Archive of Our Own

Urgh was the first coherent thought Odile had.

Staying up late had left her groggy and irritated, and that was before she was being woken up at… whatever late hour it was.

The town they were staying in was big, just a few stops away from Dormont, so the inns had more than a few rooms to spare. To save money on their wallets, the group had elected to split two rooms, one with two doubles, and one with an egregiously large bed in the middle. Boniface had such an excited look about the large bed, so of course they could share that room with Mirabelle.

Which left Odile in her own bed, thankfully, but still sharing her room with Isabeau and Siffrin. Who was the reason she stayed up late, as they had both gone out drinking together earlier and it was in her nature to make sure everyone got home safely. Especially with the track record those two had.

Odile groaned as she became more aware of the noise that had woken her up.

She turned her head, just catching the tail end of Siffrin making their way into the bathroom after hitting their shoulder on the door frame. The soft bang of them hitting other objects on their way was probably what had woken her up.

With a sigh, she rolled over, facing away from the rest of the room. Pillow pressed to her ear to hopefully drown out any other noises that could wake her.

Ugh. There was a reason she didn’t join them at the bar earlier. Unlike some people she knew her limits when it came to liquor.

Siffrin apparently did not, if the abhorrent noises coming from the bathroom were anything to go by.

Gems, he didn’t even close the door behind him. 

Isabeau did not stir. He was still asleep with a flush plastered on his cheek. 

Five minutes passed. Odile thought she would lose it if she had to hear Siffrin violently gagging while Isabeau snored blissfully any longer.

Already annoyed from being woken up, let alone having to get up, Odile begrudgingly threw her legs over the side of the lumpy bed before she had the time to give up. On instinct, she grabbed her hair elastic and slid it over her wrist.

Her feet met her slippers on the ground right where she left them. Shuffling around, she mostly felt her way through the parts of the room that weren’t illuminated by the light poking out of the bathroom. There really wasn’t much to write home about the room. It was far from the worst or best one she had stayed in, veering more towards completely average. The beds were close together and a bit uncomfortable. The carpet smelt a bit odd. There were no decorations on the dark brick walls. At least it was clean.

Arms stretched out, she found what she was looking for: a small bottle of water that she had put on the table before settling in. It was half empty.

She walked to the bathroom. Odile could have been silent if she wanted to, but months of sharing rooms with each other had taught her that she could probably slap Isabeau in the face and he still wouldn’t wake up. Which was useful in some situations, but not the ones where she wanted someone else to take care of the problem.

She entered the bathroom to the exact scene she expected: Siffrin hunched over the toilet.

“Couldn’t hold your liquor as well as you thought you could, huh?” She jabbed. It was good that Siffrin and Isabeau were going out and having fun. Made her hope that things could go back to normal.

The noise Siffrin made in response was more of a whine than anything. Just a high pitched whistle. Oh how this reminded her of her drinking days and how much she did not miss them. The whine trailed off into another heave, and then some coughing for good measure.

Obviously, Siffrin had removed their cloak to go to bed, but it still caught Odile off guard to see him without it. Instead he had gone to sleep in his simple dark pants and shirt.

The layout of the bathroom was a bit cramped with the tiny shower being next to the toilet which was also right next to the sink; from the doorway, all she could really make out was Siffrin’s back. There wasn’t really any space for her to stand next to them.

The room was small enough that the sink was only a few steps from the door, barely managing to not get clipped when it’s opened. Odile slid through the doorway, dumping the stale water and reaching for the faucet to refill.

“You really should make sure to drink water if you’re having alcohol.”

Silence.

Odile extended her hand down, just behind Siffrin. “Take it,” she said, giving the bottle a little shake to demonstrate even though the action went unseen.

For the first time since she had entered, Siffrin raised their head. And slowly, slowly turned to face her. 

And on his face was blood.

A lot of blood.

It painted their face a dark shade, starting from their nose and trailing down, decorating their mouth and chin.

Odile looked him right in the eyes. Glazed over, like they were looking directly at her and at nothing at the same time. 

Their blank haze was broken by a cough. They at least tried to lift their elbow to be polite, but were clearly too out of it to actually cover anything.

And then proceeded to hack blood all over their arm and the floor around them.

What Odile had thought was a whine earlier was now being replaced with a wheeze. Their breath came in shaky and quick, and they leaned back over the toilet to continue to dry heave.

Odile felt like her breath was sucked out of her body; like cold water was dumped over her head.

In an instant she had shifted from ‘groggy-annoyed-wanting to go back to bed’ to my-friend-is-hacking-up-blood-oh-yikes. Whatever was fueling her before had been replaced with ice.

