windlancer: (Default)
Xaldin ([personal profile] windlancer) wrote2015-06-30 11:49 pm

The Weight of the World (locked to abidingstoic)

He didn't know if he could handle this. Any of it. Dilan had regained his heart, and with it his memories. All of them. Xaldin. The Beast. The woman, Belle. Dying. He remembered dying. He dreamed it, being dragged down into oblivion and unraveled like so much loose thread. It was a regular enough dream that lately that was all he had been dreaming. Every night for the last three nights. The dark circles under his eyes were indication enough that he'd been losing sleep. Most of the time his days were spent in a haze of melancholy, going about looking for something, anything to do to keep himself occupied, to take his mind off the monster that was Xaldin. If one of the others didn't chase him back to his room, he would work until his shoulders were sore and his legs could barely support him.

But tonight was different. Worse.

Dilan had managed to throw the blankets off himself in the middle of the night. He groaned in his sleep, turning over from his back onto his side. The same nightmare. The Nobody that wore his face bearing down on him, no matter how fast he ran, no matter how hard he tried to escape, the lancer was gaining on him. A whimper escaped him in his sleep...blissfully he was unaware of how much like a terrified child he sounded.

He heard the whistle of a spear in his dream. Two of them landed in his back.

Dilan awakened with a jolt, a horrified scream tearing out of his throat.
abidingstoic: (siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh)

[personal profile] abidingstoic 2015-11-28 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm me. No one else." Another gentle touch, this one pulling the loose dreadlocks out of Dilan's face once he settled again. It was a slightly ambiguous answer, true--but while Aeleus and Lexaeus were both him, in a sense, they were distinctly different entities nonetheless. For the moment, Aeleus was simply Aeleus, and echoing Dilan's concerns back at him, calm and reassuring.

That was good, though. Sore, nauseous, cold--well, maybe not good, but expected, appropriate reactions that were well within the parameters of post-operative discomfort. Relieving, to know that he wasn't actively in pain anymore, or reacting poorly to the sedatives or anesthetic. That meant they could just get him cleaned up, and make sure he was as calm as they could hope for before tapering off the sedatives. "I'm sorry. But you need to stay still for a little while longer, Dilan. I need to get you cleaned up, and you need to rest; you shouldn't strain your stitches by moving around too much just yet, and you're at risk of falling until the medicine is out of your system."

Aeleus sighed, offering Dilan an apologetic look--but still, he didn't sound like he was open to discussion or willing to change his mind about it, either. He dipped his cloth into the basin and began the clean up job, carefully holding the wing steady with his free hand to make sure it wouldn't get jostled--and that Dilan wouldn't jerk or flail it--too much.