Little shining bits of misty lights were floating in the air as if fireflies in the falling dusk. It was the energy constituting the Emanation which didn't disperse as quickly as its sentience, like a body remaining after killing his host.
Alix, his red eyes gazing in the distance stretched his hand toward this beautiful misty lights, touching one.
"FZZZZZ"
The light instantly disappeared in his hand, flowing in his body. Erik who hadn't say anything anymore was watching, not sure if the light had consciously entered the young man he cares so much for before or if he swallowed it voluntarily.
This young man was such a fearful creature, able to destroy an Emanation with just a touch. Erik was more and more convinced by the word of his nightmare from three years ago. He remembered the despair, the terror, the unwillingness to see his family suffer and now all was over and all was starting again.
Instinctively gazing toward the now still Alix who was touching these pretty lights one after another, Erik decided to retreat, trying to save his family from this bloody massacre he put them in by accepting to save a weak foreigner sheltering a terrifying and bloodthirsty Emanation.
Running discreetly toward his wife, he quickly kneeled before her, trying to feel her state. She was in a worse condition than before, near death. Before he had hoped to have the time to go search for a skilled healer but he knows that it was too late right now. She was too weak, her breath barely audible.
She wouldn't last for more than ten minutes. In his heart depth, Erik knew it but he refuses to admit it, letting some mots of his energy flow through her. His body was incredibly weak too. More than once today, he had to extract his energy stock, being gravely wounded, it was already a miracle he could still fight and stand, proof of his fighting experience and will to protect his family.
Looking around him he could see his son still unconscious but who seems overall fine. "He should have been knocked out quick, making few wounds, that's a relief." Gazing toward his daughter, a pure blue pair of eyes enter his line of vision.
She was unblinkingly staring at him, her head slightly upward but her body too weak to budge anymore. Her eyes were full of questions remaining unanswered, of expectations, of fear of losing people she loved. She was waiting for a sign of her father to know her mother would make it but nothing came out.
A short instant she thought it was because he couldn't understand her so he didn't answer, but she remembered she was deaf for now, not a mute.
-"How...How is she, dad? Mum...?"
His eyelid open widely, not knowing what to say. Checking on her, her condition was not steadier at all, his limited effort having done nothing much more. Her face was pale, her lips white as snow, the wounds on her stomach had let too much blood flow out.
She was cold to the touch but her eyes were open, fixing the man she loved, trying to inscribe his traits in her mind for the last time. Her black hair was framing her head, laying around on the black soil. She looked like a peaceful angel with a loving gaze, understanding the pain which should be ravaging the heart of her husband, and the difficult time which would follow for her children.
Having already lost a brother, they would have to mourn their mother. She knew already she didn't have any chance to live at all, she understands her state better than others but she didn't regret a thing. She had had a loving family, and even in the worse moment, they were together.
She didn't regret having to accept Alix in their little family. Unlike her husband, she knew it wasn't his fault and he even saved their family at the cost probably of his lucidity.
-"Don't...Hold...It...Against...Him..."
She tried to convey her meaning with her weak voice, glancing at this man she loved more than her own life. Knowing the situation would be difficult after she passed away between Alix and her husband, she tried to smooth the situation ahead of time, knowing all to well he would take Alix for responsible.
She guessed a part of the conversation earlier, and if what she heard was true, Erik would not forgive him anytime soon.
Understanding her hidden meaning, Erik turns over, looking at Alix. He had finished absorbing all the misty fireflies, his body glowing with a grey light. He was looking toward them, an unfathomable look on his face. No emotion could be seen as if life and death didn't have any meaning for him anymore.
-"You know I can't dear, it's because of him you are like this..."
Tears were covering his face as he spoke, his voice choking. He knew his logic was flawed, but he didn't want to look too close to the truth, fearing of burning himself with it.
-"Please...For...Me...?"
-"I... Can't! Don't ask me, if...No, I can't!"
Méline was looking toward her sobbing parents, fear in her eyes. Her dad didn't answer her and she could saw her mother's condition and it didn't look good. Seeing them glance toward the tall Alix, she couldn't help but followed their gaze.
What she saw was hope, he seems fine, untouched and unwounded. She knew his powerful strength. With it, he could ask for help quickly to save her mother. Looking with pleading eyes, she didn't care about the strange state he seems to be in. She had seen him saving their lives with his strangely beautiful grace. Perhaps it was what we called blind love but she wasn't fearing him at all, putting all her trust in him.
-"Please, Alix... Fetch for someone... To help my mother..."
Seeing his own daughter asking help from a despicable creature, Erik was angry and began to rebuke her, but her deaf state allowed her to remain firm in her demands, not seeing the wrath wrinkling his front.
Alix turned his head over and began to walk.
-"Yeah, good, good riddance! Go! Let our family together! We don't need Emanations to help us, you already broke our family, taking our son..."
-"Erik...Stop...it!"
