athelstanthescribe | (no subject)

(no subject)

Athelstan had been doing better, it seemed, talking with more strength and lucidity and staying awake longer at a stretch.

Not any more.

He's lying on his front again, sweat standing out on his skin, when Sinric approaches the bed, and mutters something unintelligible when Sinric touches him.

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"All is peace, for you are loved." Sinric answers in Greek, his voice is soft. "I must fetch the doctor. You must stay here safely."

Athelstan turns his head from side to side, his one open eye vague.

"The doctor?"

"I must fetch someone, Athelstan. You are burning. If you will it I will fetch the doctor who cared for me?"

"Ragnar", he whispers. "Where is Ragnar? Where is Sinric?"

"I am here, Athelstan. I am by you." There's a note of panic in Sinric's voice that he can't quite quell. "You are safe. I will fetch Ragnar for you, and the doctor."

Athelstan knows he's being spoken to, he does hear, but not who's there beside him.

He lapses back into Northumbrian to say 'yes', and then, "Aedre? Modor?"

"Sinric." He repeats gently, switching languages to follow. "I am at your side but I must get help. You burn, my loved one and I must get a doctor." His voice is getting desperate as he looks to the door.

"Stay here safe and I will find someone."

"I stay", he finally echoes, sounding lost. "But... where...?"

He dips to place a kiss on Athelstan's burning brow. "I will return, my dearest heart." and runs for help.

Finding no-one around the infirmary, or their rooms, he runs for doctor's rooms. In his haste, his skirts tangle and he trips on the stairs and falling several steps. He lands with his ankle twisted and cries out sharply.

He sits there for some minutes, shocked out of his wits by the pain of it before trying to pull himself to his feet. But it is too much and he falls again.

Cursing his own foolishness, he drags himself up, feeling time slip away that Athelstan is left alone and burning.

Edited 2015-08-09 21:45 (UTC)

Athelstan stays for a while, obedient... but he's alone and sick and frightened, and he doesn't know where he is.

Eventually, he struggles to his feet, the thought of home back in his mind, though without anything clear attached to it.

"Hello, Athelstan," says a stranger who is drinking some wine not far from the infirmary door. "You do look very much the worse for wear. I think you were -- crucified?"

Calm maroon eyes inspect Athelstan's injuries and bandages.

He looks up to meet the stranger's gaze.

"Are you... are you the doctor?" he asks in Greek.

"I am," the doctor says, quietly. "And you are dear to Sinric, who in turn is very dear to me. Where are you going?"

"...home..." He looks around, lost and confused. "If I can find the way."

The doctor regards him calmly. "Home to the world you share with Ragnar?"

"Home to... yes. To where I can find him again."

"Come, take my hand," the doctor says, helpfully. "I can take you to the door to your world."

Beat.

"Home."

"You'll help me find the way?" He looks down, reaching out for the doctor's hand. "My feet hurt..."

And are bleeding through the bandages again, besides.

Edited 2015-08-09 22:37 (UTC)

"It's not far," the doctor says.

"All right", he says, trusting this man who claims friendship with Sinric - and where is Sinric? The thought flies away before he can catch it. "Please show me the way."

"Come with me," the doctor says, taking some steps towards the door as if to see whether Athelstan is up to it.

He follows - at a slow shuffle and with little whimpers of pain, but he does follow.

"Look, there is the door," the doctor says. "And beyond that, your home world."

"Home", Athelstan whispers, clinging to it as the one thing he wants in his delirium, and keeps walking. "Home."

"Home," the doctor says, quietly, when they reach the door. "Open it -- only you can find your own home."