Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It wasn’t a good battle. They were on a losing streak, it seemed, and the most recent run-in with the orcs had been the worst so far. 

Till burst into the tent, and Ivan hurried to cover the bleeding gash on his leg. He was losing a lot of blood, fast, so hopefully this would be quick. Judging on the look on Till’s face, though, this lecture would be a long one. 

“What on this green earth possessed you out there?” Till spat. At Ivan’s lack of a reaction, Till moved closer. “You’re not a coward, Ivan. I know you aren’t! You’re one of the strongest people I know!”

The corner of Ivan’s mouth twitched upward at the irony; his strength was leaving fast. The puddle of blood was soaking into the dirt floor of the tent, but soon it would start to spill out of the edges of the blanket. By the time that happened, though, Ivan would have passed out and then they would have probably bigger problems. “Sorry,” Ivan whispered hoarsely, then cleared his throat. “Sorry,” he apologized again, more clearly. 

The bruises on his throat were already a deep cerulean, luckily covered by his armor, but it would be more difficult to hide how his throat couldn’t seem to open all the way. 

“Sorry? That’s all you have to say for yourself? The orcs got the jump on us, gashed up my leg, and all you could do was cast that healing spell before you ran like a scared kid?” Till gestured wildly to his own leg. The cloth was in tatters but the skin underneath was unbroken and whole. Ivan gently tapped the around same area on his own leg, around the edges of the gash. It would get infected if it wasn’t treated soon, and he wondered absently where Mizi was and how quickly she could treat him. 

“Well?” Till asked, just getting angrier at the way Ivan couldn’t seem to look at him. Except Till seemed to be multiplying, and Ivan couldn’t tell if his own body was swaying or if there was an earthquake. Till would look less angry if there was an earthquake, Ivan decided. One long, slow blink later and suddenly Till’s face was inches from his. 

Till’s eyes were so bright, Ivan wondered, lurching forward to get a better look at them. Not like Ivan’s eyes, which were already dark. Ivan would gladly take fifty black eyes if it meant Till didn’t have to get one. 

“Why are you smiling?” 

Till sounded frustrated, Ivan thought. He felt like he was floating, floating far away from his body. Was he smiling? Probably. He loved Till, of course he would smile for him. Till owns every one of Ivan’s smiles. 

Then, in the next second, Till was gone. Ivan tried to reach out, but it was like moving through thick sand. And then, somehow, he ended up on the ground, face up towards the top of the tent. 

“Ivan! You stupid son of a-“ Oh, that’s Mizi. She did come in time, after all. Hopefully she could save Ivan. If not, well. The last thing Ivan would ever see—his vision had gone quite dark—would be Till’s face. 

Ivan woke up from an incredibly deep sleep, what felt like days later. He didn’t particularly want to sit up, so he just stared at nothing and wondered what had happened. 

Ah, right. Till was mad at him. That was nothing new. 

“You did it again,” came a stormy voice from somewhere off to the left. Ivan turned his head. 

Mizi was mad at him too. He sighed as quietly as possible, closing his eyes to block out Mizi’s darkened expression. 

“I told you to stop casting that spell, and I wasn’t kidding. You almost died! That leg of yours won’t be easy to walk on, forget trying to hide how bad it is. You’ll just make it worse if you pretend everything’s normal.” 

You have to tell him what you’re doing. Ivan heard the command loud and clear, he just had no intention of following it. 

“I convinced Hyuna that we needed to stay another few days, but I don’t know how you’re going to heal. We don’t have a lot of supplies, and you’re obviously in no shape to perform healing magic. You’re incredibly lucky nobody else was grievously hurt, or their deaths would be your fault.”

Ivan still didn’t respond to that. There was no point. What could he do, apologize? He didn’t regret it. 

Mizi softened at his pained expression. “Look, I’m sorry. I have to ask, are you suicidal?” 

Suicidal? Maybe. 

No, that couldn’t be right. Ivan knew he needed to live, if only to protect the people he loved. A dead man couldn’t love like this. 

A dead man also couldn’t feel pain. 

Ivan’s leg throbbed. 

