However, she finds him asleep under the covers. His clothes have been left neatly on a bedside chair and his bare back faces the ceiling, almost motionless save for its rises and falls with each breath. Relief falls over the woman as she turns to quietly close the door behind her. Silent footsteps bring her to the other side of the bed where an empty space awaits, and she takes this spot by lowering herself in a painfully slow motion. This afternoon, she wears a light yellow, thin sweater with a skirt to match it. Black socks travel up from her feet to cover what skin the skirt doesn’t, and a sparkling necklace shaped like a flower rests against the top of her chest. She decides it would be smarter to just stay dressed as she settles in. Today is a lazy day, she tells herself, bringing herself to lie down next to her Agent, the Head Reaver of Chassa. Before her eyelids become too heavy, the Aether Elf keeps a vigilant watch over him that lasts a few minutes. The tiring lull of his sleep brings about hers soon enough, making a much nicer situation out of what could have been quite, quite horrible.

In her sleep, Alain dreams of a different time where she had never gone to become a diplomat. She finished her exams at school like everyone else, passed her finals with no issues, and went out to work in a bakery with a childhood friend. In this life, she feels so content in what she has made for herself: a small family, the bakery with a friend, and other friends just from seeing people everyday. Something is missing, however.

Alain slowly realizes there is no Caspian in her life. She vaguely remembers seeing him in passing, but she has never spoken to him. Thinking back, she wasn’t in the same class as him and she never met his mother, who she can’t even remember the name of. It fills her with sorrow, like she has missed out on a whole life left behind in some lost reality.

The woman finds herself failing to focus, watching her world crumble in a spiral of chaos and discord. Her friends lose identities, the one she thought she loved and married is just a fragment of her imagination tossed away to oblivion, and Chassa is but a mess of ruined, decrepit halls barely still standing. Around a corner, she feels something looming. Caspian? She moves forward, but the hall gets longer. She starts to trot, which turns into her running. “Caspian!” Alain breaks out into a sprint, chasing what she can’t see or seem to reach. Like in her faux life, everything she thought she had is gone to her now and she is alone, just as this nightmare aimed to make her believe. As her breath becomes devastatingly heavy with her barreling towards that corner, wishing and hoping for him to be right around it, the reality of her dream becomes clear and she realizes what she is without him: faceless, soulless halls left abandoned and ruined. This epiphany strikes her, the hall suddenly stops elongating, and the sprint brings her face-first into a dead end, waiting for her to find it since the beginning of the lie of a life she dreamed up for herself.

Alain’s eyes pop open and she gasps, reeling and turning in the bed she fell asleep on. A pressure holds her down, and she is terrified for the first few moments in the darkness. The pressure, however, tightens and pulls her to the side where her head meets another, and the woman realizes she’s safe in her Agent’s home. Heart still pounding, she realizes she is now under the covers and she had removed her sweater at some point in her sleep, still wearing a tank top underneath with the skirt and long socks. Cold sweat still rolls down the sides of her face and her back, but it doesn’t compare to the heat of his body she’s brought into.

“Shh.” Caspian’s almost soundless noise of comfort confirms she is safe, and he solidifies it with exasperated words: “Nightmare... Back to sleep.” His tone indicates he had been awoken by her outburst, but his body remains relaxed with an arm wrapped around just below her neck, ranging from shoulder to shoulder. His other arm is under her pillow, meaning he had, at some point in the day, moved to face her, but it doesn’t worry the woman at all. Alain retains a newly rediscovered feeling of safety in his arms, one she doesn’t take for granted in the slightest bit.

The pale Elf lowers her head to rest the lower half of her face against his arm. With a deep inhale, she takes in the aroma and savors the situation she has found herself in. So gentlemanly to not will this to happen, but just risqué enough to allow it to. Her eyes open once more, noticing the darkness for the first time. We stayed up so late last night... I’m still so tired. She lifts a hand to meet his arm, pushing herself back into him to take in all the heat she can. If only this could be our forever, she thinks. If only... if only you could be open with your love. Why can’t you convey it clearly? Why must it be a guessing game...?

Within his slowly deepening sleep, the man lets out an almost unheard sound, like some failed effort to speak. Seconds later, he makes another noise, as if he is trying to speak with a lost voice. It doesn’t mean too much to Alain at first, as she simply thinks her Agent speaks in his sleep. However, it doesn’t seem to be like that, but something much worse. When he begins moments after the second attempt, the sound comes out in the form of a hum; it matches the melody he was humming before perfectly. He mimics the haunting tune, pressing it into her head with his face against her.

The song manifests in her own mind, characterized by four notes sounded in an alternating sequence. It is created by Caspian’s humming, then repeated in Alain’s mind over and over again, continuing until she can hear the music box-like tune playing out loud. What worsens it is when some distorted, wicked version of the song begins soon after she puts her hands to her head. The hellish version plays at the same time as the normal one, but the notes are inverted so the melody contradicts and collapses on itself every single time it repeats, quiet at first but loudening quickly. The playing paralyzes her body, though it begins to tremble and shake uncontrollably as the song plays as if physically all around her, like some unseen creatures are face to face with the Elf, creating the music from horrid instruments.

Before the music can continue any longer, Alain gives in and screams, thrusting herself upwards in bed with a rush of energy. “No, stop!” she shouts, but the music is completely gone. Breathing audibly through her teeth, she doesn’t even realize time has passed as the bed is empty except for her, and she’s hyperventilating alone until the door is pushed open with such force that could shove a Demon to the ground.

