Auri's head was screaming. Everything was loud, blurry and painful. The night came back to her in fragmented bits and pieces. Knife. Nilfgaardians. Fire. Betrayal.
She opened her eyes and found him staring at her. She quietly moved a hand to her boot and found nothing.
'Looking for this?' he asked and fiddled with her dagger. 'No weapons. You're not supposed to kill someone who just saved your life.' he said and placed the dagger behind him and out of her reach.
'You've been trying to kill me since we met. You're just as terrible as the other Nilfgaardian scum your Emperor sent my way. I should have-'
Auri bent over to the side and threw up.
'Mhm, and after killing me, what would you have done then?' Cahir said from above her as a hand gently moved her hair away from her face. She had no more breaths. It didn't matter if he killed her now or later, if she ever got well enough to stand on her own he was done for. She wanted to end him because he lied to her, he played with her and promised her to help-
'I will help, you just have to let me,'
She'd spoken out loud. Auri stared at the bloody contents of her stomach and groaned. She laid back down on the soft bedroll and cursed. Her eyes refused to focus, everything was a blur. Everything except his blue eyes.
She tried to tell him to fuck off again but her eyes closed before she managed.
She drifted in and out of a somewhat coherent existence for what seemed like hours. Once she woke up to him cooling her down with a wet cloth. Telling her to be still and running a hand through her hair. Later she woke up again, only to empty the contents of her stomach on the floor and gulp down water from the stream. Fuck off.
'You've been poisoned. You'll feel better when it leaves your body. The Nilfgaardians took no chances it seems.' his voice echoed through her head and he refused to let her move her arm to touch her shoulder.
'Leave it.'
Auri awoke to bright light shining in through the curtain of ivy hanging in front of the cave. Her entire body hurt, she didn't even try to move. She felt her ribs bruise more everytime she woke up to puke.
'Are you okay?'
Auri found a shadow at the back of the cave dragging a whetstone along a blade. She remembered him standing above her with his sword raised, and she wondered if he'd plotted to kill her then too. In an instant his face warped. He was no longer the gentle blue-eyed ex-commander she'd found by the Yaruga. His eyes turned black, a sneer obscured his features and the winged helmet dripped with blood-
Auri scrambled toward the dagger still laying on the floor. He'd kill her, she needed to get away from him. Get away. Run. Now.
'Auri! Stop!'
She only heard the screaming fields of Sodden Hill in her head, she only smelled Triss burning to death by the gates and Yennefer wreathing the field in fire, the smoke, the screaming-
Auri turned and threw the dagger directly at the black eyed shadow.
Get out.
Run.
Now-