cold air from the night isn't the most pleasant thing, she finds that it’s quickly remedied by the warmth Sylvain provides her. After about an hour of silence, she feels Sylvain move one of his hands from her waist to trace along the lines marked into her body, both by ink and weapon.

“Do you like wolves?” He finally asks, tracing over the tattoo of a dire wolf on her arm.

Aurelia recalls a brown furry face that watched her with the love of a brother. She recalls cold nights spent snuggled into his thick fur, sharing their body heat to keep. She remembers riding on his back at incredible speeds, seeing the world around her zip by in the blink of an eye.

“Yeah,” She finally says, feeling her eyes grow a bit watery at the thought of her old friend. She takes a moment to will her tears away. “They’re my favorite.”

“That’s cool,” Sylvain hums, “What about this one?” He presses a finger against her shoulder blades, where the image of fairy wings had been inked into her skin. “What does this one mean?”

“It represents the fey,” She says, holding her hand out to the moonlight. It was a faint thing, but she saw as her tan skin shimmered slightly. A dull memory of a rose-pink fairy, one of her best friends, fluttered its way to mind.

“Huh,” He murmurs, “Is that why you know Sylvan? Gosh, that’s confusing…Sylvain and Sylvan…”

His little observation causes Aurelia to chuckle, “Yep, it is. But yeah, I was friends with a bunch of fey who lived in the forest behind my house.” The memory of her childhood home brings a warm smile to her face.

“And this one?” He lifts his face from her back to trace along the edges of the tattoo there.

She instantly recognizes the tattoo he’s talking about. The first one she got. It sits in the middle of her upper back, just below the fairy wings on her shoulder blades.

“It’s the symbol of Onatos.”

“Onatos?” Sylvain asks, “Is that a god? From your homeland?”

“Yes.”

“What type of god are they?” Sylvain asks though something about his voice betrays that he already had an idea of the answer.

“Technically, he’s the god of death,” Aurelia said, focusing her attention on her scarred hands. “But after…events…the people of the Arendian Region have begun worshiping him as the god of life.”

She can sense Sylvain’s shock as he goes silent for a bit before chuckling awkwardly. “Well, that’s certainly a 180.”

“Yeah…” Aurelia heaved a quiet sigh.

Sylvain’s quiet for a bit before hesitantly asking, “If you don’t mind telling me, what happened?”

Aurelia’s face twists into a grimace at the thought. The memories come rushing back to her. The betrayal of those she deemed to be allies and the deaths of the land and creatures around her. She recalled the pure terror as she took the Hand and escaped, feeling as Kassidin and Doc attacked her, trying to stop her. Of Humphrey chasing after her on Altair. She remembers the rapid pace of her heart. How it felt like it was mere moments from beating out of her chest. Hardly able to breathe as her mind was consumed with one thought. To get away. She remembers facing off against Kassidin and the pure terror she felt seeing the Devil of Destruction. Racing to get to the trees with the last of the godspawn so that they didn’t burn on the ground as he approached. The pure terror she felt when she saw her father, her aunt, and Kilrai fighting against the Doc until the man fell unconscious and disappeared with Kassidin and Humphrey.

…and seeing Onatos himself.

She didn’t realize how fast and rapidly she had begun breathing until she heard Sylvain’s voice right next to her ear. He spoke in a firm yet gentle tone, holding her tight, grounding her.

“Breathe, Aurelia. Breathe.” He slipped his hands into her clenched, sweaty ones, allowing her to squeeze on them as she tried to breathe slower. “Your heart is beating like a drum. Just breathe. Match me. You don’t need to tell me anything until you’re ready.”

Her hands and legs feel numb and shaky and she feels lightheaded as she tries to match her breathing to Sylvain’s, leaning back against him as she does so. Her knuckles had turned white from how tightly she was holding Sylvain’s hands. She focused on his voice as he spoke to her in a soothing and firm voice, helping to ground her.

After several minutes, she heaves a sigh as she finally says, “...it’s…it's a long story…” in a weak and shaky voice.

He squeezed her hands firmly, offering her another way to ground herself. “That’s alright, you don’t need to tell me right now.”

“...right…right.” She tilts her head back to rest it on Sylvain’s shoulder with closed eyes, her breathing gradually slowing down. After some more silence, she mutters out, “You better not tell Sen, he’ll baby me for the next century.”

“I don’t think shifters can live to be that old, but you don’t need to worry, this stays between you and me,” Sylvain says calmly, chuckling softly at Aurelia’s comment towards their king.

“Promise?” She asks, peeking one eye open to look at Sylvain.

“By the might of Adesh,” He says, rubbing a thumb over her scarred hands.

“Good,” Aurelia chuckled slightly at the saying. She closes her eyes and rests for a while more before an irritating thought comes to mind. “That old man was right, wasn’t he?”

