#drahs

Selise rose and answered it herself. “Evenin-” 

A void elf stood on the stoop, carrying an unconscious man on his back. The sight threw her for a second, but she recognized the goggles on the man’s face. She stepped to the side with a frown and motioned inside. “Straight back.”

Drahs was jostled by the elf as he stepped inside. The elf offered a glance to the woman as she came over and dropped him firmly onto the nearest chair. “This is yours, right?” He grunted. He turned and left, leaving the human in the chair without another word.

Selise scowled at the question, but was looking over Drahs to gain her bearing on the situation. "What happened?" By the time she asked the question, the chimes on the front door were already ringing as the elf left. "Stuck up..." She extended her palms over Drahs, a brief glow coming to her hands, followed by an extremely troubled look. The glow intensified, focusing on the broken ribs and shallow breathing. “Drahs, can ya hear me?”

Drahs slowly regained consciousness and began hacking and wheezing; intensely and continuous. His expression changed into shock as he looked around. He clasped a hand over his mouth as pain wracked his body, both from the coughing and the broken bones.

"Cor!" she called over her shoulder and the arcane familiar appeared in a matter of seconds. At the sight of Drahs, it kept its distance. "Intravenous painkillers, cough suppressants." She fished in a pocket and held out a handkerchief to him.

He shakily took the kerchief and began hacking into it violently. The brief moment Sel could see his palm she noticed the blood staining the palm, both old and new. Sweat and tears begin pouring down Drahs' face as he did his best to regain himself.

Selise didn't comment on the sight of the blood. She stepped away briefly to grab the tray that Cor brought to the doorway. Setting it on the table, she pulled on a pair of gloves and moved to roll up the sleeve of his right arm. She made quick work of cleaning the area and drawing up the syringe followed by injecting the painkiller. “Take two of the round pills when you can, it'll help..." Said medicine was on the tray along with a small cup of water.

Drahs immediately slammed the pills into his mouth as the painkiller was injected, drinking the water greedily. The water itself seemed to help calm him as his coughing fit started to ebb away, though rather slowly. Blood began staining the kerchief as well but he still planted it over his mouth as his fit continued.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and muttered a word. An aura of calm and somewhat bolstered energy extended from the priest throughout most of the room. "One second." She stepped away again and came back a few moments later with a full pitcher of water which she set on the table.

Drahs wheezed slightly, but turned his head away. He did his best to hide the condition of the handkerchief. "Evening Graves...wasn't expecting to see you tonight." He wiped a few beads of sweat from his brow and poured another glass of water.

Another clean handkerchief was placed on the desk in front of him. Selise wheeled her chair over to take a seat. "I would say the same...a rather rude elf dropped you in here. It's Kinsolving now, but I suppose that doesn't quite roll off the tongue the same way." She offered a weak smirk. "What happened?”

He offered a weak smile as he took the new handkerchief. "Oh you tied the knot? Congratulations! I'm sorry I missed the wedding, I was probably busy with work at the time. You know how that goes." It was a poor attempt to avoid the conversation.

Selise rose a brow. "No apology necessary, we kept it between the two of us." She frowned at him. "I haven't seen you in months, I thought you were on a case but..." she looked him over again and her voice was softer as she continued. "I didn't know it had gotten this bad."

Drahs stiffened slightly. He fell into another brief coughing fit into his rag, but mostly ignores the pain. Apparently she had given him some of the really good stuff. He lowered his head as he sighed. "...I'm dying Sel."

“You want to go where?”

The two of them were seated close together on the large arm chair, Selise tucked into the corner, her legs draped over his.

He did not repeat the name of the location. “It wouldn’t be the first time and it may prove even more informative now.”

She squinted at the inference. "Funny how when it’s my idea it’s ‘dangerous’ and when it’s your idea it’s ‘informative’.”

“It never stopped being dangerous, but it’s beginning to seem necessary.”

She shifted in her seat.

“Sel.”

The gentle tone of voice did more to keep her next to him than the fingers that interlaced with hers.

“I-I can’t. It’s too much. Patients, the refugees, the finances, the...other legal matters. I can’t put more on Chery.”