“No, I don’t think so,” he answered finally. Mizi looked a little amused at the delay of his answer. It must not have been too convincing, then. Ivan made a mental note to get her something later, to thank her for her help. 

He sat up with a groan, much to the protest of a pounding headache and a sore throat. He threw off the sheet covering his body, and winced at the raw flesh of his leg. Sporadic stitches dotted the entire area, but there wasn’t enough supplies to close it all completely. 

“I was about to rewrap the gauze. Nothing I can do about your throat. Or your back.” 

Ivan’s back? He frowned.

Till had been hashed open on the leg by the orc weaponry, Ivan had been there for that. Then he had cast his spell, the most effective in his arsenal, then limped to the tent. The last thing he saw before zipping it up was Till being gripped by the throat and flung into a boulder.

Ah. His back. It must be absolutely flayed open. At this rate, the party would use up all the disinfectant just on Ivan’s injuries alone. 

Ivan swung his legs over the side once Mizi was done wrapping the wound, testing how well the injury could hold weight, and then dressing himself.

”Wait, where are you going? You should really just stay here and heal, for a day at least. Unless you want to pass out again.” 

Ivan shook his head jerkily. “I did that spell in a rush, it might not have worked all the way. I have to check on Till, make sure he’s alright. You know how he is, always hiding his injuries. He might need medical help.” He shouldered on his robe, then his set of armor that wasn’t soaked in blood.  “Stop making that face at me please.”

Then he swished out of the tent flap. 

“You filthy hypocrite,” she muttered.

Till was unscathed. 

Ivan knew this, because when Till opened the tent to let him in, glancing furtively around to make sure there weren’t any girls in sight, he was in the middle of changing. 

“Uh…” Ivan felt his eyes go wide at the sight of near-naked Till standing in the doorway. Suddenly the brisk chill of the morning didn’t seem so cool on his overheating face. 

“What are you just standing out here for? Come in, before Mizi walks by and sees me like this.”

Maybe Ivan was still a little woozy from blood loss. He shook his head and followed Till back into the tent. 

“So, what’s up?” Till asked, pulling his undershirt on. Ivan tracked the motion, trying to remember what, exactly, he came here for. Is there a subtle way he could ask Till to keep his shirt off until he left? Probably not. 

Ivan tried to pull his thoughts together. “Um, just wanted to check up on you. Make sure everything’s okay, that the spell worked, you know. The works.”

”Worked great!” Till smiled, tying his pants in an efficient knot. He was in a good mood this morning, it seemed. That’s how it normally went, with them. All was forgiven the next day. No point in holding grudges, when all you had was each other. “I feel awesome, even though I was a chew toy for those beasts last night. You’re really powerful, Ivan.”

The way Till met his eyes made Ivan shiver. 

Holy crap, he was pathetic. 

His leg twinged, reminding him of the cost of Till’s good mood; how angry Till would be if he found out. 

Ivan didn’t really deserve this kind of praise. 

“Alright well. I’ll leave you to go get ready for the day.” 

He left. 

“So. If I’m wrong, tell me.” Luka, it had to be. Nobody else’s voice could be that heavy with snide innuendo. “But. You just walked into Till’s tent. He was naked. You closed the tent door behind you. He hasn’t left yet, but you have, and your face is bright red.”

Ivan forced a bright smile on his face, wincing a little on the way he had to turn on his heel to face Luka. “Yup. What about it?” 

Luka’s face was blank shock for a minute. He clearly hadn’t expected Ivan to just straight-out confirm the allegations. Ivan couldn’t help the little chuckle that slipped past his lips. 

Although, it’s impressive that Luka managed to figure out Ivan’s… thing for Till. Ivan had assumed Luka was too caught up chasing Hyuna. 

Luka shook his head, smiling despite himself. “Hyuna’s looking for you. She heard you might be hurt. I told her you ran from the battle, but she’s worried anyway.”

Luka knew some healing spells too, he wasn’t their main healer but he knew enough. They were draining, and Luka had covered for Ivan enough times to understand the cost of a dead weight cleric in the middle of a battle. He was a good second-in-command, good at reading people and taking advantage of everyone’s strengths.

