“Good morning, beloved.” Breith’s voice and the sound of the curtains being drawn back roused Evelos from his doze in the Stormwind Infirmary. He spent a moment staring at her, blinking in the fresh sun, before sitting up. It wasn’t as hard for him now, Breith observed, but his lack of muscle tone still made her worry. “Do you think you could stand on your own today?” she asked. “You’ll be coming home.”
“I’ll try,” said Evelos vaguely.
“After breakfast,” replied Breith with firmness, and slid a bowl of broth under his chin. “Eat up, love. Or… drink up, as it were.”
“My favorite,” said Evelos dryly, but she couldn’t tell if he meant it as a joke or not, as his eyes remained unfocused on her.
He tried to eat, and with Breith’s watchful eye and gentle coaxing, finally succeeded in draining the bowl. She sat with him as she gave the broth a while to digest, listening to the sounds of his intestines working with a gnomish listening rod. The gurgles came from the right places with the right timing, but she knew it would be unwise to chance any food more solid until she worked another restoration ritual on his insides, ravaged as they were by the Faceless’ exorcism. “Shall we try standing?” she asked Evelos with false brightness. She was more anxious that he wouldn’t be able to than she let on.
Evelos just nodded, eyes unfocused like he was looking inward, and he crept to the edge of his cot with painful slowness — painful for Breith. There was a moment Breith was certain he was about to roll off the bed and onto his face, but one way or another, the elf made it onto his feet. He stood there, with just a slight wavering from side to side and a glassiness in his eyes to mark his weakness.
She quickly came to his side to help steady him. “Good, very good. How are you feeling now?”
“Light-headed,” Evelos replied hazily.
“Maybe you’d better sit down again. Soon enough it’ll be time to go, and–”
“Time to go,” Evelos echoed. And go Evelos did, hobbling along, and Breith was surprised he got as far as the door. She started forward to catch him, but then he kept going, down the hall, through the reception area, down to the street (only a slight stumble on the ramp), and then down that street into the city.
“Evelos!”
She was beginning to think, a mite wildly, that he might just make it the whole way home — when Evelos abruptly stopped.
“I think I am tired,” said Evelos.
“I can help you sit—“ Breith’s encouragement was cut short when Evelos suddenly crumpled to the ground. She gave a funny little squawk and hurried to his side, to find him staring straight ahead, as if puzzled that the world was now sideways.
“I’m on the ground,” he observed.
“Yes, yes, you are on the ground,” said Breith, stuttering slightly over her relief that he was okay—and not a little bit of irritation now at his recklessness. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m not.”
“You guess?” Breith swallowed, trying to keep her voice calm. The n’raqi had stolen so much of Evelos’ faculties when its hold over him had been broken, and she knew the confusion wasn’t his fault. It was hard to remember that under the press of all her worries for him, though.
Evelos glanced up at her. “The Faceless feed on pain, and that is all gone now,” he said in a voice devoid of emotion. “I would suppose I’m not okay because I’m on the ground, but I don’t feel that anything is wrong. I could be wrong.” He paused, then he corrected, “The thought could be wrong. I think I am okay. Aren’t I?”
“Never mind all that,” said Breith, pushing on a smile. “Can you at least sit up? We’ll start there.”
Evelos rolled slowly over and began to push himself up on his palms. He paused about halfway up, then sunk back down, expression barely changing, except for an added layer of confusion. “Oh. I am tired.”
“Of course you are, walking all this way by yourself! Here, I’ll help you to the curb, and you can rest there.”
Breith wrapped one of Evelos’ arms about her neck and half-dragged him to the side of the street. He gave a few absent pushes with his feet, but he wasn’t of much help. Finally she had him sitting up against a building, and, tears stinging her eyes, she focused on trying to clean the mud from his cheek. She didn’t trust herself to speak.
“Thank you,” said Evelos, “but I think I manage that.”
“I want to do it,” murmured Breith, and she did. It was something useful to do, something kind, and it kept her from thinking about anything but the immediate future. Evelos was not as well as he seemed, and something inside her was wailing that he never would be entirely okay…
Evelos seemed to sense she was brokering no arguments, and he sat without fuss through the scrubbing. “I am sorry for making a scene,” he said in a monotone.
Breith shook her head silently; words were stuck in her throat.
“I suppose ren’dorei do that a lot,” Evelos went on.
“Yes, I suppose they might.” Breith tucked away her handkerchief, now muddy, looking into Evelos’ eyes for any trace of the shame that had once plagued him due to his half-n’raqi form. That, too, was something she could focus on fixing, despite the uncomfortable memories it brought. “But this particular ren’dorei is my husband,” she reminded him, “and I love him very much despite — rather, because of his looks.”
“Which ren’dorei?” said Evelos blankly, then, “Oh,” a moment later.
The slip-up was small, but it felt like another crack to her shell, her mask, her protection from the fear and loss that had been looming on her doorstep ever since Evelos first collapsed at Lion’s Rest and they had discovered how deeply the n’raqi had wormed into his psyche. Perhaps the Faceless had succeeded at its goal, putting a void into her without ever even touching her with the Shadow… Yet Evelos needed her now, so she pushed the bleak darkness away and smiled for him.
“I will rest a little while, then we can go on,” said Evelos, and Breith didn’t miss the reassuring note he put into his voice. There was still some part of him left in that body, free of the n’raqi’s influence, and that part of him wasn’t fooled by her act.
He rarely ever had been. To think how close she’d come to losing that — the darkness yawned again.
She didn’t have to worry about losing him now though, did she? Kiirai and Lily had both proclaimed him stable, despite his slower mind. Shooing her worries before her, she sat beside him and drew his wasted form close, pressing her cheek to his. Evelos found her hand and held it, his breath relaxed and slow on her neck.
Let the passer-bys stare. She still had her husband, and that was victory enough for her, even if…
Perish the thought.
Breith turned to kiss his cheek and pressed her nose against his grayed hair. This was enough. Evelos was still Evelos, and he proved it just then by turning his face into her kiss, lipping at her mouth, then setting his chin on her shoulder and squeezing her with the little strength he had left.
“I love you, Breith.”
“I love you, too,” said Breith and hid her tears on his chest.
Evelos gave another one of his weak squeezes, echoing her thoughts. “Everything will be okay,” he murmured in her ear. Then he paused. “Breith?”
“Yes, beloved?”
“I’m hungry.”