A/N: Warning for self-harm even if it isn't in a traditional fashion. Griffin is just being terrible to herself.
This is following my idea that Valtor hates rain storms because they remind him too much of Tharma's punishments. I'm saying this so that you can have a better idea of what is going on in Griffin's head as this is from Marion's PoV and she's not a mind-reader so she can't quite know precisely what Griffin is thinking especially when Griffin is not too enthusiastic about sharing.
The rain was pouring down so heavy, almost like it was trying to punish the ground, and it was so dark you could barely see even if it was the middle of the day. As if the universe was trying to extinguish the Dragon Fire and plunge Domino back into the black void that it had had the audacity to fill with its existence. If Marion couldn't sense that there was no magic in the air and it was just the forces of nature that were being aggressive, she would've thought the Ancestral Witches had decided to strike and finally end the war whether with a win or with a loss.
A lightning struck and what the flash of electricity revealed almost made her think that that was exactly what was happening and she'd lost her sensitivity and intuition before a more frightening realization crept in. It was not her who wasn't functioning properly. It was Griffin. There was no other explanation as to why she would be out in the rain when they weren't being attacked and there was no need for her self-sacrificial act of guilt.
Marion was almost ready to melt off the windows when they were blocking the quickest route to Griffin but that would let the downpour flowing freely into the palace and get to everyone inside. She was just trying to save Griffin, not expose them all to the harsh blows of the freezing storm.
She ran out as quickly as she could in her royal garments–transforming would alert anyone who saw her and the guards seemed alarmed enough as she breezed past them or at least would have if she'd taken the time to spare them more than just a glance–only to pause dead in her tracks at the closer sight of Griffin. She could hardly comprehend how small her friend looked in comparison to the flood that was pouring on top of her as if trying to bury her underneath and Griffin looked like she intended to allow it to hurt her like that. It was a shock after she'd spent the first few months in the palace ready to rip off the head of whoever dared look at her the wrong way. It felt like she'd lost her sense of self, not to mention self-respect.
It gave her the needed push to regain her momentum and find the strength to pull Griffin with herself as she headed for the cover of the gazebo. It was closer than the palace doors and unpopulated which sounded like the best place to bring Griffin currently even if it was exposed to the blowing wind. That wouldn't matter with Marion's flames to keep them warm.
Griffin was so lost in whatever despair the sky was pouring just for her that she didn't even react to the touch of Marion's hand nor to the force with which she was dragging her to safety until they were almost out of the rain. She only tried to put up a fight when there were just a few steps left to their chosen shelter which was rather typical of her but Marion didn't let it deter her. She had enough determination and even rage to pull the stubborn witch the remainder of the way to the dry gazebo. She'd watched enough of Griffin drowning in her own mind to let it go any further even if Griffin was insisting on pushing herself past the limits of any human being. Even if she was refusing to show herself enough kindness to stop her–at this point, trademark–self-harm.
"Let go of me," Griffin hissed, the sound loud enough to pierce through the loud curtain of aggressive rain, and jerked her arm free from Marion's grip making her whirl around faster than the wind roaring around them to grab her again and keep her from running off back under the whiplash of the storm but all Griffin did was let her arm drop at her side like there was nothing to make it move, nothing to keep it alive. She looked like she didn't know where she was or how she'd gotten there even when Marion herself could tell exactly where Griffin's mind had ended up with the storm brewing on the palace grounds.
"What are you doing out in the rain, Griffin?" Marion asked as she couldn't quite piece how all of that had woven itself into Griffin's thoughts to make her go outside in the extreme weather. "You're soaking wet," she said and reached for Griffin to start warming her up and drying her when she saw her shiver at the words but the witch only pulled back as if her touch would hurt. And the worst part was that Marion could tell it probably would when Griffin's heart was wounded and none of them could help her heal. She was the only one who could heal herself but she didn't want to. She would rather suffer than move on and as much as it pained Marion to think of it as a conscious choice, she had to because otherwise, Griffin would be powerless and there'd be no one who could save her. Even if there were people who still loved her.
"So what?" Griffin snapped as she folded her arms in front of herself to keep Marion away as if she was the enemy and it called back too much to a time when that had been the truth. Even if there was no venom in Griffin's tone like there had once been before they'd found a common language and when she'd shared her words–her soul–with someone else. "You're also wet," Griffin pointed out and any concern that might have been in her voice sank into the water Marion could feel soaking her clothes and the sudden perception of it was like a ray of sunshine piercing through the clouds to shed some light into what had driven Griffin outside even if that was the one thing Marion wished she could erase from reality.
