A/N: When Valtor returns from a mission empty-handed, the following confrontation with the Ancestral Witches ends up pushing Griffin to the point of no return.

The book lay abandoned on the couch–open no less like she never left them because it hurt their spines–as she paced around the room waiting for his return. He was late and she couldn't concentrate on reading when she felt the heaviness in the pit of her stomach and her heart racing to compensate for the slow movements of the hands of the clock. Something must have gone wrong. He could be in trouble and she could do nothing because his mothers hadn't let her go with him. She wasn't even told where he'd been sent, otherwise, she would've been there already. But the Ancestral Witches had been separating them a lot lately, claiming it was not necessary to have both members of their strongest team exhausting their energy for a job that could be done by just one of them. And so far their tactic of utilizing their resources had been working but Griffin knew something was bound to go wrong at some point. And she'd dreaded the moment, hoping they'd realize that Valtor and her were better off having each other's backs since that reduced the risk of injuries and failures. But they'd kept it up and now... she hoped it wasn't too late to fix the mistake.

It was a little more than half an hour after his estimated time of return that she felt the enormous whirl of magic accompanying the opening of a portal. It was in the other end of their base and bursting chaotically with no sense of direction. He hadn't been in the proper mindset to concentrate on a precise location and the magic had spat him out at a random place.

She let her own magic seek out his and whisk her away to him and she was soon teleporting herself. She ended up in one of the smaller corridors of their base, somewhere she didn't go often but she didn't have time to think about that.

Valtor was standing in front of her, doing his best not to fall over as he held his ribcage with one hand, his other arm limp at his side and sporting a cut that, thankfully, wasn't deep. It was just a surface wound unlike the injury to his chest. By the expression on his face that was all bruised and swelling she could tell he was in a lot of pain. More than when he had a cracked rib. He had at least one broken rib, possible internal bleeding and multiple smaller injuries over his entire body. His clothes were dirty and ripped as he'd probably been tackled to the ground where he'd struggled with his opponent. Or, more likely, opponents. She doubted one person could beat him up that badly.

She approached him slowly, resisting the impulse to throw herself at him, for he could barely support his own weight currently. Her quiet steps could do nothing to drown out the sound of his harsh, ragged breaths and it pained her to see him like that, gathering himself and all the strength he had left in order to just move through the base. The battle and the following use of his magic to open the portal must have drained him completely.

It took him some time to raise his head and he only noticed her when she was making her final step and stopped in front of him. He didn't even look her in the eyes before the arm hanging at his side wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer. He drew in a hissing breath through his teeth at the motion, the cut on his bicep probably burning, but he held on to her, pressing against her body despite his injuries.

She wrapped her arms around his neck since that was pretty much the only affection she could provide without irritating any of his injuries and hurting him more. She was torn because she wanted nothing more than to offer him comfort but he needed to have his injuries checked. Every second they wasted could be vital.

She pulled away to tell him all of that but the words died in her throat when she caught his eye. He was looking at her like he was seeing her for the first time, with so much relief in his eyes that it had her weak in the knees, her hands shaking as she reached for his face.

"Valtor," her voice was shaking as well and her eyes filled with tears when she touched his skin, cupping his cheeks gently. She had to reassure him that she was there and she was real, that he was at home, in her arms, and the only way to do that was to touch him. Even if it made him wince. It was better than the thoughts that had been running through his head, better than the pain of thinking he would never see her again. Shivers ran down her spine at the realization how bad it had been.

He ran a hand through her hair before pulling her into a kiss, his lips parting hers and his breath filling her lungs finally had her breathing. He was alive. He was safe. He'd come back to her. And that was all that mattered in the world.

"Valtor," Belladonna's bark was like a whiplash making them jump apart, Griffin's insides freezing. She was standing at the other end of the corridor and yet, the chill of her presence could be felt from all the way across it. And she wasn't even alone. Tharma and Lysslis were standing at her sides like they always were and they all looked furious. "You were supposed to come to us and report about the mission." Frost started creeping up the floor and walls towards the two of them, making the temperature in the closed space drop quickly and significantly. Griffin was shaking again but not just from terror this time and she instinctively reached for Valtor for support even though he probably needed that more than she did.

"That's where I was headed, mother," Valtor's voice was steady but still respectfully quiet and his head was bowed down as he avoided eye contact, adopting submissive attitude. He didn't let go of her hand, though.

"And it took you forty minutes?" Belladonna asked even though she was well aware he was just coming in. If Griffin had felt the portal, there was no way the Ancestral Witches hadn't. They just wanted to force him to admit his failure so that they could lash out at him. She'd seen them do it before. And she knew what would follow. She couldn't let it happen. "Report. Now," Belladonna's tone got sharper, deadlier as the frost kept making its way through the corridor and was now close enough to bite at both of them as soon as the news of the mission left his mouth.

"He needs to go to the infirmary first, Mistress Belladonna," Griffin cut in, keeping her head down to avoid challenging them any further than was strictly necessary and keep her courage. She was still shaking on the inside and wasn't exactly sure how much of that was visible on the outside as well. "If there's internal bleeding, every second could be essential." She dared a quick glance at the direction of the ancient witches and that was enough to have her swallowing, her voice dying in her throat. If they required a reply from her now, she wouldn't be able to give it and that would get her a punishment as well.

"But he found the time to get all romantic with you," Tharma said, her voice seemingly controlled but the rage was burning in it steadily and insidiously and it was a good thing Griffin couldn't talk currently because anything she said would be the wrong answer.

