2022-07-06 Just Breathe - Gerhard

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I am disappointed in you, Gerhard."

Gerhard cannot move, can barely breathe as the the fine silver mist creeps atop the table at the Three-Headed Dragon. His eyes dart, back and forth, catching the similarly panicked expressions of his petrified lunch mates.

Derthaad, eyes wide in recognition.

Beets, rage building behind her visage.

Laurel, confused and frozen.

Orianna...

A word in a language that Gerhard doesn't understand does not normally bother the archaeologist greatly. He speaks enough to get by, recognizes enough to know when to ask for the eyes of another. But this is no word on an ancient obelisk, nor a phrase in a tomb.

This is him, somehow. A name, a label, a request, a wish? He is not sure. But it is one of many things that brings him to the top floor of the Dawn Quarters, out of breath from running rooftops with Beets and her Beetles, to the door of Orianna Èirigh.

He takes a deep breath, steading himself at her doorstep. A fist, raised, pauses at the wood.

His personal demons make him hesitate, make him doubt, as they always have.

But a promise is a promise.

He knocks, lightly, his knuckles rapping quickly against the door before his nerve abandons him.

A soft, familiar voice filters through the door. "Coming!"

Gerhard is nearly thrown off his feet by the tiefling that opens the door, both from her immediate lunge into his arms and by her simple presence after so many days apart.

"You made it back." Orianna whispers into Gerhard's ear, the two wrapped in a tight embrace. "You made it back to me."

Gerhard, hands wrapped in the folds of her robe, drinking in her sweet aroma, can only muster a simple reply. "I made it back."

Gerhard's eyes catch Orianna's. He is trying to be calm, trying to will his thoughts to her.

They cannot hold their gaze for long, though, as the owner of the sickly drawl steps out from the other side of the awakened Acer that has shaded them during their meal. Gerhard's blood runs cold in his veins as Mister makes himself known; the buzz in the back of his mind blocked, as Andromeda powerlessly attempts to get through.

Mister's lips curl, the smile that forms is cruel, and eager. "I didn’t expect you to betray me to my sister. Well done."

With each step, he saunters slowly closer to the party; with each step, Gerhard strains against the magical bonds that hold him still. His eyes are wide, locked on the shadowy figure that glides toward him, and with each breath he struggles for, his rage builds.

"But your doing so has ruined my plans... and that won’t do."

Mister, with a lazy bow, rests his head next to Gerhard's ear. Out of the corner of his eye, the ranger can make out the smug face of his tormentor. Mister's whisper carries for all to hear, but it is meant for one and one alone.

"Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?" he asks, the words dripping eagerly from his tongue. "About your betrayal? About… her?"

"What do I mean to you?"

The two lovers sit on Orianna's couch, wrapped in a light blanket and each other. After so much grief, and loss, and... they needed each other.

But even the most peaceful of moments must end, and as Gerhard watches Orianna, she watches him, waiting for the answer to a question she so desperately did not want to ask.

"Am... am I merely a placeholder? A stand-in?" Orianna pulls away, not able to meet Gerhard's eye. "For Henri?"

The peaceful tranquility of the moment is shattered as Gerhard's heart breaks. You'll hurt her, you know whisper the demons in his ear.

"Orianna... I..."

The words do not come. He tries to find what to say, tries to tell her the truth, but he finds... silence.

"Orianna... When I was burning, when I almost died in that field, there was only one person I was thinking about."

As the confession, the pronouncement, leave Gerhard's lips, Orianna's eyes return to his, brimming with tears. He struggles to say it, but she knows. Knows with her whole heart that he was thinking of nobody else but her.

"But then... then what is your relationship with Henri? Truly?"

Gerhard sighs, an exhalation of all of his pent up fears. "Henri... Henri is my past. And a good deal of my present. And maybe, in a way, my future, too."

But as he turns to Orianna, placing a hand on hers, he tries to pour his soul into the space between them. "But I do not want to be anywhere else. I want to be here, with you."

She accepts his hand, their fingers as interwoven as their hearts have become. "I don’t want my feelings to hold you back. Love shouldn’t be a cage, my feelings aren’t meant to hold you down."

Gerhard's whispered reply, pleading and hopeful. "Then ask me to stay."

Her reply he anticipates, but he cannot answer it all the same.

"Do you want to stay?"

In a single movement, a single breath, Mister's mouth is to Orianna's ear, his smile wide as he stares at Gerhard. Gerhard's eyes flit between the two, panic rising as bile in his throat.

A single hand reaches up to grip Orianna's shoulder, the fingers lazily drumming a melody on her sundress. The other lightly strokes her face, wiping tears that magic has forbidden from falling.

Gerhard can barely think, can barely comprehend the horror of what is happening. The ringing in his head is deafening. The sight before him is unimaginable.

"Seems like you’re going to have to learn the hard way."

Mister's fingers stop their drumming, gripping tight to Orianna's shoulder. A teasing stroke of her face becomes an iron grip, fingers grasping her chin and pointing her face towards Gerhard's.

Gerhard cannot look away, cannot move no matter how hard he strains against his bonds. He cannot look at Mister, cannot fathom what will happen next. All he can do, frozen and helpless, is watch.

Watch as Orianna's eyes, violet gems filled with wondrous starlight, stare deep into his.

Watch as silver mist envelopes them.

Watch as in an instant, Mister steals the stars from his sky.