Choosing to say out of the Alliance, the Cinders are isolated in their own conflicts, and when Helia Cinder reaches to the void for answers, she inadvertently draws a creature out. Expecting to be eaten alive, she is instead left with a man with no...
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The infirmary of the secondary castle was worse than the minuscule one they had lost in the cliffside fortress. With their 'no entry' policy for mages, Talamayas had never built a real infirmary, but it had gotten marginally better since Kopje had taken up residence. The gurney Vice set Pyre on felt like a rock, but that was to keep him still if they had to operate on anything. There were only two in the entire room, a few tables with recently acquired supplies, and not enough of anything to really help Pyre much. It was the man lying on the other cot that Vice truly needed, and he hoped that Kopje was well enough to manage as he sat up with a groan of exhaustion.
Riff had scrambled Kopje's brain and magical connections, leaving him barely able to walk or function, but the last Ghost saw of Kopje the day prior, Forest had been repairing what he could by flooding his body with new magic. Kopje balanced well enough as he came around the room to see who Vice had brought in, and the lines of his hardened warrior face tightened.
"Pyre," Kopje said, surveying the damage with his one good eye as he dropped into a chair next the bed. "These wounds are grave, Vice." With a hiss of breath, Kopje touched the wounded arm, and his already scowling countenance sank into muted rage at whoever had hurt one of his family. Even if Kopje resided with the Sols, he was an infiltrator class grand mage, and he understood the struggles Pyre had to suffer through each day just to live.
"I know." Vice responded quietly, keeping close to the wall in case Pyre woke and wanted him dead. "Can he be saved?" Just asking sent a stab of pain through him. It had been his responsibility to keep Pyre safe, and he had failed.
"Saved? If he's not dead yet, I can likely keep him that way, but as far as saved, I can't say." Before Vice had even found a comfortable place to lean, Kopje was already working his light magic through him. Undoing the temporary tie for Pyre's arm, he laid out the limb on low table next to his gurney and began to repair it as much as he could. "Fuck, Vice. Talamayas is already going to be pissed at me for healing Pyre as it is, but this cut to his shoulder..." Kopje trailed off as he focused all of his power there first.
No words from Kopje were needed for Vice to understand the severity of Pyre's injuries. The gash ran deep, near severing Pyre's arm at the shoulder, and it dug into his abdomen painfully close to Pyre's heart. That was where Kopje flooded his light magic first, to seal the wound in the most important part of his body, but infection could spread from the arm and take Pyre's life all the same if it wasn't healed quickly.
"Please say you killed the shit who bit him, at least," Kopje said as he danced his hand up to Pyre's neck to close the fang wounds left in his flesh. "Any vampire messed up enough to drink from him in this condition deserves all of the wrath hell can muster.
"Still kicking," Ghost said with an exhale of breath that had Kopje lifting his eye with sheer horror.
"You bit him?" Kopje spit the question like a death sentence, but Ghost already knew that. No matter what had happened and would from now on, Pyre was going to wake near homicidal.