This was extremely out of her field. Within ten seconds she had ran all the things she could do to help in her brain before wiping out internally. As her thoughts screeched to a halt, she did the only other thing she could think of.

“Isabeau!” She yelled. Her composure was thrown out of the window. She needed to get Mirabelle here to do… something. Anything.

Falling to her knees, she tried to wedge herself in between the counter and Siffrin. Who was still unresponsive to her yelling, not even looking up.

Their head lolled over the seat, like it would roll right off of their shoulders at any moment. It didn’t look like they were actively throwing up blood anymore but the occasional coughs were still wracking their body. With a slight peek, the inside of the toilet bowl looked like a murder scene.

As gently as she could, she put her hands under his chin, tilting his head in her direction. “Siffrin?” she asked.

She got no response. Siffrin continued to stare right through her. As if touched by a ghost, her hands snaked back to her side.

The room was silent. Other than Siffrin’s coughs and groans, Isabeau hadn’t so much as stirred.

She didn’t have time for this.

She was still in sight of the door and could see Isabeau from her position. In hindsight there would have been better options but adrenaline was coursing through her brain. Her hands grabbed for the closest object, finding themselves wrapped around the water bottle Siffrin hadn’t even noticed. And she lobbed it right at Isabeau’s head. Or tried to.

The open bottle hit him square in the chest, spilling all over Isabeau and the bed he was in.

In an instant he was up.

“I’m awake! I’m awake! What’s going on!?” he shrieked. He fought with his blankets as if they were personally trying to confine him, wrestling them off into a knotted ball thrown into the middle of the floor. Having won his minor battle, he stood up in an instant, only to stare at Odile wordlessly.

“Siffrin’s having a medical emergency. I need you to get Mirabelle.” No time to explain.

Isabeau, probably still a little drunk, seemed to get his bearings at an impressive speed. He didn’t stop to ask what was wrong or put any shoes on before he was out of the door in his pyjamas. The rooms were right next to each other, but it was still admirable of him.

With the slamming door in the back of her mind, she pulled the rest of her attention back on Siffrin. They were sweating buckets.

She could see their complexion get even paler before they started gagging once again. Somehow, they still weren’t finished. More blood poured out of their mouth and nose and dribbled into the bowl below them. With every breath their energy seemed to be sapped out of them more and more. His head was barely being held up at all now.

There wasn’t much she could do for them except wait. She had to spend an enormous amount of mental energy to stay calm. 

Gathering their hair in her hands, she tied it back with the elastic band she usually kept for herself. It was the least she could do. Siffrin already hated maintaining their hair, and getting blood in it would probably irritate them more than anything. One less thing to worry about, as minor as it was. 

“You’re going to be okay. You’ve got a whole party who would do anything to make sure of it.” 

Honestly, Odile didn’t think Siffrin was listening at all. Honestly, it wasn’t just him she was trying to reassure.

All signs and sounds of Isabeau had disappeared once he shut the door behind him, but he had to be getting Mirabelle by now. Hopefully she would know at least something. 

Odile thought about things she could do to help right now, even if small. Okay, what else? Make sure they’re comfortable? Something to drink would probably be good. The water bottle she had gotten was still dumped out all over the floor. 

Slightly shifting to get up, she only got an inch away from where she was before being overwhelmed by a gnawing feeling—that even though Siffrin was, by all accounts, out of commission, she shouldn’t leave them by themselves.

Considering how desperate they were the last time they thought they would be alone, Odile discarded any ideas of leaving for now until the others arrived. It would have to wait.

As gently as she could, Odile raised her hand up to rub circles on their back. Even if Siffrin admitted to liking physical contact, they still actively flinched when it was unexpected. It was hard to tell if they were even processing anything, but considering they didn’t try to move away as soon as possible, Odile figured it was probably okay. No news was good news.

Considering this would probably be the only silence she got for a while, she should at least use it to go over what she knew. Her hands following a circular rhythm, her mind veered elsewhere.

What had happened? All she knew was that Siffrin and Isabeau had stayed out a bit later than the rest of their party to go out for drinks. She had stayed up as well to make sure they got back okay, but if anyone asked then the reason was that she wasn’t confident the two of them would hold onto their keys in a drunken state. 

Her and Siffrin had even held a conversation before he went to sleep, and nothing seemed amiss. He wasn’t even that drunk… Unlike someone else who was perhaps the loudest drunk she had ever met. 

So what could have caused this?

Her train of thought was only mildly interrupted by Siffrins head falling against the rim, energy completely gone.

Poison seemed unlikely. Siffrin could eat a lot, but they weren’t stupid. And she didn’t even think the bar they went to served much food to begin with. 

The other options weren’t pleasant to think about.

