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Arlecchino wasn’t the type to falter easily. Pain was an old, well-embraced friend of hers.
And yet, as she stumbled through the woods with her hand pressed tight to the long gash on her side, she couldn't help but think-
This was worse than her own fire.
Her veins felt like they were burning from the inside out, not that they haven't been doing that on a daily basis thanks to her cursed heritage giving her flames for blood, but this was different. Worse. She could feel the abyssal poison slithering beneath her skin, swirling through her veins uncomfortably, her body actively trying to burn away at it, to mixed results though.
She could also still feel the clawed hands of that Abyss Lector where it had struck her, the lingering stain of its magic, that was most likely the poison currently coursing through her body, refusing to fade.
The heat surged again, and she clenched her jaw to stifle a groan. This really wasn't something she had expected to be dealing with earlier in the day, but there she was - limping through the forest after a brutal fight that should've been easy, all things considered, but the thing she had been fighting just had to make things difficult for her.
Because, as if had sensed Arlecchino's priorities, the last of the Abyss lectors started ignoring her and instead tried moving the fight towards the clearing where a certain group of people was waiting for her. Said group being her children and Furina. They were supposed to be having a barbeque dinner to belatedly celebrate Lyney and Lynette’s birthday, as she had missed it by a smidge due to being summoned back to Snezhnaya briefly because of The Captain's… Complicated situation.
But then, right before they could all eat, The Knave sensed, more than noticed, something wrong in the area, her cursed nature allowing her to be able to spot energy spikes happening around her. Which meant that upon recognising Abyssal energy in the area, she immediately excused herself to deal with the issue. Without mentioning that there was a threat, of course. She had been confident in her ability to deal with it.
Which in turn turned out to be the source of her current predicament. Her goal of protecting the Hearth and Furina from a sudden Abyss ambush has been achieved, yes, but she suffered greatly for it. Literally. Because she allowed herself to get distracted in her frenzied chase after her opponent.
Arlecchino couldn't help but keep on mentally kicking herself for allowing this to happen to her. Because how was she supposed to show back up at the twins’ celebration now? She was all bloodied, there was a gash on her side, her coat was lost somewhere, as well as the hairband and hair clip used for holding her hair together, and most importantly - that Abyss Lector had laced the one attack that actually hit her with something that even her bloodflames couldn't burn away, or at least it was taking a very long time. A very painful time.
Her veins continued to burn, and not in the way she was long used to. Her cursed blood was still trying to burn away the Abyssal poison that managed its way into her body. The pain ebbed and surged unpredictably, setting her nerves alight, and every time she exhaled, her breath came out just a little more ragged.
The Knave still forced herself forward.
The forest around her swayed, or maybe that was just her vision. She wasn’t sure anymore. A flicker of movement in the distance. And voices. Familiar ones.
Furina. The children.
She could hear them. Just barely. Their laughter, their conversation, the warmth of a world she was trying desperately to return to.
Arlecchino clenched her jaw, willing her legs to keep moving. But her own body was slowly starting to refuse cooperating with her. The pain all over her body curled even tighter, an obvious sign of the struggle her system was having with getting rid of the poison. Her breath hitched as her vision swam, the grip on her wound weakening as her limbs grew heavier with each passing moment.
The Knave felt her side, the injured one, colliding with something hard, the impact making her almost crumple to the ground and her vision go white with the pain the collision had created. But she refused to fall, digging her sharp nails into whatever she just hit - a tree, apparently, its bark rough against her fingers. She'd get splinters at this rate, with how hard she was gripping the wood for dear life, just to try and keep herself upright.
She couldn't just collapse right here. She wouldn't let it happen. Not before making it back where someone could find her, preferably the people she was just trying to protect from an Abyss attack. How the tables have turned all of a sudden.
Arlecchino stood there, leaning heavily on the tree. She just needed a moment, for sure - then she'd make her way over to Furina and the children and possibly get help. But the moment she attempted peeling herself away from the bark, it was like the world suddenly turned on its axis, making her reel back and glue herself back to the hard surface of the tree, her eyes practically glued shut. She felt like she'd either throw up or pass out if she tried opening them again, neither of which was the most pleasing outcome for her.