-"No, I won't stop !! They took our son and now you want me to be grateful to them for saving our lives!!! If not for them, our lives wouldn't have to be saved, to begin with!!"
Alix continues to walk, but instead of going fetch for help he was moving toward Erik, his shadow soon covering the man who was berating him."
-"What, no! I said let us alone! You want to kill me, go ahead then, I knew I was right! Your kind already took my son, then soon will take my...wife, and you won't probably let my other children go so better to be with them than in a world without!!"
-"..."
Erik was enraged, trying to get up but his strength failed him, collapsing miserably on the ground. His face was wet from tears, his eyes opened like a madman who lost everything. Trembling, he was whispering under his beard unintelligible things.
Alix bypasses him without care to slowly kneel before Cilis, his hand stretched toward her, trying to touch her forehead.
-"Don't you dare touch her!!! You demon! You hide it deep! Posing as a weak young man just to destroy our family, I knew I shouldn't have trust you and your wretched heart!"
Erik hit him in the flank with a weak and slow punch, failing to destabilize Alix who was squatting despite the vast difference in their level. Erik was empty of energy and Alix had too strong of a body for such a blow to show a difference.
-"You are exhausting, old mand..."
A strange voice echoed in the clearing, coming from Alix's lips. It was a deathly voice, raspy but flowing rhythmically as if pulsing.
-"Can't you shut up just from one minute? You judge what you don't know. Didn't you tell this boy here to always remain open-minded, doubtful of everything and not taking anything for granted? Do as I say not as I do, is that your way of handling things?"
-"I..."
Not knowing what to answer, Erik was flabbergasted by the situation. The weird dark voice was confirming his doubts, it was an Emanation, but what it was saying... A strange feeling came from it.
-"The relation you had with this crazy Emanation was your problem; the one I had with Alix is ours. Don't meddle in what you clearly don't understand!"
-"You killed Alix and now you want to trick us, don't take me for a fool, I..."
-"You are the fool! Alix is still here, having passed me the command of his body for a short moment, even if not truly willingly... I don't care if you don't trust me but now, stop with your foolish blabbering!"
Not knowing what to say, Erik let his hand fall, still like a desperate statue, looking at the scene unfolding before his eyes.
Alix touched Cilis forehead. She looked at him with a trusting gaze, knowing her husband was in his own delusion, questioning himself over and over on his choice about their now dead son. A possibility of an Emanation not being truly evil could collapse all his certitudes.
The grey light previously illuminating Alix's entire body was now moving, gathering toward his hand. The light was blinding, slowly passing through the skin to enter Cilis head.
-"You...You! You are actually transforming her into another monstrosity like you !!!? I knew I couldn't trust you" Erik was vehemently trying to move Alix away but didn't succeed in making budge even a little. Knowing he couldn't do a thing, he resolves himself to just watch the whole situation despairingly.
-"I shouldn't have... wait, what??"
Before his shocked eyes, Cilis condition was improving with each passing second, the wound closing, blood flowing with renewed vigor in her body, making her cheek reddened and her eyes sparkled. The gray light now shined on her entire body, making her appear as a divine being, quite different from the gloomy aura Alix had when surrounding by this light.
Removing his hand, Alix, or more accurately, the Blood Emanation looks in Erik's eyes as if saying "You see, stop being such a fussy!"
-"You don't know anything about Emanations, she will be fine now, and probably stronger than you in a short time, hehe...Well, time to split up..."
He raises up, walking away without looking back a single time, dark red tendril wrapping him again. Soon he disappeared in the forest in the direction of Tellama village, terrified beast's cry echoing, sometimes abruptly stopping. A rampage was going on.
Erik was looking a little blank headed while his wife was slowly sitting up, completely healed as if nothing ever happened. She was looking at him with a gaze full of anger and love, finally sighing and letting her hand touches his shoulder.
-"Don't let grief take over! Our son couldn't be saved...Perhaps we didn't do the right thing to save him but it's in the past now. We knew nothing back then, and even if we did, I'm not sure we could actually make a difference. Looking at Alix state, even if the Emanation didn't erase him, he shouldn't be fine... I hope he will return one day..."
Looking toward her children she moves toward them, sitting between the two, a hand on her still unconscious son, the other wrapped around the crying Méline, her head buried in her mother embrace.
-"Will he come back, Mum...? Sob, he didn't even glance back...Sob"
Smiling despite the terrible situation, her mother couldn't help but gaze lovingly while nodding at her daughter.
" Even now, you didn't even ask about the situation, just wanting him to look at you one last time. You truly fell hard for him... I hope he will be fine, even he escape his strange condition, it would be difficult for him to return to us, the words Erik said... Well, wounds caused by words don't heal as easily as the body's ones."
Looking marvelously at her own body, Cilis was a little perplex. She didn't understand what Alix had done. She was after all in a muddled state all the while but she could feel the wonderful feeling flowing through her body when his hand touched her head.
-"What did he do...?"