[color=lightgray] [img]https://i.imgur.com/qiuPNWq.png[/img]
[hr] Mentions/Interactions: Phia [@princess], Meiyu [@Tae][hr]

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qemb3iBlp1o[/youtube][/center]

The pain had become a second heartbeat.

Talis could barely feel her legs anymore. Her abdomen throbbed in deep, wet pulses that grew quieter with every passing breath. She was cold now. Not the trembling kind of cold, but the still kind. The kind that made her wonder if the blood soaking her thighs was all she had left.

But there were arms around her.

She blinked slowly, lashes heavy with tears, and turned her head slightly against the warmth of Phia’s chest. The scent of her…flowers and sweat and a hint of ash…was the first real thing she had felt since the blades had pierced her. And for a long moment, she just let herself breathe.

[color=olive]“Hey…”[/color] she whispered, voice thin and dry, cracking at the edges. Her hand fumbled weakly at Phia’s side, searching for something to hold. [color=olive]“You’re still here.”[/color]

Her lips trembled as she smiled, even as fresh blood pooled at the corner of her mouth. [color=olive]“Thank you… I didn’t think anyone would be.”[/color]

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and rolled into her hair.

She coughed once, a sick, wet sound, and her body seized with the motion. Her face twisted in pain as the black veins crept higher, spreading throughout her like cancer, whispering toward her neck like ink spilled across paper too fragile to hold it. Her stomach convulsed again, and a whimper escaped before she could stop it.

[color=olive]“I was so afraid she was going to kill you both…”[/color] Her head turned slowly, eyes searching the elven girl’s face. [color=olive]“I’m so sorry…I never wanted to be such a burden to anyone.”[/color]

Her fingers curled against Phia’s arm, trying so hard to hold on.

Then Meiyu spoke.

The words filtered through her fading senses, sharp and elegant, that voice like velvet over glass. Talis’s eyes fluttered toward her, half-lidded and heavy with pain.

And as she heard the woman’s question, Talis... laughed.

A tiny sound, frail and breathless, but there was pride in it. There was something mischievous still clinging to her fading smile.

Her hand slid, weak but deliberate, into the folds of her robe.

She didn’t explain, instead she just opened her palm.

And there, nestled between shaking fingers, was a crystal.

Strange but elegant, imperfect. Not flashy, not gilded, not inlaid with gems. Just… unique. And old. A heartbeat of faint light pulsed at its core.

She looked up at Meiyu with a flicker of spark in her tired eyes.

[color=olive]“She took the bag.”[/color] Talis said in a sharp intake of breath as her voice caught. [color=olive]“But not the prize.”[/color] Her smile deepened for a moment, even as pain cracked the edges of it. [color=olive]“I hid it…that…made me feel brave.”[/color]

She swallowed, trembling, and turned her gaze to Phia again.

[color=olive]“I was in over my head, but…”[/color] she murmured, the words catching between shallow, rattled breaths. [color=olive]“I had to take it. I had no choice. It was too important… too dangerous…”[/color] Her chest shuddered as pain arced through her, the black veins spreading rapidly and relentlessly. [color=olive]“But I can’t hold it anymore… not like this…”[/color] She looked toward the artifact, her gaze soft despite the agony behind it. [color=olive]“Maybe now… it’s time it chose for itself.”[/color]
Her fingers opened.

The artifact rose.

It drifted from her palm like a feather caught in windless air, rising slowly, spinning faintly, that same heartbeat of light growing stronger. A soft hum filled the space around them. Not loud, not threatening, but something about the resonance of it felt [i]ancient.[/i]

Talis looked up at it with wide, watery eyes, her face illuminated by its glow.

And then…so softly it barely existed, she whispered,

[color=olive]“I’ve been alone my whole life.”[/color]

Her throat tightened and her eyes welled. [color=olive]“Even when I wasn’t. Even with my family. Even at the academy…I was always invisible.”[/color] Her voice shook. Her body trembled. [color=olive]“I didn’t know how heavy it had been. Until now.”[/color]

She turned her head again, looking at Phia as more tears spilled over her cheeks.

[color=olive]“I’m scared.”[/color] Her emotions cracked her open as she confessed. [color=olive]“It hurts, and I’m scared, and I don’t want to die.”[/color]

A sob broke from her lips.

Then, through the agony, through the bleeding and the failing breath and the fire in her chest, she smiled.

[color=olive]“But… I’m not alone anymore.”[/color]

Her hand lifted, trembling like a leaf in storm winds, and she cupped Phia’s cheek. Her thumb barely brushed the skin there, too weak to linger.

[color=olive]“At least I don’t have to die the way I lived.”[/color]

She exhaled one final breath, shallow and warm, as her eyes searched Phia’s face.

[color=olive]“Thank you…”[/color]

And then, there was nothing.

The light left her eyes…her hand fell. The rising of her chest ceased, her body became limp.... She was gone.


But yet the artifact hovered above them still, pulsing now with deeper light. No longer soft, no longer waiting.

It had been hidden, dormant and suppressed, but now it had been seen.

And now, it was time for it to choose.[/color]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/AXOEGVm.png[/img]