“She seems to be handling things adeptly. What’s that doctor’s name, Fairweather? How long did you watch his patients for him?”

“Fairhurst…”

Nick rose a brow at her.

“Six weeks, but,” she continued quickly, “I don’t even know if he’s still practicing.”

“There must be a doctor you trust.”

The old man came to mind, but she didn’t know if she could face Splint. An intense anger flared up in her briefly at the thought, followed by a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“I don’t want to go anywhere.”

A moment of silence lingered between the two of them before he broke it.

“You haven’t taken a day since your friend passed. You did this when your mother passed, when we first met. Speaking as someone who was also close to wits end at that time, you should take a break.”

He wasn’t wrong. The night Drahs left her office had resulted in her shut up in one of her exam rooms with the bottle of Dalaran Red that Risri had gifted her for Winter’s Veil. Reading Drahs' letter a few days later had ripped the wound back open. Sleep hadn’t come easy. She was simply going through the motions.

“I wouldn’t call going into a void infested desert a relaxing vacation.” She muttered.

“The Tol’vir settlement is so far untouched and well defended. You could talk to them about your research.”

“While you go off alone? You might not hear the void now, but you will if we go that close. We both will. And Terah…”

"Is getting worse."

Selise winced and looked off across the apartment. Terah had been scarce and when she did come out, she was frightened and her form unstable. There was no sign of hostile magic here, but Sel had heard the gossip flying through the city streets. Hallucinations, speaking in tongues, whispers, people going missing, shadows…

Was it happening again?

"I'll go, but I need a couple days." The possibility of a repeated outbreak was all too real. She rested her head on Nick's shoulder, hearing his response, but not processing the words as her eyes closed.

Written with @skystoneseat and @drahs ; @cherysaamberstill for mentions

Only a few moments had passed since Selise left Drahs alone in the front room before there was movement in the hallway.

Cherysa came into view and headed over to her desk area, picking up her coat. “You’re right and you are the doctor. I am going to try and clear my head. I'll be back, maybe later?"

Selise wasn’t too far behind, but she had stopped next to her own desk, her hands sunk into the pockets of her jacket. She simply nodded. “Take whatever time you need.”

Chery rubbed her face a bit with a nod and headed for the door.

"Before you go." Drahs commented as she headed to the door. "The suture work you did when you worked on my hand was quite impressive. The recovery went by without a problem." He smiled, leaning on Graves’ desk.

Chery offered only a smile in response and headed out the door.

Drahs' face went from a pleasant smile to a dour frown. "Damn it," he muttered.

Selise watched the door shut, her expression not that far off from Drahs'. "Am I being paranoid or do we have a problem?"

"Both of my hands are mechanical, Graves." He grunted, crossing his arms. "What do you think?"

She scowled at him. "I'm aware...but she didn't answer you and grief makes you do crazy things."

Drahs rose a brow as he glanced to the doctor. "And what did you and Amberstill talk about when you were in the exam room?"

Selise stooped down and reached out to pluck one of the tiny blooms from the ground. As her fingers touched the silky petal, the bloom wilted, as did all those around it. The action rippled out with the priest at its center in a domino effect. Rather than turn dry as they shrivelled up, the wilted blooms liquified into a dark black ooze that dripped into the grass and transformed it into a long, narrow cobblestone street.

The black liquid ran downhill along the cracks around the stones and Sel followed it. Dark, undulating shadows obscured her vision when she tried to see off to the sides of the stone path. A single stone bench sat off to one side of the path ahead where a young, red haired woman had her arms wrapped around herself. Her body swayed back and forth and loud sobbing echoed out from her, growing louder as Sel moved closer until she passed through her. The picture faded into a cloud of acrid smelling smoke, the sobbing replaced with screaming.

She turned, the smoke clogged her lungs, and her breathing broke into a strangled coughing fit. Her hands came away from her mouth splattered with blood and suddenly the screaming stopped. A wave of cold washed over her just as a loud crash drowned out all else.

Selise’s eyes snapped open. The quick movement next to her made her sit up in bed. Nick was already on his feet and moving away, the dagger in his grip briefly caught the light from the window as he passed.

