June 2026 DWC - Day 5 - Prey/Abundance
((Written in collaboration with @veilosdaigoa))
Home was a place one should’ve been comfortable, safe, and at ease. Lately, Altherei felt none of those things. Instead, she was uncomfortable, tense, and scrutinizing every shadow. Even now, as she sat and waited for Veilos to arrive, her ears pinned back ever so slightly in quiet focus. The gentle knock on her door startled her, even if it shouldn’t have.
They’d spoken about the ward that was placed on her before, some months ago, but the conversation had been shelved since then- life was busy, greater things took priority. In truth, she might have forgotten about it entirely had its increasing presence not become such a growing, gnawing fear in the back of her mind. She was losing sleep, and the nightmares she was having came more regularly. She could only pretend it was a result of stress for so long, and that time had come and gone.
Altherei rose and opened the door, and did her best to not look as nervous as she felt. She knew he’d notice it anyway- he’d see it in her body language, maybe her aura. He’d hear it in the slight unsteadiness in her voice she did her best to mask. It wasn’t because she wanted to hide anything from him.. she just didn’t want to admit, even to herself perhaps, how much this had started to frighten her.
“Thank you for coming. I.. realize it was a bit of a sudden message- I hope I didn’t worry you too much. I just.. I can’t keep dealing with this- feeling watched, knowing it’s there and I never asked for it to be there and–” She cut herself off, flexing and unflexing her fingers in a nervous gesture to keep herself from rambling.
Veilos’ expression softens immediately. He steps inside only after she’s given him room, closing the door behind himself. “It’s okay. You’re allowed to be frightened, anyone would be.” His gaze studies her for a moment, noticing every tell she thought she was hiding. “You’ve been carrying this alone for too long. Whatever is there, we’ll figure it out. One step at a time.”
She knew it wasn’t a chastisement, but weariness planted the seed of it all the same. She’d wanted to tell him sooner.. but he was right. They’d figure it out. She led the both of them to her living room couch and settled down. Sitting still was easier said than done, even if closing her eyes helped her stay calm and made it easier to remind herself to breathe slowly and deeply. She didn’t need to be afraid of Veil- she had trust for him in abundance. He’d nearly torn apart the Isle to find her before. In his hands- literal and figurative- she was safe. She knew that. It wasn’t his use of the Void, or his need to step into her mind, that left her ill at ease.
It was what- or who- he might find within. What Ilvisar might do. It was far too easy to spiral into worst-case scenarios without even trying. What made them terrifying, Altherei realized, was that she couldn’t confidently rule any of them out. Any outcome was plausible- good, bad, and horrific alike. She could be perfectly fine.. or she could wind up dead. Could this kill her? Gods, she hoped not.
Her white-blue eyes, glassy with fear, searched out his vibrant gold. She curled her fingers around his firmly. She couldn’t hide the trembling if she wanted to, but she was resolved of one thing, if nothing else, and she spoke it with what confidence she could muster.
“.. Promise me you’ll get him out of my head. Whatever it takes.”
His fingers tighten around hers. For a moment, something hard flashes behind his eyes, not anger directed at her, but at the situation itself. “I don’t like making promises when I don’t control all the variables.” He brushes his thumb over her knuckles, “But I swear to you that I will not stop until I’ve exhausted every option available to me.”
With a shaking inhale and a shakier exhale, she followed the instructions he gave her after, and stepped into her psyche. She’d never set foot in her own mind before- not like this. Altherei had always visualized her mind palace as some hodge-podge of a library and a planetarium. A bit messy, a bit chaotic, and with shelves and shelves of memories good and bad- and some tucked away in corners where hopefully nobody would go rooting around. Things she wanted to stay buried. Things she might have even forgotten until specific people or places or things brought them abruptly to the surface.
When Veil’s presence eased into her mind, she almost didn’t notice. It was calm, practiced- she expected nothing less. Yet just as she dared to allow herself to relax, dread pulled heavy at her stomach. The feeling of a thousand ants crawling under her skin. A lump in her throat like she’d swallowed a stone. Instinct screamed at her to flee, but where was there to run in her own mind? A presence overtook the both of them, washing over her mind like a great canopy of darkness, oppressive and choking.
Ilvisar’s made no effort to hide the power he wielded, or conceal the connection between his magic and the ward he placed. A chuckle echoed around her mindspace, almost- almost- light. A pretense at mirth and no more.
“Ah, so this is the doctor my great-grandaughter is so enamored with. I don’t recall inviting you in.” His tone was bemused- for now. As if clued into Altherei’s unease, he followed one remark with another.
“Oh.. did she not tell you?” His voice feigned concern and curiosity alike, but held an altogether too familiar air of a man expertly skilled in gaslighting. “Here I thought she trusted you,” He put heavy emphasis on the word, “Enough to let you barge into her mind, but not enough to share about her family..”
Altherei wanted to speak. To argue. It had nothing to do with trust, nothing to do with anything but there just not being enough time, yet already those doubts crept in anew. What if Veilos believed him? What if he thought Altherei didn’t trust him with it? Yet just as in a nightmare where she couldn’t scream no matter how much she tried.. so too did her voice flee from her here. But was that her own fear.. or was it the weight of Ilvisar’s magic? A force pressed down on her psyche as if to warn her with a single word, a command: Hush.
