Written May 6th, 2020 2:22 PM

Ailith woke to the familiar sound of Xiv cussing. She blinked, eyes adjusting to the room, faintly lit by the moon outside the window. She could see the sleeping forms of Ace, Talus, and Feyra on the cots spread throughout their quarters. Xiv was missing from their cot. And cussing at someone. Which meant-

Ailith scrambled to her feet, kicking the tangle of blankets off as her body caught up to her mind. Shit shit shit! How did someone get into the queen’s fucking castle and all the way up to our room without anyone noticing? She whipped her head around, eyes frantically searching for any signs of the intruder. She couldn’t see anyone and she was sure whoever it was would have taken advantage of the fact that they were all sleeping and unprepared for battle.

“Hey! Wake up!” Xiv’s raspy yell came from the balcony. The others started stirring, wiping the sleep from their eyes. Ailith raced to the balcony, screeching to a halt when she saw Xiv standing on the railing, looking down towards the ground. She felt the rest of the party pull up behind her and heard their gasps of confusion. Xiv was still muttering curses, almost like they were talking to themselves. Ailith felt worry spike inside her at the precarious situation.

“Xiv.” Ailith forced a semblance of calm into her voice as she inched forward. “Xiv, buddy, get down from there. What are you doing?” She continued slowly moving forward, hoping to grab them around the waist and haul them back before they did something stupid. Xiv turned to face her and extended their hand, fingers almost brushing her own outstretched hand. Breathing a sigh of relief Ailith took one more step forward and Xiv leaned backwards off the balcony, plummeting seventy feet straight down. “Xiv!” Ailith screamed and threw herself after him, not stopping to think.

She watched as their body hit the ground with a dull thud, their skull bouncing harshly with the impact. She landed easily mere seconds later, rolling to absorb the force of the impact. “Xiv, Xiv oh gods!” Ailith scrambled over to Xiv’s prone form, hands flying as she assessed their injuries There was too much damage for her to deal with herself so she busied herself with stabilizing their neck, hands on either side of their skull. She never took her eyes off their face, even as the rest of the party arrived and Ace healed Xiv’s broken bones, the snapping sounds of them moving back into position setting Ailith’s teeth on edge.

She didn’t relax even after Xiv regained consciousness told them all about the force in their mind slowly taking over. When they got back to their room, Ailith took it upon herself to tie Xiv up as per their instructions. Xiv assured them that this would keep them from endangering themselves and others – at least until the force in their mind gained enough power to start using Xiv’s voice and manipulating the rest of the party. Ailith had a hard time going back to sleep afterwards. She kept her eyes on Xiv’s rigid form, sure that they were meeting her gaze until the adrenaline faded from her body and she gave into sleep.