FRIDAY, April 16th 2021. After the attack on The Armory, after the ace’s fight.

FALLON’S CLINIC.

@nihtegalc @passcridae

An hour. That was the fair amount of time that Asra had given Sparrow, an hour for him to do whatever he had to without Asra interfering in something that was well beyond him, an hour for Sparrow to get into The Armory as well as get out. He would wait for an hour for him to get back to him.

How cruel had it been. The streets and alleys that led to his parents home were silent, like somehow the tension had spread into all the faction, everyone waiting quietly to hear about the outcome of the attack, some might even be unaware of what was happening, living their life with no idea  that everything was about to change.

And yet, there was only one thing that Asra had heard about since someone had knocked on their door to deliver the news. Sparrow was there, fighting and Asra was not there, he had forced himself to stay put but that did not mean that he would stop pacing around the room, nervous eyes darting back to the mocking clock on the wall.

For a small moment the altar that his mother had for her favorite deities called to him and even though Asra had long said his goodbyes to such practices, in this moment he felt desperate, capable of kneeling down and praying to whatever might be able to listen to him, to request for protection for Sparrow.

He shook his head as he continued to roam around the living room and so the time passed, with his mother periodically looking at him from her stop on the couch a half-knitted blanket on her lap and with his father peering from over his book with concern evident in his eyes. They had no idea what was going through Asra’s mind, but they did not ask, with their son sooner or later they would know and when they discovered what had gotten him so nervous they just hoped to be there to aid him.

The clock ticked. 10 minutes. His heart was hammering on his chest and suddenly Asra felt like cursing, looking out of the window and noticing no signs of life, he was already thinking of getting out of his house when suddenly a knock to the door alerted him. At once he ran towards the door, but when he opened it, there was no Sparrow, only Tanya looking back  at him, all bloody and dirty but still with a smile on her face.

She was alive and that was good, more than good and yet Asra looked disappointed.

Tanya pushed past him, limping but already talking about what had went down and what the outcome had been as her mother and father began to fuss over her, sitting her on a chair and cleaning her skin before checking for wounds. But, Asra could not hear anything, despite the ticking of the clock.

8 minutes. He looked back at his family, the concerned eyes were not directed at him anymore but he could still feel how his parents worried for him and in that moment as he looked back at the three of them together, fear gripped him, because he did know what would happen to him if Sparrow had not been able to make it out alive.

5 minutes and that was when Tanya started talking about the casualties and that was the moment when Asra felt like he had enough, storming out of his house and leaving the door opened behind him before he started to run like some crazy man out in the streets. He knew where to go and Sparrow better be there.

There was not a polite approach this time as Asra opened the door to Fallon’s clinic, the door opened at once with a loud noise before he stepped in, eyes darting around the familiar space, before he opened one of the doors to his right. The person inside wasn’t Sparrow and they made a painful noise as a response for the disturbance that Asra was causing, but the fire elementalist couldn't care less, the clock kept ticking and he hadn’t found Sparrow yet.

He felt like dying all over again and so the first frustrated sound left his lips preceding his shout “SPARROW!” and still no response, which only served to heighten his anxiety even more, his vision disturbed with the tears that had already started to form on his eyes, this was not how it was meant to happen. Sparrow was his to lose and that was a reality that Asra was not willing to accept.

However this time as he was about to disturb the recovery of another person he saw Fallon, looking at him and that made him stop his movements, if only to approach her “where is he?!” he asked, desperate, eyes never focusing in only one place and then he clarified “sparrow? you know him? where the fuck is he?” he needed to see him now.