The second option was that this was some secret illness they had been hiding. With more than five seconds of consideration she quickly scratched that theory out of her mind. Siffrin could be sneaky, but there was no way they had been hiding something this severe for an extended period of time successfully. They also had the most terrible poker face.

What else could have come on as quickly as this did?

Odile knew a lot of things and had dedicated herself to academia for a point in time, but she was not a doctor. The more scientific and craft-based sides of the medical field were extremely beyond her scope of knowledge. Theorizing about what could possibly be ailing her companion wouldn’t help anyone and would probably just end up stressing herself out.

Trying to veer away from that specific train of thought, her last option was… vague. And was tacked to the end of her list as a catch all. Which was that this was somehow related to the Siffrin’s time craft, or wish craft, or whatever concoction of dangerous things he had done. Not a very scientific explanation, but at least she could spin it in her head until she got some actual answers.

The next thing she heard was the bang of the door being kicked open and hitting the wall. And the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching.

Mirabelle burst into the bathroom. “What’s wrong with Siffrin?” she squealed, the intensity of the situation having already gotten to her despite not having the slightest idea of what was wrong.

Before Odile could even respond, Mirabelle was fluttering around the bathroom, trying to find a position to get close to them.

Isabeau had also poked his head back into the room, worry plastered on his face.

“All I know is that he got up and started throwing up blood,” she said, moving out of the way for Mirabelle. “He seemed fine before. I don’t know what happened, but he’s been unresponsive the whole time as well.” She glanced towards Isabeau.He had started pacing just outside the doorway, hands unable to rest. His silence only proved Odile’s thoughts that this was extremely sudden.

As if to prove her point, Siffrin let out a pathetic sounding cough, not even bothering to lift their head or take notice of any of the commotion happening around them.

Odile removed herself from her spot so that Mirabelle could sit on her knees. Her hands found their way to Siffrin’s back, illuminated by the healing craft she had practiced. 

The three adults watched with bated breath as the spell glowed, sunk beneath the fabric of their shirt, and dissipated.

Healing craft could be anxiety-inducing to watch. Unless it was an open wound, there weren’t any good ways to immediately verify if the craft had helped or not. The only apparent change was that after the craft concluded, Siffrin rested his head down on the seat and seemingly fell asleep.

Mirabelle put her hands on their shoulders and leaned them backwards, putting their weight onto herself. It was kind of awkward looking, with him half in her lap and sprawled out on the floor at the same time.

“Sif? Buddy?” Isabeau had started hovering behind the two of them, cramped in the corner between the wall and the shower. This bathroom was not meant for more than one person to be in it at a time. 

Siffrin refused to stir, but they didn’t seem distressed either. Mirabelle shifted to lean their body up against her side, using her free hand to feel his forehead. “He’s a bit warm, but not feverish.” 

“Is Frin going to be okay?” Bonnie peered into the room. Their voice carried smaller than Odile could remember it being in a long time. They haven’t sounded like that since Siffrin lost their eye. 

Odile cast a quick glance at Mirabelle and Isabeau, trying to convey the question why exactly Boniface was brought along? She’d hoped that the kid had already been asleep and the rest of them could explain the situation later. At least the three of them had created a sort of barricade in the bathroom preventing a clear view of Siffrin. But when would things ever be easy?

The corners of Isabeaus mouth drew into a line the same way they did whenever he got flustered. “We couldn’t just leave them by themselves,” he explained, voice low, as if Boniface wouldn’t notice the interaction. 

Odile sighed. Unfortunately, his reasoning was sound: leaving Boniface without any explanation would have made them assume the worst. Not that the situation could get much worse. 

She turned to look back directly at Bonnie. “I… don’t know.” She paused, giving her attention back to their resident rogue. “They seem to have settled for now, but we won’t know unless we get them some help.”

The three of them hovered silently as the tension refused to dissipate from the air. “Should we take them to a nearby house?” Mirabelle asked. Her voice warbled ever so slightly. She could put on a brave face when she had a task to do, but now that the answer wasn’t clear, it started to crumble.

The house in Dormont had an infirmary. Odile was pretty sure that most houses welcomed travellers in need. While this city was bigger than Dormont, it was far from the largest city she had seen in Vaugarde. There was no guarantee that there would even be people up at this hour. 

But Mirabelle had faith there would be, and she was more familiar with houses of change than Odile would ever be.

“Yes. I don’t think there’s anything else we can do for them.” She wasn’t happy about it, but it was true. Odile herself didn’t even know where to start with something like this. And Mirabelle, as talented as she was, could only do so much.

Boniface remained glued to the doorframe—Odile wasn’t the most emotionally tuned person, but she could tell just from their body language that they were scared. Arms drawn close, huddled next to the wall. A departure from their normal attitude, even regarding Siffrin. But, she supposed getting woken up in the middle of the night to someone throwing up blood would be very distressing to an adult, let alone a child.

