R3d

TW, CW: BL00D, D3@TH, THEMES OF VIOLENCE

She was knelt to the ground, coughing and wheezing. Calphurnia was knelt next to her, patting her back gently, rubbing small circles into it.

"Um, Sawyer? You okay?" Riley asked softly, stopping to look behind at her.

"You guys go ahead, I'll stay here with her." Cal said, as she looked up at Riley.

He shook his head, "No, we can't lose our cleric." He turned to the rest of the group, who stopped a few meters ahead. "We're staying." He shouted.

Her black hair covered her face, but when she brought her hand up to her face, and down again, it came out smeared with r3d, "Cal?" Sawyer whispered. Calphurnia looked back down at Sawyer, and lifted her face to reveal streaks of r3d down her cheek, slowly pouring from her eyes, covering the whites of them.

"Oh my gosh." She gasped softly. Her breathing turned shallow, her heart beat faster, she turned to Riley, "Riley!"

"Oh, my--" Riley stopped himself, pushing his hand through his hair, turning his face away from Sawyer, "Okay...um, Cal, hit her with all the healing spells you can."

Calphurnia whispered a small cantrip under her breath to Sawyer, getting the required tools for a spell using her henna. Sawyer's nose was starting to drip r3d...they needed more power. Sawyer stared distantly into Cal's eyes, eyes wide and terrified. It was hard to look into them, but hard to look away.

"I'm going to die, Cali...I can't die, Cali, you can't let me die--"

"I know, it's alright. We won't," Calphurnia said in a calm tone, combing Sawyer's hair between her fingers and rubbing her scalp gently, "It'll be alright."

"Will you guys hurry up? We don't have all day!" Saffron called from where him, Cameron, and Wyatt stood, unaware of the crucial situation.

"Saffron, could you come for a second?" Riley called out. Saffron was a druid, as able as a cleric to heal, and although Cameron was a sorcerer, they didn't want to agitate Cameron by telling them their sister was about to see her patron soon, and they couldn't see her now, as Riley was covering their view, but soon they'll notice, Riley having called up everyone but them and Wyatt, who would only get sick on the floor in situations like these.

Saffron walked over, and stops next to Riley, "What?" He said in a playful way to make it seem like he was mad.

Riley glanced at Sawyer, and Saffron looked at Sawyer, and his face melted into concern, "Oh, my...Sawyer, can you speak?"

She barely registered Saffron's question, staring into Cal's eyes, as they glaze over, and get calmer, "Hm."

"I'm almost on my last spell," whispered Calphurnia.

"What's going on over there?" Cameron called from behind them.

They tensed, and Riley calls back, turning rigidly to them, "Um, nothing, just...uh, Cal's feeling weak."

Calphurnia could envision Cameron rolling their eyes.

Riley turns back to Cal, "Try Remove Curse."

Cal has started her spell, and Saffron began a healing spell, Sawyer slowly starts to regain awareness, "Saffron..."

"Yeah, it's me, Sawyer. We're going to help you."

"I saw her, Saffron."

"Saw who?"

"I saw her...and she was beautiful." And then began the mumbling, about blue skies and wet, green grass and floating water..

"She losing it." Saffron whispered, starting another healing spell.

"No, it's working. Her bleeding stopped." Cal let out a sigh of relief, her shoulders relaxing.

"Yeah, but now her arms are bleeding," Saffron said, moving his hands to Sawyer's arms.

"Oh no..." Cal rolled her sleeves up hurriedly, and saw her scars on her arms several nail markings on her wrist and knife wounds on her arm have now opened and started flowing with r3d. "When did you get these?" Cal asked Sawyer, panicking. Sawyer didn't answer, her mumbling becoming incoherent in Celestial.

Cal understood one or two words she said, like "bright", or "water", but everything else was unintelligible.

A smile spreads like butter across Sawyer's face. Bright, and joyful. Uncanny, in circumstances as these.

Saffron sits back on his heels, "It's not working, Cal. I think we should just pray to Alexandria--"

"NO!" Cal screamed. An awkward silence filled the air, as Cal's breath turned more shallow. She grabbed a bottle of holy water from her bag, and opened it, pouring it into Sawyer's mouth.

When the bottle finishes, Sawyer starts laughing hysterically, "It tickles! Tickles!"

"We can't fix this, Cal." Riley said, placing his hand on her shoulder, which she shrugs away.

Naturally, these noises attracted Cameron, "What are you doing to my sister?" They screamed, shoving aside anyone in the way of them and their sister. They knelt next to Sawyer, "What did they do to you, Sawyer?" Cameron whispered softly.

"Cameron. Come closer." Sawyer whispered. Cameron leaned closer to Sawyer, letting her whisper in their ear. Cameron bursts into tears, turning away from Sawyer, and Sawyer turns her face to Cal placing her hand on her cheek, "I love you, Cal. I didn't say it soon enough, but I do, I promise."

This all overwhelmed Cal. Her lover was dying, and she couldn't do anything about it, which was very rare for her, "But you said--"

"But now I'm dying. It doesn't matter what I said, Cali. I'm dying." Sawyer whispered, "Let go."

"No! You're not dying! You'll live, because...because I have holy water!" She grabbed another bottle of holy water from her bag, and poured it into her mouth, making Sawyer strangle on it, choking on the water. Riley grabbed Cal's wrist firmly, stopping her, "Cal! Stop it. It's no use."

"We don't have time for this!" She yanked her wrist from Riley's grasp, "I can't let you die, Sawyer!" She poured the holy water once again into Sawyer's mouth. It only made her condition worse, r3d streaming again from her mouth, eyes and nose.

"Take it! TAKE IT!" Cali screams, pouring more into Sawyer's mouth. Tears pricked her eyes, blurring her vision, and she dropped the bottle on the floor realizing it was no use, "I'm sorry, Sawyer." She sobbed softly. "I can't save you." Cali rubbed her nose into Sawyer's hand taking in the smell of iron and sweet lavender, the smell of a dying Aasimar under the goddess Alexandria's church.

Sawyer's hand slips from her face and onto the ground.

Cali sobbed Sawyer's name at the top of her lungs, over and over again, until she couldn't anymore.

She cried for so long, and so loudly, that everyone else had started to set up camp beside the road, and Cameron just sat next to her, staring blankly up at the sky.

Eventually, her sorrow turned from loud and rampant to silent and still.

She found herself staring at the road ahead.

She heard a soft gurgley murmur from Sawyer, and she leaned down to listen.

"My hands...to pray."

Of course.

Sawyer was an Aasimar. Every unfallen Aasimar must pray their patron's death prayer before dying, of course, knowing they're on the verge of death before so.

Cali was slightly relieved she was still alive, but she wasn't going to deny Sawyer her peace. So she wove Sawyer's hands together, rested on her chest. And waited. It was silent for a moment.

Calphurnia felt lightheaded, watching a r3d pool grow on the ground, warm under her, she could feel her breakfast coming back up, but she held it in, wanting to keep Sawyer's last moment to be of peace. She could hear Sawyer's death prayer to her goddess coming out in soft gurgles, pausing occasionally, as she drifted in and out of consciousness in Cali's arms. She looked like a crying angel, her fingers clasped, her eyes closed, pale and frozen in place except for her lips moving. The only sound in the night Sawyer's soft whispers and the crackling of the fire behind them.