Archive of Our Own ^beta

Rox looked toward her brother and then back at Kur.

“I don’t see you trying to help her.”

The most recent battle had taken a toll on Kur’s body. Rox’s incantations were nowhere near as strong as they needed to be to keep her alive effectively. Her crutches had splintered and broken apart countless times only for them to be crudely repaired.

“If you want to keep going with this mission-“
Rox was ignoring Nokt, and instead started writing theroxian characters onto a new roll of bandages.
“Something needs to change.”

Rox stopped.
“She’ll die in less than a day without me. I can’t just let that happen, she needs my magic to live-“
Nokt pushed Rox up against the wall, causing her to drop the bandages.

“She will die. And then you’ll move on. You can fend for yourself, there’s no need to be hung up on a broken woman.”
Nokt let go of his sister and left the room without another word.

Rox didn’t want to dwell on anything Nokt said. There was no need for her to stop fighting for Kur’s life. Her wrist was sore from where Nokt had grabbed it. The scars that lined her wrist hadn’t been hurting as much as normal. She quickly re dipped her pen back into the nearby bottle of ink and started to write again. The first few letters she wrote were a simple healing spell, done straight onto her wrist. The spells for Kur were much more complicated. They required yards of bandages, all with specific characters written on them. Kur’s legs had also needed much more repair recently. Her legs were almost skin and bones, with any muscle that still remained being in the process of decaying off. Rox took care to not damage anything that could be repaired while she was redoing the bandages. Chunks of muscle were held on horribly, looking moved by splints. Those were worn down too, with it being months since Rox had found good sticks for replacement.

Kur stirred slowly and opened her eyes. 

“Hey.”
“Thank god you’re finally up. Take this water.” Rox handed Kur a cup and replaced the towels on her face.
“I don’t get a good morning?” Kur sat up and took a drink. It dripped down her chin as she coughed most of the water back up.
“It’s not morning. You’ve been out for a few days now.”

Nokt walked through the doorframe.
“Finally. Get up. We’re leaving this town tonight with or without you," He said, staring directly at Kur.
“Good morning to you too.”
“Still not morning," Rox said. 
“Who cares.”

Kur attempted to stand up from the mat she had been lying on. Her legs buckled immediately, and fell into Rox’s arms. Rox went to grab her crutches, and let Kur hold onto her shoulders. They walked out of the room slowly. Both of them grabbed their swords on the way into the main room, with Kur discarding one of her damaged crutches in favor of using her sword.
Nokt was still packing up his pack, so Rox helped Kur to the ground as they waited. Rox grabbed both hers and Kur’s packs as well, slinging both of them over one shoulder. All the bandages and quills were already in the bag, ready to do more incantations at the next stop.

“We’re probably going to be walking all night. The nearest unconquered tribe is far, but there are native groups on the way that should be easy to wipe out.”
Rox helped Kur off the ground.
“There’s no way I’m making it that far. Maybe me and Rox can stop halfway and meet back up at the main tribal grounds.”
“No chance. You make it there or you don’t. Rox will follow me and neutralize any threats.”

Nokt stepped closer to Rox, attempting to make a barrier between her and Kur.
“I can make my own decisions. I see no issue in me helping Kur make it there.”
“The issue is that this won’t be the last time. When we’re overlords you can’t be dragging around a corpse.”

Kur tried her best to stand tall 

“When we’re overlords my magic will be strong enough to help her stand just as high as the rest of us.”
Kur leaned over closer to Rox. Her sword slid out from under her arm and clipped the side of Nokt’s sandal. She looked straight at Rox before planting a kiss on her cheek.
“You really think that?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t have put up with you for nearly as long if not. I know that there may be no way to fix you, but I can help along the way.”