“I can stay behind and help clean up if you two want to take Siffrin?” Mirabelle supplied, quickly glancing at their kid. She shifted Siffrin ever so slightly so that Isabeau could pick him up easier. “Bonnie, could you help me find some stuff to clean with?” She asked.

“Oh! I can do that.” Boniface peeled themselves from the doorframe and retreated back into the room. 

Mirabelle let out a deep sigh once they were out of earshot. “You saw where the house in this city was, right Madame?” As she spoke, she let herself relax, still on the floor. Her healing craft must have tired her out, which explained why she wasn’t throwing herself into a trek across town. And someone needed to make sure Boniface would be okay.

“I made note of it while we were shopping earlier today.”

Isabeau had picked up Siffrin from where they sat. His face was flushed, either from the close contact, or from the alcohol probably still in his system. Odile would have loved to tease him about it if the situation wasn’t as serious as it was.

She held out a hand to help Mirabelle to her feet and made sure she had gotten her bearings before making to leave. 

There were multiple houses of change in this town which meant that they were never more than a ten minute walk away from one. 

The walk over was brisk; uneventful. The most notable things happening being Siffrin stirring a few times before groaning and continuing to sleep, most likely unaware that they were being carried by Isabeau.

Mirabelle would have known where to go and who to ask in the house especially at this time of night, but Odile did not want to push her. Healing craft could be more taxing then she let on.

So they burst inside, bloody Siffrin in hand and scared the lights out of some poor housemaiden who ran off to get someone else, who had then led them to the infirmary. 

The layout of the room was shockingly similar to the one in the house of Dormont, or at least what Odile remembered of the little she saw. Single beds lined the room, pushed against the wall with candles mounted on the bricks between them. The walls and floors were a lighter shade, but that could be chalked up to them not being frozen anymore. There was even a nice carpet in the middle of the floor.

Siffrin had been laid against one of the beds in the room. Even with his head still lolling from being asleep, they managed to look peaceful.

Another housemaiden had entered the room and introduced herself as Doctor Emile. She wore a light coat, it resembled a lab coat. Her long and light curly hair draped over her shoulders and circular necklace only to fade back to a dark shade near her roots.

She went on a wordy tangent about how she wasn’t technically a doctor yet, but was someone who had taken a lot of medical courses at the house. All Odile heard that she was more than qualified and began tuning out the rest of her rambles. Even though that was Siffrin’s specialty, it was so late at night that her head would explode if she was 100% focused on everything else going on right now.

Isabeau, who hadn’t been more than a metre away from Siffrin since they left the inn, had decided to take the approach of vigorously shaking Siffrin to get them to wake up. “Siffrin… Sif… buddy, you have to wake up now, you’re going to embarrass yourself in front of this cool doctor lady,” he said. Odile wanted to chide him for his approach, but if being carried around town didn’t make him start throwing up blood again, some shaking would probably be fine.

“Hrng…?” Siffrin opened their single eye with a grumble. Shaking was effective, then. “What’s going on?” They asked as their eye scanned the room that was definitely not the one they fell asleep in. Odile could see the gears turn in their head as they processed that there was a stranger in the room, and once they did, they sat up straight with a jolt. Their hand immediately jumped to their face and only eased up when they touched their eyepatch. Isabeau had grabbed it off the nightstand while they were leaving the room for courtesy. 

“Your friends told me you were sick?” The cool doctor lady asked. She wasn’t being condescending in any way, but there was something from the way she spoke that made Odile think she mostly had experience with children.

“Um…?” he questioned, looking between Odile and Isabeau as if they would know better than he would. 

“You… started throwing up blood? Odile sat with you in the bathroom? Do you not remember?” Isabeau responded, clearly more alert now. Not that he was downplaying the situation before, but he clearly thought they were through the worst of it by the time they left the inn.

The sheer confusion on their face made it clear that no, they did not remember.

“He had a bit to drink before this started,” Odile explained. She figured that Siffrin’s memory issues were not the problem here. She could get to the bottom of that issue some other time, but right now the throwing up blood was her number one worry.

The doctor nodded as if this all made perfect sense to her, and scribbled some on her notepad she had brought. That’s one less thing to worry about explaining.

“Has this ever happened before?” She asked.

Odile responded that no, this had not happened at all in the time they were travelling together and also caught the doctor up on everything that had happened today. Siffrin himself still seemed disoriented and out of it, and if they couldn’t remember this happening just now then Odile figured he wouldn’t be able to remember it happening any other time either. They didn’t seem to react at all to the recounting, not even changing expressions when Odile described in detail how Siffrin was heaving blood. Isabeau on the other hand would look away anytime she got graphic with it.

