Chapter Text
Time had become nothing but a blur as the years all blended together. Nothing more than a mist of fire, of pain, of distant agony as it all burned throughout his body. How long had he been trapped at the top of the spire, choking on bright purple flames the burned the Spire's sickness from the inside out? He wasn't sure, and his own mind was kept at a far enough distance that there was little he could do about it. Trapped in an agony of purple, of swirling flames, of heat and burning sickness. Forever and always, eternal until his pact devoured all it had wanted from this place.
He didn't even notice when his body had been moved, dragged from the dwindling flames to somewhere else. Dragged far away from top of the Spire all the way back down into a familiar city he had rampaged through time after time. It was all a blur, feeling almost like a mix of some awful dream and a nightmare. Where he was, he couldn't tell, what was happening to him, he was less than sure.
Until a splash of water was thrown over his head, forcing his mind back into the present with a tightened back and stiffening shoulders. What the-?!
"Good, you're awake. Now hold still, we have plenty of burns on you to begin treating." A voice. A voice that was familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place the origin. Only now did he realize he had been stripped of most of his armor, only leaving his pants and boots for the moment. Where was he-?
The walls were a blue tinted grey, the type that comes about when a place had been left to collect dust in some forgotten corner of the world. He wouldn't have recognized this place even if he tried, it was far too foreign, not even accounting for Neow's damage to his memories in her revivals of him. There was also a pool nearby, filled with bright blue water that served as the only source of light in the room... and there was someone standing there at the water, filling up a wooden bucket with more. She was the one who soaked him a moment ago if he had to guess.
He could make out what she looked like, the purple robes she wore, the sash in a bow around her waist, the deep blue hair she had pulled back into a messy bun... and something about her was pulling at his chest, telling him that he shouldremember her, and yet those memories were like smoke in his hands. He couldn't hold onto them if he tried. He went to speak, to say something to this stranger, but all that came out of his mouth were choking sounds that ruined his throat, forcing him to cough over and over instead. Pain, hurt, all that smoke had done a real number on him, despite the fact he had managed to survive somehow.
"Don't try to speak for now. You need time to recover from your centuries up there." The woman stood up to her full height - she was likely as tall as he was - and began coming back with the full water bucket. Her eyes remained shut the whole time, and while it puzzled him, he didn't ask about it. It was... an odd choice, but he had seen odder. She set the bucket down next to where she had set him on the floor before kneeling down beside him, taking a cloth she had set behind him and dunking it in the water. What was she doing-?
She rung out the cloth before placing it on his back, making him jump and hiss at the sudden contact. He's endured worse pain than this, he is well aware of the damage he could take and keep moving through... but that did not make the discomfort of having a cold rag on his seared skin any less undesirable. His sounds did not sway her however, and she continued at her work with ease, tending to his injuries as she worked carefully over each and every burn that she could manage... slowly and surely, making sure that each one got the proper attention it deserved. It was... an odd feeling, he was not used to this sort of gentleness in recent years.
Soon, she was finished with his back, and tapped on his shoulder. He turned his head to look over at her, and she made a slight spin with her finger in turn. Easy enough of a message to get, and he turned around for her to start her work on his chest. She was considerably more careful with his front, almost as if she knew where each of his scars were by heart even before the burns had ravaged his body. It was... odd. Odd having someone be so gentle with him after all this time. Especially someone who seemed to know him so well. Who was this?
"Who are-"
"Not now. Hush." A quiet shush was all she gave him, likely because of the scratchiness that still purveyed his voice. He let out a tired sigh at the sentiment, continuing to let her get on with her work. Each burn, each scar, all treated with the same care as the cool cloth was brushed against his green skin, being dumped back into the bucket of water whenever she deemed it no longer being sufficient. Each scar that was covered with the cool water was a welcome break from the boiling in his veins, and yet it still remained nothing short of the least distracting sensation present.
He had a better view of the woman like this, and her eyes remained shut as she continued to work on him. Her hair was kept out of her face, and her mouth was covered with a purple cloth that went under the robes she was wearing. And yet her expression stayed calm, serene, focused in a way he could only recall seeing once or twice in his life. A woman so sure of herself, so sure of what she was doing, that none could stop her in what she wished to accomplish. He had seen women of his tribe hold such an expression when training with each other, and by the ancients help you if she had such a look on the battlefield. It would likely spell death for any who would oppose her blade.
And yet here she was, with a similar expression with something as simple as tending to his wounds... he did not know how to feel about that.
Why was she helping him?
How did she reach him to begin with?
What was this place?
So many questions that he couldn't even begin to find an answer for, as she refused to let him speak. Something he knew he would be grateful for later, but for now he couldn't help but feel agitation towards her for.
And then her hands reached his face. Only then did he realize his helm was gone, likely long lost in the transfer to get him here, but it left him feeling no less exposed. He flinched away at first, an instinct, and she paused in her movements until he settled. One of her hands went to gently touch his cheek first, tracing over it with such a gentleness he hadn't expected. Her hands were calloused, both on her fingers and some on her palms... the marks of a writer, and likely a warrior without proper protection for their hands. What was one like her doing in this Spire to begin with?
She pulled away not too soon after she started, seemingly changing her mind on something as she dunked her hands into the bucket of water, cupping a small portion into her palms and holding them up to his mouth. What was she-?
"Drink. Your throat needs it." Ah. Well... he couldn't deny that, but he shook his head and pushed her hands away. He could get his own, his hands were more than capable. And the cold water was very welcome on his throat, giving him a welcome reprieve from the burning and scratching that had plagued it. A needed balm, one that let him breathe a sigh of relief as the ache soothed.
Better. So much better. The woman in front of him let out a sigh, dropping the water the remained in her hands back into the bucket without a second thought.
"I suppose you have questions for me." Cutting straight to the point, was she? He supposed he should be grateful for that.
"Yes. Who are you?"
"You may address me as the Watcher, Ironclad. My name is of little importance." He would beg to disagree, but his own name had long since been lost... but he could not afford to linger on such things.
"How did you find me?"
"I have been here a long time. It was only a matter of time I retrieved you." Retrieved him? What was she-? She raised a hand to interrupt his thoughts, apparently catching her slip up. "And no, not by the one who ensured you would burn up there. I wanted to get you down for my own reasons."
Not better, but a start he supposed. "Mmm... and what would that reason be?"
"..." She paused, one of her hands clenching up into a fist... before letting out a slow breath as she answered. "It is something that I will explain in due time, but not right now. There are more important matters at the moment, matters I wish to assist you and others with. You are the first one I wish to help, involving your pact."
His body tensed at those words, his pact was not a hidden thing, every part of his powers screamed what he had bargained for, but it was bold to assume that one could help him break from it. He couldn't help himself anymore. "You do not know what you are getting yourself into-"
"I very much do. And I know that what He is after cannot be completed in the way it had been planned."
"What?" Her words were confusing, but the resolve on her face was clear. She truly believed what she was saying. What sort of madness had possessed her?
"Your pact was containing and destroying the Blight of this tower, all could see it as the land's life has been returning, but that was not all that it wanted to devour. What it was looking for is gone from this place, something that no one can recover." The Watcher stood to her full height, offering him a hand to stand up too. He took it, barely acknowledging the pain in his muscles as he forced them to move for the first time in years.
"And how exactly would you know that?" His words were tinged with disbelief. This woman didn't know entirely what she was talking about, there was no way that she could've known what his pact entails... and yet still, she was meeting his expression with one of solid resolve of her own.
"Because it wanted the power this Spire could've given Him. And He will never get the chance to have it. I took it before he could."
... What?