Still, it was a good thing that Hyuna was the captain, even Ivan could see that. She was far and away the most levelheaded, and combined with her experience, it’s no wonder they had gotten this far on their quest, even with idiots like Ivan tagging along. 

Ivan dragged himself to Hyuna’s tent. His leg was getting worse, the longer he was standing. He would have to sit down soon. He stumbled through the tent flap, forgetting to knock, but it didn’t matter. His heavy, uneven footfall was loud enough to announce his presence. 

“It’s pretty bad, huh?” Hyuna asked, scanning over his pale face and trembling body. It was useless to try to hide injuries from her for long, Ivan knew. He sat down heavily on the makeshift stool in the corner of the room. 

“Yeah. What did Mizi tell you?” 

“Only that we needed to stay awhile, that you could barely walk. Clearly, she underestimated your stubbornness.” 

“Yeah.” No point in showing her the wound, she already knew everything she needed to. Ivan had suspected that she knew all about the “healing” spell over Till, but trusted Ivan enough to never mention it to anyone. 

“Alright then. Go over to Mizi’s tent and take a nap. I don’t think she wants you out of her sight, and you need some rest.”

Ivan nodded, pausing at the tent door. “What… will you tell everyone else?” 

They both knew that “everyone else” was really only one person. 

“I'll send half the party out for supplies, we’re running low anyway. The rest will stay here and guard our camp.” 

So her solution was to just kick Till out of camp so Ivan wouldn’t have to hide his recovery. That would be effective enough. 

It would suck, but it would work. 

“You—idiot—get—in—bed,” Mizi ground out, punctuating each word with a painful shove into Ivan’s back, until he finally collapsed into the straw. Mizi dragged the thick comforter over Ivan’s body, and Ivan tracked her with his eyes as she plopped herself down in the corner of the room and pulled out a book. 

She glanced up from her reading after two page turns. “I’m not leaving until you are asleep, I hope you know that. Be quick about it, too, Sua and I have plans later,” she informed him. 

Ivan gave her a knowing look. “Sweet dreams!” She sing-songed.

Ivan shut his eyes, smiling. Mizi and Sua’s relationship was a new thing, and Mizi couldn’t hide the way her voice turned soft and happy mentioning Sua’s name. Or the way she was smiling behind her book right now. 

He was asleep in minutes. 

He woke up alone, and it had become dark outside. And, once he ventured out of Mizi’s tent, he found that the camp was almost empty. 

Till sat on a rock, sharpening his paladin sword. He looked up as Ivan approached. 

“Where is everyone?” Ivan asked hoarsely. He rubbed his eyes, still in the process of waking up. 

“Gone.” Till went back to sharpening his sword morosely. “The orcs came back and took them. I was too late.” 

“What?” Ivan was suddenly wide awake. “When? How? Where did they go?” 

Till chuckled and hopped off the rock. “Kidding, obviously. They’re on the trek to the village we passed a few miles ago. It’s just me, you, and Luka here.”

Of course Hyuna took the opportunity to ditch Luka. But… “Why are you here? Didn’t you want to go with them?”

”Nah.” Till shot him a bright smile that seemed to shine in the dim light of the moon. “Hyuna told me I needed to go, but I told her I’d rather stay here with you. We don’t get a lot of time alone, and I wanted to thank you. Y’know. For the rescue.” 

Was Till… blushing? Ivan’s cheeks started to hurt from smiling. He ducked his head to hide the expression. It was hard to see much in the dark anyway. 

Till led them a little ways out of camp, ducking into his tent quickly to fetch blankets on the way. The stars were bright tonight, despite the glow of the moon, and there weren’t any clouds as far as the eye could see. 

Ivan watched as Till selected a wide, flat rock, and spread blankets across the hard surface. Once he was done, Till sprawled himself across all of them, patting the blanket he was on to invite Ivan to join him. 

Ivan wondered how close was too close, how much he could be touching Till before it was weird. Hand-holding was out of bounds, probably. 

