#cws:

His voice carries through the house, "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry- I didn't mean to! I- forgive me I didn't mean to hurt them-"

The begging wasn't for her, she knew that, but he was so scared she worried she might've hurt him in some way, "Shh Helio don't waste your energy. You're safe now."

What had he done? What happened here? She hadn't gotten a clear answer from him when he was lucid, and the fever only got worse. It'd become unnaturally high, and far too fast. It wasn't a normal fever, but she feared the truth too much to admit it out loud to him. It'd scare him too much.

When a high level mage becomes gravely injured, they have two options. Heal naturally, meaning they go through a lengthy recovery period and risk their body rejecting magic all together, killing them slowly. Or they become an elemental. Their body taking on certain aspects of their magic, healing them at the price of no longer being fully human.

Jade's hand found Helio's, gently prying his nails from the soft skin of his neck. He groaned in response, death gripping her hand as she swapped the damp cloth on his face.

Her voice shook, reminded of the weeks she'd spent on a cot, blood red stone slowly emerging from what remained of her arm, "You're doing great."

"Just kill me. Please. It hurts- it hurts so much— make it stop—" he screamed. A deep, gutteral scream she could've heard from down the street. He flailed, trying to move away from something she couldn't see.

Jade wrapped her arms around his chest, trying to keep him still, looking for what he was fleeing from. Then she noticed the smoke coming from his bandages, the acrid scent of burning blood filling the room.

Before she could stop him, Helio clawed the bandages from his leg to find his blood dripping out like lava bubbling from a volcano. He retched, covering his mouth until he could throw up onto the floor beside them, shaking violently as what remained of his lunch boiled on the tile flooring.

Jade nearly threw up herself, the scent of vomit mixing with burning flesh was too much to stomach. Helio was barely moving, his head at an awkward angle on her shoulder. His breaths came in shallow gasps as he slumped into her.

She hated what she had to do. She hated the risk she had to take. What it would do to him. Whether he would forgive her.

"This is going to hurt like hell." She whispered, extracting herself from behind him, "You're probably going to pass out. I'm sorry."

She hauled him forward, pulling him into a fireman carry, cringing as his blood began to trickle down her arm, burning her clothes and flowing along the ridges of the stone she called a limb. His core settled just behind her head, the heat nearly unbearable.

Predictably, being flipped sideways made him pass out. His head hung low, tears flowing towards his hair line, the trails they left evaporating quickly.

--

Before he was aware of himself, Helio was already struggling to free himself. He was being held in a pool of ice water, only his injured leg held above water.

"Stop moving or you'll make it worse!" Jade's voice called from somewhere near his legs, "I can't keep your wound dry if you keep struggling."

He was far more lucid than he was before, but he almost wished he'd stayed unconscious. His body wasn't suited for cold anymore. It hurt. Everything hurt. It was as if he was burning, like his skin was blistering and he'd be covered in scars. He could barely think.

As he processed more of his surroundings, he found he was in a creek. There was no ice, and yet he was freezing. Familiar trees towered above, the pines of the woods he'd become fond of in his time in the realm.

Helio clawed at the edge of the creek, his hands finding purchase at the rocky shore. He didn't really question whether it was , too desprate to free himself from the water. Gravel dug into his ribs as he hauled himself to the shore.

A new voice, steeped in annoyance, called after him, "Idiot boy. You're going to open your wound again."

A familiar cloak was wrapped around him as he was lifted carefully into Jade's arms, "Helio, calm down. Please. You're going to give yourself a fever again."

"Where am I?" He asked into the fabric of her shirt, pressing his face into her.

"In the woods. I couldn't take you into town, they'd find you too easily. So I called in a favor." She wrapped the cloak around his bare backside, thankful for his small stature as she easily maneuvered him.

The same unfamiliar voice from before could be heard, now closer, "Now I don't owe you. Take your elemental somewhere else."

Jade tensed, holding him tighter, "He's still human." Jade snapped.

He turned to find a woman made entirely from water, arms crossed over a liquidy chest, "Hmph. Keep telling yourself that, earth ganasi."

Helio's head spun, what was happening? Was he dreaming? "What?"

"You have some explaining to do, soldier." The woman spat, dissappearing into the river he'd just escaped from.

He turned to Jade and found her crying, "Fuck you, Lupi."

--

Helio was bundled up in Jade's extra clothes, her cloak wrapped around his shoulders, the collar wet from his hair. He was thankful to once more cover up the bruises he was painted in. He watched her pull food from her bag, leftovers from the meal they'd shared a few nights before.

She was gently illuminated by a modest campfire they'd built after she pronounced them far enough from the town. Her own clothes were singed, the shirt ruined, a whole sleeve missing, showing a limb of stone beneath.

Helio couldn't help but stare at it. She'd hidden it so well. He knew she had a bad arm— she was discharged for it only a year before —but he hadn't expected a stone prosthetic. She must constantly be casting when it moved, which explained the sling she wore sometimes.

She handed him a warm metal cup and a spoon, the scent of his simple fried rice dissipating into the night. He took it graciously, not daring to break the silence she'd established at the river.

The words they'd used floated around in his mind. He'd been called an elemental. He wasn't. Surely he wasn't. He was still human. Elementals were rabid beasts; people who had gone too far, indulged in their magic too much.

Helio pressed his hand to the covered wound on his thigh, tracing his thumb across the rock-like scab formed. His... blood? (Was it blood anymore?) had hardened into some sort of volcanic rock. It scared him.

Jade sat back, leaning against her bag, head resting on the sleeping bag strapped to the top, "Explain. Why did I find you bleeding out in the middle of the road."

He placed his food to the side, losing his appetite, "It was an accident."

"I got that. You wouldn't stop apologizing earlier." She withheld the details about him begging her to kill him. It was too fresh.

Helio blanched, scared of the lapse in his memory, "I was walking home and these guards who were escorting a young noble boy started to shout at me. I tried to ignore them. It was just the usual harassment." he was spooked by a tear falling onto his hand. He paused, blinking away the tears, wishing he wouldn't be so affected by it after all these years. He'd commited the crime of being a refugee, and he'd paid for it nearly every day.

Jade's expression betrayed her anger, "Did they attack you?"

"It was barely anything." He put a hand to his ribs, gentely probing the bruise they'd left. "I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have done anything. Sometimes they leave me alone if I just walk away."

Jade's grip on her cup was so tight it bent the handle, "That's what that bruise was."

Helio shrunk into the cloak more, "It's fine, really. I've had worse. I've just never fought back before. It- it wasn't intentional. The fire just comes out on its own. I hit the boy they were guarding and they..." he pulled his good leg up, sobbing into the pant leg.

Not realizing she'd moved, he started slightly when Jade sat beside him, a stable presence as she laid her arm protectively over his shoulders, holding back her own tears, "You're not going back there."

He shook, "They left me for dead- If you hadn't— if-"