𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟. 𝐈𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧.
Humans reveled in the idea of immortality, but those who possessed it were...
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Summer 1001 – Vinland
Elijah walked the overly familiar path away from the village. It had been over a fortnight since he had last wandered in that direction, but he wouldn't forget the way for as long as he lived. It was etched into his mind, like a beacon drawing him home.
Yet it was the familiarity of it that set his skin crawling.
He could recall tentatively approaching the house as a small child, afraid to alert the owner to his presence. The door was always askew and the wood was rotten, but after Erik's death, Elijah had helped Astra repair her home.
While the home hadn't fallen back into the dilapidated state her parents had left it in, he felt that same trepidation as he approached.
"Astra," he called out as he pried the door open into the dark room. The curtains had all been drawn, allowing no light to enter. Even in the small, cramped shack, he could not spot his friend.
Reaching over, relying on muscle memory alone, he pulled the curtain near the door aside allowing him to get his first glimpse of the chaos that laid before him.
With the light, he could make out a figure huddled in the corner and he instantly took off towards it, narrowly avoiding the destroyed table that had been in the center of the room.
"Astra." He knelt down beside her, pulling her hands away from her face gently. "What happened?"
She was shivering and shrank back into the wall as if she was trying to disappear completely. Elijah gripped her hands in one of his and brought the other to lift her chin so he could look at her.
Her eyes were screwed shut as she began violently shaking her head, attempting to shake away whatever thoughts were plaguing her.
"It's alright," he whispered as his thumb gently stroked her cheek. "I've got you."
He attempted to pull her into him, to offer her some comfort, but she shrank away once again.
"I can't," she whispered. "I can't."
"You don't have to do anything," he whispered as he continued to whisper words of comfort to her.
These episodes were becoming more and more frequent. Elijah would find her falling apart, unable to console herself. He learned early in their relationship that when she was like this, she couldn't be around anyone with strong emotions.
Elijah cursed himself as he realized why she was shrinking away. He had been feeling emotions more strongly than he had ever felt in his life and they were overwhelming Astra. He took a deep breath to push them aside, bottling them in as he taught himself when he was young.
"Breathe with me," he suggested to Astra. With every breath he pushed his feelings further in, not allowing them to harm his friend. And with every breath, he felt Astra shift closer to him.