He carefully laid down beside Till. Their arms were pressed together, which Ivan decided was probably fine. Till wouldn’t have taken up most of the rock if he wanted his own space. 

Ivan curled his fingers around Till’s wrist. 

Till was looking at the stars. They sat in silence, enjoying the company. 

“Why are you looking at me?” Till asked, not taking his eyes from the glittering sky. He didn’t seem particularly bothered, so Ivan didn’t stop looking at him. 

Ivan opened his mouth to say something stupid, probably about how pretty Till’s eyes looked in the darkness, or something equally fatal to Ivan’s mental health. 

Luckily for them both, he was interrupted. “I actually have something I want to tell you.” Till propped himself up on his elbow to face Ivan. He looked nervous, and Ivan could hear Till’s heart race in the quiet. 

“Are you okay?” Ivan asked, suddenly scared. 

“No, no, nothing like that. I’m fine, I just—there’s something I want to get off my chest. You know, something I’ve been thinking about for awhile.”

Ivan nodded. Was this—? No. He shouldn’t even let himself think it, it would set up some expectations that he didn’t want, expectations that would disappoint Ivan if this was anything else. 

“Well, um. You’ve been my friend for forever. Since we were kids. I know I can trust you with anything, and I hope you know that you can trust me with anything, too.”

Ivan felt dread creep up his spine like an unpleasant bug. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Till didn’t seem to hear him, still tapping his fingers against the rock nervously. 

“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen me love before.” Till admitted quietly. “My whole life it’s been only my vocation and my cause, but. I’ve gotten distracted. I’m in love.”

Ivan’s world stopped. All he could hear was his own breathing and the beat of Till’s heart, and the pain of all his injuries faded to nothingness. No. No, it couldn’t be—

“It’s Mizi.”

Till looked up to the skies again, maybe unable to bear to see Ivan’s reaction. 

Suddenly the pain in Ivan’s leg was unbearable. He had to get out of there, off of this rock and out of the stare of the stars. The rock felt like an island, inescapable and closing in by the second. 

He tried to explain this as quickly as possible, but his throat wasn’t working. He quietly choked.  

Ivan knew this. Maybe he never wanted to acknowledge it to himself, which is why his eyes were glassing over with shock and pain, but he had to have known it. All the little instances that Ivan had turned away from, calling it coincidence and conjecture, how many of them had he missed…?

Till was still talking. 

“She’s so radiant. Like a star. I just want to be near her, all the time. 

Like I’m warm when I’m with her.” 

Till laid back down to stare at the stars again, but Ivan couldn’t tear his eyes away from the expression on Till's face. 

It was indescribable, the look of longing. But Ivan was a thief, in this moment. Till’s smile didn’t belong to him.  

Suddenly Ivan felt very sick. His throat, bruised and tender, worked to keep the bile down as he turned to face the other way. His back protested the motion violently, and Ivan worked to keep the tremors invisible. 

Till was looking at him. 

“Sorry. I know it’s weird. I just needed someone to talk to, and, well. You’re always there for me.”

“Yeah.” Ivan managed. 

“How… how does she think about me? You’re close to her, and I have to ask.”

Even now, there was no way Ivan could break Till’s heart. He didn’t respond. 

Silence reigned while Ivan tried to catch his breath and keep as far away from Till’s warmth as possible. It was excruciating, the way Till would sigh every few minutes. Like he was thinking about her. 

“You know, that’s a Black Sorrow tree.” 

Ivan hadn’t even realized he was staring at a tree. It wasn’t black, though. More of a bluish hue, the color of his own magic. The sun had started to rise, and the horizon was brightening. His aches seemed to grow with it, rising like a crescendo. It was pathetic, how an injury he could walk on earlier now made him want to cry. 

“The plant isn’t just the tree, its the vines too. They grow from the same seed, its unknown if its the same plant. Over its lifetime, the green vine slowly strangles the tree and it eventually dies. The vines are the part that grow more seeds and survive, the tree isn’t meant to last long.”

”Why is it called the Black Sorrow tree?”

”When the tree is about to wither and die, it cries black tears. Here, c’mon. I’ll show you.”  

