"Don't worry, you can go to him." I tell the Worm Rider's worm after it started looking at me for permission. If it was suddenly like this, then I was left fearful of what this would escalate into... A dead Worm Rider in the Land of Wind? It was not going to turn out well...
If he had succeeded at the cost of his life, then I needed to speak to Undwote. Pass on my thanks to him before the God of Death took him beyond my reach. However, when I saw the worm rapidly return. I caught on to that, that was not the case.
But I was horrified by the sight I saw all the same when the worm landed. For a moment, it looked like it had devoured someone whole. Yet, the fear I felt when the bloodied Worm Rider crawled out of his beast was different. How could he have lost...?
What kind of monster had taken my sister captive!?
"I... Am sorry, Lady-"
"You need to get to the hospital!" I interrupt, urgently trying to apply what magic I could. But a man of this strength and power, I could barely affect his body! It did not help either that my magic was being sapped away by that city like it always was!
"Of course, but, when the morning comes, please, come to me. I have important information that I need to tell you. And you will need to pass it on to Lord..." he tries to say before he starts to go quiet.
"Worm, ride!" I order the beast as I slap it with freezing, but urgent strength. Thankfully, this animal was learned and it knew where it needed to go. And I quickly went back inside before I came back out with a cardigan. It was a very cold night that I was active in...
Eventually, I reached the hospital and saw the worm hovering before a glass window. The Worm Rider must've been taken up there? The hospital staff were confused slightly by me also coming in. But, they let it pass when the Worm Rider intervened on my behalf.
"When morning came, Lady Tiyanat Sl'Ayiysab." he answers with a heavy breath as a machine pumped him full of magic. I could hear discussions about finding a means to apply water magic to his body. But they had settled on just giving him a respirator hooked up to the main magic supply.
"I'm sure the night is coming to an end anyway..." I tearfully joke as I start to consider how things will escalate from here. If a Rider of Worms had failed... What hope was there for my sister?
"Please do not stain your face, I may have failed your family. I may have lost my pride as a Rider of Worms... But Ihtuntar has given us a light to guide us..."
"The Sun God is dead..." I remind him, an evident truth all knew.
"And even so, the night is going away." he tells me before he looks out the window. Not at his worm, but at the school beyond.
"Did something happen...?" I ask as surely there was a reason he was alive? Did the madman spare him? Was this just an attempt to humiliate him...?
He groans in pain before he looks at me again, "He asked me to find someone for him... I did not get many details, so I am sorry about that. But, I was hoping you'd might have an idea?"
"Nin...?" I question quietly as I have overheard him on occasion. His nightmares, he was always just too late to save her. He laments that he did not do more than just punch that scum away from my sister...
"It must've been more obvious than I thought..." he breathes before I see him smile and laugh quietly despite the pain. Admittedly, as well, I was surprised I only just acknowledged that he had been undressed. The traditional garments of our greatest soldiers were on a wheeled, metal table. Bloody and cut apart, just like him.
"What did he say about Nin?" I ask, just going along with the idea that it might be him.
"Not much, just that he wished to see him." he ominously answers.
"To kill him?"
"No, I can't see that being it... To torment, that seems to be how this man works." he answers before he looks down at his legs for some reason.
"Did you at least wound him...?" I asked, if Nin heard this... Then what everyone had done would be for nothing. That anger and rage would come back to the forefront and he'd be killed. If not by Smiling Jhurack, then by the Thrurstradturians!
He shakes his head and clearly ignores the pain it caused him, "I landed blows, but drew no blood."
"No..." I let out in defeat as this made no sense. How could you spear a man through or strike him with a metal chunk and draw no blood...? Was he that skilled he could heal himself soon after? Was that what he was saying?
That his efforts were essentially futile...!?
"Lady Tiyanat Sl'Ayiysab, worry not. For the sake of your family. Keep a strong heart." he tries to encourage as I start to cry again.
"A WORM RIDER JUST TOLD ME HE COULD NOT SAVE MY SISTER! HOW CAN I KEEP A STRONG ANYTHING RIGHT NOW!?" I scream at him as all the worry I was filling up with suddenly came out. Father would bring damnation upon this city just like he did to a home of ours once before. War would burn the land and all for one girl...
My sister, his daughter...
"By trusting in this Nin. If you need to, go attend a congregation or pray in solitude. But, do not let your mind fill with dark thoughts." he tells me, displaying his solicitude for those he served.
"But Nin isn't you... He's not a great fighter... Not a great witch... He's just a boy heartbroken by the loss of his friend... My sister..." I tell him as I try to wipe away the tears.
"Then he has room to grow." he utters.
"What...?"
"If he is not great now, then ordeal shall make him one. For the sake of his beloved friend, whatever this man has planned... He will pull through."
"If he finds out about your defeat, though... He will be killed... He's not like us, not human... Not in appearance, anyway." I tell him, showing some signs of how my sister has affected me. Where once I tried hard to keep the two separate because I have heard about what osibindah were... I now acknowledged that his eyes truly were the gateway to the soul. There was a man behind that insect-like appearance.
And my sister saw it before anyone else really ever did... It frustrated me, really. Of all the people to be held in such a cruel state. It was the girl who could never stop smiling, the one whose greed for joyful friends was never-ending...
Life was cruel, so very, very cruel...
And it would be even crueler if I let him know. Nin could not know about this! He simply could not hear about this in the slightest... It was me telling him that the Worm Rider was coming that helped him settle down...
Regardless of if he somehow did the impossible and actually stopped this man. My sister would never forgive me. She'd want to see her friend and I would have to tell her he died... Because even if he could win, I just could not see him surviving...
A Worm Rider... By the gods above, a Worm Rider failed to stop this man!
"Do not speak of this, at all." I then say as I rise to my feet with a heavy sigh. In the meantime, I would have to figure out how to explain this to Dad... Maybe another one was needed? A greater one...?
Perhaps even he himself could come...? I know it was far-fetched given what he was, but... I just needed to stop this from escalating. I needed to stop it...
"With all due respect, Lady Tiyanat Sl'Ayiysab, you cannot stop this from evolving." the Worm Rider says as if he just read my mind.
"No, I will... My sister will see her friend again alive and well and we will not lose our friends to some vengeful warpath!" I sternly tell him.
He just shakes his head, however, "You will slip up. This is too much for you to keep ahold of." he warns me. And, he was probably right. Which is why I was probably getting so angry at this. If I was a different person, I might've laughed at this clear vision I had as wrath filled me.
This anger, however, gave way to weeping, "I know..." I admit as it was all just too much.