afflicted

8

A/N: This is the last warning I'm going to give that this story is dark, graphic, eventually sexually explicit, and contains cursing. This is a sad one. I am so sorry. I hope for your forgiveness. 

"Death was flooding our doorstep, drowning our homeland. Rhysand had no choice. Maeve left him none. If he didn't fight, she'd kill us all just the same. We were all so exhausted, so broken from the war with Hybern. We'd only had such a brief moment of peace and happiness," he gave a grim smile. "We thought we'd paid our price, suffered our consequences. We believed we'd finally climbed our mountain, only to find one 5 times its size looming in the distance. Rhysand more than any of us deserved that fucking peace. He'd crucified himself for us over and over and over and in the end, it meant fucking nothing."

She could remember basic facts like this now that she heard them. But not how she fit into any of the stories. She knew the names and faces of the Night Court's Inner Circle, but not a clue about how she knew this. It was as if she'd entirely removed herself from existence inside her own brain. Perhaps she'd done this to herself to avoid the suffocating shame that now sat just inside her rib cage.

He stared out into space. He seemed to be somewhere very far away from his body. Grief was concrete bricks stacked on his shoulder, dragging him down and breaking his bones. His body utterly sagged in defeat. But he wasn't done. No, not even close.

"We'd scoured every fucking resource in Prythian. Consulted The Book of Breathings, consulted Amren. No one had an explanation for where Maeve had come from, or what she was. Eventually, we came to realize how thick-skulled we'd been. Right inside our own family home was an endless library with a studious high priestess who just so happened to specialize in multidimensional travel. Naturally, she was consulted. Rhysand is...- was a control freak. He needed to know every possible outcome. Becoming a dad only amped that up, I think. He had more to lose than he ever had. With the weight of all of it falling on him once again. He didn't sleep much those last few days. He paced the floor and read books until he physically collapsed on top of them and Feyre had to coax him into bed. Even then, he'd be back up an hour or so later."

"Feyre shouldered as much of it from him as she could, but ultimately, she'd never know the realm and the people as intimately as Rhys. Rhys had always been the one to take responsibility for us all, no matter how much it broke him. I resented that part of him. Wanted him to let me take more of the backlash, and ease the weight of it for him somehow. Of course, the stubborn bastard had refused. When he spoke to Merrill in the library, she'd explained to him that co-occurring realities were stacked on top of one another. God-like creatures had stolen the ability to world walk, she'd explained. They were an invasive species. Parasitic in nature. She'd concluded that whatever world Maeve had occupied before, it had been devoured and sucked dry. They needed the power to feed on in order to thrive. Worse than that, she had found no hint as to how to destroy them."

World walking. Multidimensional travel. Her head was spinning. None of it made sense. How had this happened? She found her memory faded, growing fuzzy the further into the story he went. It seemed she could remember most world events up until the second war started. After that, nothing. She couldn't recall ever hearing the name Maeve.

Azriel stared at the ceiling as he talked as if he was watching it all happen again in his mind. She didn't imagine that this was an easy conversation for him to have.

"She came through a portal with some of the most nightmarish creatures imaginable. Demonic spiders and winged wyverns. Iron clawed witches and humans who felt... wrong. They wore collars of runestone and bled black. I would know. I've killed enough of them by now. They smell like they're rotting from the inside, and for all I know, they probably are. She'd invaded the Spring Court first. Tamlin hadn't taken long to fall. His Court was destined to be obliterated the day he chose to side with Hybern in the First War. No one was willing to stick their necks out to save him. She started working her way up the continent. We had the luxury of being the furthest Court from her and therefore had more preparation time than the other Courts. Not that it mattered or made a difference. She utterly decimated everything in her path, sucking the power of Prythian out like she'd had a straw. The land died, the magic ran dry, and bodies disintegrated. There was no stopping her. Nothing worked."