Darius, wake up!
The voice came up out of the darkness towards him, faint but persistent, pulling him towards consciousness.
Darius! Wake up! Oh Titan, please wake up!
Darius wished he could answer, but when he tried all that escaped his lips was a low moan. Everything hurt.
Is death supposed to hurt this much?
He must be dead. His eyes blinked, but everything remained pitch black. He could feel that he was lying on his back on something hard. Something shook him, causing his head to explode in pain. Colored lights danced before his unseeing eyes against a backdrop of total darkness.
"Stop." He gasped, and the shaking ceased.
"Darius, can you hear me?" That voice was familiar. Where had he heard it before? Slowly his memories took shape through the throbbing haze of pain. He remembered flying, fear, following a dull green light through the dark. Shaking.
We fell.
He convulsed suddenly, twisting his body to the side, and vomited. Everything burned. He could feel his cheek digging into a dirty leather glove which held his face out of his own sick pooling on the floor beneath him. The hot, sickening stench filled his nostrils, causing him to retch again. He threw up again and again until there was nothing left in his gut. His throat felt raw and his eyes stung from the disgusting fumes. The hand holding up his head snaked under his neck and lifted him up into a semi-reclined position, pressing his face against a curved metal surface beneath which he could hear the soft galloping rhythm of the Golden Guard's racing heart-beat. He groaned and sank into the overwhelming sensation of total bodily exhaustion.
"Darius, stay awake." The hand that had been around his shoulders was suddenly persistently patting his cheeks. It was gentle enough, but the stimulation jolted him into painful wakefulness, his head throbbing. Darius whimpered and tried to bat the hand away.
"St-stop it." His tongue felt heavy in his mouth. "Wanna sleep. Feel better after I sleep."
"Darius, listen to me, you have to stay awake, alright? You probably have a serious concussion. I know it's hard but you have to stay conscious. Do you remember what happened?" A moan slipped past Darius' lips. "
"Yes." Titan, he wished he didn't remember. Bitter shame flooded his chest. "We're in a cave. We fell."
"That's good, keep talking. Tell me what you're feeling." Darius gritted his teeth in the darkness as a wave of pain washed over his brain.
"Head. Hurts to think."
"I know it does. Does it hurt anywhere else?" Darius attempted to take stock of his body, that nebulous thing attached to him by the neck and stretching out in a rather fuzzy sort of way into long appendages. He tried to concentrate and slowly the vague suggestion of his corporeal existence solidified into sharp, painful focus.
"My leg." He hissed and instantly regretted attempting to move. "Oh bones. It hurts. My leg… might be broken."
"Okay, I'm going to check it. I know this is going to hurt, but I need you to stay awake and stay still while I feel it. Do you think you can do that for me?" Darius managed to mumble out an assent. The dark world lurched uncomfortably around him as the Golden Guard moved him from what must have been his lap to the ground, laid out on his back like a corpse. Deprived of sight, all his other senses flooded him with their hypersensitivity. He felt one of the Golden Guard's rough gloved hands traversing his prone body, pressing down gently but firmly on his pelvis, then his thigh. He could smell sweat and blood and the sour stench of his vomit somewhere on the floor nearby. On top of those lovely scents hug the overpowering scent of earth and dust, filling his nostrils with tiny particles of dirt. He crinkled his nose to keep from sneezing. Besides him in the dark he heard the Golden Guard's cloak and armor rustling and creaking with his minute movements, as well as the sound of his steady breathing. Darius could feel dirt sticking to his hair and skin when he turned his head towards the sound. It was grimy and gross and…
Oh mucking Titan.
Darius let out a mangled scream as the Golden Guard pressed down on his lower leg and his world exploded in pain. The hand immediately lifted and scrambled over his body to cup his face.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I know it hurts."