"Is that what you're doing now?" Lysslis spoke, her words full of cold, soulless curiosity that was like a knife poking at their open wounds and cutting through every nerve in its way. "You're letting her fight your battles?" The way Lysslis referred to her crushed every last bit of hope Griffin had that she and Valtor could reason with them. They'd been praising her for her strategies when she'd first joined them and won them some huge victories. But lately all she did was get frowned upon. Especially if it concerned Valtor in any way. "You can't speak for yourself and you can't complete missions on your own. Are you co-dependent on her now?"

"That's not-"

"That was a rhetorical question," Belladonna's voice was loud enough to break the ice crust covering the corridor in pieces as she interrupted him. "She speaks out of turn to us and you come back empty-handed. The answer is crystal clear." The cold flushed over them, making their muscles shake so hard it was impossible to keep holding hands and their teeth chatter which she was sure the Ancestral Witches could still count as disrespect and punish them for that, too. "That partnership was bad for you."

"We're your most successful team," Valtor argued, looking her in the eyes, heat pulsing out of him and warming Griffin up enough to have her muscles relax. Steam filled the corridor as the frost melted off. "We're unstoppable together."

"You still need to be able to function as an independent asset." Belladonna snarled, more frost creeping their way. It couldn't reach them with the heat coming off of Valtor but that was because she wasn't trying to reach them. She wasn't controlling the process. It was happening subconsciously. "Yet, all we've gotten is proof of the opposite."

"My mission failed because the Company of Light had sent word to the king to warn him of my attack and the guard was five times what I expected." Of course it had. The Ancestral Witches didn't let her plan much anymore, leaving their fingerprints all over everything they touched and giving away their plans to the Company. They were a force to be reckoned with but they lacked any subtlety in their planning, relying on brute force instead of stealth and that could cost much. It'd almost cost everything today and they still hadn't realized it. Even the might of Valtor's Dragon Fire wasn't enough against too many opponents. "I still defeated them all and managed to escape." If they'd captured him... Griffin didn't even dare think of that. The Council had no mercy against any random dark magic user that was caught doing anything they considered wrong. There was no telling what they would've done to him.

"You still came back empty-handed," Tharma stepped in, the wind swirling around her feet and destroying Belladonna's frost, making small pieces of it start spinning in the air. If they'd been any thicker, they would've been dangerous like glass shards. "And you dare talk back to us?" Electricity crackled around her and a lightning aimed at Valtor left her form.

"No," Griffin summoned a magical shield that stopped the attack from reaching its aim. Valtor's hand was immediately on her hip, squeezing warningly to snap her out of it. She couldn't oppose them like that and she knew it. But she couldn't let them torture him either. "If you attack him now, it will take him more time to heal and go back on the battlefield," she tried to be logical about it which had about fifty percent chance of just angering them more.

And it looked like that was the case with Tharma who was seething, more electricity crackling around her, but she still waited for Belladonna to react first. It was Lysslis who spoke instead.

"So you're just thinking about the Coven?" she asked, her voice soothing, lulling you into false security as she slithered in front of her sisters and ever closer. "Our little strategist," the words finished in a resentful hiss.

Griffin knew better than to open her mouth. She just stood still, looking at Lysslis' general direction but not into her eyes. She wasn't suicidal.

"Very well then," Lysslis' praise was like a slap in the face but she stood her ground as the ancient witch stopped in front of her. "We have a mission just for you. And you'll either come back victorious or you'd wish to never have come back at all," the threat was quiet but impossible to miss. Especially with Lysslis' magic plunging her directly into an illusion, making the feeling of Valtor's touch disappear.

She was wrapped into darkness, unable to hear or see anything, before a flash of white searing agony sliced through her mind and she couldn't even feel herself react. She could've screamed or fell to her knees but all her brain registered was the pain and nothing else.

"You'll bring us what we want no matter how much blood you have to spill," Lysslis' voice reached her, making her misery worse. That was a part of the problem. She was trying to leave as few victims behind as possible. It was better from a strategical point of view but they were taking it as misplaced mercy. Though, any mercy would be misplaced by their standards. Even when bloodshed clearly wasn't the answer. "Otherwise, I will personally pull your mind apart piece... by... piece..." every word echoed in her head, bouncing off the corners of her consciousness, hitting it with brutal force and leaving bruises behind.

The illusion ended as abruptly as it had begun and left her out of breath, the memories of terror and suffering fresh in her head, but at least she could feel Valtor's hand on her again. It seemed like she hadn't had any external reactions, for he hadn't tried to pull her out of it. Or maybe he was just being cautious, playing along with their reign of terror. It was possible that he just didn't have enough strength for anything left, too.

"Get him to the infirmary and then come find us to receive information about the mission," Belladonna's voice cut through her but she was grateful for it also cutting them lose from that confrontation. It was over.

She wrapped an arm around Valtor's waist, relieved that it didn't cause him pain or even discomfort, and opened another portal. He probably wouldn't have enough strength to even walk the short distance to the infirmary. And even if he did, she had no desire to go past the Ancestral Witches who were blocking the corridor. So she focused on the map of the base in her mind and helped him into the portal, letting her anger at his mothers feed her magic. She'd finally recognized their current location. It was in the part of the base that the Ancestral Witches had to themselves and he'd been going to them to report about his mission despite the seriousness of his current state. If his return hadn't drawn her to him, they would've hurt him even worse than his mission.