“He had healing craft used on him?” Emile asked. By this point she was just directing her attention towards Odile directly. Siffrin appeared to be conscious at this point, actually looking at whoever was talking but still hadn’t said anything to prove if he was following the conversation. 

“Yes,” Odile replied. “Does that make a difference?”

“If it helped them, then yes,” she said, “healing craft works best on superficial wounds. If he was grievously injured then the healing craft would not have had any apparent effects.”

“So… That’s good then, right?” Isabeau asked hopefully.

“It doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong.” The doctor then started shuffling through the drawer on the table next to them. After less than a minute, she pulled out a stethoscope. It didn’t even look like it could fit in a drawer that size. “I’m going to check his airways and lungs. If it was tuberculosis, healing craft wouldn’t have been a big help, but - ”

“Consumption?” Isabeau asked, shifting in his seat. Isabeau was the type to wear his heart on his sleeve; his hands fidgeted with the hemming on his shirt and he didn’t seem to notice that he cut off the doctor at all.

“It’s unlikely, but I need to check anyway,” she said.

Siffrin, who chose this as the best time to reanimate from the dead, decided to sit up and lean their legs over the side of the bed in anticipation. “I’m fine,” they mumbled.

“You can make that argument after the doctor clears you, Siffrin,” Odile said, moving out of the way once again for someone else to get in closer.

After a few awkward moments of the doctor looking into their mouth, listening to their breathing and checking some other things that Odile couldn’t begin to tell you what they were for, the doctor took a step back. “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong,” she claimed, “if it happens again, you should come back.” 

“That’s it?” Odile asked, perplexed.

“You could also drink some wine as a disinfectant,” she added.

“Yay.” Siffrin was completely monotone in their response.

Odile wasn’t happy with the answer but couldn’t find it within herself to argue it. Healing craft having worked was probably all the doctor needed to hear before sending them on their way to begin with, but the additional tests not showing anything else made it hard to actually do anything about it.

Isabeau also did not seem satisfied with the answer, his usual smile gone, replaced with a firm and held grimace. If Odile got close enough she would probably be able to hear him stewing. But as stupid as he could act, Isabeau wasn’t an idiot and probably came to the same conclusion that Odile herself had. 

“Do you want to walk back yours-” Isabeau cut himself off after turning to see that Siffrin had ragdolled backwards. “They fell asleep already?”

“Even if they’re ‘fine,’” Odile said, pausing to emphasize air quotes, “they still woke up in the middle of the night and probably exhausted themself doing that. I would be more concerned if they were raring to go right now.”

The walk out of the infirmary had been quiet. Isabeau had once again picked up their dearest Siffrin and carried him all the way out. 

The town was quiet, as expected at whatever hour of the night it currently was. Their footsteps and the occasional bug were the only sounds breaking up the monotony of their little journey.

“So… what do you think happened, M’dame?” Isabeau asked, finally breaking the silence after several minutes. They had to go at a slower pace so as to not jostle Siffrin too much—It wouldn’t be a long walk back, but they still had at least ten minutes before they arrived.. Odile was more than content to spend the time quietly, but Isabeau had always been a bit awkward in situations like that, preferring to fill the silence himself.

And… Odile still wasn’t sure what had happened. “I… don’t think that doctor was wrong, exactly,” she started, pondering with her chin in hand. “But it was strange. Even for Siffrin.”

“Them not remembering scares me,” Isabeau responded. “Like, I know they have a bad memory and everything, but right after? He forgets words and what he was talking about sometimes, but this just seems…”

“Like a bit too much?” Odile finished. Isabeau nodded in agreement. “I said he was drinking to the doctor to explain the lack of memory, but I know he wasn’t that drunk. It just didn’t seem like it would have helped to bring it up then.”

Speaking of, Odile was surprised that Isabeau was as sober and coherent as he was now. She knew that Siffrin didn’t tend to go overboard with drinking, but Isabeau had come back to their room with a flushed face and immediately passed out on their bed. He must have been really shaken up by the whole ordeal to have sobered up that quickly.

“Do you think it’s related to the… loops?” Isabeau asked.

It was hard for Odile to say for certain. She had been thinking about it this whole time. It hadn’t been that long since they had defeated the King, and an even shorter time since Siffrin had come clean about what they had endured during their time repeating in Dormont. Odile knew that assuming they would be fully recovered after their fever went away was wishful thinking, but she couldn’t think of a missing piece that would connect how the time loops could be related to this.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” she settled on. While Siffrin had been more open about the things that had occurred, there was still much the rest of their little party didn’t know. They would probably never know everything. She eyed Isabeau. It was a long shot, but… “They didn’t do anything strange while the two of you were out earlier?”