Darius felt like he was caught in a vast spinning whirlpool of agony. He wanted to black out, to slip below the surface of consciousness and be swallowed up into blissful oblivion. It would be so nice to escape the pain…
"Stay with me, Darius! Stay awake!" The Golden Guard's gloved hands dropped to his shoulders and shook him firmly. "If you pass out now I won't have any way to know how you're doing. It's bad enough I can't see you. If you fall asleep you… I don't know if you'll wake up!" The voice choked with anguish. The hand that had been shaking him came around his shoulders and lifted till he was half sitting, half lying in the man's lap. Darius wanted to burst into tears. Everything hurt and he was lying on the cold, dirty ground in absolute darkness. His brain was fuzzy and staring into the darkness gave him the unsettling sensation of spinning. He closed his eyes and groaned.
"This mucking sucks." The voice gave a rueful chuckle.
"It sure does. Just think, if you had only listened to my bloody orders you wouldn't be lying here injured!" Darius stiffened as the voice above him became increasingly terse. "I would have been out by now with a nice vial of Titan's Blood, back safe and sound with you all in one piece, on my staff headed back to the castle. Emperor Belos would have been elated, maybe even thanked me! Instead, we're at the bottom of a trench, injured, with no staff, no Titan's Blood, and no way to get help." Darius licked his dry lips and tried to give a light-hearted chuckle.
"Things could be worse? At least we're alive, right?" The hand on his shoulder started shaking with fury.
Oh dirt. That was the wrong thing to say.
"Why the Hell did you come into the cave? I told you very specifically not to…"
"It started raining! I had to come in or else I was going to get boiled!"
"So you had to come ALL the way down here to get out of the rain? You expect me to believe that, Darius?"
"There was a ratworm! It was huge and angry and…and I thought you should know."
"Darius…" That familiar exasperated sigh tipped him over the edge. If he could see at all, he was sure that everything would be going red.
"I thought it was going to hurt you, okay!" He fought to get the words out through the waves of pain that set his head throbbing. "I thought it was going to sneak up on you and attack you and you'd die down there in the tunnel and it'd be all my fault because I didn't warn you! SO sorry I had the audacity to give a royal muck about your safety. I'll know better next time not to stick my neck out for anyone."
"That's right." His commander's voice was cold. "Don't go sticking your neck out where it doesn't belong, especially when you have no idea what you're getting yourself into."
"Well why didn't you tell me anything?" Darius was seething. "If you had just told me that you were going to get Titan's blood, or that it might cause an EARTHQUAKE if I touched it…"
"That wasn't Titan's blood. It was Fool's blood."
"See? That would have been something nice to know!"
"You didn't need to know it. The only thing that you needed to know was STAY OUTSIDE! How many times do I need to say it, Darius?"
"Okay, fine! I'm sorry!" You were right and I am a stupid idiot who can't follow orders. It's all my fault and I'm the one who got us into this mess! There. Are you happy now?"
"I would be happy if I thought for even one moment that you meant it." Darius bit the inside of his cheek to hold back the angry retort burning on his lips. Instead he opened his eyes and tried to make out anything, even the barest hint of an outline in the utter blackness.
Nothing.
"Why is it so dark?"
"We're buried alive at the bottom of a trench?"
"No, I mean why isn't there any light? Where are the light spells?" The Golden Guard sighed wearily.
"The light spells I made have blown out or they're too far away to reach us."
"So make some new ones."
The Golden Guard didn't respond. Darius stretched out his arm, groping in the dark to feel. "Are you hurt? Can you not use your arms?"
"No, I can use my left arm just fine. I can't move my right arm, but I can't tell just how badly it's injured without a light."
"Well then why don't you make another light spell? Being injured and possibly bleeding out is totally great and all, but I'm gonna be honest, not being able to see is freaking me out."
"I can't."
"What do you mean you can't? I've seen you make them before. Heck, you made dozens of them when you got in here."
"I can't make any more." Darius gritted his teeth in frustration at the quiet monotone.
"Well why the muck not? You're the Golden Guard, Emperor Below' right hand man, the second-most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, leader of the Emperor's coven, with access to every freaking kind of magic. I know you said that you didn't know healing Magic, which I gotta be honest sucks right now, but for Titan's sake do SOMETHING! Make us some light, send a message for help, or, better yet, get us OUT OF HERE!" Darius was starting to hyperventilate. The pain of his injuries combined with the panic he felt rapidly consumed his mind, which noted the fact with appropriately morbid humor.