Veilos barely glances toward the voice, remaining calm. “Interesting tactic. Though if you’re resorting to driving wedges between people before I’ve even begun, it doesn’t inspire much confidence in your position.” Only then does he look at Altherei, “You don’t need to explain anything to me. Not now, not here.” The statement is simple. Her information was her own to keep until she felt comfortable sharing it with him.
“Driving a wedge?” He replied with a breathy laugh, “I’m simply stating the truth of things.” Ilvisar remained remarkably devil-may-care. The reassurance Veil offered to her prompted a roll of his eyes- or the feeling of it, anyway. He’d as yet refused to show himself, opting instead for a disembodied voice. Theatrical, if nothing else.
“I’m quite confident, to the contrary,” He scoffed. “I’ve worked with this magic longer than you’ve been alive. You dip your toes in where I have scoured depths, to say nothing of her fear of getting near the shore,” He quipped at Altherei. “But I have no intention of abandoning her. This ward is for her protection.”
Veilos sighs, “I’ve met many ‘powerful’ people over the years.” His golden gaze sweeps across the darkness. “One thing they all seem to have in common is the need to tell everyone how powerful they are.” Then a faint smile touches his lips, “The truly dangerous ones usually don’t bother.”
Like flipping a switch, Ilvisar’s demeanor changed. If it was truly dangerous he wanted to see.. well. His great-grandaughter might just have to suffer the consequences. Let Veilos try to push him out. Just let him try. Egomaniacal as he was, it was not a pride unfounded.
To Altherei, Ilvisar’s resistance to Veilos’ magic was almost passive- as if he barely needed to lift a finger. She all too easily imagined the walls of her mind closing in around her, shadows encroaching like a ravenous wildfire. Her mind had never been a battleground before, but she didn’t need to have any knowledge of Ilvisar to know who was really for her.
Veilos worked carefully and methodically, matching step for step against Ilvisar, yet never giving way to recklessness or carelessness. Ilvisar, by contrast, despite the little effort he seemed to put in, responded with cruelty. Malice. It wasn’t truly about her protection- it never had been- it was about possession. Control. Every pushback was a stabbing pain, and all she could do was try to breathe through it to keep her psyche from collapsing. She repeated three words to herself- perhaps to Veil, too.
Veil had offered to block the pain. She hadn’t heard him. It was all Altherei could do to hold onto herself as pieces of her mind started to crack and fragment at the edges. Memories old and new began to blur, smeared like a messy oil painting until they became unrecognizable. Tears welled in her eyes, and a warm trickle of blood slowly dripped from her nose. The pain grew and grew until her head felt like it was going to split open like a melon when suddenly–
All at once, the threads of her mind rewove. Ilvisar’s voice- his laughter- ceased. Quiet fell over her mindspace, but it was uneasy. Unsettling. This wasn’t victory. It wasn’t concession. A beleaguered sigh broke the stillness, followed by a quiet, tired chuckle from an Ilvisar who sounded far too entertained by the whole ordeal.
“Fine, fine. You want me out that badly.. I’ll go. You’ve done enough damage, I think,” He laughed again. He was full of it- Altherei knew it; it wasn’t Veil who was willing to shred her very sanity.
It frightened her to think Ilvisar might very well have done it. That feeling of being watched pulled back farther and farther until she could almost feel someone leaving her mind. An intruder never meant to be there, finally deciding he’d had enough, and would leave his plaything behind for someone else.
The moment the presence begins to retreat, Veilos doesn’t celebrate. Instead, he turns his full attention on Altherei. “Stay with me.” His voice cuts cleanly through any lingering static. “Don’t follow him, don’t listen to anything he says on the way out.” Light and Void move together around her mind like careful stitches pulling torn fabric closed. “Look at me and breathe. You’re here, this is your mind, not his.”
With any lingering minor injuries dealt with, Veilos had again offered to put one of his own wards in place. She accepted without hesitation. It was a strange feeling, having a ward put right back after one had just been removed.. but this was different. Where Ilvisar had felt like an intruder, a stalker- a presence watching and waiting like a predator observing prey, this felt.. safe. Veilos felt safe.
Imagine a door, he’d told her. Any door- familiar, comforting. Visualization had never been her strong suit, and a tendency to overthink would’ve muddied the waters further had she not been so exhausted. Yet all the same, what came to mind wasn’t a front door, or a patio door- not the door to her home now, or as a child, or even to his apartment. It was the door to her father’s study. Old and oaken, with delicate filigree work along its borders. Centuries of use before her birth had earned it a soft, gentle creak each time it opened and closed.
He walked her through the steps- imagine its key. Close the door. Lock it. Keep the key. She followed every step, committing it all to memory. This was her mind. Her key. Nobody else’s. After a few more deep breaths, she finally opened her eyes once more.
Still.. she was rattled. The shadows still felt like they might start crawling as soon as she closed her eyes. The walls still loomed over her in ways like they might crumble and collapse on her if she dared breathe wrong. Altherei moved forward on her couch until she could wrap herself securely in his arms.
“Please stay with me tonight– I.. I still don’t want to be alone,” She didn’t care if it sounded needy when she knew very well she needed him. Needed his comfort, his steadiness, his presence- something to anchor her when the lights went out and the darkness would threaten to overwhelm her. She knew she didn’t have to fear his refusal.
She kept herself pressed close to Veilos that night, face tucked into the crook of his neck. Much as she hated to feel weak, she gave herself permission now. He was here, and as long as he was here, she’d be all right. A few stray tears found their way down her cheeks, and it was his arms tightening around her and a soft kiss pressed to her head she last felt before drifting into blessed dreamless sleep.
