Betrayal and Trust Part II (different writer) - AU fanfic

Ssh, quiet.

[Cover by me again, I have waaayyy too much time to draw nowadays]

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"This is not quite how I imagined we'd meet again."

Varian grimaced, the strain of uttering that one sentence made his throat feel like it was on fire. Trying to ignore the pain, he added: "Where are we?" 

Rapunzel noticed right away how feeble and cracked his voice was. She responded warmly. "Varian, you should really take it easy right now. I'll do the talking, you just listen and don't  exert yourself."

He tried to object, but Rapunzel gently placed her finger on his lips. "Varian, I'm serious. I am thrilled to see you awake and I have so many questions... but you need to get better first."

Varian sighed. He felt that she was right, but it just bothered him that he couldn't do anything. He gave a reluctant nod.

Rapunzel started, in a soft voice. "You are in our caravan. Do you... do you remember what happened?"

Varian nodded again. Rapunzel's voice became more strained, and he could hear how she was fighting back tears. 

"We found you just in time. I- I couldn't live with myself if I... if I never got the chance to tell you I'm... I'm sorry." Rapunzel was now openly sobbing, the lump in her throat making her breathing become erratic. Varian could tell by her red eyes and the bags underneath them that she had cried a lot in the past... how long? Hours? Had it really been that bad?

Varian really wanted to comfort her, but every movement seemed to hurt tremendously. Nevertheless, he moved his arm towards the edge of the bed, letting his hand rest on hers. She let out a few more choked sobs, but then calmed down. One of her tears fell on his hand. When he looked down at it, his stomach turned. Though the wounds had been tended to very carefully, he could still see it.

Blood. a lot of blood.

Varian gulped and squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to fight back the sudden nausea. How long had he been unconscious? How bad was his condition?

He opened his mouth to ask her, but Rapunzel cut him off immediately, remembering her intention to keep him from hurting himself even more. "I know you have a lot of questions, so I'll try to guess them as best as I can."

She took a deep breath. "You've been out for three days. You were... really on the verge of death, Varian. We weren't even sure if you'd make it. We were so relieved when you woke up yesterday night."

Varian smiled widely. He would treasure that moment forever. He'd finally gotten the reassurance he'd longed for all these months, that Rapunzel could forgive him for everything he'd done to her.

Rapunzel smiled back. "I still don't get how the dream worked, but well, we've both seen it... and I can guess now what you meant by 'sun and moon can sense eachother'. I mean, what you did back there, that was absolutely astounding. You," she emphasised the word, "are extremely powerful. I don't think you've seen everything Cassandra is capable of now, but we have. There was no stopping her... until you came."

Varian's mind was racing. Why did the rocks suddenly listen to him instead of Cassandra? She had the moonstone after all. Why had she been so mad? What happened to her? Where was she now?

Rapunzel seemed to read his mind. "We'll talk about Cassandra later. All you need to know for now is that she disappeared, and we haven't seen her since. We think she has retreated to her fortress." She frowned. "I think that's enough information for one day, Varian. You should get some more rest."

But he had one more thing on his mind and it couldn't wait. "Queen Arianna... where is she?"

Rapunzel looked taken aback. She reluctantly responded. "Oh, well, ehmm... she'll be fine."

When she saw Varian's worried look, she hastily added "oh no, she's really gonna be okay! We found her passed out next to you, and we did worry about her. But there's a very skilled healer in our camp, and she told us my mom is gonna be completely fine in a couple days. She has inhaled some toxic fumes, apparently, but luckily not that much. Now, she's just a bit tired and disoriented. The reason I didn't want to tell you yet, is that I didn't want you to worry about her too."

Toxic fumes? That could only be from the arsenic pentafluoride contrivance of chromatism, the blue sphere the Captain had thrown at Cassandra. That could've killed Arianna... a shiver ran down Varian's spine. He knew that stuff. The queen had no idea how lucky she was that the fog had already been diluted by the wind when she arrived.

Just then, a tall, white-haired woman entered the room. Rapunzel veered up. "Varian, this is Adira. She is the healer I was talking about."

Varian stared at the woman, whose name was Adira, apparently, in awe. Especially her face caught his attention, with the red paint on it. She seemed familiar, even though he was fairly certain he'd never seen her before. 

Adira gave him a quick nod. "Hello, kid. I've heard a lot about you."

Her stern look and emotionless tone gave Varian the impression that whatever she'd heard couldn't be anything good. He lowered his eyes. 

"You appear to be quite the hero."

Oh... apparently Varian had judged wrong. He glanced up again.

"But next time, please be more careful. You're extremely lucky you survived."

Varian gave her a thankful look and couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "I'll try."

"It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order. Now, drink this." She held out a cup with some kind of hot drink. It looked absolutely disgusting, but the smell wasn't half bad. "It'll reduce your pain and help you to sleep."

Varian didn't want to go to sleep yet, but he understood that there was no way he'd get them to tell him more for now. He accepted the drink, which indeed tasted good and made his throat ache far less, and soon he felt his eyelids become heavy and the world fade around him.

The last thing he was aware of was that Rapunzel never left his side.

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