Lying on a dirt floor with a head injury and possibly broken bones in oppressive, mind-numbing darkness in a tiny claustrophobic space at the bottom of a deep pit kinda sucks. Who knew?
"You said that you proved yourself in the field, right? You said that you could handle this." Shameful tears stung the corners of his eyes. "You promised me that everything was going to be okay, that we were going to go home. Well it's NOT OKAY! We're hurt and trapped and we're going to die a slow horrible death down here if we don't do something! So why aren't you doing anything? Why…"
"Because I can't do magic, Darius." The words were barely more than a whisper but they made Darius fall absolutely still, choking back his words with shock. The Golden Guard's arms were trembling violently around him.
"I'm a fraud, a charlatan, a useless waste of air who was given my rank because I'm the Emperor's ward. I'm not a powerful witch, and I didn't earn this position. The truth is that I can't do any magic at all. Without my staff I'm completely powerless." Darius' unseeing eyes blinked rapidly as his mind tried to process the insanity it was hearing.
'I…I don't understand. I've seen you do magic. What do you mean that you can't do magic without your staff?"
"Belos…" The voice was so soft that Darius had to strain to hear it in the inky blackness. "The Emperor made the artificial staff for my father, who was a powerless witch like me. He gave it to me when I was training to become the Golden Guard." The Golden Guard's voice trembled slightly, but pressed steadily onward.
"I'm sorry that I called you an idiot. This isn't your fault. It's mine for letting you come with me at all. You are young and inexperienced and I should have said no. I should have known better than to put your life at risk. If I actually deserved to wear this bloody sigil on my back then you wouldn't be in this position and Fenni would still be 're right. I promised you that it was going to be okay, and I swear to you that I am going to do everything in my power to make good on that promise." Darius felt guilt twisting in his aching gut. The Golden Guard was apologizing to him?
"No, no, it's not your fault. You were right, I should have listened to you. I promised that I would obey your orders and I broke my promise. You put your faith in me and I blew it." He was so thankful that the Golden Guard couldn't see the cowardly tears streaking down his cheeks in the darkness. "I know that it's all my fault and I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I… I wish I could take it all back and fix it and… and the worst part is I wanted to blame you for this somehow. Isn't that disgusting and pathetic? That I got us into this mess and I still got so mad at you for not getting us out of it?"
"I guess we both made some mistakes today." The Golden Guard sounded exhausted. "It doesn't matter now. We're just going to have to figure a way out of here." Darius nodded to himself.
"Sure, sure. Got any ideas?"
"...No. Not at the moment. Without my staff there's not much I can do in the way of magic. And without being able to see I won't get far in this darkness. I could try climbing up and feeling my way out to go get help, but my arm is in pretty bad shape. Plus, I don't like the idea of leaving you by yourself down here." Darius gave a nervous chuckle.
"Yeah, not gonna lie, that sounds pretty terrible. All the same, we don't have a lot of choices. Let me try something." Darius tried to concentrate, reaching out with his mind for his abomination goo. The effort made his brain flare in pain and he gasped, eyes flying open in the darkness. "Bones, I can't do it. My head still hurts too much. Give me a bit and I'll try again." The Golden Guard sighed and leaned back on his good arm.
"Don't force yourself, Darius. Try to rest and save your strength. We may be down here for a while." The thought made him quail a little inside.
"Yeah, now I really wish you had grabbed me an extra staff. Those things are pretty cool, by the way. There wasn't enough Palistrom wood for all of us to make our own Palismen in my class, so I've never had a staff of my own. Having one of those sounds really nice. You said that Belos made the staff for your father?"
"Yes."
"Is he…"
"He died before I was born, but he was the Emperor's best friend. Belos tells me they were so close they were practically brothers. That's why he took me in and raised me."
"What about your mom?"
