Eight Intertwined

133 - Hostage

Cyrus wanted nothing more than to push himself to his feet, ignore the defeated whispers in the back of his mind. Alfyn was there to stop him though, instead whispering soothing words to the scholar as he focused on tying off the stitches he had been forced to place in Cyrus' abdomen. Part of Cyrus thought it was funny in a dark way that he had been forced to endure this surgery from Alfyn twice in less than a day, but he didn't think it was entertaining enough to say anything about it. 

Instead, his mind raced with plans about how he was going to save Therese. Yvon didn't want Cyrus to back off. He wouldn't have taken Therese if he wanted Cyrus out of his business once and for all. In all likeliness, Yvon was hoping to lure Cyrus into yet another trap and then finish him off when there was no other escape from him. Yvon knew Lucia had weakened Cyrus and most of the rest of the group, and he was ready to deliver the finishing blow the instant any of them came to try and helpTherese to escape from his grasp. He was sickeningly clever, and Cyrus could see how he had gotten away with all of this for so long. Cyrus had never expected to find out that he was essentially working for an evil genius, but that was the only description he could think of that would fit Yvon well. 

"There you are," Alfyn sighed as he cut the thread at long last. He had only been working for a few minutes since Yvon's departure, but Cyrus felt like it had been a lifetime. Then again, time felt like it had been going all too slowly ever since he had been brought to the manse. There was no escape from the prison of his own mind, Cyrus saw, and he had no idea how he was meant to make any of this right.

"We need togo after him," Cyrus declared as he tried to push himself to his feet. However, his body protested, and he felt pain medicine shoot through his side once again. Ophilia and Alfyn took that as their cue to trade places, and Ophilia offered Cyrus a bit of her healing magic while the apothecary darted over to Alfyn to try and mitigate the remaining bleeding from his head wound. Therion practically melted into Alfyn's grip when the apothecary arrived at his side, and Alfyn started to whisper gentle reassurances into his ear next as the rest of the travelers talked.

"You can't do that," Ophilia corrected him, her gaze going hard as rock. "Even if Alfyn was able to patch you up, the fact remains that you were just stabbed. How can you expect us to approve you coming with us to stop Headmaster Yvon if you're still recovering from being pulled back together after something like that?"

There was a question Cyrus really didn't have the answer to, but he couldn't just sit there knowing what he did. Yvon was likely planning on using Therese as his next victim. Cyrus had seen what an abridged copy of From the Far Reaches of Hell could do to someone back in Quarrycrest, and just the thought made him want to be sick to his stomach in a time when he couldn't afford any more stress on his body. Yvon had to have the full tome hiding out upstairs, and he was going to use it to his advantage to make another one of the blood crystals. Cyrus couldn't let him get away with that. Therese deserved better than what Yvon was going to do to her.

"If we do not go at once, then Headmaster Yvon will kill her. Of that I am certain," Cyrus declared. "We cannot split up in good conscience lest the group that goes to confront him end up being cornered and killed themselves. We need to stick together. None of us is in the condition for a fight right now save for Ophilia and Alfyn, but if we work together, then we may at least be able to retrieve Therese, gather our things at the inn, and warp out of here before they can catch up to us. We must at least try that much."

Alfyn was quiet for a long while before he let out a sigh slowly and carefully. "I don't like the idea of putting you and Therion in danger when you're hurt enough as it is. Half of us were hurt by Yvon's opening attack on top of that, and we need to make sure he doesn't use that to win the battle against us... This is a trap, and we can't just walk right into it."