Chapter Text
“She’ll never lay a hand on you again, my maiden, my eternal…”
You’re not sure if Alcina is repeating those words to you to keep you awake or if you’ve finally slipped into delirium. Whichever the truth, she manages to pull you back with a gentle shake and a growl of worry and protection, making the remnants of the decoy heart thud violently against your own as you gasp. You grasp onto Alcina’s dress and whimper, the golden blood staining you both in its power, yet she doesn’t lust for it. She doesn’t want your blood when it hasn’t been offered willingly.
Compared to her, Eliz is a pathetic, weak woman of greed whose lust is a host taking over.
“I-I’m here.” Your gasp of words is horrendous in the crackle and wheeze, making Alcina growl again — this time in a way that almost prepares you for the cold, enraged reply you get from what you think is the second floor you just crashed down from.
“And so am I… Princess .”
You freeze. Of course Eliz would catch you up, there was no doubt about that but you’re still too weak, you’re too far gone to be of use for your promised one. Despite your heart beating with Alcina’s, despite your blood pulsating with magic, desperate to give your loved ones what is needed, you don’t have it in you. You are far too gone, and some parts of balance in you know this. The chaos walker in you knows not to give your life away, knows to trust the ones your healer’s heart is tied to.
And so, you grasp onto Alcina and you close your eyes. Deep breaths, in and out, time slows down around you with the combination of the healer’s might. Enough to give you a few moments to think, to breathe, for your body to patch up some of the largest injuries trying to succumb you into the cradle of oblivion. Enough time for you to accidentally tap into another witch’s thoughts. Suddenly, you’re pulled into a scenery of forests and the crackle of a bonfire, scent of soot and soft pines. The embodiment of green and red, dancing together in the aura of the witch you see sitting there.
“Dove?” Adina asks as she looks around her in confusion. She clearly knows this place, and you too recognize it to be the inner world of a witch, the place of ponder and dreams.
You must not be there physically because she doesn’t look at you directly. Still, Adina is a powerful witch with connections to your kin, ones you don’t understand at this moment. She doesn’t need long.
“Shit. You must have stopped time… Chaos walkers can— anyway, no time for that. Dove, you’re hurt aren’t you? Me and Bela tried to find Eliz before she could get to you while Alcina worked on Annabelle.”
You can’t reply, and you’re grateful that in this monologue, you don’t need to. Adina grimaces as she puts her hand closer to the fire. The flames lick her skin in soft tender, hurt never been a way fire would take with her.
“Right, you can’t talk here. I can feel your heart, it’s okay dove, it’ll be all good. The bitch is going to die once I get there.”
Alcina is going to kill her. That’s the thought that springs to your mind, and to your surprise you see Adina look right at you now in a gentle way that makes you shudder. She can’t see you, you know this, but this moment transcends the differences of a witch and a healer.
“She will. I’ll just help and come get you… After all, the knights of healers should always make sure their doves are kept safe, that their blood shall never be consumed with maws that bite.”
It is then, when you realize that Adina’s bloodline is as ancient as yours, as forgotten and lost in the wars of greed. Healers were called maidens by their promised ones, and in the olden times, they themselves were called doves by the knights meant to live in co-existence with them. Knights were witches of harmony, usually accompanied with the power to wield strong elements closely tied to the healer families their souls were threaded with.
Adina must have been from the bloodline meant to follow and live with the Sun knight healers.
You understand this all, and the wave of information is too much for your shaken being to carry, and for a second, you drown. You drown, your chest tight with the murky water crushing you from all around, darkness shrouding you in its hold as you get violently dragged back to the present.
A familiar growl makes you gasp for air just as you feel your whole body convulse with pain from the sudden movement caused by Alcina dodging an attack from Elizabeth. You whimper, the gloved hand of your beloved grasping onto you tighter to prevent yet another fall. When you look up weakly you see Alcina’s blood stained face and the almost animalistic rage building up in her dark eyes of gold and sun. Fangs bared, the shimmer of a dragon in her soul’s radiance.
The air is doused with the scent of magic, nauseating, oppressing in its weight. When you make the mistake of trying to spot Eliz, every muscle in your body feels like they’re on fire. She’s standing there, grand in her arrogance, her right hand doused in green flames, claws of a predator, venomous just like everything she stands for. Your blood fuels her, your blood is making sure not even Alcina could kill her in one swipe, and while you are scared, you also lay down trust for your promised one.