"I never knew her either. She… she abandoned me before I was even a year old." Darius' mouth went dry.
"Oh, wow. That really… I'm so sorry, man. So you don't know anything about her?"
"No. Belos doesn't like to speak of her and from the things he's said I get the feeling he disapproved of her even before my father's death." A heavy silence descended on the two of them in the darkness. Darius didn't know what to say, but he felt instinctively that the Golden Guard had shared something deeply personal and painful. Somehow, even in a small way, he needed to return the gesture. He gathered his courage and cleared his throat.
"My parents are dead, too. I get it, I know what it's like to be alone." Darius choked on the last word. He felt the Golden Guard shift around him, the arm under his shoulder tightening slightly.
"I'm sorry. How old were you?"
"It was last year. They were killed in a boating accident on the boiling sea. I mean, it's not exactly like your case. I got to know them my whole life and I was already an adult when it happened, but it still sucks dirt. I…" He could feel his eyes filling with tears again. "I really miss them, you know? I miss knowing that if I ever needed them they were just a bird call away. I miss my dad's cooking. I miss my mom's stupid jokes. I used to groan and tell her how much I hated them, and now they're the best jokes in the world because I'll never get to hear them again." He tried to give a chuckle that came out sounding wet and pathetic. "I guess it's pretty sad how much a grown-ass man can still need his parents."
"It's not sad. It means they loved you. I… I wish I knew what that was like. I know it's not the same, but for what it's worth you have a lot of friends who love you, too." Darius thought of Eda's arms around his waist on his birthday. She had risked so much by coming to the castle, and just to tell him she was happy he existed. Lilith had come too, and he'd been so brutal to her. Not to mention the way he'd treated Alador yesterday...
"Yeah," he swallowed around the lump in his throat. "I've got some pretty good friends. I've been kinda a bone to them recently."
"I'm sure the last year has been pretty rough for you. For what it's worth, you've done remarkably well in training for someone who's mourning the loss of their parents."
"That's easy. Training is something I can focus on. Whenever I'm missing them, or feeling angry or depressed, it's nice to be able to punch all my problems away."
"You're right. It is nice. I still would never have guessed from the way you charm your coven superiors."
"Well that just goes to show what a fantastic actor I am. You should have seen me in the lead role in Shakesword's Omlette my senior year at Hexside. During the sword-fight in the last act the stupid little cretin playing Blaertes actually stabbed me and I had to carry on pretending like there wasn't real blood getting all over the costume I spent painstaking hours constructing to be historically accurate."
"What a tragedy" the Golden Guard deadpanned.
"Very punny. The whole school had no idea that as soon as the curtain fell I was on a stretcher being carted to the nearest clinic. Perry actually made an illusion of me to take bows!" The Golden Guard chuckled.
"I bet you were so mad that you weren't up there receiving all the accolades and autograph requests."
"It was a sacrifice in the name of the Arts. Besides, it just made me look all the more badass when the truth came out the next day. I had underclassmen professing their undying love and admiration every day until graduation. So many young hearts were crushed that year, now that's the true tragedy."
"What, you didn't return anyone's affections? Now that is a little unbelievable. Didn't you have a crush on anyone at Hexside?" Darius' mouth clamped shut. This would be an awkward conversation. Nervously he cleared his throat.
"Remember when I told you I wasn't in a love triangle?" The Golden Guard groaned.
"Oh, Titan. Please don't tell me you actually are in love with Odalia." Darius choked.
"Stars, no! I mean, it's not really a love triangle. I just had a huge crush on Alador my whole time at Hexside."
"Ah. So is that why you hate Odalia?"
"Yeah. I mean no! I hate her because she's a terrible person! The fact that she's with Alador is just the cherry on top of the disgusting parfait of her personality. And she's only partly to blame for the way things turned out between us. I thought I was being obvious about my feelings, but Alador is kinda oblivious, you know? Brilliant and amazing and super talented, but also a total idiot, and by the time I realized I needed to actually say something it was too late. But we were still friends through it all, at least until now. Titan, I am such a pathetic dork, lying here telling you the sob story of my love life."
