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Helaena sobbed as she poured their last health potion down Gale’s throat, cradling his form against her body as he struggled to swallow. His injuries were well beyond a potion’s ability to heal, only barely slowing the blood pooling around them from the wound in his stomach.
Shadowheart might have been able to- but she was dead, hours earlier, they were the only ones left, they’d failed.
By the time they climbed the brain stem, it had only been her, Gale and Wyll, the Blade quickly falling in a heroic but ultimately futile attempt to kill the Netherbrain once and for all.
She couldn’t do this on her own, she wasn’t supposed to have to-
“It’s over, love. There’s no other choice.” Gale’s voice was faint but clear, face made sallow by the light of the Globe of Invulnerability she’d cast around them in a last-ditch attempt to survive.
“I’m sorry, I don’t- I don’t have any more scrolls, or potions, I’m not- I can’t heal you.” Her last dregs of magic had gone into the Globe. She could maybe manage a cantrip or two if she had to, but nothing like what they’d need to succeed, or even to survive. “I’m so sorry, Gale. I failed.”
“It’s not your fault, darling. We tried our very best, but victory is-” he grimaced in pain, clutching the mangled flesh that had once been his stomach. “Is beyond our grasp. There’s only- only one way it won’t have been for nothing.”
“Gale-”
“I can’t- I don’t have enough magic to get you out, my love. I’m so sorry.”
“I wouldn’t leave you even if I could,” she retorted vehemently. “I love you. I’m not going anywhere. We do this together, or not at all.”
“The Orb. I need to- to stab it, to detonate it. But I’m… I’m too weak.” He was trembling from blood loss, his hand growing cold in hers.
“I can’t-”
“You must. It’s the only way. Even my death wouldn’t… not fast enough, anyway. I’m so sorry, love.”
Her gaze blurred as a fresh wave of tears spilled out, Gale smiling sadly at her even as he grew paler.
“I was going to ask- if we made it, I was going to ask you to marry me. Ask if you’d consent for me to be yours, forever.”
“I’d have said yes,” she swore. “In a heartbeat. I’m yours, and you are mine, Gale.”
“I suppose… we did get the rest of our lives, hm?”
She chuckled wetly, stroking his too-cold cheek.
“I love you, Helaena. More than anything in this world, or any other.”
“I love you too, Gale. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be, love. You’ll be wherever you want to be in just a moment.”
“I want to be with you,” she insisted.
“Then that’s where you’ll be. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend eternity.”
The Globe began to flicker around them, her last reserves of magic almost empty, the Netherbrain’s minions howling just outside it.
“There’s not a lot of time, darling. You’ll have to-”
Helaena nodded, reaching for the slim knife she kept in her belt. It was used more often for cutting apples than flesh, but it’d work. It had to. She steeled herself, positioning the blade on his sternum, right above where the Orb glowed bright violet, as if it knew.
“I love you,” she whispered. One last kiss, her tears flowing freely as she tried to pour everything she felt into the simple touch of lips, love, respect, fear, regret. He nodded as she pulled away, his eyes filled with determination.
“One last gust of Weave. One last gale to end them all,” he mumbled. “I’m glad that you… that at least I got to be with you, at the end.” His hand squeezed hers, so weak it was barely there, trying to force a smile. “Until we wake, my love.”
She pushed on the knife with everything she had, stabbing through his breastbone with a sickening crunch, too-little blood flowing as the Orb turned almost white, its light spreading, and spreading, Gale screaming, until she could see nothing but white, and the man she loved at the center. She folded herself around him, as if her body could contain the coming blast, keep him safe from a force so much stronger than the both of them combined.
My fault, she managed to think, before the light turned into fire hotter than the sun, and a single moment of agony ended everything.