The twins rushed into their father's room to find him on the floor and Marie bent over him.
"What, what happened?" They asked moving closer to him.
"He appeared out of nowhere and, now he's on the floor.." Marie tried to explain when two men walked in seemingly out of nowhere.
"Agnar!" A voice called out.
"Good, he's here." Another said.
Looking at the door, the twins saw their 'uncles' One-eye and Raymond. "Where did..."
"We'll take it from here." One-eye spoke moving closer to where they were.
"You three need to leave, let us handle it," Raymond said as he helped One-eye lift Agnar unto the bed.
"What's going on? Where did you two even come from?!" Raten yelled, panicked and confused.
"Would you please?" Looking over at Marie, One-eye signaled for her to take the boys out.
"Come, let's leave them to help your father." She said and grabbed hold of their hands.
"But, Marie..."
"Staying here won't help." She said not wanting to listen to what they had to say as she pulled them out of the room. Raymond shut the door behind them.
"Darn that Demas! I knew we couldn't trust him." One-eye said holding onto his staff which flickered with light.
"How can you blame him for this? He isn't at fault." Raymond said refusing to believe Demas was a traitor. "You had better take your mind off Demas and focus on saving the fool." He pointed at Agnar.
Taking in a deep breath, One-eye tried to calm his nerves and focus on helping his friend.
Meanwhile, outside the door to their father's room, the twins were beside themselves with worry. Marie tried to make them leave the door and at least have dinner but they refused. If there was something they dreaded the most in this world, it was the thought of losing their father.
As moments passed, Marie would keep coming back. She managed to convince them to eat something. Although little, it was better than sleeping on an empty stomach.
All the while the twins sat in front of their father's room, staring at the shut door, they only could hear constant muttering and mumbling, furious hisses from the other side of the door. "What could have happened?" They wondered. In the few times they had met with their 'uncles,' they had never seen them this serious and worried if they could guess correctly, there was fear evident in their expression.
"Father, please be okay."
The moon was high up in the sky, giving light to the dark city. It was more visible from the hill the Teferi family dwelled. But, unlike any other night where they might have been staring at the sky or training with their father, the twins were lying on the cold floor outside his room. Marie seeing them asleep, went to their rooms and got sheets to cover them up with, and pillows to rest their heads on.
"Oh, Demas. I hope you didn't go on with the alliance." She mumbled to herself as she glanced at the room before walking off to the room she was given.
The earth which was enveloped by the cold and darkness of the night now had light shining brightly on every man and every house. Yawning and stretching on his bed, Agnar had a smile on his face. "Well, that was a nice nap."
*Bonk...
A cup had hit him on the head. "Why?" He asked pissed off at the person who threw it at him.
"Why? You ask me why?" One-eye said angrily. "I spent hours trying to save your sorry ass, but you were fine in minutes and were just loudly snoring!"
"How is it my fault you're bad at detecting when the person you're saving has been saved!" Agnar retorted rubbing the back of his head which stung a bit from the cup that was thrown at it.
"Must the two of you squabble every morning?" Raymond lazily getting up from the floor he fell asleep on, asked. The two men said nothing to counter his statement for as long as they have known each other and have stayed a night under the same roof, they would squabble over nonsensical things.
"There's a much serious matter to discuss about now." One-eye stated.
"Are you still on that?" Raymond rolled his eyes.
"On..what?" Agnar questioned not knowing what they were talking about.
"Demas," One-eye replied. "Demas is the cause of what happened last night, isn't he?"
"What? Demas? He did nothing." Agnar said.
"What do you mean by that? You both have two perfectly working eyes and you still can't see!" He kissed his teeth in rage.
"I could see perfectly, One-eye," Agnar responded. "All that happened was a man seeing his wife being consumed by whatever that was, acting out and trying to save her. He only reached out to her and tried to pull her back."
"Pull her back?! That man struck you in the chest."
"That's because I was standing between him and his partner. It wasn't aimed at me but at that creature. And besides, you think taking that to the chest was what had me down?" Agnar raised a brow.
"Of course not. But, he manipulated you into overreacting, Agnar. Everyone knows how sensitive you are about the topic, but he just had to bring up your late wife. You saw her image, didn't you? You saw the illusion, didn't you?"
"What are you insinuating?" Raymond asked, getting bored of the conversation.
"Agnar, it's not like you just go all out like that when you know you will be at risk. You know she's dead. We all know that. But, you couldn't stop yourself from going in. You just kept walking and all of a sudden every power, every magic you could muster, you kept using it. Not just destroying yourself, but the earth, and the people around you. I know you don't care about the people, but you care about yourself, and if I'll say anyone else, the two boys you have, you wouldn't just want to die."
Agnar paused for a moment taking in what his friend had said. It was true he couldn't explain what happened to him. It wasn't an explosion of emotions, it wasn't his heart or mind acting out, rather, it was his body doing everything. He couldn't stop it no matter how hard he tried.
"You still can't just pin the blame on Demas, he has no reason to want Agnar dead. He has been the one helping to look for ways to break the curse, so this makes no sense," said Raymond.
"If he is so innocent, why didn't he at least show up here? Where is he?" One-eye queried. "I know it makes no sense, his actions, but think about it, Agnar, amongst the three men with you last night, who has the power of manipulation and illusion?"
"Demas."
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*Author's tears flowing incessantly..
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