"Well it's not like we have anything else to do down here. Besides, I like hearing about your time at Hexside. It sounds…nice. Comfortingly normal, you know?" It took Darius a moment.
"Oh!" He turned his head, searching in the darkness for the man's face. "Oh, yeah! School must have been really different for you! Ward of the Emperor? Doesn't that make you, like, a prince or something?" The Golden Guard snorted at the idea.
"A prince?"
"Yeah! A prince! That totally suits you. A tragic, mysterious prince up in the castle waiting for a princess to rescue him."
"Now you're just making fun of me."
"Of course not, your highness." Darius said in his gravest monotone." The Golden Guard growled and shoved Darius off his lap. Darius gave a short, startled laugh which devolved quickly into a gasp of pain. In an instant the Golden Guards hands were gently lifting him from the ground.
"Oh, Titan, I'm sorry, that was stupid of me. Are you okay?" Darius sighed dramatically and clutched at the gloved hands.
"I lie here mortally wounded in your service, my prince. I beg thee, grant me a boon before I expire." The Golden Guard groaned
"Okay, so you're fine."
"Nay, dear prince. I perish here anon."
"Ugh. No wonder you did theater. You are such a drama king."
"I can't fathom what you mean, my liege. But seriously! You must have had everyone eating out of your hand at school! I can't imagine any of the teachers dared give you so much as a negative comment on any of your assignments. I bet you were the popular one that had every kid at school bowing and scraping before them." Darius chuckled. The Golden Guard did not respond and the laugh died within his throat.
"Or…was it not like that? Did the others bully you because of your connections? Did the teachers try to make you into their perfect little example?"
"No, I…" The Golden Guard's voice rose slightly, as though inexplicably nervous. "I never went to a school with other kids like that. Everything I know I learned at the castle."
"What?" Darius was astonished. "You never went to school?"
"Not in the traditional sense, no."
"Wow! Are you saying you never had to, like, take tests and do homework or group projects? You never had to attend Grom? Man, you lucked out! But what about friends? Did you do any sports or, I don't know, join a club or do something artsy? My friend, Raine Whispers, is super good on the vielle and he would never shut up about getting me to try out for the school consort."
"I… never learned any instruments, but I did have a very thorough physical education." The Golden Guard sounded strangely uncomfortable with this line of questioning, but Darius pressed on, eager to hear more.
"I bet you did! You must have been hanging out with the Emperor's coven scouts ever since you were a little baby! I can see it now. Little baby Golden Guard carried around on everyone's shoulders. You must have had so many big brothers and sisters to push you around."
"That would have been really nice." The voice sounded wistful and forlorn. "But I wasn't really allowed to fraternize with the other coven scouts outside of training."
"Oh, um, so did you spend most of your time with Belos, then?"
"The Emperor was very gracious with his time. He set aside a whole hour to come see me every weekend and was very concerned with my physical… with my training." Every word was halting and hesitant, and Darius feared that he wouldn't go on. But after a moment the figure holding him cleared his throat and began again. "The majority of my time growing up was actually spent with Leyna. Belos gave most of the day-to-day task of raising me to her when I came to live in the castle and she was just getting started in the Healing coven. She was really the person who took care of me and taught me how to look after myself."
"So that's why you two are so close?"
"Yes. She's been very good to me, far better than I deserve. I wonder sometimes if she is what having a mother would be like."
"Oh." Darius fell silent as a picture of the man's childhood began to take form within his imagination.
"I'm not gonna lie, that sounds pretty lonely."
"It was. The day I was allowed to begin training with the coven scouts was the best day of my life. It felt… it felt like being part of a family." Darius could hear the longing in the Golden Guard's voice and his heart ached at the sound. "After I became the Golden Guard, Emperor Belos was kind enough to allow me to lead training for the Emperor's Coven, and even go on missions with my subordinates. It's not quite like having friends, at least, not like how it seems to be with you and your friends, but it's close enough for me."
