Private Where Shadows Learn to Linger

[Varin Mortifer]

CC began applying bandages as Seren spoke to him. Applying pressure where needed and wrapping what wounds remained open, finally bandaging Varin’s eye. The medical bandages stained with smears of crimson wrapped over his crown and around to the eye that was missing.

“It’s my job to anticipate, madam.”

CC spoke calmly, emanating a sense of emotion almost as if he were not even a droid. Advancements in his model made him capable of feeling emotion and eventual personality, solidifying a sense of urgency and duty to protect the Mortifer bloodline. Varin’s breathing finally slowed as his eye began to close.

“He is finally stabilized, Lady Seren.”

CC spoke as if it were just another job but inside he was holding it together. Ignati looked over the trio as his body continued giving heat.

“If he is stable then we can let him rest finally. I don’t sense the icy grip trying to pull him.”

Ignati walked around the bed to the other side to continue his job while CC and Seren watched over Varin.

“I was with him when it all happened on his planet.”

CC spoke quietly as he cut bandages and applied a few more, washing the wounds and dressing them.

“When the sky split open and everything came to a halt.”

He looked at her, his eyes returning to their green hue.

“I was his father’s personal guard and Varin’s caretaker. I also watched after his sister Nier.”

He paused for a moment.

“When it all happened, it was sudden. I remember taking them from the living quarters and carrying his sister, Varin, following close before…he intervened.”

He looked back at Varin and gently laid a hand on his shoulder.

“I couldn't protect them then and now he is all there is left of his home.”

He slowly stood back up looking at the both of them.

“Even after I failed, he still came back for me, pulling me out of a junkers planet, braving acid rains and falling debris, and a giant trash eating squid thing. I don’t know anyone else who would do that for a droid who failed his sacred duty.”

He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a slow nod before walking away to leave her to privacy with Varin. His breathing steady and slow, the bleeding finally stopped but the patch over his eye held a light crimson in it. He gently kept hold of her hand, unconsciously running his thumb over her knuckles. The cold breeze whistling into the openings of the temple giving a sense of protection and peace for the moment.

Seren Gwyn​

 

[Seren Gwyn]

Seren did not pull away when CC placed his hand on her shoulder.

She let the weight of what he said settle first, allowed the quiet of the chamber to hold it without trying to soften or correct it. When she spoke, it was low and measured, meant for CC as much as for the room itself.

"You did not fail," Seren said gently. "You were present. You acted. Sometimes that is all the living or the surviving are allowed to do."

Her gaze moved from CC back to Varin, to the steady rise and fall of his chest, and to the faint tightening of his grip around her hand even in sleep.

"What he did for you was not repayment," she continued. "It was recognition. He knew who stayed with him when everything else was taken."

She met CC's eyes again, unflinching, sincere.

"That kind of loyalty is not born from duty alone," Seren said. "It is born from being seen."

As CC stepped away, Seren shifted closer to the bed, sitting where Varin could feel her presence even in unconsciousness. She adjusted the blanket carefully, mindful of the bandages, then allowed her hand to remain where his fingers curled around it.

"Rest," she murmured softly, not knowing if he could hear but speaking anyway. "You are not alone. You are not finished."

She stayed there as the cold breeze whispered through the temple, her presence steady and watchful, guarding the space between pain and peace until he was ready to wake again.

Varin Mortifer