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Hades’ eye twitched as he waited outside of the Convocation’s reserved room in the Hall of Rhetoric. They were supposed to be underway over a half-bell ago. Alas, they could hardly do so when the very purpose of said meeting had not yet deigned to grace them with her presence. He pinched the bridge of his nose, golden eyes closing as he sighed with irritation.
Honestly, Ellia was never one for punctuality. I would swear she uses her post as Azem as an excuse. But even for her, this is excessive. To keep us waiting for so long, she’s either trying to get under Speaker Lahabrea’s (and my) skin, or…
Concern creased Hades’ brow. Or else, she has a compelling reason to be late. If her latest travels and travails proved more dangerous than usual…
A preposterous thought. Utterly preposterous. Like as not, she’d stroll around the corner with an unapologetic smirk on her face. He tapped his foot, impatient, before setting off through the Hall of Rhetoric in search for his, he hated to admit in this circumstance, friend.
The anger that drove his echoing steps forward through the hushed whispers of the other debaters in the hall cooled, panic stilling his heart in his chest as he heard a pained groan and a muttered “Damn it” from behind a convenient pillar.
Hades looked behind the structural column and found a familiar head of mussed, dark pink hair leaning against it for support. Tears gathered in her lilac eyes when they weren’t closed in pain, a strange pallor fading her tan skin.
She gripped a place near her ribs, but he could also see some few cuts, scrapes, and bruises just beneath the top of her robes. He saw the aether of her soul flowing and roiling like a river hitting the wall of a dam, and realized at a glance that she was trying to heal her own wounds.
Ellia had always been all but hopeless with restorative magicks. Which suggested to him either a reckless disregard for her safety, a fear of allowing others to see the severity of her wounds, or both.
Any frustration Hades felt towards his colleague in a professional sense faded in favor of a much deeper emotional conviction, his limbs trembling in something akin to rage.
He refused to give her the chance to respond. To demur, to insist that she was “fine, really” with that damnable charming smile of hers that she always wore in dire circumstances like this. He grabbed her by the arm and steered her into an empty side room, all but slamming the door shut behind him.
Though her voice sounded strained from pain, Ellia offered him a teasing smirk. “Rounding me off to a separate room and shutting the door? Before a Convocation meeting? People will-“ She grimaced, the very act of talking having aggravated whatever injury lingered near her ribs. “People will talk, oh illustrious Emet-Selch.”
He narrowed his eyes, tendrils of flame and fury roiling in their depths. His eyes zeroed in on a darkened patch of Ellia’s robes, his ears attuned and pricked for the steady plip plip of blood against the stone floors.
“Your robes. Off with them. I need to see the extent of the damage I’m dealing with.”
His words came out of a tight jaw. Tense. Clipped. Terse. Of course, Azem being Azem, she couldn’t leave well enough alone and channeled Hythlodaeus’ infuriating chuckle.
“And now you want me to disrobe? In public? How unseemly of y-“
Her words devolved into a coughing spell, followed by a sharp intake of breath and a hiss of pain. Her legs folded beneath her, and she collapsed to the floor in a graceless heap.
Hades’ cheeks flushed at the implications of her statement. His tone matched his face in heat as he grumbled, “Robelessness when treating severe injuries is hardly inappropriate. And since you’re clearly in no state to undress yourself…”
He snapped his fingers, mentally preparing himself (and his dignity) for the sight that would await beneath the inscrutable robes of unity they all wore.
He was a fool to try, of course. Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that awaited him. Bruises coated her ribs, painting her tan skin in splotches of brown and purple. A gash across her side, from rib to hip, dripped blood down her side. Based on the dried rivulets down her legs, this was not the first time she’d torn the wound back open. The cuts and scrapes he saw above the line of her robes were only a part of the patchwork that rendered her upper torso more injury than flesh.
His teeth clicked against each other as he knelt by her side, his hands shaking with unbridled fury. “How long were you intending to keep the extent of your wounds hidden from us? How long were you going to wait before you sought the aid of a healer?”
Ellia grinned, sheepish. “Until after the meeting was over? You didn’t want me to be late. And it’s not an issue, really, I’ve had much worse than this-“
“Worse? Than this? Ellia, if you left these untended, you could lose your life.” Resolving to work and talk at the same time, Hades laid a gentle hand over the worst wound down her side, channeling healing aether into it. As the wound sealed and other minor injuries across the body faded, he continued, “You’re too reckless with your own safety by half! And now you tell me that you’ve had worse than this? You must take better care whilst you travel. How do you think Hythlodaeus and I would feel, to hear that our dearest companion has returned to the star early?”
She opened her mouth to respond. Hades took her jaw in his hands, feeling it shift back into its proper place with the flow of healing aether. “And don’t you dare try to tell me your wounds aren’t that serious, and that I’ve no cause to worry. Don’t you dare. And don’t you ever let yourself get that injured again! I will not lose you before your time comes. I love you too much to allow it.”
Hades was expecting another quip, another blithe comment that would chisel deeper lines into his brow and make him want to tear his hair out in frustration. What he received instead was a warm embrace from the woman beneath him.
“I didn’t realize that was how you felt. I- Thank you. For healing me.” Her voice trailed off as she murmured into his robes, “And I’m sorry for worrying you.”
Without conscious thought, Hades deepened the embrace between them. In that moment, all else in the universe faded. It was only Hades, Ellia, and this tender emotion filling the air between them. If Lahabrea wished to issue censure for their lateness, then so be it. He could wait.