"What do you mean? They can't really be your friends because you're their superior officer?"
"Yes. No matter who it is, or how I feel about them, I'm the one who needs to ensure conformity within the coven and enforce the law outside of it. It's hard for people to be friends with someone like me when they are either looking to me for orders, or trying to stay out of my way to avoid trouble. There's no way for me to have an equal relationship with someone when I have this amount of authority over them."
Darius was silent for a good long while as he pondered what the Golden Guard had said. It was true. The man was isolated from everyone on the Boiling Isles by the nature of his position. Right-hand man to the Emperor, but not co-equal with him. By being set above the rest of the population he was set apart from any normal interactions with his fellow witches. The sigil on his cloak and the mask he always wore, even his title, all of these were barriers separating the person underneath from a life with any meaningful connections. A life devoid of friendship or love. It made him inexplicably angry.
"What about the coven heads? Are they subordinate to you?" The Golden Guard was silent for a moment, as though he were considering this point.
"I'm actually not sure. I've never been in a situation where I had to go after them in any way. Most of my interactions with them are checking in to make sure the Emperor's commands or projects are being carried out. If there's a dispute among them the Emperor is usually the one to intervene."
"So why not be friends with them?" The Golden Guard snorted.
"They don't make friends, not with each other, and they certainly wouldn't be interested in me unless they wanted something from the Emperor. They're pretty absorbed in their own interests and in trying to curry favor with the Emperor. He can have them, honestly, it's exhausting to see them at each other's throats all the time."
"But if a coven head wanted to be friends with you, and you wanted to be friends with them, would you consider that an equal relationship?"
"I wouldn't want to be friends with any of them. But as for equal, I guess I would consider that as equal as it gets. Why?" Darius could feel his heart suddenly pick up its pace.
"Well then, here's the plan. You said you thought I could become a coven head if I played my cards right, right?"
"Right," the Golden Guard answered cautiously."
"Well then, let me be your friend. No one should have to live their lives cut off from the rest of the world. I know you've been alone for a long time, and I get it, I really do. So let's make a pact. If I accept that aide position, work my ass off to pay you back for all the dirt I dragged you through today and become a coven head, you'll be my friend. Does that sound like a deal to you?" The Golden Guard didn't answer. Darius felt himself suddenly go cold.
Was that inappropriate? Did I cross a line? Is he angry with me?
"You…" the voice was breathless with astonishment and what sounded like fear. "You want to be friends with me?" Darius' heart cracked a little. This was a man who looked with some regularity into the face of his own mortality. He had likely fought with monsters and demons the likes of which Darius could only read about from the safety of his dormitory. Yet the prospect of someone wanting emotional intimacy with him was terrifying.
"Duh! Of course I would! You're totally an inspiring sort of person. You're smart, and capable, and a lot kinder to me than I deserve, given what I've put you through. Who cares if you can't do magic on your own? You know how to kick some serious ass with or without your staff. And I know you're the Golden Guard and technically my superior officer and all that, but after my trials are over I won't be your student anymore. I'll be an aide, on my way to authority in my own right, so you won't have to worry about me being afraid of you, or wanting to exploit you. And…"
He hesitated. The Golden Guard didn't know that Darius had seen his face aside from that brief moment during the cave's collapse. He was suddenly filled with regret at what seemed to him now a completely unjustifiable invasion of the man's privacy. Hunter was opening himself up, being vulnerable in a way he likely had never been before, and the knowledge of what Darius had done might cause him to draw back. Darius would have to tread carefully here.
"I, uh, I get the sense that you're not actually much older than me, even if you are the Golden Guard. It seems to me that we might have a few things in common, and that's a pretty decent start for a friendship, right? So…" Darius swallowed and took a deep breath. "Would you like to be my friend?"
Darius almost couldn't breathe in the ensuing silence. There was a sudden small sound, like a cry, and the Golden Guard broke down above him into muffled sobs. The arm that held him shook but it pressed him closer.
"Yes."
He barely heard it, but it was there, tremulous and wonderful.
"Yes. I would love to be your friend, Darius."