“Mom.”

Terah was next to the bed and on the verge of tears. Selise suddenly forgot about the crash. “What’s wrong?”

Nicholas crossed the small apartment with a silent, measured stride. The sound had come from the front, close to the door. Their voices reached him, but not the words as he listened for anything out of place. As he got closer he saw a mix of potting soil and broken clay strewn across the floor, a few specks of bright green foliage visible among the mess. A brief glance went towards a large potted tree set off to the side of the window. A sunfur panda stared back at him from its leisurely position in the branches. Nick placed a hand on the door knob; it was still locked. 

“I see shadows.”

Selise frowned. The large window had a tendency to throw shadows across the apartment at night, but that didn’t explain the sound. “They can’t hurt you.” 

Terah shifted uncomfortably. “But they were like the first ones.”

Sel found herself at a temporary loss for how to comfort the child. She held out a palm, the soft glow of magic forming into a yellow sphere. Terah hesitated for a moment, then reached for it, forming the same spell and causing the sphere to grow larger.

Selise looked out past Terah towards Nick who simply shook his head. The apartment was empty.

Been real wrapped up in work lately. Hasn’t even been anything too dramatic going on either, just a minor case after minor case. They started piling up really badly now that I’m more or less on my own here. Jeán’s on day shifts, Vy’s missing, Antoine is busy with family affairs. I finally caught up somewhat on the paperwork and went out into the city in the early evening to take a break from the office. Got to see Dinna again, which was just wonderful- really made my night. She even introduced me to Gevudan finally, a fellow who works for the Sigil- which, turns out, Dinna does too now. I really need to get out more, it seems. Good for her, though! Always really admired them, the White Sigil, especially after their work saved half the Waterfronts and I a few years back during a nasty city plague pandemic, not to mention all the other disasters they lended aid to. 

We didn’t visit long, which was too bad. I’ll try and track her down later, see if we can find time to catch up on things. After Dinna I dropped by Drahs’ office to see how his line of work was going. He was wrapped up in a new investigation when I got there. No surprise that there was another serial mutilator out in Westfall, and he had some photo evidence of one of the victims. Whoever was doing this was flaying their prey’s limbs open and scrimshawing their bones in some sort of intricate signature in demon runes. The picture was horrifying, but even so I offered to come with his next investigation to Westfall so I could make an official report on the incident to the city. 

We headed down to Westfall with a small handful of agents and mercenaries, most working for the unit Drahs lead. When we got to where the first victim was found, we found the beach a mess of dead murlocs and a deep gouge in the sand from a ship running ashore. We never really found out why they had been massacred like that, but we did find out who had done it. I made a lucky find with a soggy old journal on the shore bearing some sort of demonskull sigil on the front. It didn’t have much information in it besides some snippets and short entries on some sort of nasty pirate crew, but one of the last entries mentioned targeting a Bloodsail camp after the murlocs. Out of the group that came with us, only one SI:7 woman and Drahs and I continued down the coast towards Stranglethorn. It took awhile, but luckily the beach wasn’t terribly far, since we were already on the southern edge of Westfall.  We heard the cannonfire before we reached the camp. A ship bearing the same demonskull sigil flag as the journal was anchored in the shallows and the Bloodsail camp was being attacked by another crew of pirates wearing black sashes and demonskull bandanas. Now I’ve seen a lot of strange things, but cultist pirates was new. The Bloodsail weren’t having anything to do with us showing up in the middle of the attack and sent a few men after us too. It was easy enough to fend them off, but when the Bloodsail captain had his head taken clean off by the demonskull captain, they surrendered. 

Before we got the hell out of there, not wanting anything to do with scrimshawed bones, we caught the name of the demonskull crew captain- rather, a nickname. The Seawater Scourge. I’ve been trying to find files on the name back in the city, bu nothing is coming up. Drahs took a few days off to recover from the fight, but I hope to have at least something to share when he’s back on duty. I was also relieved to not see Allan down at the Bloodsail camp, on the off chance he was there at all. Now’s the trouble of trying to track him down again before the Seawater Scourge starts going after ships.