Assassins Bane (wof medieval human AU)

Living Red and Dead Slumber

Velvet

Every inch of her was trembling. Or was it the world? Maybe it was the world that was trembling. After more than a year of sleep, her legs refused to work properly and propelled her unevenly through the halls. Upstairs; into walls. The stronghold had been completely abandoned.

What am I doing? She asked, even as she reached the third floor and leaned heavily against the wall, trying to pull air into her lungs as they turned to stone and refused to breathe. 

There were cracks etched through the floor and they threatened to draw her in if she lost her balance.  

With a thundering crack, a door near the other side of the wall flew out of its place and narrowly missed her. It splintered above her head and a rain of wood littered her hair. There was a strangled roar and two shapes tumbled out after it. Four pairs of hands scrabbled to grab the dagger spinning across the floor. Towards her.

Velvet didn't let herself think. She reached down and grabbed it.

Then there was silence. They could see her.

She felt tears threaten her eyes as she saw him. How could one person change so much in less than two years? His sandy hair was soaked with perspiration and hung low over his black eyes. Black. Empty and full all at once. There were two where there should have been only one. The wrong of the two was the one.

"Sarai . . ."

She didn't have the chance to say anything else. The second figure, a stout ginger lunged for her with alarming speed. He grabbed the dagger and held it against her throat.

"Come any closer," he snarled at Sarai. "Come one step closer and I'll slit her throat. Do you want to be the one who kills your precious Velvet?"

Sarai was a statue of stone staring at her with a muddled mix of shock, horror, and anguish twisting his features.

"You didn't die."

He was speaking to her. Her heart clenched.

"I didn't."

"We're so sorry." Blood ran down the side of his face just as tears washed down her cheeks.

"I know," she cried softly. "I know. Neither of you did anything wrong. You don't have to be angry with yourselves anymore."

He was crying too, the tears running red down his cheeks where they mingled with the blood. "We would have saved you," he choked out. "We would have done anything to save you. You saved us, so many times, and we never . . ." He pulled in a gasping sob and covered his eyes with his hands. 

"You don't have to save me." She tried to reach out a hand towards him, but the dagger blade against her throat stilled her. "You don't have to be my savior."

"I do. I've hurt both of you."

"I love you all the same," Velvet whispered. "I love you both. That never changed."

"Enough talking." The man holding her pressed the blade harder against her neck. She felt it every time she swallowed; every time she breathed. When Sarai moved forward, she closed her eyes, thinking that within moments she would be drowning in her own blood. Instead, she gasped, and so did her captor as Sarai dropped to his knees before her and pressed his head against the ground by her feet.

There was laughing. She felt it vibrate through the man's body and into hers like a grotesque purr. She felt it and she shuddered because it was not laughter. It wasn't laughter, it was scorn. Scorn and hatred.

"Excellent job. You've tamed the beast! No leash needed. I should have woken you up long ago."

He relaxed and dropped the arm holding the dagger, but kept the other one wrapped firmly around her waist. "Can he do tricks now too? Tell him to roll over. No? Alright then, I will. Roll over!"