Darius let out the breath he had been holding. He could feel his face splitting with a wide grin that was totally worth the headache. He chuckled and patted Hunter's quivering arm.
"Okay, but let's try first of all to get you used to the whole friend concept. This seems like pretty new territory for you, so we'll take it slow, does that sound good? Also, there's kinda a rule with friendships. They get to know each other's names. If we're gonna be equals, we have to drop the titles and the "sirs" and all that junk, at least when it's just us. I mean I could just call you 'my prince' all the time if you really want me to, but I'd honestly prefer to know your name. You already know mine, but just in case you forgot…" Darius reached out in the darkness and found the injured hand. He gently took it in his own and lightly squeezed. "Hi, my name is Darius. What's your name?" Another moment of silence, then a quiet sob as the squeeze was returned.
"Hunter." The answer was a wet, shaking laugh. "My name is Hunter."
When Darius woke again, it was to the same warm darkness that had lulled him to sleep however long ago. This time there was no rushing wave of pain or nausea, no voice calling out to him in terror, only the quiet sound of Hunter's breathing and the cool press of smooth metal against his cheek. He could tell that he was still in Hunter's lap. Hunter was leaning slightly back, braced up against the wall of the fissure. Darius felt the rise and fall of his friend's chest, low and steady against the side of his face. A deep breath in, a long breath out.
"Hunter?" He murmured against the breastplate.
There was no answer. They must have both fallen asleep. It was no wonder. They were both injured, physically exhausted, and emotionally drained from their heart-to-heart conversation. Darius' whole body ached, but he felt better than he had before, and Hunter's lap was undoubtedly more comfortable than the floor. He stirred slightly, not wanting to wake Hunter, then felt something brush across his cheek. He reached up and took it in his hand.
There was some kind of heavy cloth wrapped around him, keeping him warm and secure. He rubbed the fabric between his fingers. It was Hunter's cloak. At some point after he had fallen asleep, Hunter must had taken off his cloak and draped it around them both, sharing each other's warmth as a ward against the encroaching darkness. It felt comforting, safe and familiar, like a blanket on a cold night. Like his father's hugs.
He was thankful for the feel of Hunter's body against his own. The quiet thrumming of his heartbeat under the breastplate was steady and unwavering; a rhythmic anchor against which he could ground himself in the black emptiness that consumed them both like a ship swallowed by the sea. In and out, in and out. Their breathing fell into tandem with one another, rising and falling in peaceful waves. Even in this horrible place, facing what felt like their inevitable doom, having someone with him to hold on to and share the pain with him made it all bearable.
Somewhere in the depth of the Boiling Sea the tattered remains of a boat rested on the ocean floor, two figures clasped together in a final embrace. He had always comforted himself with the knowledge that his parents hadn't died alone. In the shock and terror of their final moments they had at least had each other. They had walked together through life and together they had passed through the doors of death. If he died here, down in the darkness beneath the bones of the Titan, he wouldn't be alone either. He could be at peace with that.
"I promised you that it was going to be okay, and I swear to you that I am going to do everything in my power to make good on that promise."
No. He clutched the cloak tightly in his fist and pulled it into his chest. The pristine cloth which had gone fluttering before him into the mist was now covered in dirt and stiff with blood. Hunter had gone forward down into this darkness, ready to face the danger that awaited him, and now he was sleeping in the dirt, injured and exhausted.
This is all my fault.
He had gotten them both into this mess, and it was his job to get them out. They weren't going to die down here. There was no way it could end like this. With his other hand Darius traced the swell of the breastplate, following it up the Golden Guard's chest until his fingers brushed lightly against the soft skin on Hunter's cheek. Hunter's breathing hitched slightly at the contact before settling back into a gentle rhythm, warm air flowing across Darius' wrist. Darius held his hand there for a moment, thumb skimming over the long scar on Hunter's face, and fanned the flame of resolve that burned fiercely within him.
I'll get us both out of here. You'll see. You put your trust in me once and I failed you. I promise I won't fail you ever again.