Till sat up, grasping Ivan’s hand and tugging him up off the rock. In his surprise, Ivan couldn’t help but follow. 

Till didn’t let go, even as they approached the tree. 

There were droplets, black at pitch and just as thick, bleeding from the places where the thorny vines gripped the tree. 

“You should try it, it’s considered a delicacy in some places. It also cures some types of snake poison.” With that, Till reached out to the tree and caught a droplet on his finger. It looked revolting, but Ivan could only watch in fascination as Till brought it to his mouth and closed his lips around it. 

“Mm. It’s good, you should try it.” 

The way the morning sun filtered on Till’s hair made him look like an angel. 

“We—we should get back. Before Luka wakes up and worries about us.” Before Ivan collapsed, is what he meant. It was good that Mizi got to go on the trip with her girlfriend, but Ivan really missed the way she could cover for him so easily in this situation. 

Till wasn’t wrong, Mizi was like a shining star, caring, loving, and beautiful. Sua was so lucky. Ivan couldn’t help but feel a stab of envy. 

Till was bright in a different way, strong in his motivations and faith, loyal to a fault, if a bit stubborn. 

Maybe it was selfish, but Ivan didn’t want anyone else to know about anything Till had told him tonight. Although it was likely that everyone already knew, he wasn’t the most subtle person in the world. 

Still. If Till never did anything about it, maybe how it would just…fade away. 

Ivan snorted. Mizi was right, he really was a filthy hypocrite. 

Till let go of his hand when they reached the encampment, probably because Luka was sitting by the tender flames of the campfire. They both knew he would get the wrong idea. Without another word, Till ducked into his own tent, leaving Ivan and Luka alone   

Chapter Text

Ivan’s leg finally gave out. He fell to the ground with a grunt, and Luka leapt to his feet. 

“Qui-quiet—“ Ivan warned in a whisper, and Luka shot him a puzzled look but swept him up and carried him to the tent. 

Luka’s tent was on the far side of camp, far out of earshot of Till. 

“What happened to you?” Luka demanded. Ivan gestured vaguely to his leg, and Luka bunched up his pant leg at the knee. 

Luka gave him a concerned glance at the absurd amount of gauze that Mizi had applied, then ripped it all off without a second thought. 

He blanched. 

Admittedly, Ivan thought as he stared down at the oozing gash, it looked bad. 

Without Luka’s help, he would be bedridden for a week with the fever, and that’s if his body didn’t give out completely with the effort of trying to fight off the infection without a full blood supply.

Even if Mizi was gone, Ivan was glad that someone other than Till was still here.  

“This… isn’t this Till’s? Didn’t he get swiped here, exactly?” 

“Yeah,” Ivan breathed shakily. Hopefully Luka could be trusted to keep a secret. 

“You self-sacrificing moron. Well now I’m going to have to heal you, or else Hyuna’s going to be mad that you died while she was gone.” Luka threw his arms up in exasperation, but he couldn’t hide the note of awe in his voice. 

Even though he was a Druid, Luka hated healing magic, hated it so much that the job fell entirely to Ivan usually. 

Unfortunately, Luka was preternaturally good at it, and when Ivan got too weak, and Mizi couldn’t help, the job would always fall to him. 

Luka darted to Ivan’s tent to gather supplies, his speed betraying his concern.

Ivan sighed and relaxed against the straw, nothing to distract them from the cool sting of the air on his leg. Maybe he could get Luka to fix his throat, too. Probably not without a ridiculous amount of innuendoes to go with it. 

Luka was back in record time, setting up supplies and starting to cast before Ivan could ask what spells he was going to use.  

“He wouldn’t want you to do this for him,” Luka commented apathetically, taking a quick break to reapply. “He has so much pride, you should know better than anyone.”

Ivan didn’t answer, there was no point.                  

Maybe the advice of the overwhelming majority had some merit. He should really back off. Let Till take some of his own injuries. 

There would probably be a period where Till would be disappointed in Ivan’s magical abilities, but he would get over it. And besides, Ivan could always just take the worst ones, leave the rest. 