“Alain!” Cas calls as he enters and snaps the room lit, searching it for any foreign beings. He finds none, though, and moves to her side of the bed to see to her. “What is it, was something here?”

The Elf is unable to find words to use as emotions overcome her, her face falling apart with post-traumatic stress of the concurrent night terrors. The hands she had up to her ears stay and she can’t understand what her Agent is saying, but all that seems to matter anyways is keeping the song out of her head. Though her eyes search the room, she knows nothing is truly there to harm her; this is a mental game, and she’s losing by a long shot. 

“Allie, please,” Caspian says, moving a gentle hand to her back. “It was just a nightmare.” He continues the soft words and phrases, attempting to calm her back down. It takes time, yes, but he is eventually successful in getting her to loosen up on her hands and stop gasping for breath. She keeps the hands up, however, so he speaks a bit louder. “Allie, are you alright?”

Alain nods a few times. Her face is stricken with tears and her eyes are rimmed with red skin, but it matters not to her. Visible sweat covers her body and her chest rises and falls heavily with quite excessive deep breaths. When she manages to calm down more, her instinct is to turn over and lie back down, her hands left over her ears to block the music from entering. She speaks, but it doesn’t come through as well-heard as she hoped.

Leaning in, he asks, “What was that?”

“Stay.”

“Stay? Uh... alright.” Caspian rises from the bed, stepping over to close the door again. Darkness still looms outside, it being the middle of the night at the moment. When he turns back, he sees her eyes staring directly at him. It stuns him, and it takes a moment for him to realize why this is such an odd occurrence. It comes to him that her eyes show complete fear- the woman is terrified, which he has almost never seen in Alain. Whatever it was, it’s got her petrified, he thinks. No time to work anymore tonight, Cas- she needs you.

The man steps over, lowering himself to sit next to her. “Is there anything I can do other than stay, Allie?” When she shakes her head, he nods and puts himself under the covers with her, though keeps on his side of the bed. “I’m sorry I’m not really much help. I wish I knew how to deal with those who need it.” Cas doesn’t get any response, but he isn’t prompted to stop. Maybe she just wants to keep awake for a bit. “I woke up and you were here, which I certainly didn’t expect. Honestly, I had thought you went back home after making me come lie down earlier in the day.”

His head turns to face her, and her bright blue eyes remain right on him. “I, ah... thought it was nice, you know, when I woke up with you here. I suppose since the Deacon let it all out there, I can say that you’ve always been... attracting.”

She blinks, watching him intently. With how the blanket is held down over her face, only the top half is visible.

Caspian turns his head to look up at the ceiling, feeling the slightest bit freaked out by her staring. “Anyways... I never wanted to say anything, don’t know why. I think I thought you and I were incompatible for some reason, which would have been silly to think. Come to think of it, I was quite the child when we were younger. I just didn’t see it back then, but you and I were simply destined to end up together, huh? Think that might be why we were always pushed towards each other in school?” Without any response still, he continues, “I suppose I didn’t want to believe that my life was planned out already, but there really is no one else, Alain. No one else who cares like you do, or... wants like you do. Funny... I didn’t realize this until after spending mere days with you, but I suppose the link Tourn put in us certainly helps to understand what we’re both thinking.”

Under the blanket, Cas feels a hand take his, so he adds, “Something about this mission makes me think this is what we were made for, Allie. You and I are the only ones, aren’t we? Who else could handle such a mess more than those who are messes themselves? ...I know what you’re thinking: I’m just bringing myself down, but it’s true, isn’t it? We’re broken souls looking for something, anything to make our lives meaningful. Do you think this is it, or have we already made them meaningful by coming to our senses with each other? ...Truly, Alain, there is no one else.” His head drops to the side again, making eye contact with the now tearing up Elf. “No one else.”

Alain’s eyes close tightly, then she curls up on herself. Across from her, the still anxious Caspian decides this is his chance, if there ever was one, to take a step with her. Deciding they’re going to go back to sleep together, he gets rid of the thin shirt he had left on and wills the lights off. Don’t overwhelm her. He inches forward, moving an arm to embrace her slowly, to which she seems to respond well by loosening up, but not on the grip over her head. Without speaking out loud, he says to her, “Just rest, Al; I won’t leave.”

“Thank you,” she responds, her hand squeezing his. Over the covers, just the upper half of her head is seen, her eyes held shut as if asleep, but she still trembles like frozen by an icy wind.

To deal with the woman’s shaking, her Agent hesitantly moves closer to embrace the Elf, hoping to soothe her from her fears. With a hand held against her back, he pulls her in so that she may not feel so alone. It seems to help as her trembling subdues, but getting her hand to loosen up from her ear not against the pillow is one other battle. Cas begins to combat it by moving his hand over hers. In her mind, he senses the horrible thoughts she has floating around. She’s replaying her nightmares while cursing herself for clamming up, making it all even worse. “Clear your mind, Allie.”

“I can’t.”

“Focus on me, then.”

“I... can’t.”

Caspian ponders how to fix this situation, coming up short on ideas that don’t mean crossing boundaries he isn’t sure they’re ready for. There is another way, but he knows she may not enjoy it as much. Ultimately, he decides that, for Alain’s wellbeing, he must do what is necessary. Focusing on a part of his mind linked up with a physical plate on his head, Cas is able to artificially, or magically, suppress Alain’s emotions by holding her in the tight embrace. “Sorry, Alain,” he speaks to her mind, making the woman go limp. Her hand slips down from her head and onto his arm moments before she is taken by a deep, refreshing slumber.