[2] WEEPING MONK║you're not what I was looking for

57| One Born From Fire - 𝐈

═ 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦 ═

[TW// Poisoning, sickness, anxiety. Implied violence/character death. Blood/major injury.]

Lancelot hedges his bets on one last hope to get Ari to wake.

❖
this love came back to me
❖

They waited until the cover of darkness before they moved, half an hour at most from when Lancelot sent Hector away. Adrian had come at once, forcing the veil aside to see Lancelot pacing back and forth at his daughter's side.

"Lancelot?" There had been hope in his golden eyes. A wide expression not that of a King, but a father.

"It may not work," Lancelot had told him as he stood himself in front of the Sunborn.

Adrian took one look at his daughter and back to Lancelot, then nodded. "I beg you to try."

The moon was now high enough overhead. Everyone else in the forest asleep but themselves and the scouts.

"How long until we—"

"Keep your voice down, Percival," Lancelot warned him. They needed to do this, and preferably unnoticed.

Hector returned to the tent with his arms wrapped around himself, sniffling from the chilly night air. "Most everyone's gone to bed," he told the three standing quietly, each of them lit by the couple of lanterns left flickering. "The coast is clear."

Lancelot turned himself to Adrian, stood at Ari's other shoulder. Are you sure? He asked without saying a word. The Old King nodded again, so Lancelot wrapped Ari in her cloak and blankets and scooped her rigid form up into his arms. Adrian held the veil aside and as quickly and quietly as they could, the little group made their way out into the depths of the forest.

Hector led the way with a small burning torch, followed by Squirrel not too far behind. The boy insisted on knowing what was happening the second that Lancelot had started acting differently.

When Hector had reminded him that Ari needed life to draw from, there was one place that came to Lancelot's mind first. The Valley. What had happened the day when they arrived here had slipped his memory. How floating lights like fireflies had seemingly appeared from nothing and surrounded them. That his veins and powers had surged like Ari's did. If there were anywhere that were truly alive with the life that she needed, it was there.

Under Lancelot's instruction, the five of them descended down through the forest to the east. The land rose up as they moved off of the main trail and sloped and surrounded them on either side. The trees towering even higher than that to the pitch sky.

While Adrian held back with Lancelot, taking their time to not slip with Ari in his arms, Hector scuffed the ground with his boots to clear a patch of leaves for his brother's plan.