Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Xaden blearily opened his eyes, his disorientation increasing as he was met with more darkness. He quickly blinked to clear the dust from his eyes. Before he could properly take in his surroundings, he noticed a throbbing pain on his right thigh. He tried to sit up to investigate, but was met by hard stone pinning him down. As his eyes adjusted, he realized a portion of what looked like a stone pillar was pinning his leg and part of his lower torso to the ground.
With a grunt, he tried to push it off of him, to no avail. He enlisted his shadows to help him push, but he was exceptionally stuck. Xaden aimlessly cast his hands around the floor, trying to find something to try to pry the stone off of him, when he suddenly felt a soft palm and slim fingers coated in dust to the left of him. His eyes widened, and he stopped breathing, his body going impossibly still. He could recognize that soft skin anywhere. His heart furiously beat against his chest like a caged bird as the events of the day hit him like a wyvern in the sky.
Xaden and Violet had taken on the mission to investigate a long forgotten temple of Malek within the Cliffs of Dralor to look for information on the Irids. They had reason to believe an old scribe had hidden scrolls of a “mysterious dragon” in a chamber under the temple. However, when they arrived, they quickly encountered a deadly trap. The last thing he remembered was a rigged explosive going off and him enveloping Violet in his arms before everything went black.
Xaden felt his entire body trembling as he struggled to reach further to her wrist and try to feel her pulse.
Fear.
World-ending, earth-shattering fear he had never felt before in his entire life crushed his chest like a 100 stone pillars. He forced his hand to stop trembling, closed his eyes, and held his breath as he pressed two desperate fingers to her wrist.
After a terrible, horrible moment, he let out a pathetic groan of relief as he felt a weak heartbeat pulsing slowly under her wrist.
“Thank Malek,” he whispered under a shaky breath. He felt again one more time just to be sure he wasn’t imagining things. He clutched her small hand in his, letting him regain his bearings for a moment. He had absolutely no time to think of what could’ve been.
“Violet,” Xaden croaked out, his throat still coated in dust.
No response.
“Violet!” He tried again, this time a bit louder after clearing his throat and shaking her wrist.
Again no answer.
Xaden closed his eyes, and tried to calm his breathing down. There was no way he would be able to get them both out of here alive if he could not stay calm. Even though his heart was still beating furiously in his chest, he counted to 50 aloud and as slow as he could. Around 27, his heart lurched as he heard a soft, pained whimper.
*
“Violet?!” Xaden said, as he heard her start to stir.
“Xaden?” Violet whispered after a moment, her voice not quite coming back to her yet. Violet heard a tremendous sigh of relief. Her eyes were still shut, but his firm and familiar grip on her wrist told her she was safe.
“Easy… you’re okay. I’m right here,” Xaden said in a soft voice. “Can you open your eyes for me?”
Even though there was very little light where they were trapped, Xaden’s eyes had had time to adjust and acclimate to the darkness, with a little help from lesser magic.
Violet’s head felt so incredibly foggy. She felt like she was underwater, the only tether tying her back to the surface being his touch. She decided to hold on to that as tight as she could.
“D-don’t let go,” She managed to whisper out through her disorientation and confusion.
“I won’t. I promise.”
Something had to be very wrong. Xaden was speaking far too softly for her liking. That thought spurred her mind into a little more activity, and she realized she had to open her eyes, no matter how glued shut they felt.
However, she wasn’t sure if she had even managed that, seeing as she was met with more darkness.
“Where am I?” She whispered after a few moments of letting her eyes adjust. Through her brain fog, she started to distantly recognize pain. A lot of it.
“Do you remember what happened?” Xaden asked kindly. Violet’s breathing quickened a bit. She did not remember. She racked her brain but she just felt like she was trapped in a maze and kept hitting dead end after dead end. She tried to shake her head no but her neck was so incredibly stiff.
“No,” She whispered, hoping whatever noise she made sounded like no to him. She felt his grip on her wrist tighten a moment before loosening again. But that grip felt so incredibly far away for some reason.
“That’s alright, I’m sure it will come back to you,” Xaden said in a hoarse and deep voice, like he had just woken up. At that, a small panic entered Violet.
“Are-are you okay? Are you hurt?” She said in a hurry. She turned her head slowly to the sound of his voice, her neck barely obeying her. At that, she found Xaden staring at her with intense worry and concern in his eyes. But the first thing she noticed was how beautiful he was, like always. Dust coated his face and clothes, and he had a cut near his hairline whose blood had now dried down to his eyebrow. But still, so so beautiful. She also noticed he lit a small orb of light near their faces with lesser magic, so that they could somewhat see each other’s features. He answered with a strangled chuckle.
“I’m okay Violence. But my leg is pinned down by a stone beam so I can’t get up,” He answered. Almost sensing her next question he added, “It doesn’t hurt, it’s mostly numb now anyway.”
She gave him a weak nod, but she felt like she could actually breathe for a moment, even with all the dust polluting her lungs. “Good,” she breathed out. “What happened?”
“Do you remember the temple of Malek we went to investigate near the Cliffs of Dralor?” Xaden asked. He didn’t wait for her answer so as to make her not feel bad for not remembering. He would have to shove his deep, deep concern for that somewhere else. “My guess is the venin planted that tip about the Irids to lure us into a trap. Then the temple collapsed above us. I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”
Violet didn’t want to admit that a lot of what he just said sounded like a bit of jumbled nonsense. She really must’ve hit her head. She blinked hard a couple times to try to clear a bit of the brain fog.
Xaden must’ve seen the confusion in her eyes. His grip on her wrist tightened, concern and deep fear etched into every feature of his face.
“Violet, can you concentrate for me?” He asked, bringing her wandering attention back to him. Her eyes found his and she gave him a nod. “I need you to try to sit up, and see if you’re hurt.”
Right. Sitting up. Violet couldn’t believe she was so disoriented she didn’t think to do that first.
Slowly, she moved the hand Xaden wasn’t holding to support her to sit up. She felt water under her, and made a mental note to try to figure out if they could follow the source to find a way out of here later. She tensed her abdomen to sit up, and at that, a bliding, soaring pain ran through her like an electric shock of her own lightning. She strangled a gasp, the corners of her vision going dark and ears ringing violently. She quickly fell back down to the floor, gasping for air. After a couple moments the ringing in her ear subsided before Xaden’s voice came into focus.
“Violet! Talk to me, what is it? Violet!” Xaden said, in a clear panic.
“It's- it’s alright,” She said between gasps. The pain was now roaring throughout her blood like hot lava in her veins. She had never in her life felt pain like this before. She couldn’t even tell where it was coming from, only that it was there. A lot of it.
“-let, Violet! I need you to focus for me love.” Xaden said. Violet’s attention slowly snapped back into place. Xaden was trying very hard to calm himself, but fear threatened to take over and make him want to tear his hair out. Violet was not hearing him, and he was lying there helpless while she was lying just a couple inches away, gasping in pain.
“Mmhmm,” Violet responded, trying to calm the lava in her veins
“I need you to reach down and feel where you are hurt,”
“O-kay,” She bit out. She messily cast her free hand around the plane of her stomach, until she hit a metal rod.
A cold, dusty, metal rod, protruding out of the right side of her stomach.
With a sick feeling, she suddenly realized that she was not lying in water.
It was a pool of her own blood.