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When Gem and Fwhip arrive in Gilded Helianthia, the kingdom is already overwhelmed by a violent blaze that swallows its field into a fiery orange haze. The once golden sea of wheat burns up in the heat, with its remains scattered to the winds, along with the ashes that swirl in the air, intertwining with the rising smoke to form a looming grey mass overhead.
The world around them has collapsed, and at the peak of it all, sits a beanstalk not yet succumbed to the flames.
A burst of blue light spills from the top of the beanstalk, overflowing with an aura of magic.
Gem doesn’t spare the land below another glance before steering her dragon, Violet, upwards, only a short warning for Fwhip to tighten his hold.
Pearl would hate her for it. Gem knows perfectly well that if she dove down instead, she could save the people trapped under crumbled farmhouses, she could try to put out some of the fire to allow for easier escape. Pearl wouldn’t let her choose Pearl over any of her citizens, but when posed with the choice, Gem will choose Pearl over anything else, especially now.
So please, Gem thinks for a moment, when the shine above is too bright, and she grips onto the brim of her hat, please be okay.
They make it up to the peak of the beanstalk in no time, but it doesn’t help the dread settling into Gem’s chest and carving out a hole in her stomach. It began to make itself present the moment Gem and Fwhip couldn’t find Sausage in Mythland, no matter where they looked. Fwhip had wanted to search for longer, a desperate plea escaping from his lips when Gem decided to move on to Pearl’s kingdom instead. She wants to know that Sausage is safe, too, but even more than that, she needs to see Pearl.
(And, in some part of her mind— the part which she’s ignoring with all the strength left in her, because there’s a terrible fear of what it would imply— she already knew that Sausage would be with Pearl.)
As soon as Violet stops in front of the entrance of the room nestled atop the beanstalk, Gem wastes no time in stepping off and rushing in, momentarily freed from the despair that had wrapped around her heart in a vice grip, because as much as she didn’t want to be treated to the sight that’s about to burn its image into her nightmares, she has to, for Pearl.
Before Gem could even make it into the room, her pulse stops upon hearing Sausage’s cries from inside.
“Pearl? C’mon, it’s okay, it’s okay, you’ll be fine, I can— I can fix this, I swear…”
Gem’s grip on her staff tightens, to the point where her knuckles turn a bony white. The crackle of fire outside the beanstalk all melt into insignificant static in Gem’s ears, along with Fwhip’s calls for her to be careful— or is he telling her to slow down? Either way, it all turns insignificant the moment Gem’s vision lands on the interior of the room.
What she finds inside, is Sausage huddled over a figure on the ground, mumbling to himself while the staff in his hand pulses with magic, a swirling electric blue that has yet to actually be harnessed into a proper spell. From what Gem can see past Sausage’s body, the figure with him is wearing a green dress with dirt-stained ends. Tarnished and ruined with black, their golden wings fold in on themselves. Their foot twitches, bringing attention to how starting from their legs, their skin is being tainted with a darkness that sharply contrasts their paling body— withering, Gem can tell from a simple glance.
Gem also knows exactly who’s with Sausage, despite everything in her mind denying the fact, because— Because it can’t be. It can’t be Pearl. Pearl is a radiant and lively force of nature that visits her in the snowy peaks of the Crystal Cliffs, braving the cold in her own stubborn, selfless fashion, in order to coax her out of her tower. It can’t be Pearl. It just…it can’t be.
But then Sausage turns his head to face Gem, helpless as he chokes out and begs for Gem to save her. Save Pearl, please, nothing’s working and I can’t—
“Sausage. Move. ”
Amidst every thought rushing through her mind, Gem can hear her own voice, she can see, feel herself kneeling beside Pearl while pushing Sausage away with more force than she would’ve liked to use. Her limbs move on their own to reach for Pearl’s arms, the portion of her body that hasn’t begun withering yet.
Pearl’s eyes dart to focus on Gem, though the pair of blue eyes have become unfocused and washed over with a dimness that’s unfitting of its owner. Pearl opens her mouth, first to cough, then—
“Gem?”
That, the weakness bleeding out from a single, soft enunciation of her name, is what finally shatters the glass supports holding her heart together.
“Hey, hey, no…” Through the sobs that Gem is trying to hold back, Gem hears Pearl continue speaking, regardless of the strain it’s clearly causing on her. “Moonlight, it’s…it’s alright. Don’t cry, okay?”
Pearl shifts to bring a trembling hand up, but it’s obvious that the delirium that’s overtaken Pearl is stopping her from being able to reach Gem’s face. Gem moves in tandem with the hand in an attempt to help Pearl, but she has to fight every instinct in her to pull away once she makes contact with the flesh, discovering how it’s burning hot. Still, she takes Pearl’s hand in her own palm and guides her to her cheek, where Pearl starts to caress her face.
It’s like the lick of a flame, moving to wipe the trail of tears flowing down, trying its best to dry her face. Pearl’s hand has always been warm, a gentle presence, but never this, never this scalding heat that would belong to a sun.
“Gem?” Pearl calls again.
Unable to suppress the hitching of her voice, Gem resigns herself to a defeated nod.
“Tell— Tell Sausage that this isn’t his fault.” Pearl wheezes, her gaze momentarily breaking from her stare at Gem to search for Sausage. Afterwards, she returns to her attempt at focusing on Gem. “And it isn’t— This isn’t your fault, either.”
Gem blinks away the watery barrier blurring her vision, because of course that’s what Pearl’s worried about instead of the fact that she’s dying right at this moment . Gem fell in love with an idiot who puts everyone else over themselves, who forgets to wear enough whenever she comes to visit Gem, who puts on a bright and incredibly dumb smile whenever she gets hurt and has Gem fretting over her injuries.
There’s also a hatred that Gem can’t begin to confront, of how well Pearl knows her, how she’s left unguarded and Pearl just knows she will blame herself for this. She will spend nights berating herself for not doing more , for not saving her light and her love. There will be a day she lets the vitriol boil up in her, and there won’t be an empress, golden-winged and haloed by sunlight, to take her hands and shape her fury into something else, a farmer’s calloused hands to weeds in a garden.
“Pearl, please. ”
“Take care of Sausage for me, yeah? You three will do just fine, I’m sure of it. You’re smart, Gem. You’ll know what to do from here, you always do.”
“Pearl, for the love of— Please, for once in your life, think for yourself. ” Gem croaks, and her tears drip down onto the fabric of Pearl’s dress, reminding her of how the withering has spread upwards even more.
Pearl laughs, a fragile thing that’s quickly lost in the roaring of fires below them.
“I love you.”
“No, wait, Pearl—” Gem’s heart hammers against her ribs, the rapid pace of it enough to make up for the slowing of the pulse in Pearl’s wrist.
She doesn’t know how to fix this. She doesn’t know how to keep Pearl awake. She doesn’t know if Pearl can still hear her murmuring into whatever part of her dress that she’s furiously clinging onto. All Gem knows is that she needs to hold Pearl close and wrap her withering body in an embrace that says I love you, too in a way that’s as certain as the sun’s rise and fall.
There is no cure, no miracle that saves the body in her arms.
She wasn’t ready. She isn’t ready and this can’t be happening . Between the please don’t go and I’m sorry and I need you that leaves Gem in a feeble wail, she realises that there will never be a moment in time where she is ready for this.
Yet, there is no way to escape a dying sun, it will only bring her down as well in the aftermath.
There is a blaze engulfing everything below them, yet the warmth in Gem’s arms only continues to slip away from her, until there’s only a crown of sunflowers in place of the greatest treasure that Gem’s once held in her still shaking limbs.
For the second time today, the world around Gem collapses.