Well then, she'd have to walk blind. Her fingers were already slipping from the bark when she heard them - even closer than before.
“I think I heard something from here-”
Lynette. Of course she'd hear her. She was relieved and yet at the same time mortified for her family to find her in this state, but she knew how to count her losses, and in this case - she knew she wasn't getting out of this situation without help. And she trusted her children to aid her, at least. It still did not change the fact that she hated letting them see her at her worst, though.
“You sure it wasn't just a boar or something? We're right by the woods, you know, it could've been - oh my god, is that Father?!”
Lyney’s muffled voice. Then, the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps entered her ears, though admittedly - even that sounded a bit muffled, as if her ears were filled with cotton… Or missing their lobes, even if she didn't remember getting struck in either one of them. She pulled her hand away from the tree bark, blindly reaching for the side of her head to see if her theory was correct.
Only to lose balance, which got her a response in the form of a pair of panicked shrieks and two sets of arms barely catching her. With how haphazardly it had to be done though, Arlecchino felt whatever part of her injury that had managed to start scabbing over, quite literally rip back open, a new wave of agonizing pain hitting her.
The sound of the twins frantically calling out for their Father was the last thing she heard before the world faded away into blissful oblivion of unconsciousness.
Peruere felt like she was drowning in the darkness. Yes, it dulled her senses to the point that she could no longer feel as much of the pain of her body trying to fight off the poison. It still didn't change the fact that it made her paranoid that something could come crawling out of the darkness at any given moment and attack her children and Furina while she was not in the shape to protect them.
But the darkness was soon replaced with blinding rays of light as her eyes fluttered slightly open, revealing blurry shapes that she could make out as Furina and the twins. And another blur stood beside them, a color scheme too bright to be anyone she knew of the Hearth.
Despite the sweltering heat and how much her everything hurt, she tried sitting up, fully intending on summoning her scythe to her hand. Which she failed. At both. Because she landed on her back once more, too weak to actually hold herself upright, letting out a gasp as a bolt of pain shot up her entire injured side. Suffice to say, it effectively immobilized her once more.
Peruere heard a gentle voice speaking to her, unable to make out the exact words, and yet even through the fog recognizing it as Furina’s. A cool hand came to rest on her cheek soon enough. She unconsciously leaned into it with a sigh, the stark contrast between her feverish skin and the coldness of her partner’s palm proving to be quite the soothing sensation.
She wanted to take hold of Furina’s hand, hold it, kiss it - anything to show her appreciation of the gesture, but she simply couldn't, her limbs too heavy to do much of anything, really. She instead opted to crack her eyes open slightly once more, enough to make out her girlfriend's blurry color palette hovering over her. She opened her mouth to try and say something, but her throat promptly decided to betray her at that moment, as the cool air entering it made her cough violently, and in turn intensify the pain in her side again.
Peruere felt Furina rub her thumb right under her eye, whispering to her something that sounded oddly similar to shushing, especially in her current predicament. But the motion underneath her eyes did work wonders, as she slipped them shut once more with a quiet sound of discomfort because of her wounded side being disturbed.
She heard Furina say one more thing before consciousness slipped away from her grasp once more, but she was only able to make out one bit.
“-the traveller here,”
Furina hated waiting - that much was obvious. It made her uneasy, almost helpless, reminding her too much of the years she had to wait for Focalors’ plan to come to fruition. And while she has sworn nothing could ever come close to the agony she felt all that time, then currently she was willing to add onto that oath of hers.
Because as the former archon paced restlessly in Arlecchino’s dimly lit bedroom, the smell of iron and antiseptic permeating through the air, she felt almost as helpless as she felt during her reign over the nation.