“You’re quite fast for how brutish you look, lady Dimitrescu,” Eliz mutters under her breath, eyes dancing on your body for a fleeting second, causing Alcina to bare her fangs like a beast ready to devour, the deep growl rumbling in her chest making you feel more secure than you ever have before.
“I’m afraid your words have no weight in this castle, witch of Greed. I’ll escort you out the exact same way your hound was taken care of.”
While Alcina’s words are laid out in horrifying calm, your heart aches for the turmoil, the storm of emotions brewing inside of her. You try to keep your whimpers to yourself but the pain is too much — maybe a part of you also wishes to be of use this once, for your blood to stain her gorgeous lips, but that part is far too faint for you to break your promise to Alcina.
Eliz darts forward. Alcina counters, smooth movements despite her size, and another round of undelivered claws and magic take their respective dance. You must be a hindrance in this, you can’t help, you’re far too hurt, you’re far too useles—
“Lady Dimitrescu! I can protect dove!”
Your attention snaps to the familiar voice appearing out of thin air and magic infused specks of soot, a portal of a witch. When you turn your head, disoriented, you hear Alcina’s accepting growl, her hand holding you closer to her chest for a fleeting fraction of the moment before Adina practically jumps and snatches you away, wildfire in her eyes when she checks on you briefly before landing much further away from Eliz and Alcina. She holds you, but you feel the tug of your promise.
Despite knowing that this was what was meant to happen you can’t help but to let out a pained whine, your hand reaching towards Alcina in a wordless plea. You need her safe, you need her to hold you, you need this to be over already. Tears get stuck in your throat when you see your promised one look back at you with a soft smile. A promise.
She has proven her kindness to you numerous times before, and today, you accept this fully.
That’s when your magic flourishes in its bloom, in its fated way. No bloodshed, just the raw will to place all your trust in the family you are so closely tied to. You feel Adina’s heartbeat stumble as she holds you tighter against her, the sight before you two a match of green and gold — and the blue of yours.
Alcina’s aura is flickering with a pristine flame of the oceans, her vampiric powers infusing with magic, yours and hers, a beautiful balance. You can’t stop your eyes from seeing the flow of energy and the intentions of your promised one.
The fight continues, and so does your fading. The less energy you have, the more ferocious Alcina gets, the more beast-like her movements and growls become. Ironically, similar things start to brew inside of Eliz.
Alcina’s claws grasp Eliz’s wrist when she tries to strike. Blood spills as skin breaks, your breath halts for a fraction of a second, and then you see the sickness Eliz is carrying with her as she fights like an animal, like a beast with no home. Your lifeline is a dangerous thing to keep ingesting, especially now that you are a maiden of someone. She is on borrowed time.
Eliz hisses from pain and tries to use her other hand to rip into Alcina’s neck, green poison licking her claws of mortality as they dig into flesh. You gasp and close your eyes, pain shooting down your extremities from the tension you put yourself through.
Seconds pass and turn into moments more, the only sound being the faint growls and the thudding of your own heart.
You open your eyes as soon as you hear the distorted screams of Eliz, echoing in the hallways and painting the picture you’re about to witness in front of you.
Alcina is regal in her transformation, her large form barely fitting into the hall, silvery scales and tendril-like whiskers illustrating the many maws she is presenting to her opponent, blood dripping from one row of fangs. You’ve never witnessed her dragon form but Bela had told you all about it whenever you’d tend to her. This was so much more, so much more gorgeous and breathtaking, so much more everything.
Eliz’s hand is embedded into the mixture of gore and fangs, her magic eating away at her almost faster than Alcina is. Trashing and swearing, Eliz’s panic is as greedy as its wielder, and the hunger of her magic even transcends that. You’ve healed plenty of patients whose magic was starting to take over and so, you know when the circle of mana is about to fulfill itself.
First, Eliz’s hand gets torn apart as Alcina closes one set of jaws, the rumble of her delighted growl making the floors shift slightly. Then, when Alcina’s sharp tongue tries to grasp Eliz to devour and feast, the combustion begins. She barely has time to lock her maws around Eliz’s lower body when another gargle of horror erupts from the witch of Vipers.
If there are words coming out of her mouth, you don’t care nor understand. All you can see is her body collapsing on itself, muscles and bone turning into pure magic, flesh burning and blood vaporizing, only a miniscule amount sputtering onto Alcina’s tendrils when she tries to take a bite of the remaining body. You feel Alcina’s pain as the magic recoils and hits into her maws, enough to make her screech and shake her head.
