Coruscare woke to early rays of sunshine sparkling against the white stone walls.
He looked down to find the girl still sound asleep, exactly the way she was before he lost consciousness.
Her clothes and hair had completely dried.
Coruscare was no saint, over the long years he had taken a lover, or two. But he never recalled having slept with anyone before. He had always left his companion in the night once they'd fallen asleep. There was something that made him nervous about being so vulnerable around, well, anyone.
His smile melted as the thought occurred to him.
Of course, the only reason he had allowed it in this instance was because the girl he had "slept" with was bordering on comatose.
That made sense to him anyway.
He lifted himself and the small woman from the bench and brought her back to the infirmary.
Thankfully it had only been a couple of hours and no one had come to check on her just yet.
He laid her on the bed as softly as he could, pulling the blanket up to her chest.
He turned to leave, paused, then turned back to gaze upon her serene face.
With a hesitant claw he brushed a knuckle across her cheek, just one last touch to verify if her skin had been as soft as he thought it was in the pool.
And indeed it was.
He lingered longer than he should, and also not quite long enough. His guilt began to drip into his thoughts like stinging acid until the burning of it caused him to slowly pull his hand away. One emotion struggling with the other.
To his surprise the girl rose her hand to lay it against the back of his.
Even more shocking, she smiled softly and leaned her face into his clawed hand. For the first time in weeks she groggily opened her eyes.
"Raven?", she said her smile fading and her brow furrowing.
Coruscares' heart plummeted. Who was this Raven?
He shook his head as response, his heart feeling particularly tumultuous.
She titled her head away from him and dropped her hand.
"Where am I?", she said shakily, her voice rasping with difficulty.
"The Ausia Mountains.", he said in a simple manner. Better not to go into detail or complicate things and confuse her in her first moments of wakefulness.
"I know you.", she said, teetering between a question and a statement.
To this, Coruscare did not reply. Did she know him? He thought, trying to restrain the hurt he felt at being called Raven.
"You have been visiting me. When it's dark.", she said, as if trying to rationalize things to herself.
He nodded in response.
Perhaps she did have some memory of him after all.
"Do you recall anything else?", he said hesitantly, thinking of the bath he had given her just hours ago.
She did not respond right away.
"You washed me clean, I had something on my face. Thank you for that… yes, thank you… so sticky. Itchy", she started to mutter to herself, sounding not unlike a broken music box. Words coming in some semblance of sense, then halting as if encountering an obstacle.
Coruscares body went hot.
"You are very welcome.", he said gruffly.
Her eyes started to flutter, she was losing consciousness again.
"Caeli. Caeli.", he said, attempting to prolong her wakeful state for just a few more minutes.
He had two questions he desperately needed to ask. He debated for only a second before choosing.
"Do you know who you are?", he said quickly, laying a palm against her cheek.
She frowned but nodded her head in the affirmative.
"Who are you then?", he asked, his expression full of focus.
*Please remember.*, he thought desperately to himself.
Her eyes opened for just a moment before mumbling, "Drakes Air.", her brow still furrowed she shut her eyes and lost consciousness.
Coruscare tugged the edge of the blanket over her shoulders once he was sure she would not wake again.
Drakes air? What was that suppose to mean?
He turned the expression over in his brain, looking at it from all angles and found nothing.
The words were not familiar to him as a whole but of course drake meaning dragon and air as in the air that they breathed. But what did they mean together? Not only that but was it a name or was it an object? Or both?
Frustrated, he felt as though he had more questions now than he had started with in the beginning.
And that was just the beginning.
Why was she suddenly waking? Had something changed?
Her speech was slurred. Was it a side effect of her debilitated state? Or was it because she was away from her body for too long?
And lastly, and more importantly his greedy dragons spirit thought, who was Raven?
Coruscares' rational side came about to let himself know that "Who is Raven" is the least of their problems and their last priority.
Greedy hence forth was silent.
Coruscare went quickly to Syll to relay the news of what transpired.
"So she's waking up. And you know this because you've been visiting her bedside?", Syll said, unable to hide the weedling smile she felt forming on her face.
Coruscare stood silent in the door way for a moment.
"Yes.", he replied.
With her back turned to the dragon she nodded.
"And why have you been visiting the girl?", she asked, struggling to keep her composure.
"To observe her. To search for any clues or signs for how we could improve the situation.", he said hastily.
"But you gave her… a bath?", Syll said, laughter bubbling to the surface.
He shot hot steam from his nostrils in frustration.
"She was covered in blood Syll! She seemed uncomfortable, it was all over her face, I couldn't just leave her like that until the morning when the grove-lings would finally come by!", he shouted defensively.
"En garde young Master.", she smiled broadly but not unkindly, warmth and laughter in her eyes.
Coruscare huffed again but in dismay this time.
He threw himself down into one of the chairs, the brave mahogany merely splintering instead of giving up all together and shattering.
He dropped his head into his clawed hands, resting his elbows on his knees.
"What is wrong with me Syll? So, incredibly-", he halted before sighing and finishing, "Foolish. Just outright foolish."
Syll nodded slowly in response.
"Do you have love for this girl?", she asked, her words cutting through Coruscare like a sharp edged knife, breaking his dismay and instead causing him to be in an utter state of confusion.
He stared forlornly at the floor.
He couldn't make heads or tails of all the thoughts, questions, and feelings he'd experienced since the woman had arrived.