“Borto?” Sylvain asks, tilting his head slightly.

“Yeah,” Aurelia grumbled as she thought more about it. It wasn’t just that old guy but it was also Sen, her dad, her mom, and nearly everyone she sees in Faunus, part of the reason why she avoids it so much. And of course, how could she forget Sylvain himself? “Am I the last to know?”

“Maybe not the last,” Sylvain laughs softly at her question, “I’m sure Selina might not know.”

“That old hag?” Aurelia jolts up as she whips around to face Sylvain, “She probably knew before you knew!”

Sylvain laughs even harder at that, leaning over and clutching his stomach as his body shakes with his laughter. After a moment he sits back up, his eyes slightly teary, “Yeah, knowing her, she probably did.”

Aurelia huffs a sigh as she stands back up, cracking her back as she did so. “So what now?” She asks, turning back to look at Sylvain. “Should we go hunting for them or should we go back and get me a new shirt?” She awkwardly twists to look at the sliced back of her shirt.

“I already went after them,” Sylvain sighed, “After I got you to safety I chased after them until they climbed over the walls of the grove and ran away.”

“So go back, report to Sen, and then get me a new shirt.” Aurelia updated their plans.

“Yeah, that works,” Sylvain said, “But let’s spend the night here, you need rest.” He pokes her nose as he says that, causing Aurelia to wave his hand away.

“Yeah, whatever, is that soup done?” She asks, pointing at the pot still sitting over the fire.

“It’s stew and yes, it is done,” Sylvain says, grabbing some bowls from his bag.

“You had time to make a whole stew?” Aurelia raises an eyebrow as she looks at him in disbelief.

“You were unconscious for quite a long time,” Sylvain says as he scoops some of the stew into one of the bowls with a ladle. “I figured that you would want something good after what was probably not a fun experience.” He hands Aurelia the first bowl and spoon before scooping some more into another bowl for himself.

Aurelia takes the bowl with a quiet nod of thanks before sitting down on the log once more. She waits for Sylvain to join her before finally eating. They sit together in a comfortable silence, only broken once by Aurelia complimenting the food.

Once they’ve finished, Sylvain cleans up while Aurelia does some last check-ups on the area they’re in before heading off to sleep. As she’s finishing up, she sees Sylvain approach her from the corner of her eye.

“What’s up?” Aurelia asks, snapping out of her commune with nature spell. She turns around, dusting her hands off as she does so.

Sylvain’s holding his cloak in one hand as he walks up. “Here,” He says, holding it out to her, “I figured you might want something to keep warm after what happened to your shirt. Highly doubt it’s doing much now.”

He was certainly right about that. Despite the back of her shirt being the only thing that fell victim to the axe, it seems to have completely ruined the shirt’s ability to actually keep in the warmth.

“You’d be right about that, thank you,” She says with a soft chuckle, taking the cloak from him.

“So, you think they’re coming back?” Sylvain asks as Aurelia puts the cloak on.

“Nope, they’re nowhere near us, I think they’re just booking it at this point.” Aurelia smooths out the cloak once it’s on. She’s a good bit taller than Sylvain so it only went about halfway down her calves but she supposed that it was still doing its job.

“Right, so we’re good to just sleep tonight? No watches?” Sylvain asks, putting out their fire, carefully to make sure that there are no more embers that could potentially start a forest fire.

“Yeah, pretty much,” She said, getting settled into her bedroll. “The biggest problem we’ll have is the fey.”

“And even then it’s not much of a problem for you, is it?” Sylvain chuckled, getting settled as well.

“Nope.” Aurelia flopped down onto her back, eager to sleep off this nightmare of a day. “Goodnight Sylvain.”

“Of course, fey have been known to get on each other’s nerves sometimes as well…” Sylvain quietly muttered to himself, as he lay down as well. “Have you seen something like that, Aurelia?”

“I don’t know? Maybe once or twice,” She huffs quietly, slightly irritated that Sylvain wasn’t going to sleep. “Now goodnight Sylvain.”

“Huh, I suppose that the fey would be different between our homelands…” Aurelia sighs softly when she hears Sylvain muttering to himself a bit more. She’s about to go to sleep when she suddenly hears Sylvain jolt up. “Aurelia!”

“What is it, Sylvain?” Aurelia grumbles as she sits up and pins him under an irritated look.

“Does this mean we’re together now?!” He stares at her with an overjoyed and excited look in his eyes.

“I-I…What…um…I…” Aurelia flounders as she processes his words before her face turns bright red and she flops down back onto her bedroll and pulls the blanket over her head.

“Goodnight Sylvain!”

“Aurelia! Come on!”

Sylvain was lucky she liked him so much.