Sigewinne had come by earlier, coming over at Furina’s request and only told them what they suspected after seeing the state of the harbinger’s wound - the gash itself, while big, would heal with some stitches and time, but there was also the matter of the blue discoloration around it and the strange sensation it caused whenever anyone came near it. The nurse could only confirm its Abyssal origins with a grave expression.
“It is fascinating that the Knave’s body is doing so well at keeping the poison away from her most vital organs,” Sigewinne had said then. “A normal person would have been long gone, honestly…”
Those words made all of their stomachs drop, suffice to say.
And as much as Furina knew of the inconveniences her partner’s curse regularly caused, at that moment she was utterly grateful for it being there. Just hearing about what the poison could do, though, and how little they could do about it - it just ensured her in her feeling of utter helplessness.
All they could do was wait and pray to who-knows-what that Arlecchino’s curse would burn away all of the poison before it caused any real damage.
But then, she woke up for that split moment. And she looked worse than while unconscious.
The way the woman tried to sit up, but was too weak to do so, with a complexion somehow even paler than it naturally was everyday, eyes open but clearly unseeing and her hair sticking to her forehead because of the sweat - it made Furina’s heart clench painfully at the sight of her.
That was when she decided to get someone to contact the Traveler. Because she couldn’t bear to watch Arlecchino in such a state - weak, with pain evident for everyone to see, which she just knew her partner hated for others to see. Especially her children.
Furina knew that the harbinger was very adamant on keeping up the image of this perfectly stoic and reliant Father figure for the House of the Hearth, so any situation like this was a complete embarrassment and failure in her mind. Not that the former archon agreed with that particular method, as she did think even parents had to allow themselves to be vulnerable in front of their kids, just to show that it was good to express their emotions and insecurities.
Furina just wished Arlecchino didn’t have to do it this way.
She sat on the edge of the harbinger’s bed, where she was laying still, save for the rise and fall of her chest, which revealed just how labored her breaths were. The usual sharpness of her features was softened by the fever caused by her body trying its best to stave off the poison.
She was scared. Because who knew how long Arlecchino could keep it up for? For all she knew, her Knave could drop dead any second and she wouldn’t have even done anything to help - hell, Sigewinne even told them they couldn’t do cold compresses or anything to try and lower her fever to make her feel more comfortable at the very least, in fear of them lowering her body temperature causing the poison to spread further.
Furina couldn’t do anything yet again and she hated it.
She could only sit there and wait for the Traveler to arrive so that they could do something. She wasn’t even sure they’d be able to do anything, really, but their message did explicitly describe the Knave’s state, and knowing their extensive knowledge on various materials, then maybe they could even bring something that would get rid of the poison completely. That’s what she hoped for.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Furina murmured, reaching out to touch her partner’s forehead - only to recoil slightly, as it was still practically burning. Luckily her glove made it bearable, so she could still run her fingers through the woman’s damp hair. “If you mentioned there was danger nearby, someone could’ve - we could’ve…”
She bit her lip to keep it from trembling.
Arlecchino made no sign of stirring. It was like she wasn’t even aware there was anyone with her. Completely unlike her - Arlecchino was a very light sleeper, as Furina came to realize.
She sighed shakily, taking hold of the woman’s hand, squeezing it tightly, hoping that the gesture would be returned. But to no avail.
“Hang on for just a little bit longer, Peruere, okay?...”
A soft knock at the door made Furina jump in her seat and rush to answer. She opened the door and nearly cried in relief at the sight of Lyney and Lynette, accompanied by a familiar mop of golden hair.
“Traveler! Thank the stars, you’re here-”
“You’re lucky we were in the teapot today! Paimon doesn’t think we’d be able to get the memo that quickly otherwise!” the blonde’s floating companion piped up, entering the room alongside the other three people. Then, she gasped loudly as she finally noticed the figure laying in bed. “Is that really the Knave?! She looks awful!”
Paimon’s high pitch seemed almost grating to the ear at this very moment, but Furina could only focus on the fact that the Traveler was here, which meant they may know what to do.
“Lyney and Lynette said something about Abyssal poison?...” they inquired calmly, making their way closer to the bed.
