Chapter Text
Mae was really getting turned around.
She looked over shoulder once, then again, winding and twisting to get the full view of everything, but she couldn't actually see what was putting her on edge. That made it worse, as always, but she just kept turning, desperate to catch a few glimpses.
She never did. It was infuriating.
At last, her resolve broke, and she returned to collecting materials. 4C wasn't too far away, barely down the grassy, root-ridden hill, also rummaging through chests and swinging at trees and occasionally yelling up to her asking about progress.
The sun was only just scraping above the horizon, tendrils of ink-spill night desperately clinging to the skyline, stars glimmering so faintly overhead Mae wondered for a second if they were there at all.
She'd been up since sunrise the day before. In hindsight, that was probably the reason her eyes felt so heavy. 4C had gone for a nap and a farkle break sometime around midnight, when the moon's silky light had graced Mae's dirty cheeks and calloused hands. He had done so under the guise that the other rogue would also be going to sleep soon, and that she had simply fallen later and risen earlier than he did.
She hadn't corrected him. Now, the sleep deprivation must have been making her see things that weren't there. Brown and grey splotches in the corner of her vision, the tip of a blade, the spikes of a morning-star. Mae needed rest.
But the kingdom needed structures more. Buildings. Her mind made up, Mae set back to work, her hands only slightly tremoring; dirt dusted onto them with a gentle grace reserved for the pure creatures of the universe, for the inanimate but helpful things that made the world go 'round.
For anything but Mae.
Her feet carried her where she needed to go despite her exhaustion, organizing and placing and reinforcing in a careful rhythm. Against her will, her routine was occasionally interrupted by a stifled yawn or a brief drift into sleep.
Her companion, blessedly, did not notice.
The flashes were back, and suddenly Mae was twisting to see behind herself again. She couldn't tell what was real and what was fake, only blindly hoping and praying that 4C wouldn't look up and see her acting like a crazy person.
Then she turned too fast, listed sideways, and the world went dark.
When 4C heard the dull thump of a body further up the hill, he whipped around faster than he thought he should be able to.
Mae was sprawled on the ground, her breath coming softly when he moved his ear above her head to check for the sound of an inhale. Good. She's not dead. The words rang through his psyche, calm, cool, and collected, even as he scrambled. Panic gripped him half as fast as he had run to her, and 4C knew at that moment all he could do was wait.
Just as he managed to pick her up, grimacing with the dead weight, he felt it. The presence of something, some kind of being far beyond his comprehension. 4C grimaced, tucking Mae closer to himself as if he could shield her.
"Please, no," He wavered, trying to steel his voice. "Not Mae. Mae hasn't done anything." Just when he was about to keep up with his spiel, words blared across his consciousness, loud though they made no noise, as if in bolded text.
I'm not here for her, a new voice much unlike the Rogue God's placated. I'm not here for you. Get your companion to bed. She has been up since yesterday's dawn. Slink off to the shadows you've made your home, and rest. The blades of gods will not turn against you until all is quiet and she is awake; mind the knives.
4C let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd even been holding, and dipped his head in shallow thanks to whichever deity had noticed the little kingdom this time. Given the mention of blades, he had a sneaking suspicion. The air around him grew warmer; almost cozy, with the cool wind whipping around them as well.
The slime trudged off with Mae in tow, down the hill and to the nearest home: Scott's.
The light mage was present, and paled considerably at the sight of Mae in his friend's arms, clearly unable to tell if she was asleep or dead. 4C rushed to explain to him the situation. "Mae passed out, apparently she was sleep deprived, can I please set her—" He spewed, rapid-fire, quite possibly unintelligible.
"Absolutely, come inside," Scott had replied before he even finished the sentence.
4C's eyes drifted to the greenhouse, vibrant as ever, before Scott set down a bed right in the middle of his home without a care in the world for the obstruction. The mage hovered with a quiet stress that seeped into the earth, evident by the calming touches the plants seemed to attempt providing to him.
The two of them laid Mae down after taking off her cloak, belt, and boots, as fast as they thought they could be while still being gentle. Scott felt around with his magic for a few minutes, and 4C silently thanked the Mage God or whoever it was that was in charge of sheer dumb luck—honestly, probably the Rogue God, but 4C would never thank them—that Scott's current repertoire included an aura cleansing.
Mae woke rather fast for someone who had gone to sleep—in about three minutes, which was actually rather slow for someone who had fallen unconscious. She arose with a start and a gasp, though her vision must have still been blurry, because she couldn't seem to focus on anybody.
When she became coherent again, Scott ran an injury check and ruled that nothing was wrong physically except for a depressing dehydration and lack of sleep. He said the cleansing aura would help to replace both until she recovered, but that Mae should still rest up and drink water consistently when the spell ran out.
Scott and 4C chastised her for her carelessness about sleep, and Mae at least had the decency to look sheepish, though she immediately tried to creep out of bed when they turned their backs.
She was stopped by the two knights outside the door. As it turns out, Nom and Graecie could pull a surprisingly effective intervention when they worked together.