The Unwanted Wendigo [ManxMan]

Chapter Forty: Your Lighthouse

~Chapter Forty: Your Lighthouse~

Though I do not pass out, there is definitely a moment where I blink and suddenly find myself surrounded by armed guards, only to blink again and find them gone with Felix kneeling in front of me. His mouth is moving, which means he is probably saying something, but his voice is so muffled that nothing makes any kind of sense, even when I try to focus on it. However, almost as if someone suddenly snapped their magic fingers, the world snaps into focus.

That's panicked babble if I've ever heard it.

"-know where you are?" Felix demands, but his voice is low enough that it is not startling. He looks very tense, though, so I suspect that he probably wants to start shouting. "Wendy, I really need you to answer me."

I eye his face for a moment, noting the dark, redness around his eyes and the stiffness of his clenched jaw, before huffing in tired amusement. "The pixie king's palace?" I ask rhetorically. Since I only heard part of the question, I am not actually sure that I answered right, but it can't have been that important, so asking him to repeat it would have just been pointless.

Felix's expression momentarily flickers to uncertainty before he seems to catch on that I did not reference the Fae seriously. "Close enough," he accepts, shaking his head ruefully.

He looks like he wants to add something else, but whatever it is gets put on hold when he glances around the room and seems to stop himself, though it is not until I reluctantly sit up that I realize why. Something must have been going on before I was teleported here - and I briefly glance at the familiar brown-haired god when I remember that he is still in the room - as there are a bunch of too-interested nobles and other important Mer watching Felix and me. It normally would not bother me to be under a metaphorical microscope, but after spending the last few weeks under constant supervision, it chafes a little more than it should.

Fortunately, Felix seems to be thinking the same thing, as he motions for one of the hovering guards to come closer in a silent order that is quickly followed. "Inform the healers that we will be there shortly," Felix commands, and the guard immediately sets out to do just that.

I want to protest, but it is not the concerned looks Felix keeps shooting me that makes me hold my tongue; it is the fact that going to the medical wing is a very good excuse to leave this room and get out from under all the prying eyes. Not that any of the attention feels wrong or judgemental, as I can see more than a few worried looks among the crowd of Mer I have never met before and have no desire to meet, but the point remains that I would like to be out of the spotlight. Just for a little while.

Plus, Felix will almost certainly be with me the whole time, and I've missed him, so the trip's not completely without its benefits.

Still, I was kind of expecting him to lag behind a little to make some sort of an announcement himself. Instead, though, while his announcer guy stays behind to address the room, Felix, after a moment of very obvious internal deliberation, carefully pulls me to my feet - I suspect he wanted to carry me instead - and all but forces me to lean against him with how closely he positions himself. And after wrapping an arm around my waist for added support, he guides me towards the exit, which maybe is not such a bad thing, as the moment my feet are under me, the world tilts threateningly. It is only because of the hand I bury in his very fancy shirt and the arm around me that I stay upright.

This, sadly, does not go unnoticed by Felix, who immediately looks to the god trailing behind us for answers. "Where did you find him?" Felix asks, as we leave the throne room and enter the hall, where a couple of stunned guards and some disgruntled citizens - well, disgruntled until they see me, and isn't that just an odd twist; usually I am the one causing ire, not taking it away - part to let us pass.