The Hallway After Scarlet Falls Unconscious

Cynthia wasn’t always so protective of her family. No. In fact, she used to be quite laxed and carefree.

But then her daughter, Lexi, died. All because she got caught up in a Class IV Fracture and neither Cynthia nor Allen were able to make it in time to save her.

Ever since then, Cynthia has sworn that she would never let anything like that happen ever again. Not to Allen. Not to Arabellia. And not to Scarlet.

And yet, here she is, gazing upon the bloodied form of her third daughter, even if not by blood. All of her clothes, torn to ribbons, exposing more of her than Cynthia thought Scarlet would ever expose, even if nothing is actually visible underneath all of the blood beyond open wounds.

Not again.

Cynthia thinks this as she rushes over to her daughter, uncaring of the shattered bits of ice holding parts of the dead wraith that she steps on and crushes in the process. And the moment she reaches her, she grabs a high class potion from her Frost Arc storage skill and immediately starts pouring it down her throat. Meanwhile out of the corner of her awareness, she hears hurried footsteps coming from down the hall as her husband closes the distance between them.

But she doesn’t take her gaze away from Scarlet as the wounds quickly begin to heal at a visible pace. Not even after all of the wounds are healed and she senses her husband reaching her. Not even when she senses her husband taking control of the cameras outside of the bunker and wiping the footage while purposefully pointing them far away from the trio to keep Scarlet’s modesty when he then uses a skill to clean her of all the blood.

It isn’t until several minutes later, after Allen has already looked over her with his equipment for any injuries that may not have healed from the potion and speaks that she finally takes her eyes off of Scarlet’s unconscious form.

“Looks like she should be fine after plenty of rest. We aren’t able to fully replenish her blood with a potion, since she seems to have lost a lot of blood – even more than her wounds would suggest – so we’ll have to get her to come by and look her over,” he says, his voice rather quiet as he stands up, the scanner he was using automatically going back into his own storage skill in the process.

Silence fills the hallway again for a few seconds.

“Let’s bring her to a bed and then I can clear out the rest of the Fracture ASAP,” he says, and Cynthia nods her head, briefly glancing at the shattered wraith.

The thing must’ve locked onto her as its prey and hunted her down. But why would it be this far down the building? Because she’s the most accessible yet still strong prey it could hunt?

She stares at the pieces of ice for a few seconds, only to turn back around and – as gently as possible – lift up Scarlet before walking down the hall and entering the first suite of rooms they come across. And immediately after getting to the bedroom within the room and gently setting Scarlet down on the bed, she sits on the edge of it herself, still ignoring the tanuki that floated into the room with them, not even bothering to hide its presence.

“Dear,” she says, a frosty tone infusing her voice as she continues watching Scarlet’s unconscious face as she lies still on the bed with the tanuki – Scarlet’s fae if Cynthia had to guess – floating around her with worry on its face. “After the cores are destroyed, bring me the other Guardians in this Fracture.”

Cipher stiffens up as he hears her last words.

“I would like a word with them.”

After a second, he nods his head despite his wife not looking in his direction and says, “Very well.” Then he sends one last worried glance towards Scarlet before rushing out the door faster than the regular human eye can see. And not even a minute later, sounds of combat can be heard from the direction of the stairs.

Cynthia doesn’t say anything for several minutes, simply sitting next to Scarlet while watching her sleep. But from time to time, her eyes glance towards the fae that eventually lies next to the girl. And after another couple minutes, her own fae appears in the form of a black koala. The fae then bows towards the tanuki, not surprising Cynthia in the least as it says, “This one greets his highness.”

What does surprise Cynthia though is how the tanuki straight up ignores her fae’s formal greeting to instead rub his head against Scarlet’s hand.

This fae must really care for her…

“Don’t worry about her,” Cynthia finally speaks to the fae, “Scarlet will be fine after some rest. She just needs to replenish her blood.”

The fae prince turns his head to look at Cynthia before narrowing his eyes.

“Is your name Cynthia?”

Cynthia’s eyes widen slightly, only to return to being impassive as she answers, “Yes. I assume Scarlet’s mentioned me?”

Good things, I hope.

The tanuki flinches as he nods his head.

Maybe not good things. Guess she’s still not ready to be adopted.

Deciding not to make things awkward for the fae, Cynthia opts to stay silent, letting it return its attention to her. Although she does reveal a vaguely surprised expression when she sees the tanuki curling up next to Scarlet and seemingly going to sleep, even if she isn’t sure he’s really asleep. Because she can’t help but feel like he’s still watching her like a hawk.

Why would fae royalty contract with Scarlet? Is it because of her blood magic? Or maybe it has something to do with White?

Cynthia lets out a sigh.

Can’t just ask it, because it’s Scarlet’s business and not mine. Besides. He seems to genuinely care about her, so pushing him to answer would just be an insult to my own fae.

“Yes, that it would be,” Arlog – her own fae – answers her thoughts, his voice echoing in her head.

I just hope Scarlet prepares herself in the future to fight in your little competition.

Arlog doesn’t say anything in response. And Cynthia doesn’t try to force him to either. She just returns her gaze to Scarlet as she reaches over and begins caressing her ‘daughter’s’ face, a sad one of her own visible as she does so.

Minutes pass in silence. And at some point, Cynthia’s eyes can’t help but gravitate towards Scarlet’s ears. She then glances behind her, only to reach out and touch one of her ears, making it immediately flinch.

So soft…