Water and Wind

Chapter 23

Arian

"I'm going."

It was a whisper, yet he hears it as if she whispered it directly into his ear, not Jinx's. Right now, all he wants to do is be that little boy, be 4 years old, think that everything was okay and Nimue would come back. But she won't, not if he let her go. He can't, he won't.

"Argh!" With one strong movement, he rips his hands out of his physical bindings, and blows apart his magical ones. Trying not to stumble as his muscles remember how to move and not be frozen and stiff, he hurries over to Nimue, who is now bending over to whisper the same things to Sirena. She glances up at the commotion. Her face turns into a shocked expression, then goes deathly pale as she breaks away from Sirena abruptly. Seizing his opportunity, he rushes over to her, grabbing her arm as if that could make her stay.

"Arian?" Her voice is soft, trembling, almost as if she is determined not to cry.

Which she probably was. "What are you doing?"

His words come out in a flood, jumbling and turning and twisting over each other. Yet somehow she makes sense of them. Oh Nimue. Only Nimue. "I can't let you go. I'll go. Let me go." He sounds like a whiny toddler, but he doesn't care. He's desperate, and the words come faster, harder. "You know if you go, you'll never come back and I can't-" He flushes. "You can't, you just-"

Her face is hardening right now, getting stonier and colder as he babbles on. "Arian." Her voice is sharp. "Stop it." He stops, embarrassed to be rebuked in such a way. She's shaking as she pulls her arm from his grasp and touches his cheek lightly. She's whispering now, in an unsteady voice that changes from high to low every few seconds. "You don't think I know the risks? You don't think I've thought about this?"

He does know she knows. Nimue would think through it. Nimue thinks through everything. He just doesn't want her taking the risk.

Her fingers flutter as they run down the side of his face, until her hand drops down, and she reaches for Arian's, taking it and squeezing it gently. "Take a look around, Arian." And he obeys, scanning their large group that he's come to call family. He sees everyone. Delinda, Alfred, Fay, everyone. But most of all Nimue. "I love them all." She smiles ever so slightly, her jaw set as soon as her chin quivers slightly. "I love you. And think about it," she breathes, and he knows she's referring to their captivity, the situation they're in right now. "I go. I'm one person. Better one than all, right?" She looks into his eyes, begging for him to understand, pleading hard.

"I'll go." He suggests harshly, then starts moving towards the forest's edge, since there is 100% sincerity in those words. Better him than Nimue.

She steps in front of him, blocking his path. "Arian." He glances down at her. Her voice is soft. "You know she prefers girls. Besides, you're older." He opens his mouth to tell her that she's 17, and not 6, but she doesn't let him. "Trust me." Her blue eyes are earnest, searching.

He would love, right now, to say that he trusts her. But he can't. Not now. Not when his answer would be the death of her. He has to convince her. Somehow. "Nimue-"

Tears begin to show in her eyes, the blue sparkling like the sun on water as she bites back a sob. "Then I'm sorry." Her barely audible voice gets even lower, more sincere, even a bit regretful, he thinks. "You'll understand one day."

"Sorry for wh-" But he doesn't get to finish, frozen as he watches Nimue's face crumple, her chest heave in irregular breaths.

Her voice is soft and sad when she speaks again. "This is for you Arian." And she sends a burst of water at him. It's less of the water and more of the shock that knocks him backwards, off his feet. Two more flicks and there is a transparent wall of water blocking his path. He can see Nimue's sadness, feel it in her bones as she tilts her head up to the judge, making her request in a surprisingly strong and steady voice, hindered only by the first unsteady inhale.

"I will go. No one else."