Did he love the girl? It just wasn't possible. He hardly knew her. They had spoken only a few disheveled words with each other in the moments of her drunken consciousness. She'd barely been coherent.
He certainly felt an obligation to the girl, having been the cause of so much of her pain and being friend and ruler to her late parents.
*More.*, the Greedy demanded. *More. We need her close. Against our chest again would be nice.*, the shameless bastard whispered inside of Coruscares mind.
"But why?", he asked aloud.
Syll raised a curious brow but also knew that Coruscare often did this in times of confusion or crisis. In the past, he had disclosed to her that the strength of his dragon nature was very powerful, sometimes taking control. At the time, he called it Greedy, as if it were another personality inside of him, alluding to the fact that the personality was insistent about possessing things it found desirable.
There had been a point in Coruscares' life, when he had been truly young and, despite Syll's warnings, he had given into Greedy's demands. On occasion it had turned out alright, on others, not so much.
She remembered a particular dragon duchess that had caught the eye of the King Of Earth, Coruscare had seen her when she was brought as a guest to one of the Reconciliations.
Greedy henceforth became obsessed. Without shame, Coruscare put himself in the females path and courted her to his bed. She never saw the earth king again. Broken hearted he confronted Coruscare only to find that the duchess and him had amicably parted ways, and that she no longer had any interest in either of the males.
Many of Coruscares relationships had been dissolved in this manner. Either his temper or his selfishness would take hold and he would end up doing something he regretted.
Coruscare had begged Syll to keep Greedy a secret. Should it get out that the King of Fire and Light had a split personality, it had the potential to damage the Folks' ability to trust his rulings, and as the Golden Child of The Five, it was critical that he be trusted.
And it was true.
The Folk needed a strong leader, a stability in their future to survive everything they had been through.
In time, the young master found ways to move around Greedy inside of his mind. To quiet the voice before acting, debating the consequences of their actions.
Syll had always been so very proud of him for that. It hurt her to see him struggle with parts of himself. Parts that could not be changed. Coruscare had always been, would always be, a dragon. The primal desire to possess what they wanted was as intertwined with a dragons personality as the threads that composed the tapestry of life.
Syll had always theorized that this was true, each of the Five possessing this same quality. Even the more lowly dragons, the poor imitations of the five that the planets magic birthed into the world, had this instinct.
Despite his struggle, despite the mistakes he had made, he never intentionally put his people in harms way. Always putting the needs of his kingdom first, never faltering for a moment, his loyalty to his people, tried and true.
It worried her to see that Greedy was involved.
Although Syll was glad at the aspect of Coruscare finding joy and love in the girl, for he had been without these things for sometime, she worried for his sanity.
"Coruscare, I only tease. There is no race to be won. It is worth it, and appropriate, to take time to sort how you're feeling.", Syll said, her face had become serious. She made an attempt to avoid looking sympathetic. He would not like that. Not at all.
He rolled his shoulders, leaning his full weight against the back of his chair. His legs slightly splayed, his hands dangling between his knees in defeat. With his head tilted back he stared at the ceiling of the archives.
If not for his extraordinary eye sight, it would be difficult to make out the carvings that decorated the dome shaped ceiling.
All of the rooms in the peak had been carved out to establish intricate pathways from chamber to chamber.
Coruscare himself had created the chambers, after a few days the tunnels and rooms had been made. As time went on, the danger of the humans reaching them having waned in severity, the Folk began rebuilding their lives. Artists were hired to create art within the royal portions of the labyrinth like space. The creatures began rebuilding homes at the base of the peak, music could be heard as children played. They rebuilt and resumed their businesses with the help of Coruscare and whoever served him.
He was examining the carvings when he noticed Syll had moved to stand next to him.
"She is a child Syll. A human one at that. And I've made so many mistakes already..", he whispered, feeling shameful.
"A child to you, perhaps, but a woman in her own right, and in many ways. I will not sway your opinion one way or the other, but I ask that you try to process your feelings. Whatever they may be, she deserves certainty, would you not agree?", she placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled sadly at him.
He nodded thoughtfully.
"I have a feeling she has a greater purpose that she is unaware of. Only a feeling but it is there, as real as the sun itself.", she said looking at the carved ceiling as he had just been.
Coruscare sat silent before saying, "She mentioned Drakes Air. Just before she lost consciousness, I had asked her who she was. She said "Drakes Air", does that mean anything to you?"
Syll tilted her head in thought. After a moment she shook her head, having never heard the phrase.
"Should I look into it?", she inquired.
Coruscare shook his head.
"Solving the problem of her illness is more critical. She seemed disoriented when she woke, it is possible that she misspoke.", he said hesitantly.
Something inside of him disagreed fervently but the longer Caeli's spirit traveled away from her body, the more difficult it would be to return it to her. If they dallied they risked her soul being lost to this world.
"We will keep searching for an answer. Should we successfully wake her, we will investigate then.", he said more firmly.
He only hoped that they could.
"In the meantime Coruscare you should continue to visit the girl, that is, if you feel up to it.", Syll said slowly. "I know you're feeling a variety of things, especially when it comes to the her situation, but I have to wonder if your visits are improving her comatose state. She's only ever been awake in your presence.", she replied to his confused expression.
He slowly nodded and went back to his desk to resume leafing through a book he had left open on the table top.