“No, they seemed normal. At least as normal as Sif ever is,” he said, shoulders moving with his chuckle. “I think I would’ve been able to tell if they were feeling that bad.”

Self-proclaimed Siffrin expert. They had never been good at hiding how they felt. Especially since leaving Dormont, Siffrin sometimes seemed to forget to put effort into not showing what they were thinking. A bad side effect for him, but at least it made everyone else have an easier time knowing when they were upset.

Which… put them back where they started. Siffrin not remembering the whole ordeal would also make this harder to figure out. While disappointing to hear at the time, knowing that healing craft was effective at least assured Odile that if this happened again, they would be able to help. It wasn’t a great solution, but it would work. Odile was a problem solver first and foremost; not knowing would likely eat at her if they never get a proper answer.

Assuming that this wasn’t the beginning of something worse, that was. Odile couldn’t even humour that thought right now. “I think we’ll just have to play by ear,” she said.

Isabeau grumbled a bit in response. Clearly he wasn’t happy with this answer, and Odile could only expect that Mirabelle and Boniface would share the same opinion.

They continued back in silence yet again. Isabeau was one of the more chatty members of their little group, but even he could tell when things were too somber to crack a joke. They still had to properly explain what had happened to Mirabelle and Boniface as well, as little as that was.

The slant of the roof came into view as they got back to the inn. From the outside the building was mostly unremarkable, brick walls and windows with drawn curtains stretching across the whole perimeter. Isabeau panicked for a moment exclaiming that he had forgotten their key before remembering that first of all, Odile would never forget hers, and also Boniface and Mirabelle were still inside one of the rooms. He was certainly on edge from all of this.

Embarrassed, he walked inside in front of Odile after she opened the door and went to once again deposit Siffrin on a bed.

“Oh! You’re back already!” Mirabelle exclaimed, appearing from the bathroom. “I didn’t know how long you would be.”

Not long enough .

“Is Frin okay?!” Boniface yelled, barreling out of the bathroom right behind Mirabelle. They skittered right up next to where he was laying down, as if expecting him to sit right up and start talking.

“Yes, they’re… probably okay, but you shouldn’t yell at them like that, it’s late…” Isabeau said, hands out as he tried to calm the kid down.

Boniface’s expression immediately fell, and they brought their arms up to their torso. “Right…” they said, rubbing their forearms. “What happened to him?”

Wasn’t that the question of the day. Odile had made sure the door locked behind her and sat herself down on the bed facing Siffrin. There was no point in lying to Boniface. They were young, but they weren’t stupid and they would pick up very quickly if people were hiding things from them. “The doctor we saw couldn’t find anything wrong with them, so all we can do is keep an eye on them and go back if it happens again. But,” Odile spoke, pausing to gesture towards Mirabelle, “she also said that your healing craft helped whatever symptoms they were having and if this does happen again we should be able to take care of it with just craft.”

With everyone looking at her, Mirabelle seemed a bit surprised at the sudden attention. “Oh!” she exclaimed, “I didn’t know my healing craft would be that much of a help. I mean, I had studied a bit at the house but I’m not an expert or anything…”

“You did such a great job!” Isabeau responded, careful to keep his voice down but kept a hint of enthusiasm in. “I don’t understand healing craft at all, but you’re always so cool when you use it. It’s like, blam, and then pow! And then I’m all healed up.” He gestured wildly during his sentence, feigning hits and waving his arms around. 

Example aside, Odile found she could relate. Even if Mirabelle thought she was an amateur at it, healing craft could be exceptionally hard to pick up.

“Aw, you don’t have to make me feel better…” Mirabelle said, trailing off to hide her blushing face in her hands. “But seriously, is there anything else we can do? Anything else we know?”

“I’m going to ask Siffrin about it in the morning when they wake up, but I don’t know if that will help at all.” She paused for a beat. “That’s another thing I’m worried about. When we were there Siffrin didn’t seem to remember anything that happened.”

“Isn’t that… normal for Siffrin though?” Mirabelle asked pensively.

Odile laced her hands together. “They are forgetful, yes,” she started, taking a moment to ruminate to herself, “but this doesn’t feel right. Even for them.”

The room suddenly felt colder. Mirabelle took Boniface back to their shared room for the night after being reassured that someone would tell them if something else happened. Neither of them wanted to go, but there was no way they were fitting four people between one bed and they had already paid for the other room. Odile also didn’t want Boniface to worry more than necessary, but she didn’t voice that part out loud. 

Isabeau had said that he was going to stay up and keep an eye on Siffrin for a bit, but he passed out sitting next to the bed with his arms strewn across the bottom half before Odile had even gotten comfortable. Typical.

