Private Tales What Happens After

[Sybille]

They splashed into the water, and for once even Sybille couldn't complain.

Her head turned back just in time to see the fort collapse, the wooden frame buckling under it's own weight. Collapsing in a wave of flame and debris. A flinch ran through Sybille as the shockwave struck them, hot wind which felt pleasant against her comparatively torching skin washing over them.

For a few seconds she watched the flames, the marsh water around her feet bubbling.

"I CA-" Sybille began to shout, only to be interrupted by Osbert's curse.

For a few seconds the redhead only stood there, eyes flickering from the now collapsed fort to Osbert and then back. A sheepish look crossed her features, a slight frown tugging at her lips.

"I-" She yelled. "I'M SORRY!"

Sybille called, the anxiety and guilt growing in her stomach. "I JUST THOUGHT...HE WAS GOING TO KILL YOU AND I-I-"

Her fingers came up, ringing against one another as the water at her feet turned to steam. "YOU'RE THE ONLY FRIEND I HAVE!"

 

[Osbert]

As if the day couldn't have gotten any worse. They'd spend all night digging through the fort's rubble to find that amulet, it'd been days or perhaps weeks until their hearing fully healed, and the icing on the cake was he'd made Sybille feel like shit.

It was obvious before she'd even said anything. That look she got in her eyes.

Great. Just great. "IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT." He shouted back shaking his head in disgust. Disgust that was aimed exclusively at himself. "MY DUMB IDEA TO DO THIS!"

It was the last thing she said that really stabbed the knife into his chest. Osbert had liked Syb almost from day one. She was like that sad little puppy of a sister he'd never had. Numerous times at the academy he'd stood up for her, or helped her with something, and in exchange she'd helped him too. There was so much about his magic he wouldn't have learned without her, odds were good that he wouldn't have survived his last trial had he never met Sybille.

"YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND TOO," his lack of hearing causing him to misunderstand one of the words spoken, "I'M SORRY, I NEVER SHOULD'VE AGREED TO ANY JOB THAT INVOLVED HIM!"

 

[Sybille]

A roil of emotion flickered through Sybille's chest, the swamp at her feet becoming hotter and hotter as her magic ran wild.

Though he yelled, Osbert's voice barely broke through the ringing in her ears. Her eyes filled with tears and her expression a mixture of anguish and relief as he took the blame onto himself. Sybille had thought he would be angry.

That he too would abandon her. It was unreasonable, Os would never have done that. Yet the thought had stuck in her mind. So when he dragged all the fault on himself she couldn't help but shake her head. Trying her best to counter what he said. "IT WAS MY CHOICE TOO!"

She had agreed, even against her better judgment.

Sybille knew if she had truly planted her foot Os would never have gone with Ceja. They would have found something else or just scrapped this whole side of their plan. The water that had been at their feet was now gone, the swamp around them having half turned to steam in the midst of a roil of emotions.

For a second she hesitated, and then spoke again.

"I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK!" She called out.

 

[Osbert]

Os smirked as the pair found themselves standing in a bog rather than a swamp. Steam roiling around them and judging by the pace of her magic they'd soon be in a completely dried plain. "AT LEAST WE'RE GETTING TO STAND IN A SAUNA AFTER A JOB WELL DONE!"

It certainly wasn't a time for jokes or humor but he wasn't sure what else to say.

This entire day had been a catastrophe. They'd both nearly died. They'd both been forced to reunited with one of their least favorite classmates. And now they'd both be digging through rubble praying they could find that amulet. Praying that the guy who's hired them didn't file a complaint with the Guard after they'd bungled up this job.

All that waited for them back home was a mountain of headaches and that was only after they dealt with the headache of the rubble behind them.

Then Sybille said it. A real, true, decision made with full conviction. A rare thing for her. At first Osbert just stood there and tried to take it all in. Tried to comprehend what she'd really said. His mind flared thinking of excuses and reasons why they couldn't just leave. How they'd, eventually, be hunted once the republic began to put two-and-two together. But all of those concepts fell apart.

"Alright."

A single word, said quieter this time. Maybe too quiet for her to even have heard it but she likely could tell its meaning. From the way his lips moved, the expression he wore on his face. "WE LEAVE. WE FIND A NEW HOME." They died in that rubble with Ceja.

Vel Anir died in that rubble.