Written Works: Reius: Death, hold my heart for just a moment

NOTE: I've not written drabbles in a while and I'm at work uploading this so no double checking from mEEEEEE

 

To many, things such as betrayal or treason are fully out of their moral scope, they would never 'stoop that low', they claim, but many of them too don't know how close they are to acquiring what they want, many of them don't realize that there's just the twist of a knife between them and their desires.

Reius had been cultivating a friendship, the young elf had met a florist, Emmeline, she called herself, although she mentioned she preferred to just be called Emma by them. She had a peculiar ability: To sprout life from just her fingertips, from her blood, beautiful petals that formed the most gorgeous of roses, or bouquets of the most fragrant flowers.. It was lost potential, Reius thought, al the while praising the beauty of her skills, skills that the sorcerer hoped to harvest for their own gain.

For beings such as them, decades of friendship passed by quite quickly, nearing a century with ease. Emma, excited to show her friend her new project, invited Reius to her house, a place they've been to countless of times, a place they've stayed at, dined at, or simply spent some time in with their 'friend'.

This friend, Emma, she was special, a young dragon- For the most part, dragons are never truly alone, having large families and communities, but she'd been shunned and isolated for her weak abilities, left to her own devices and to handle life however she was able to. The Elf, however, saw the potential that her family did not even attempt to nurture.

Reius had been studying, "I'm still trying to figure out what sorts of magic I'd like to practice..." they'd tell her, a façade they kept up thanks to the fact that she feared magic and did not want to inquire much more. How many stories had she heard of magical slayers taking her people for their collections, to prove their worth? Her friend knew of this and promised to never use magic next to her, and through so many decades, they'd kept their promise.

"If I were to, it'd be just to raise the dead, in case you were to fall before I do." They joked, receiving a gentle punch to their arm as she pouted, not even wanting to poke fun at something of that sort.

Emma showed Reius a large room, to one side of it there was the beginning of a tree, well, a sprout. She happily announced. "This is going to be a massive, gorgeous tree that will hold my entire house! It'll decorate, it'll bring life to these ugly gray walls!"

The sorcerer quirked an eyebrow as she showed them this, wondering if she really could pull that off, perhaps in a couple more years.

"I'm also making sure to put as much of... Well, me, onto it, I want it to be a tree that will keep me safe from your nasty little buddies." She joked with a pout, sticking her tongue out at the sorcerer.

Reius nodded, curious for sure as they observed the sprout. "Fortunately for you, none of my acquaintances are seeking to take your head, or any dragon's for the matter. And if they try, I can always stop them." Their voice was reassuring, a charm they'd learned over years of acting.

She shrugged. "Well maybe your friends are decent, but the stories say there's many others willing to slay a dragon merely for glory, and this tree will protect me from all that, you'll see!"

Once again, the Elf nodded just to make her feel better, not thinking much of it.

Not until a week later, where she'd excitedly invited them to look at her project once again, the difference this time, was that there was no sprout, but a clearly blooming tree- It was not grand just yet, but at the speed it was growing, perhaps she would be right, perhaps this tree would halt any of their plans. They'd not be able to control the great power of a dead dragon, if this dragon was never able to die.

 

*O death, allow me to cheat you once again, to snatch a life from your grasp for just a moment, blood will spill for your satisfaction in return.*

 

That very moment, where Emma happily presented her beautiful tree, Reius took a decision: a dragon's heart held immeasurable power, it just had to be nurtured, there were no rules on who had to do so.

If she were to become too powerful to die, where she would not become their undead slave, they'd have to take this gem of hers, snatch it from her ribcage. With strength Emma did not know Reius possessed, a hand went from her back and pierced to the front, a powerful surge of magic bursting through, what she feared for so many years truly did happen, at the comfort of her home, at the hands of the one she trusted most..

Emma screamed in pain, agonized tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked down for a brief moment, the last she saw was a pale hand, covered in a thick, crimson fluid, it held a bloodied gemstone, the image blurred more and more due to her tears before she collapsed forward.

Reius took her heart, stepping back quickly, they were breathing rapidly, they were used to improvising, but they did not expect to have to embrace death this soon in their life. The adrenaline of the entire situation had them hyperventilating, it was exhilarating, yet also, very deep inside, terrifying.

Stabilizing their breathing and swallowing what little saliva their dry mouth had, they proceeded to the most difficult part of the ordeal.

Their free hand reached to their chest, a similar burst of magic puncturing it, making them feel agonizing pain, they bled, they were sweating, their breathing was once again labored. They clawed and broke through, infused with their own necromantic magic, they knew that if they did not act fast, they'd succumb as well. Everything would be for naught. 

To any spectator, the whole scene would not last longer than a couple seconds, but to the elf, it felt like eternally slow minutes. Their left hand tossed away their own heart while their right shoved the dragon's heart inside, desperately forcing it to work for them, being held alive by a magical thread, they'd cheated death at last, they hissed and huffed in pain, stumbling away as their own struggle kept going, magic forcing the heart to pump blood, to keep them going, despite the numbness they were feeling. They gasped and huffed and fought to keep themselves alive, conscious, they poured more and more magic into their being as they hissed and walked away, leaving Emma on the cold hard floor.

And at the gruesome scene of the dead dragon, a root reached for the discarded heart.