If there had been any remnants of Eliz, they were now gone, mist of red and green painting the floor and your beloved’s fangs. With that mist, you feel a curtain of oblivion draw upon you, your body far too exhausted to keep on running on empty. You try to reach a hand towards Alcina, you try to assure her you are not afraid of her form, you try so hard — just like you always do, because that is the resilient spark in you that has waited all these years for a permission to rest. As everything starts to fade to black, you don’t feel fear.
You don’t feel fear, for in the darkness, a glimmer of gold entwines with you. The war is over and you can start growing. Whether or not the journey will bring forth hardships and stumbles, you’re doing it with your own free will. You are a healer who can finally heal.
“Don’t you dare to get up.”
“I’m a healer, I should know when—”
“My sweetness, are you fighting the very same daughter of mine whose stubbornness you had to deal with?”
You find your calm in an instant when you hear Alcina’s amused tone as she ducks her head to enter the room, golden eyes trailing to examine the situation. Bela is sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to coax you back under the covers as you’re attempting to flee your fate by sliding to the other side of the bed. Panting slightly from the exertion, you smile carefully at Alcina, apology in your eyes as much as the courageous freedom of being a stubborn patient for once in your life.
Bela’s groan makes you hum softly, your hands fidgeting with the hem of your cardigan, your heart beating in rhythm with Alcina’s.
“I just wanted to go to the library, that’s all. I knew I’d find you there.”
Alcina lifts a brow, her expression melting into a soft tut as she walks towards you, hand reaching to cup your cheek ever so gently, the silk of her gloves feeling pleasantly cool against your skin as her thumb brushes against your lips. She peers down, kisses your forehead, and the loving hum of a whisper is meant only for you.
“You missed me then, dearest? How riveting.”
Your cheeks flush with warmth and you lean your cheek against her hold, practically begging for her to trail her thumb against your healing skin. She does so, and for a moment you entirely forget where you are and what you were doing.
Bela doesn’t.
“Earth to mother and dove, I am very much still in this room. About to leave, actually, since my services are clearly not needed.” While her pout is making you smile sheepishly in an attempt of an apology, you are not afraid to tease her with a tired smirk when you glance over your shoulder at her.
“I apologize for being a bad patient, Bela. I’m sure I’m in good hands now.”
Bela’s aura flickers in your combined colors for a brief moment, her movement full of life now as she rolls her eyes with a laugh. She gets up, gives you one more glare before she dissipates into a swarm of bugs, her voice still echoing around you two as she escapes through the door.
“You owe me!”
When the door slams close, you relax more into the tracing touch of your promised one. Alcina chuckles again, her crows’ feet more apparent when you look up to admire her. You can’t help but to dwell in this safety, in this warmth, and she lets you do so.
With her thumb tracing your scars, you spend your time cherishing each and every second. You love how she touches you. You love how she gives you the time and space to gather up your thoughts whenever you need it. You love, and you know you are loved.
You love her.
“Alci?” Your voice is quiet, still somewhat strained even after a month of bed rest and recovery, but it carries you enough.
“Yes, my love?” Alcina peers closer again to kiss your forehead, the scent of her perfume making you recall the first time you’d been this close to her.
“I love you,” you whisper, tender, vulnerable, and your smile seems to bring forth gentle joy in Alcina’s gestures.
Her fingers brush through your hair, her other hand finding its way to the small of your back, and you melt once again. You press closer, heart thudding, yearning in this dance of familiarity. This is not the first time you have said this, nor is this the first time you have felt like the more she touches you, the more you need her. You are slowly learning to yearn, and your soul cannot be contained in cages anymore.
Your magic intertwines with her aura as you let Alcina pick you up. You let her kiss your jawline, your neck, and you let her pepper kisses all the way to your shoulders. You let her do all that knowing that Alcina’s lips would never hurt you. Even if you someday would ask for her to drink from you, hurt would never join the connection you two share.
Your fingers find their way to brush into Alcina’s hair, the strands silky against your skin. You pull her closer to feel her warmth, to find solace in her comforting scent, to enjoy the feeling of her breath against your skin. You hear her growl, a soft rumble of love and adoration. Safety follows you like an old friend.
“I love you with all of my soul, draga mea, my eternal,” Alcina whispers against your neck, slowly trailing up, sweet words of affirmation and affection following cue as she reaches your lips. Hers are soft against yours, everything you could have ever hoped for. You are not afraid to kiss her back, you don’t hesitate anymore.
You don’t know how long it would be before you’d be fully healed, in body or in mind, but none of that matters right now. For the first time in your life, you have come home, and you are in no rush to explore what you want and need from this new future.