A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

When Erik slowly opened his eyes several hours later, the first thing he did was carefully listen to his instincts and surroundings. After all, there had to be a reason he woke up a little earlier than expected.

In fact, to say he woke up was perhaps an exageration. He had really only been partially asleep in the first place. After all, someone needed to be alert in case trouble found them since Elora had been unable to place some protective sigils this time.

This technique of being only partially asleep was something he had picked up on Söl, and while it limited his recovery from exhaustion, it was better than the alternative.

But when he realized what had woken him up, he quickly relaxed and decided to check some other things first.

He inspected his body to see how much good this rest had done him and noticed that his body had made nearly a full recovery. Nothing hurt anymore, and most of his strength had returned. Unfortunately, his mind was still a little tired, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.

Next, he reached inside himself to check on Elora, somehow suddenly worried something had happened to her during the night. He realized he had barely thought about her at all during his evening activities with Emma and Astrid, which was technically the point of distracting himself, but now he felt all his concern and worry flooding back.

He sighed in relief when he found Elora's soul still asleep but well on its way to recovery. It likely wouldn't be more than a few more hours before she woke up, even though she still wouldn't be able to use her physical body for at least another few days, or even weeks, as her physical essence was still being nurtured by his own.

Elora and Astrid were also fine. Both of them were still asleep and clinging to his body with contended smiles, Emma on top of him and Astrid clinging to his right side.

Finally, he turned his attention to the reason he had woken up: Emily.

The beautiful black-haired woman was squirming next to him and appeared to be finally on the verge of waking up.

He turned his head to the left and looked at her with a gaze of slight concern. With everything that happened yesterday, especially regarding Elora, he had spent precious little time thinking about Emily. Plus, he was relatively confident about what he told Emma and Astrid: that Emily was likely just mentally recovering from a slight corruption relapse.

Still, to say that he wasn't worried at all would have been a lie.

These were the times he most missed Elora, as she was far better than him at diagnosing problems with people's minds, souls, and bodies.

It may be a running joke between them that Erik was just the muscle in their relationship, but there was a grain of truth to that. Then again, comparing any first, second, or even third rank to Elora would show the same result since intellectual and magical pursuits were essentially what the fairies were built to do.

Suddenly, Emily stopped moving. Her eyes opened wide, her mouth followed suit, and she sat up straight.

Erik quickly realized that she was about to scream and reacted. His left arm had been coiled around Emily's shoulder during the night, and now his large hand quickly jumped up and covered her mouth before he pulled her back down into a prone position.

Emily squirmed, clearly panicking about what was happening, but Erik soothingly whispered in her ear. "Shhh, Emily. You're safe. It's me, Erik. Let's not wake the others, alright?"

Emily blinked and seemed to calm down a little upon hearing his voice before nodding.

So Erik removed his hand from her mouth, and Emily turned her body towards him. Her hands clung onto his chest, and her eyes looked into his.

Surprisingly, there were small tears in those eyes, but that was not what most concerned or surprised Erik.

Instead, what most drew his attention were the crisscrossing crimson lines that gave her typically black eyes a haunting quality. They appeared like delicate veins of ruby revealed through the cracks on two pieces of onyx, floating in milky white puddles.

Worry filled his mind, but he pushed it to the side for now. He didn't want to alert Emily and preferred to get a feel for her current mental state first.

"Is that… Is that really you, Erik?" she whispered, completely neglecting to refer to him as either 'boss' or 'pervert' as she usually would.

"Of course it is," Erik nodded seriously. "Are you alright, Emily?"

"I… I'm not sure…" she stammered as more tears appeared in her broken eyes. "Is this really real? Was it all a dream?"

"I'm not sure what dream you had, Emily. But I promise this is real life," Erik said seriously, realizing Emily must have had some particularly realistic dreams.

"Dream…" Emily mumbled before a slightly crazed smile crept onto her lips. "It was all a dream. Hehehe," she laughed a little crazily.

She grabbed his chest a little tighter, and her voice became a little more unhinged with every word: "That's good! That means I can still make you mine, hehe! No one will take you away from me!"

Her head suddenly swiveled to the girl on Erik's chest as her voice became a little more hysterical, and her eyes showed a brief flash of hate. "Not even my so-called little-si—"

But suddenly, she fell silent. Her eyes widened in horror, and she frantically shook her head. "No! No, no, no!" She began stammering a little louder as she tried to distance herself from Emma but was stopped by Erik's arm around her shoulder. "I won't go back to that! I… I won't!"

She struggled harder against Erik's arm, and while he could have kept her there by force, she was struggling so hard that she might end up hurt if he did. So he let her go.

The moment he did so, Emily jumped out of bed and attempted to flee through the first door she found, which happened to be the one leading to the hallway.

Realizing her intentions, Erik frowned and utilized the covenant to issue an order: "Emily, stop!" he commanded in a soft tone.

Emily staggered a little as the green mark on her hand flashed, but then the green glow became distorted with flashes of crimson red. Suddenly, Erik's order seemed to lose it's hold on her, allowing her to open the door and disappear through it.

Erik blinked in surprise, before quickly shaking his head and checking to see if Astrid and Emma were still asleep.

While Emma was still sleeping peacefully, Astrid stared at him with her eyes wide open, which was perhaps no surprise considering her warrior instincts.

They looked at each other, and Astrid whispered, "Go. I'll look after Emma."

Erik nodded before slowly and carefully lifting Emma off his chest. He slipped out of bed and put Emma next to Astrid.

He didn't want her to wake up and worry about Emily, or perhaps even complicate matters further. Besides, he could take his time, since there was no way Emily could outrun him anyway.

Luckily, Emma was a heavy sleeper, especially when she was in Erik's arms, and while her face showed some struggle when Erik disappeared, some soothing whispered words quickly calmed her down and put her back into dreamland.

When Erik finally stood beside the bed, and Emma remained asleep, a few minutes had passed since Emily fled.

Meanwhile, Astrid carefully sat up and started soothingly caressing Emma's hair, hoping to keep her asleep.

Seeing Emma and Astrid would be fine, Erik quickly grabbed some simple clothes from his armor storage and hopped out the door on one leg while he pulled some pants on.

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