The wound had mostly closed in record time, and Luka picked up a rag to mop up the blood and pus. 

Till burst into the room. “Hey there you are, I was looking for you. Why weren’t you in your tent?” 

Then Till scanned the room, taking in Luka and the wound care process.

”What did you do, Ivan?” 

“It’s not— I’m sorry—“

”It was worse a minute ago,” Luka, completely unhelpfully, cut in. Although, as Ivan glanced down, he could see that it was mostly healed; all that was left of the original wound was a thick scab like an island in the middle of a massive puckered scar.

Luka really was talented. With two more sessions of the same treatment, Ivan’s leg would be as unmarred as Till’s was. Not that Luka would ever do that for Ivan without direct orders from Hyuna. 

It’s fine, Ivan had an absurd amount of practice erasing scars. 

 “Looks old. Maybe a few weeks,” Till observed, looking less scared now that he had a better look. 

”You idiot,” Luka muttered.

”What was that?”

”I called you an idiot,” he repeated, louder. “Now help your injured boyfriend take his stuff out of here. I need to go, I don’t know, brush my teeth or something.” 

Till smiled sarcastically at him, wide and fake, and moved to help Ivan off the straw bed. Ivan decided not to mention that he didn’t need the help, that his leg was feeling better than it had the whole day. 

Then he remembered the talk they had had earlier, and shouldered off Till’s helpful hand. Till wasn’t his. He had to remember that. 

He got up easily, marveling at the way the calf muscles seemed to hold weight perfectly fine. “Thanks for your help, Luka,” he said as he left. Luka only grunted in reply, already occupied with something else. 

“Why didn’t you come to me? Have you just been relying on Mizi and Luka to help you?”

Well that was true, even if the timeline wasn’t exactly what Till was imagining. 

“No offense Till, but you’re about as good at healing as Sua is with tank defense. I’d rather place my bets with Mizi,” Ivan chuckled. 

“Alright, alright. I get it, no need for that.” 

“I just didn’t want to worry you for no reason. And it's healed, now, anyway. No use rehashing it.” 

“Still, though. That scar. What happened to you?”

“I scar a lot. They heal quick, with some easy spell work.” 

“Can I watch?”

”Watch… my spell work?”

“Yeah! I have nothing better to do today, we’re just waiting for everyone else to come back anyway. It’s that or hang out with Luka.” 

“Good point. Alright, I was going to do it later, but you’re right. Might as well.”

They walked into Ivan’s tent. Till dropped all Ivan’s stuff on a nearby barrel, then tried to help Ivan down to the bed. 

“Till, really. I’m fine. I’m not useless.” 

Till conceded with a huff. “Sorry, I’m just not used to seeing you hurt. It’s weird. I want to help you.”

Ivan couldn’t help but laugh at the irony.  

“Sorry you had to see me like this, then. Here, hold this.” Ivan handed him a spell bowl, mostly to give Till something to do so that he wasn’t just staring at Ivan through the whole process. 

Ivan sat down on his bed, propping his leg up, and Till sat down behind him. So close, always so close. Peering over Ivan’s shoulder, Till asked, “So what happens next?”

Till always loved watching Ivan’s spellwork, for reasons that Ivan could never quite figure out. 

This spell would be a little harder, with the way Till’s soft breath was fanning over Ivan’s ear. But Ivan couldn’t figure out how to ask him for some space, so he proceeded. 

The company was nice, anyway. Mizi usually left, assuming that doing healing spellwork on old scars was a private kind of thing. Most of the time, she was right. 

It was weird, but in a nice kind of way, to be watched over. As long as Ivan didn’t get the wrong idea. 

He started the spell. 

They watched together as the skin started to smooth around the edges. It was a slow process, and Till stayed quiet throughout, just watching. 

Ivan looked up, startled to find Till studying his face. 

“What?” 

“Wha—nothing. Sorry. Keep going. This is so…” Till struggled for an appropriate word. “Magical,” he finished lamely. 

Till’s face dusted a light pink at Ivan’s raised eyebrow. “Alright, shut up.”