Odile briefly thought about staying up as well, but the adrenaline from waking up in the middle of the night had all but worn off, and Siffrin had been fine for the past while, so…

Siffrin woke up slower than usual.

Not that they were a morning person to begin with, but it took several minutes after opening their eyes to actually begin processing what was happening around them. Which wasn’t very much, in his defence! Usually he would at least be able to hear Isa’s snores or Odile grumbling about something, but the room was surprisingly quiet.

It was surprisingly emptier, too.

Isabeau was nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t strange, per se, it just… didn’t happen that often.

Siffrin sat up, still keeping the covers on top of his body.

Out of the corner of his eye, Odile was sitting in a chair that was definitely not there the night before in the corner of the room. She was reading a book of some sort. The sight of her shocked Siffrin slightly into being more aware. Not for any bad reasons. Just that… there wasn’t a chair there before. In fact, why was she still in the room to begin with? Normally Odile was one of the first to get up, and she didn’t tend to stick around if other people were still sleeping.

Wordlessly, she put down her book on the small table next to her that also may or may not have been there the night before and glanced up. Siffrin wasn’t really paying attention to all the furniture in the room. But the chair was definitely not there.

Without breaking eye contact she stood up. Then, she began walking over.

She was intimidating. Siffrin could never figure out if she was just like that, or if she intentionally did things like this to psyche people out. Knowing her it was probably the latter of the two.

Slightly rattled, Siffrin glanced up at her before she started speaking. She had always been tall, but with him sitting on the bed she towered over them. 

“Good morning Siffrin. How are you feeling?”

Okay, Siffrin thought to themself, just a normal question she’s asking. Don’t make it weird.

“I feel good, why wouldn’t I?” 

Odile just stared at them for a second with that face she gets when she’s trying really hard not to criticise someone to their face. Eyebrows pinched, mouth slightly ajar. “You know this isn’t an interrogation, right?”

It could’ve been! “Yes…?”

Odile was apparently not impressed with the response as she huffed to herself and trudged back to move the chair closer. It wasn’t really practical, in Siffrin’s opinion. The chair wasn’t huge, just a small wooden one, but it did make the room feel more cramped having it crammed between the two beds.

“Okay, since you just woke up I’ll be nice and remind you that you promised to talk to us when you’re having a problem,” she said sternly, “so I’ll ask you again. How are you feeling?”

The genuine answer was that they felt like they had been doused in cold water and then had their entire body wrung out. Not so much in a sick way, moreso as if their entire being was exhausted. “Not… good?” he asked hesitantly, like there was a way to get a good grade in this conversation.

“I’ll just get to the point. Do you remember anything from last night?”

“Um, when Isa and I went out for drinks? And you told us you just happened to be up when we got back?”

Odile just stared at him, silently prompting him to continue.

The more Siffrin thought about it the more confused they got. Did something else happen? They had managed to sleep through a lot of noise before, so it wouldn’t surprise them if they had unknowingly ignored something in the night, but Odile also wasn’t the type of person to jump around a topic like that. “Did I sleepwalk?”

“No, Siffrin, you did not sleepwalk.”

“Did Isa sleepwalk and I missed it?”

“ No, that’s not what happened either. You truly don’t remember anything else?” The expression on her face had morphed into a more somber one. Siffrin couldn’t tell if that meant he was doing good or bad in this conversation.

They wracked their brain for a moment, trying really hard to think if there was anything else they could be forgetting. They stared at the blank ceiling as if it would give an answer. There was… something, they could tell that much, but trying to grab onto it was like sticking your hands into water at night to find something that was dropped in: cold, unpleasant, and very difficult. 

“I think I had a weird dream?” They tried, just to break the silence. Odile’s silent glare made them anxious. “Why, what happened last night?” 

Odile’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she settled on what to say. “Last night you… woke up in the middle of the night and started throwing up blood. Scared me half to death.”

Oh! That was… not good. Siffrin kept staring at her, unsure of how to respond to that.

She must have interpreted the silence as a notion to keep going. “Mirabelle healed you as well as she could, but we took you to a House nearby just to make sure. You really don’t remember anything?” She asked. “You were responsive for a bit while a doctor saw you.”

Somehow the more she said the more confused Siffrin got. They were used to forgetting things, but this just felt… scary? How could they forget that? What had even happened? Why did their head feel like it was going to crack open just thinking about it?

“Siffrin.” Odile cut through their thoughts, bringing his attention back to the present. “I’m not trying to freak you out. I just want to figure out what happened.”

His panic was that obvious, huh? He made sure to keep his hands, now devoid of their usual gloves since he was sleeping, below the covers to prevent any urge to bite their nails. 

