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R'hyleigh Hena

Adamantoise [Aether]

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Hyleigh Dreaming

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The table orchestrion on Hyleigh’s dresser was playing The Warrens on repeat, and the oil lamp on her end table burned low. Soon it would run out of oil. Hyleigh lay on her side, still clothed, on her bed. Her head rested on her arm, her eyes were closed, and she still held a letter in her hand.

She dreamed.

She can hear the thudding of her boots against the corridor floor, and it resonates from the walls. It’s too loud. Augustine is running ahead of her, and her gaze is drawn to the glowing red katana hanging at his side. Her bow is a bright, sky blue. What is his aetherpool? She wonders. She doesn’t need to see the difference in their weapons to know his is high, though. He’s been carrying her through floor after floor, and enemies that had taken countless arrows were falling to one or two slashes of his katana. Awe washes over her, and she has to push it down so she can keep running.

Then, without warning, Augustine stops moving. Though Hyleigh tries to stop running, her momentum propels her forward and she finds herself thrown against his back. Mumbling an apology, she takes a step away from him and straightens her clothes. Then her eyes dart from side to side, and she spins around to see if there are any creatures behind her. She doesn’t see anything except the succubus Augustine felled a moment before. Oh. He’d stopped in his tracks. Whatever it is must be ahead of them. She strains to peek around him, but instead of drawing his katana he turns to face her.

“Hyleigh, I’ve been wondering. Did he…hit you?”

Hyleigh blinks at him. Is he really asking this right now? She continues to stare at him. I must not have heard him correctly.

“Wh-what?” Her voice is quiet.

“Did he beat you when you were together?”

Hyleigh doesn’t want to have this conversation. She’s told him too much already, and every time it was a mistake. She lifts her bow and walks around him to investigate the room ahead. The cairn of passage is against the far wall, and the room appears to be otherwise empty. She inches into the room, her gaze sweeping from side to side. Augustine is beside her.

“Hyleigh?”

She stiffens, then lowers her bow. She can’t not answer.

“No, he never hit me. Happy?” She sighed. It wasn’t quite that simple. “He threatened a lot, but he said he didn’t because I wasn’t worth going to jail over. And—” She bites her lower lip and lowers her gaze. “They said he’s the reason I’m mentally ill, that he gave me an emotional breakdown.” She groans in frustration. “I know that’s not what you asked, but there are more things a man can do to you than hit you. I think we should move past all of that, though. Rehashing the past has never done us any good. And don’t call me Hyleigh. It’s R’hyleigh to you.”

She shoulders past him and steps into the cairn of passage. He follows suit.

As the magic field around the cairn pulsates, he shrugs, says: “It doesn’t really matter anyway.” Her gaze snaps up to his, but he’s gone. They’ve already teleported.

When Hyleigh is firmly on floor thirty-six, she looks around to see that Augustine is in the next room, and a nightmare bogey falls to the floor in front of him. Hyleigh moves to make her way into the next room, but sees something shining at the corner of her vision. It’s a gold chest. She looks from the chest to Augustine, then back to the chest. If it’s a pomander of intuition, she might find treasure that she can sell, and then she can help her mother pay bills. But if that chest is a mimic, there’s no way she can fight it by herself. She purses her lips together and rushes into the next room, drawing her bow.

“Augustine,” she says, trying to sound as upbeat as possible as she takes aim. “Did you really just say it doesn’t matter if a man beat me?” She lets her poisoned arrow fly.

“Well, yeah,” he says nonchalantly. “I mean, I’m happy anyway.”

She doesn’t know how to process this. She grits her teeth and lets loose another arrow. The monster doesn’t seem to notice. It’s too focused on Augustine, anyway.

“You’re not exactly winning points with me right now,” she calls out above the monster’s death scream. She and Augustine are the only ones left standing in the room.

He turns to face her and tilts his head to the side. His eyes are slightly wide with questioning. He looks…innocent.

“Why would I need points with you?” he asks, much too sweetly. “I’m the Warrior of Light.”
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