”I didn’t say anything,” Ivan said, but returned to the spell anyway. 

Till stayed a little farther back for the rest of the casting process, keeping his eyes firmly fixed to Ivan’s work. 

When it was done, Till gave him back the bowl. “That was amazing, Ivan.”

”It’s not healed yet,” Ivan traced the lines of the uneven skin with the tip of his finger. There was still the scab, nothing he could do about that without more powerful magic. That would have to heal on its own. The bumpy white-purple of the scar was noticeably smaller, but still an undeniable ugly mar of the otherwise pale skin. 

“I didn’t realize I could trust you to heal scars like that. If I had any of my own, I would ask you to heal them.”

Ivan nodded. The conversation seemed over, but Till hadn’t left yet. Is there something else he wanted to say? Or did he just… not want to leave yet?

”I feel like you always tend to me, first, after a battle,” Till laughed, “so I never get the chance to get any.”

He wasn’t wrong. Barring mortal injury to a different teammate, Till always got treated first. Ivan just never thought Till would notice. 

Still, it didn’t take a genius to see. And Till was far from a genius. 

How on earth did Ivan fall in love with this idiot?

“Yeah, well. You’re normally the most hurt.” 

“You’re not wrong. I can always trust you, though.” 

It was a vicious cycle. The more Ivan took on Till’s injuries without him knowing, the more reckless Till was with receiving injuries. 

Yeah, it was probably time to back off a little bit. 

“Alright well. I should probably get some rest, too much healing magic at once… isn’t a fun experience. I’m so glad I have this week off. We can meet up after, make some lunch?” Ivan thought a little more about the emotional and physical drain of the day. “Maybe dinner.”

Till chuckled. “Yeah. Thanks for letting me stay and talk with you. I’ll go visit Luka with any injuries I may have. You know, splinters from woodcutting, or if I burn myself on the pan.”

Till was trying to be funny, but Ivan has healed injuries of Till’s that were from those exact things. He had just been more discreet about it. 

The idea of Till going to Luka for a splinter was admittedly pretty funny though. 

And then Ivan was alone in his tent. 

He couldn’t wait for Mizi to get back. She was so emotionally capable, she could help him handle whatever was up with Till. 

Although as soon as she got back, Till might ask Ivan to discover how if she returns his romantic feelings, and that wouldn’t be good at all. 

Ivan was just thinking about how he could get Mizi to discreetly reveal her relationship with Sua, when he heard voices from the other side of camp. He recognized it instantly as the other half of the party, and jumped to his feet. 

It had been less than two days, why were they back so quickly? 

He rushed to meet them. It was very possible something had gone terribly wrong on the way, that someone had been greviously injured enough to seek help from camp. 

Luka and Till emerged from their tents as Mizi, Sua and Hyuna walked into the clearing. They all seemed whole and uninjured, which made Ivan breathe a sigh of relief. 

“News!” Sua called with a grim expression. The newcomers dropped their bags and then they gathered near the embers of the fire. 

“What’s wrong? Why are you back so early?” Luka asked. He was directly addressing Hyuna, or else he wouldn’t have that respectful tone. 

“I’m afraid we ran into not trouble, but news of a greater threat. Till, have you let a magic-user in close contact recently?” Hyuna asked. 

Till glanced first at Ivan, then at Luka. “Uh…” 

“Foreign ones. Possibly another mage, or a wizard?” 

“I don’t… I made some friends a little while ago, travellers like us. One of them might have been a magic user.”

“Ah. Till, someone made a Shadow Figure of you and let it loose on the village. We were lucky to run into some villagers escaping, who warned us of the danger. The journey is around three days. A short detour, but a vital one.”

Ivan stared at Till curiously. Shadow Figures were perfect copies of the original, perfect in every way except with a noticeable aura of magic. It was extremely difficult to make one, and the “close contact” that Hyuna was talking about needed to be indeed very close, for quite an extended period. 

For Till to not have noticed anything was very strange. 

And, even curiouser, Till seemed to be blushing red, a light dusting from the tips of his ears almost down to his neck. 

What was he hiding?