Think… think…

The only thing they could remember, could even think about right now was whatever dream they had, but they still couldn’t grasp it, it was just out of reach still, no matter how much they thought about it they just couldn’t - 

Their head felt like it was going to explode. But it was right on the tip of their tongue, it was right there in the back of their mind, it was so close.

They couldn’t shake the feeling that this was important. Siffrin had never been one to subscribe to dream interpretations like Isa and Mira had talked about, but this felt important, and it was the only ghost of last night in their brain anyways. 

Odile must have been saying something, but they couldn’t hear it over the rush of blood in their ears. In fact, they weren’t paying attention to anything else except their own thoughts right now. Everything went out of focus.

They could feel it, they just had to tune everything else, they could almost grasp it…

And their single moment of clarity was ripped away as soon as it came. 

They could just barely feel the edges of their dream before it all slid away. Like a piece of their brain had slithered out of their nose. Like a sickening shade had flashed behind their eye.

In fact, now that they really lost whatever it was they were trying to think about, they couldn’t focus on anything other than how much their head hurt. And something touching their shoulders…?

“-iffrin!” 

Odile had been shaking him quite hard. It took a moment for their vision to focus in and a longer one before they properly looked at her. Her eyebrows were pinched and her mouth was slightly open. 

“Are you okay?” She asked. She seemed worried. And scared. Siffrin generally tried their best so that people wouldn’t look at them like that, but apparently he failed anyways. 

They took a deep breath in and out and tried to respond, but all that came out was a wheeze. If they didn’t feel like they were going to pass out at any moment, their inability to respond would have caused them to freak out even more. 

She looked them in the eyes. Her gaze darted between their face and their chest before she quickly stood up and announced something about her being right back.

Curiously, Siffrin looked down at their own chest only to notice that the shirt they were wearing was a different shade than it was when they went to bed. It was… darker. And wet. And there was something warm dripping down their face…

No matter how hard they tried to think about it, all their brain could provide was buzzing. They didn’t even know how much time had passed. Or when Odile had returned. Or when Mira appeared.

There was something warm on his back… He found himself leaning into it.

It was so nice he could’ve fallen asleep right there. The covers were still there and everything…

And then the warmth was gone. And someone was shaking him again.

“Siffrin! Are you okay?” Mirabelle was now the one desperately grabbing their shoulders, much less calmly than Odile had been.

Taking a moment to clear their head, they finally realized that their nose had bled all over them. Classy. They really wanted to change before their clothes got sticky. “I… think? Did you use craft on me?”

Mirabelle nodded her head frantically. 

“What happened?” Odile had returned to where she was next to Siffrin, book open with a pencil in one hand. 

Digging for a memory was what got them into this in the first place, but since it was still fresh in their mind… “I… tried to remember something?”

Odile turned her attention to her notes and began jotting something down. Near the doorway Siffrin finally noticed that both Isa and Bonnie were standing there, nervous. Bonnie wore their emotions on their sleeve and Isa’s hands shifted around like he was trying to help but didn’t know what he should be doing.

The sound of Odile’s pen stopped, and she turned her attention back to Siffrin. “Do you think it had something to do with… the island?”

Siffrin had given everyone a quick rundown on some of the information they had discovered about themselves. At a particularly low point after a few bad nights in a row, they had confessed to Odile about the time they tried so hard to say its name that it physically hurt them. He intentionally left out the part about looping back after and what that would imply, but Odile had probably figured it out anyways. Like how she also figured out that that was where Siffrin was from and was the reason his memory was so poor.

Siffrin almost fell back into the rhythm of trying to remember what they were just thinking about before catching themselves. That had been what caused this, right? “I don’t know but… probably,” they answered. Trying to think about it again would just put them in a circle, but Odile was most likely on the right track with that idea.

Her pen moved once again, and after a few minutes of her writing she stopped. “And your dream…?”

“Probably the same thing.” He was sure of it. The feeling of memories being ripped right out from your head… Siffrin could only try to read their own language so many times before becoming intimate with the feeling. 

Odile made some more scribbles in her book before closing it. Without breaking eye contact with Siffrin, she yelled out to the rest of the room, “You all don’t have to stand there like he’s going to die.”

“M’dame!” Isa exclaimed, “you can’t just say that!”

Regardless, Isa and Bonnie made their way over. Bonnie clambered up on the bed next to them, somehow making it between the crowd.

“I’m not gonna hug you right now because you’re covered in blood,” they said, “but ‘Belle and ‘Dile think you’ll be okay even if they’re still kinda freaking out, so you better expect one soon.”

“Thanks, Bonnie.”

“You had problems because you had a bad dream and thought about it too hard, right? Just don’t do that again.”

Siffrin found a small chuckle escaping them. “I’ll try, Bonnie.”