Page 73 of Runes To Rain
As he walks toward me, I say, “Dio’s hurt, I’m fine.”
He hesitates, looking doubtful, but then Dio coughs again. Fem redirects his attention to him. He quickly moves to the couch and begins triaging Dio’s injuries. While he’s occupied, I bring him his medical kit. As I set the medical kit down beside Fem, I glance at Dio again.
He meets my eyes for a moment.
We both freeze, and everything else seems to fade into the background. Dio opens his mouth as though he wants to say something. Then Fem does something that makes him gasp and look away.
Feeling nauseous suddenly, I drag my eyes away from him. Then I forcemyself to leave the office. I know I can’t stay and see him in pain. Especially not right now with this much adrenaline still flowing through me.
Reem meets me in the entry hall, his face white. He’s staring at the dark blood on my skirt, and I say, “It’s not mine.”
He looks briefly at the sword in my hand, and if possible, he goes even whiter. “Please tell me you didn’t kill someone again.”
“Would you believe me this time if I said I had?”
Some color returns to his cheeks, and I can tell that anger is beginning to push past his initial shock. “Tell me plainly, Chaosta,” he says, his voice grating, “did you just kill someone?”
“It’s better if I don’t tell you,” I say as I move toward my room, heading past him.
He steps in front of me as I get close, his body blocking mine.
I feel the fingers of my left hand wrap more tightly around my sword, and I breathe slowly, pulling my instincts back from the brink.
“If you put us, our work, or our name at risk with your actions again, I will have no choice but to remove you from this house and our support,” he hisses at me.
I remain where I am, meeting his eyes without saying anything.
“Do you even understand that you can’t just go around hurting people?” he nearly yells.
After a moment, perhaps when he recognizes that I’m not going to respond, he moves aside and I stride to my room. I want to make sure Dio is alright, but I am not willing to wait in the entry hall with Reem in this mood.
As I close the door behind me, I lean back against it for a moment. After I catch my breath, I fully clean and re-sheath my sword. The aftershock of those instincts leaving me makes my body shake. With too much adrenaline still pulsing through me for me to rest, I pace instead. As I move, caged in the room, all I can picture is Dio looking up at me as I held out my hand to him in the alley.
DIO’S JOURNAL - ENTRY 345
Annum:5615
Entry 345 - demiror
Yet another diary entry where I need to apologize if my handwriting isn’t as neat as normal. It’s been a few days since the incident in the alley, and I’m still struggling to hold a pen. The men who attacked me did a lot of damage.
I should be embarrassed, not only that two men were able to subdue and beat me this badly, but that I was ultimately saved by a girl. Of course, the old me from several months ago would find who saved me particularly distasteful. Chaosta, who I used to despise and who I think might still kind of despise me, killed my attackers with a fucking sword. She has another Demonforged blade. I don’t know where she got it, but that’s immaterial at the moment. I’m justglad she showed up when she did. I’m not sure if it was because of the blow to the head, but I tried to use magic, and it didn’t do much. I was trying to subdue them, but it didn’t work as it should have.
Not only did she kill them, she did it with brutal efficiency. She looked like some sort of beautifully unholy predator as she took them out without flinching. After she killed the second one, she summoned Malam as though it was normal, spoke with him for a few moments, and then helped me.
I wasn’t quite sure what to do. She offered me her hand. She fucking held out her right hand with the fucking broken fingers and, without a sound, helped me to my feet. All the while holding the sword as though she was ready for an additional threat. Then she supported and half-carried me into the house.
The less we say about the following few days, the better. Fem says I have internal bruising, likely a few broken ribs, a broken cheekbone, busted up hands, and my shoulder was dislocated, along with other sundry injuries. He wanted to get me a healer, but I refused. I’ve had my share of injuries, and I was fairly certain I could cope. Plus, I didn’t want to have the conversation about not taking pain medication with anyone other than him. Besides, I know how skilled Fem is as a healer with his background.
When the other guys asked what had happened, I asked what Chaosta said, and they seemed surprised. Well, Reem seemed irritated. I wasn’t sureif it was my ears ringing, but I thought I might have heard him yelling at her while Fem tended to me. Why he would do that, I don’t quite know. If he did, we’re going to have words at some point.
When Reem told me she wouldn’t tell him anything, I decided not to share what actually happened. I still don’t know if it was the right call or not, but it certainly didn’t seem like it was my secret to share. Instead, I simply told them she’d “Fought off my attackers,” and it seemed to appease them.
Now that we’ve had time to talk about it, we’re pretty sure they were stalkers we occasionally hear from. Based on their behavior, I think they were trying to kidnap me. I still don’t know why they weren’t impacted as they should have been by magic. The other thing I can’t explain is why a stalker would be so capable with a sword. That seems odd.
Reem has been closely watching the news, worried officials will be here to claim that Chaosta assaulted someone. For a while, he wanted me to report that I’d been assaulted, but I adamantly refused. Of course, he couldn’t know that bringing attention to the murder of two people outside of our building would be a likely side effect.
I can only hope the reason Chaosta summoned Malam that day was for him to dispose of the bodies. I’m just worried it seems too easy, especially since, as I mentioned in my last entry, Malam isn’t willing to work with us anymore.
