Sin followed close behind Callisto as everyone else from the hunting grounds were quickly evacuated. The second Yukimi spotted Ri-is, she bolted towards him, letting Seimei take over in caring for Illya. Callisto let Yukimi take Ri-is as he knelt down next to Illya. A bitter expression crosses his face, his sun-kissed hair falling over his brow hiding the deep lines that creased into his skin.
Gabriel and Banshee had followed everyone out of the hunting grounds, he guiltily hobbled off towards where he was seated before they entered, only to see the imposing black mass of shi, facing him. Even without a face to look at, he could tell by the disappointed shimmer in the disembodied glowing orbs, that he was in more trouble than he was in before he walked out. He and Banshee walked over begrudgingly but out of the corner of his eye, a certain peachy haired priestess caught Gabriel's eye. There was something about her that radiated an air of familiarity, but he couldn't quite place what it was.
Somehow, Illya's aids were able to move her and Ri-is back into the palace and push damage control without alerting any of the guests. By the time either one of them opened their eyes, almost half the day had passed.
|Evening|91Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJcRkUhuob2
July•2•xxxx
Ri-is awoke to the feeling of the soft sheets of his bed and a dull ache in his shoulder. He shifted awkwardly, turning his head towards the warmth of the sun that shone through the windows. His brows knitted together and a discomforted grunt slipped passed his lips as his eyes fluttered open. The first thing that registered as he focused his sight was Sin's exhausted figure sitting at his bedside with his head down next to him. He seemed to still be out of it, turning again to see Yukimi with her back turned towards him. She in her hands were sheets soaked in blood. As she walked away to clean it off, he caught a glimpse of her face. It was utterly haggard, with dark circles very evident against her pale, ghost-like skin. When Ri-is felt a shift on the bed next to him, he turned his attention to Sin, who had the same dark circles under his eyes.
"Sin...?"
Sin's eyes widened and he pushed himself up excitedly. "Ri-is! You're awake!"
Ri-is tried to prop himself up but soon realized that he wasn't able to push himself off the bed. His eyes drifted from Sin to his left arm, only to realize, it wasn't there. He was stunned for a moment. He was unsure if he was still drifting in some kind of unconscious mindscape or if he was really awake, but unlike the seductive thrall of a dreamlike memory, he felt an undefinable feeling burning inside his chest. The second he tried to lift the arm that should be there, he was rewarded with more still air and found that he was wide awake and as alert as ever, finally recalling the events that put him out for the majority of the day.
"...oh..." He didn't quite know what to say and from the looks of it neither did Sin.
Sin averted his eyes to his lap, his fingers curled into his fists he spoke. "I'm sorry I couldn't reach you in time."
Ri-is relaxed into his pillow, seemingly resigning to what had happened. "...you don't have to apologize for that. I just got too careless and this was the result."
Sin frowned. "Even if that's the case I...I just...we're not like mom! We can't heal ourselves. If something more had happened...If you had been left alone for any longer then I..."
Ri-is shot him a sideways glance and sighed. It was as if he knew what Sin was thinking. Sin was always particularly protective when it came to him. Especially after the incident in their teen years. He felt guilty that as an older brother, he wasn't able to be there when his family needed him the most. Ri-is blinked slowly and stared at the dip in the sheets next to him. His arm was gone but it didn't truly feel like it. Perhaps it was denial or disbelief but the more he stared at the spot under the sheets where his hand should be, the more real it felt.
"It's my arm, not my life." His voice came out a little more harsh than he intended, not that he had noticed. He wasn't entirely sure what he should be feeling. If anything, he was overwhelmed by the millions of thoughts that bombarded him.
He spoke as if he was on auto piolet like he was there but not truly there. "Speaking of mom, where is she? I would have expected her to be the first person I saw when I woke up."
If there was one person more protective and paranoid than Sin, it was their mother and for good reason too. Ri-is didn't even notice that Sin had been silent for a tad too long until he turned and saw the worrisome look on his face twisting into one of anger.
"She's still unconscious..."
Before Ri-is could ask what he was talking about, a flurry of words rolled off Sin's tongue. Even after he had explained it all, he continued to rant. Ri-is remained silent, letting him blow off some steam seemed to be like the best way to get him to calm down.
"Remember when we were little and learning magic? Remember when mom taught us about the root of shi in our bodies?"
Ri-is couldn't see where this was going. The root shi that Sin spoke of was an accumulation of pure shi that essentially worked as a kind of life source for the rest of the shi in a person's body. It was considered a kind of core that was the source of one's spiritual and physical strength and in the context they were speaking in, he just couldn't see where it fit in. "Uh...yeah..."
"Mom's root shi is damaged...or more like...deteriorating," finished Sin.
Ri-is was even more confused than when Sin started talking. "What? How did that even happen?"
Sin leaned forward, rubbing his face and sighing. "You don't know this because mom forbid us from telling you, but after you were...hurt that day, something snapped inside of you, understandably so. Mom was the one to notice that your root shi had become corrupted with the dark shi that was feeding off all the negative feelings you had. So while you were asleep that night, mom had Seimei put a spell on you to make sure you wouldn't wake up while she took out the parts of your root shi that had been corrupted and replaced it with some of her own."
Sin didn't go into details about how painful it was for Illya or how hard it was for her to manually supply herself with shi for the few days following the incident because he didn't want Ri-is to feel any more guilty than he already did. Ri-is didn't respond right away, his eyes shifted downwards, lashes seeming to quiver. Sin noticed that they were wet with unshed tears and was apprehensive about continuing, but he did so anyway.
"Apparently, that kind of procedure had only been done one other time so there still isn't a very effective way to deal with the aftermath. Mom managed to come up with a half-assed fix for it by purifying shi from death row prisoners from her prison back in the underworld and then consuming it to try and 'resupply' her root but they weren't enough to replenish it so her root continued to deteriorate. She must have been slacking recently or maybe her root just finally reached its limit. Looks like she's gonna be out of commission for a while...whether she likes it or not."
Ri-is shut his eyes and leaned into his pillow. Both of them fell into a silence that neither of them could stand and neither knew how to fix. So they remained silent until Yukimi returned to the room with fresh bandages and clothes for Ri-is and Sin took that as his cue to leave.
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