Rosalyn wasn’t sure what to expect. She’d thrown caution to the wind and told them everything.

And fuck if it didn’t feel good.

She wasn’t any less afraid, but she was fairly certain these two weren’t going to kill her, so there was that. If anything they seemed to be in her corner, which was something she sorely needed in this world.

They seemed to believe her, and were actually dealing with it a lot better than she’d thought they would.

She let Hex lead her down a dark tunnel, away from the soft ethereal glow of the water channel. She wasn’t surprised that Jian had the ability to examine curses and magical things, as it seemed as though his blindness wasn’t really blindness at all. She imagined that he could see all kinds of shit that nobody else could see with those milky-white eyes.

“Why do we need it to be so dark?” she whispered. The quiet of the cave away from the gentle lapping of the water was unnerving—even with physical proximity comfort it was hard not to want to fill silence. She wasn’t sure if it was because she had spent so many years monologuing and yammering to herself or if it were just a natural part of her personality.

Realization crept over the back of her neck with icy fingers, whispering that she couldn’t remember what was even a natural part of her personality anymore.

“Most curses manipulate light particles,” Hex explained, and Rosalyn focused on his voice and the warmth of his hand instead of her own insecurities. “If there aren’t any available to try to bend and hide behind, then the curse will be searching for them. Kind of gives them something to focus on while Jian pokes around.”

There was a lot to unpack there, and Rosalyn wasn’t sure where to start. In this world of demons and almost medieval style technology, they knew about things like light particles? She supposed if this was a game created by humans that maybe that was where all of the character’s knowledge came from.

But it was beginning to niggle in the back of her brain that this wasn’t a game world at all. Maybe the disk wasn’t a game disk, but a key. It was hard to reconcile artwork and coding and pixels when Hex’s palm cradled her own. When Hemlock snuggled his fur beneath her cheek. When even though she could respawn, she could feel every iota of pain inflicted upon her body.

She shuddered, and then something else occurred to her. “Is this gonna hurt?”

Neither demon answered.

“Fuck,” she murmured.

“It won’t be as bad as when it was inflicted,” Jian offered.

Rosalyn sighed. “Thanks for attempting to make me feel better.”

“It’ll be okay,” Hex said, giving her hand a soft squeeze.

She wrinkled her nose. There was something in his voice that was so soothing, that reached into her, a part of her that yearned to believe him. She shuddered and stamped it down. He couldn’t know that it would be okay, not really.

“This cavern is sufficient.” Jian’s voice echoed more, making the space they were in feel bigger despite Rosalyn not being able to see anything at all.

“This is so disorienting.” She swallowed, looking around, her eyes straining for something to adjust to, but they couldn’t adjust enough. She imagined her pupils were the size of doubloons trying to let in light that wasn’t there.

She closed her eyes, just to see something, taking comfort in the soft glow of KC’s Rose, can you see this? even if there was nothing else.

“I’ll help you.” Hex’s voice was so close to her ear it made her jump, and she realized he was somehow behind her. He let go of her hand, and the mossy blanket slipped from her shoulders.

Goosebumps rose on her skin, but more from the shock of her sudden nakedness than cold air. Clearly Hex had a bit of night vision of some kind if he was able to direct her like this, and Jian definitely could see shit since he’d found the cavern in the first place.

Something about being naked and blind had her heart racing a bit, in the best way. She swallowed hard, hoping they’d just get on with it before she got too damn excited. Their heightened senses would pick up on everything, and though she was fairly sure they were too polite to razz her about it, it was still awkward to be horning out at a time like this.

A shuffling sound echoed near her feet, and Hex took her hands, from the front this time. Hemlock skittered away, and she hoped he’d stay close. She wasn’t sure if he had any kind of night vision or what, but she didn’t want to not be able to find him.

“The blanket is beside you on the ground, lie back on it,” he instructed softly.

Naked and blind and laying flat on a comfy blanket…Oh for fuck sakes bring on the pain already to distract me…

The moss, or whatever it was, tickled her bare flesh before she fully sank down into it, and a soft sigh left her lips. She realized how exhausted her body was in that moment. She’d been able to relax a bit in the pools and she’d slept during her flight but she hadn’t actually laid comfortably since…well, since before she’d gotten to Rol’Guul.

It was glorious.

Hex moved again, letting go of her hands, and the shuffling stopped somewhere above her head. “Put your arms by your sides, and try to stay as still as you can.”

Rosalyn took in a deep breath, filling her lungs right up, and let it out as slowly as she could. There was some kind of practice there, like yoga breathing or something, she was sure. She tried not to think about how much agony she’d been in when Zal had cast the thing, how her entire body had felt like he was using a cauterizing knife to peel her flesh from her bones…

Nothing happened, and she couldn’t hear either of them moving. She strained her ears, even to just hear breathing, anything, and fear licked her spine. “Guys?”

“Shhh,” Hex cooed, and there was that soothing deep rumble again, and this time she let it wash over her, let it calm her muscles, sink into her belly and bring her deeper into the moss where she could—

A strangled guck escaped her throat as her back arched, and the ropes of fire were back, yanking her sternum towards the sky and her wrists and ankles towards the earth. Somehow, she could see Hex, upside down, his face glowing as if lit by churning embers, his eyes wide and fearful and hadn’t he said it would be fucking okay?!

“Jian whatthefuck?!” he cried, and raised his hands.

“Don’t touch her!” Jian barked, and Rosalyn wished she could see what he was doing, but she couldn’t move, her body held fast by ghostly strings of napalm.

Hex froze in a tableau of reluctance, his hands half reaching for her, face drawn tight, but he obeyed.

Rosalyn whimpered, her lungs tightening, are the ropes tightening? Somewhere nearby, Hemlock tore around, panicked scuttling echoing from all directions at once.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” Hex said, and she wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, that nothing was okay, and he had no fucking idea what he was talking about, but then he said, “Jian’s got you.”

She focused on those words, because she needed something to hold on to, something to focus on, because Hex’s complete and utter trust in his companion—lover?—was a force to be reckoned with. It almost had its own presence, its own heartbeat, a living breathing thing between the two demons, like the strings of fate that tied two souls together.

She imagined grabbing the string and wrapping herself around it, hanging on for dear life.

Something snapped, and she fell, sprawled in the soft moss, fireworks exploding in her eyes at the sudden darkness once again.

“Jian.” Hex’s voice was desperate, hoarse.

Hemlock landed on Rosalyn’s chest out of nowhere, and she heaved out a laugh of relief and surprise. He snuggled into her throat, and she found her arms were so heavy she couldn’t even lift them to cuddle him.

“He can’t track her,” Jian replied.

Rosalyn’s body felt like it was made of anvils, and the demon’s voices grew farther and farther away, floating in the ether.

“Are you sure?”

“It’s…it’s not like any curse I’ve seen before, but it’s clear that it’s a one-way link. He could drag her from wherever she is, at any time, but he can’t see where she is, nor possess her or travel to her.”

“Can you break it?”

There was a long pause, and Rosalyn clung to consciousness, forcing her eyes to stay open even though she couldn’t see.

“No.”

“Fuck.”

“We need to find your oracle.”

“Yes, we do,” as Hex said this, his hand brushed through Rosalyn’s hair, and she couldn’t help it anymore, her eyelids fluttered closed.

Just before she fell into unconsciousness, recognition sparked across her vision in the form of a fresh message from KC.

KCxbone: there are people here and they need you to find something for them

And just like that, Rosalyn was wide fucking awake again.

So much for rest.