Worlds Splitting

I thought you were a dream.

Azriel kept perfectly still, watching his friends. What looked like his friends. He knew that that Cassian and Rhysand weren't really running through the town calling for him. It was some part of this terrible dream, this horrible nightmare. And yet he still watched them, wrapped in his shadows. It seemed to real, and yet it couldn't be. Because if it was real, it would mean that what the shadows whispered to him was real. 

It had been a day ago, now, that the nightmare had started. The shadow singer had awoken dizzy and confused. He'd managed to stumble randomly until he was found. The poor human that had came upon him probably died from shock when the disoriented fae almost collapsed atop him in his sleep. Azriel hadn't stuck around to find out. He had wrapped himself into his shadows and dissapeared. Over the following hours, he'd just walked and listened to the shadows. They told him terrible things; things that, if they were true, would mean death and destruction and chaos. Every so often, Azriel's concentration would slip and he would appear to some poor mortal before managing to pull his shadows around him again. 

After several hours or aimless wondering, he came across a town. Allowing himself to become visible, he wandered in. Everything was different - and yet the same. There were a lot more humans here, though he did see the occasional unfamiliar fae. The houses were small with thatched roofs and pretty beams. It did seem like a fairy tale town. Many of the humans noticed his wings, but none of them said anything. They just watched him past and then carried on with whatever chores their meaningless lives asked of them. In the centre was a fountain with water dancing high above anything possible without magic. Azriel sat down on the edge of the fountain to wait. 

He was waiting for one of two things. If he was  asleep, which was the more likely scenario, he was waiting to wake up. If he was awake, he was waiting to die. The shadows were screaming in his ears to run, to find a way to escape. He didn't pay them much heed. They'd told him worse in previous nightmares. 

It was only when the sun started setting and people started giving him weird looks for sitting on the fountain so long that he wrapped his shadows around him again. 

The moon was full and high when Rhysand and Cassian arrived. They landed either side of a human riding a horse that blended into the darkness around them. Each of them walked to either side of the fountain and split up. Calling his name. 

Azriel knew they were looking for him. He also knew that they were just his imagination. Just another part of this twisted dream. And yet he still got up and followed them through the town, listening to them call his name. Cassian was yelling it loudest. Almost screaming it. It didn't occur to Azriel to show himself to them. Perhaps it was fear that drove the thought from his head. If they were real, it meant this was real. It meant that the shadow's were speaking the truth. 

Cassian was flying now. He was swooping through the streets and shoving himself through alleyways. Someone even shouted out their window at him to be quiet. Rhysand was calmer, as always. He still looked panicked, was still moving fast, but he was pacing systematically through the town rather than treating it like a maze. The unfamiliar human was the calmest of the three. He was strolling through the town as if he knew it well, checking behind bushes and every now and again heading into a building. 

After about an hour of each of them using their respective searching techniques, they grouped back together again, in the centre of the town. Azriel joined them and listened. It was always important to listen to dreams.

"He's not here, we need to move on." Rhysand put a consoling arm on Cassian's sagging shoulder. 

The human was already mounting his horse, who seemed to be doing it's best to throw him off. 

"He might be. He could be in someone's house or something." Cassian was still attempting to look around, his wings quivering slightly. 

"Why would he be? Aedion said that if someone had seen him or talked to him they would have reported him. That's what Aelin asked everyone to do when they met someone from the other world."

"He could be hiding or something." Cassian argued hopelessly, still looking into the darkness.

"Why would he be doing that?" Rhys asked, taking Cassian's hand and spreading his wings. "We need to keep looking Cass. We need to move on - what is it?" 

Cassian had frozen. He was staring straight ahead, his wings suddenly drawn in tight too him like he was drawing a sharp breath. And he was staring straight at Azriel. 

"Az?" His voice shook. "It's you, isn't it?" 

Azriel didn't shift his gaze away from his friend's. He felt a lump in his throat and his face burned again the blanket of shadows swirling around him. It wasn't real, he reminded himself, Cassian wasn't really here.

But Cassian was striding towards him and then stopped inches in front of him. 

"I don't know why you're hiding but you'd better show yourself you big-winged bastard." He snarled. 

Azriel knew he shouldn't do it. He knew it would make it worse, but he let his mask of shadows fall away. Cassian didn't even blink in surprise. He just smiled. And then he took a final step forward and wrapped his arms around Azriel. It took Azriel a moment before he could managed to pull himself together enough to hug Cassian back. He knew Cassian was real, that this was real. He knew because Cassians arms and wings and breath and scent were real. Cassian was real. 

"You're real." He murdered into his friend's shoulder. "I thought you were a dream." 

"I am real." Cassian was smiling. Azriel could hear it in his voice. "I promise."

But Azriel took a step back, untangling himself from his friend's arms. "If you're real," The truth of it hit him. "What the shadow's say is also real." 

Rhysand and the human were watching closely over Cassian's shoulder. Cassian looked downright scared. 

"What do the shadows say, Azriel?" Rhysand said, taking a step closer.

"They say that the worlds are splitting apart." 

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Hey! I never know which story line to write about next to if you have a preference comment which story line you want to know what happens next in most!

-Dorian and Lorcan in the Summer Court
-Manon and the Illyrians
-The bat boys in Terrasen