"You'll catch pneumonia, Griffin," Marion tried to reason with her even when she knew that wouldn't work when Griffin wasn't her logical self currently. She pushed away the thought that the witch might have used her rationality to cover up for the chaos in her own mind–shoved at it, really, with everything she had even when she knew she would only be satisfied with the result if she could hear it fall to the ground and break into pieces so tiny she wouldn't be able to see them–and focused on making her magic warm her up and give off enough heat to coax Griffin closer. Hopefully, her physical needs would overpower her drive to self-destruct.
"I've been through worse," Griffin said, her golden eyes shining fiercely into the darkness around but they weren't trying to disperse it. All their intensity was directed at Marion even if Griffin's gaze was focused more on the aura around her and not on her physical body as if trying to burn away the feeling of her magic. "I've caused worse," she said, holding her gaze, and Marion almost shied away from the rawness in the statement. She didn't want to dive into that topic but if it were the only way Griffin would let her near, she would do it. She just hoped Griffin wasn't expecting her to help her with cutting herself with words.
"This will not make up for it," she said, knowing that Griffin would accept that truth if only because it hurt. It was a small price to pay for keeping her alive and she was too relieved when Griffin allowed her to wrap her arms around her to worry about any future stunts the witch could try to pull to fix that.
Griffin jerked away and Marion almost let her extract herself from her embrace at the second it took her to panic that her magic was too hot and had burned her. "It's not supposed to be the warmth that hurts," Griffin almost sobbed into the crook of her neck where Marion pulled her head as she held on to her tightly. "It has to be the cold," she whispered so weakly that Marion almost didn't hear her. And she almost wished that she hadn't. "The cold I left him with," Griffin said, her voice quiet as if she was trying to make sure the words would escape notice but she just didn't have the strength to speak louder. Otherwise, she would. Marion could feel the strain in her muscles to scream until the noise drowned out the storm.
"He's choosing to stay with them, Griffin," Marion said, quite cold herself when she chose to interpret Griffin's words as referring to the Ancestral Witches. Griffin had confirmed for them what none of them had wanted to ponder lest they'd reached that same conclusion that she'd brought about what failing the Ancestral Witches entailed. It made it too hard not to sympathize with him and all their efforts went into reminding themselves that it didn't excuse his crimes when they had to put their energy into fighting him to stop him from committing more. "He could have chosen to run away like you did," Marion said, aware that he probably wasn't any more free to leave them than she'd been to leave her own parents and they hadn't even had half of the power and terror of the Ancestral Witches. But feeling anything other than hatred for him was madness when that was all he was willing to give back.
Griffin was the embodiment of that knowledge, yet she still shivered at the words. As if they'd shaken her to the core. They probably had with how wrong they were when they would've made everything much easier if they would have just been true.
"He wants power," Marion said, stopping herself before she could spill out more than Griffin could breathe through when Valtor's choice had already caused her enough trouble with that. She just let her inner flames warm her more as if she was hoping the contact with Griffin's body would let her reach into her heart and burn him out of there but all she managed to do was make Griffin cry out. Yet, she only pressed herself closer to Marion's heat when it was bound to remind her of his and just sear him more into her mind.
"You'll burn me," Griffin said, her voice muffled when her lips were pressed at the collar of Marion's dress, almost at the skin of her neck, but the fairy didn't pull back. Valtor was the only one that could do that and he'd already done it. "Let me go," the volume of Griffin's whine was startling with how insistent the plea was. Yet, Marion hadn't heard it the first time. So maybe she was more like Valtor than she cared to admit.
"As soon as you promise not to go out into the rain again," Marion said, sure that she wasn't playing into the similarity when Valtor no longer wanted Griffin safe. He wanted to kill her instead, and that was something Marion could never imagine herself wishing for.
"Are you scared of the rain?" Griffin asked, the clash of her quiet voice with the confidence of the question betraying to Marion how wrong she had been to think Griffin wouldn't be able to see through the flames the emotions that fed them. She could read into her magic and it was easy to ascribe it to the similarity between the Dragon Fire and its dark counterpart. But the two kinds of flames were just warped reflections of each other and in order to truly see them, Griffin needed to know the soul they came from. And she did know it. Both of them, it seemed.
"I am," Marion said and the confession gave Griffin the strength to tear herself away from her embrace when it just outlined the difference between her and Valtor more clearly.
Marion watched her run through the rain to the shelter of the palace and her heart relaxed. She'd half expected her to run into the opposite direction and as far away from the palace as she could before she dissolved in her magic and went right back to him. But he wouldn't take her back after the betrayal and that was the main difference.
He wanted Griffin to pay as if she hadn't already doomed herself to doing exactly that when she'd let him into her heart to be unable to tear him away. He wanted her suffering even though she already was when her heart was trapped in flames even the vicious downpour couldn't contain and Marion could only imagine that was coming from the hatred he harbored. If he still loved her, he would've wanted her to be safe from the rain even if it weren't his own flames making sure of that.