“Yes,” Furina nodded frantically. “Sigewinne said Arlecchino most likely fought something that was able to spread it by injuring its opponents.”
“Do you think it could be Rifthound corrosion?” the floating fairy tilted her head to the side, looking at the harbinger with a grimace - possibly a mixture of pity and curiosity.
“We don’t think she was fighting a Rifthound. A rifthound’s claws would’ve made a messier gash than this.” Lyney spoke up with a sigh. “And we’ve had some people in the Hearth come back after being injured by rifthounds, and the corrosion definitely didn’t discolor their veins like this .”
“Nurse Sigewinne thinks it’s something from the Abyss, but we don’t know what.”
That made the Traveler hum in thought.
“Can I lift the covers? I want to see what the damage is.”
The twins, and Furina, nodded in response. The blonde immediately grabbed the hem of the covers and lifted it off, revealing the woman’s upper half. It was completely wrapped in bandages, though they could see blood already seeping through the material. They could also spot some blue veins running up to her shoulder, the gash being the obvious source of discoloration. They winced softly, making Furina’s blood go cold.
“Is it bad?” she asked, already dreading the answer.
“Well… Yeah- But don’t worry!” they exclaimed before her and the twins could react negatively. “I think I know what this is, it reminds me of something we encountered in the Chasm a while back. And I think I know what to do, but, uh…”
“But what?” Lyney pried.
“At least two of you may need to hold her down.”
And that’s how Lyney and Lynette ended up with their hands on both of their Father’s shoulders, ready to pin her back, while the Traveler reached out with their hand, barely touching the wound - and Furina could only watch, though not without summoning the Singer of Many Waters, as well as the Salon Solitaire just in case.
If the Traveler said the Knave would need to be held down, then it meant it might hurt - hence the Singer being summoned. And since it would most likely hurt, and Arlecchino was delirious, she may react strongly - hence the Salon being summoned. She couldn’t physically help the three with her partner, but at least she could get her summons to do it for her. At least she wasn’t like Paimon, who was just floating, hiding behind the oceanid-like Hydro construct.
At that moment, the Traveler decided to do something, as light started pouring from their palm and over Arlecchino’s wound, at which the woman immediately thrashed with a pained cry, but the twins held strong, holding her down on the bed, letting the blonde do their work.
“I presume it’s supposed to hurt this bad?!” Furina asked, worried upon seeing her partner react to pain like that, when she’s never seen her do so before.
“Somewhat, yeah!” the Traveler replied casually, as if they weren’t mid-purging Abyssal poison from a harbinger’s body. “The fact she’s weakened by a lot might be making it worse, but it is supposed to hurt, since I am literally pulling out and purifying the poison straight out of her system.”
But then, as quickly as the whole ordeal began, it was over, as Arlecchino suddenly stopped thrashing, slumping back against the sheets, her breathing still labored but less erratic than moments before. At the Traveler’s nod, the twins released their Father, but remained close by, worried. Furina dismissed the Salon, commanding the Singer to move closer to the woman’s bedside, at which she could already see some colour returning to her skin - the discolored veins were gone as well.
“Well, that’s all I can do. Her body can handle the rest, I think.” the Traveler stated, beckoning Paimon over, the fairy immediately obliging.
“Traveler, thank you so much. We don’t know what we would have done without your help, really.” Lyney spoke, while Furina allowed herself to finally return to her partner’s bedside, sitting by her almost immediately.
She swallowed hard, resting her hand on the harbinger’s forehead, relieved to feel that her temperature had already dropped significantly.
“Stubborn idiot.” she breathed out shakily, tightly enveloping one of the other’s hands in her own.
“We’ll leave you two alone, Miss Furina. Don’t worry about the Traveler. We’ve got it handled.” she heard Lynette say before hearing the sound of the door being shut.
The former archon remained quiet though, only tightening her grip on Arlecchino’s hand.
And for the first time in a while, she felt the Knave’s fingers softly twitch in return.