Wolf laughed, waving away the forming winged reptile—dragon, more like. He's never even seen such a creature. Strange he would unknowingly 'draw' one. "I was thinking more like lonely, but I suppose unique works. We're not exactly the typical royal family, save for Mother." He thought about how long Lily's been taking, comparing it to about when Cin was begrudgingly asking for help, and sat up with an arched brow. "Need any help, hun?"
Lily paused, blinking in surprise. How had he guessed that quickly? "I…I'm not sure. I don't want to bother you." And I'm not sure if I could handle you accidentally touching me. She moved the screen, peaking out at him and looking at the floor. "I just want to get it over with, I guess. So, if it wouldn't be a bother to you…"
He waved his hand dismissively, standing up and stretching, joints popping. "Nonsense. I offered my assistance before, and I'm nothing if not a man of integrity." He laughed quietly at himself, then looked over at Lily, though he didn't make a move to come closer without her permission. He didn't know of her fears, but it was a habit formed by being around his twin so much, who often shied away from help and physical contact.
"Thank you." She nodded once, stepping out and turning her back to him, taking in a subtle deep breath. Rhydar's brother is just as trustworthy as Rhydar. You trust him and Cin, and you trust Wolf. "It just these, right here." She said, angling her arm to point at where the strings had been left undone. "I can't quite get there, not without dislocating my arm. Which would require a re-location, so that's off the table."
He chuckled and stepped up to her, taking the strings and getting to work on binding them. He, once again, unconsciously made sure to not touch her as he did so, his head tilted in concentration. He'd never understand the appeal of complicated dresses women had to wear. "We can't have that, now can we? Rhydar would throw a hissy fit and blame it all on me, then I'd have to get Cin involved, prompting Magnus to enter, which would just turn into a huge sibling rivalry that would put us all in time out." He said it lightly, though there was a hint of amusement that suggested he was speaking from experience.
"All over me dislocating my arm to get a dress on?" Lily furrowed her brows, tilting her head. She didn't look back at him though, letting him work to get it done quickly, instead of taking longer to re-do it. Even if he was unconsciously keeping from touching her, it was still very much appreciated. Regardless of his orientation or motives, the dress was already causing problems. She didn't need that on top of them. "That would seem a bit extreme, if my own siblings hadn't ended with the same result over things as small as a pebble found in one's shoe. We lived at the end of a gravel road, to put that in perspective." She added, shaking her head.
Wolf chuckled. "Us four need a little bit of entertainment, and what better way than getting thrown into the royal slammer for a petty squabble? It usually happens once or twice a year, maybe more if we're really bored." He looked over her shoulder and rose his brows, though his hands didn't falter as they continued to work on the strings. "And Rhydar would be worried over you, no matter how your arm got hypothetically dislocated. He's a worrier, mainly when it comes to what and who he cares about."
Lily's cheeks pinkened, but her lips lifted up just slightly. "He shouldn't worry about me. He should focus more on himself, and the people who actually need to be worried about." She said, fiddling with the ring on her finger as she spoke. It was a constant companion for her, ever since Rhydar had given it to her. She wasn't about to go losing it, obviously. "A dislocation wouldn't even be that problematic, just unnecessarily in the way."
"Tell that to my brother," he grumbled, tying off the last string and stepping back. "There. Secured in that death trap. I kept it reasonably loose for easy removal. Learned the hard way from Cin." He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Pretty sure the entire castle could hear her cursing up a storm and thumping around as she tried getting that one dress off. Coincidentally, Mother stopped ordering she wear corsets after that." He tipped his head to the side and fell quiet, body going slack and his eyes looking at seemingly nothing. Well shit was the last coherent thought he had before he was plunged into a vision, held prisoner by his own gift.
She huffed a small and soft laugh, turning around to thank him and pausing. "Wolf?" That wasn't something she'd seen before, the only thing at all close being forced to watch the other women at the Garden as they slipped into the disassociative trance every one of them learned. It made things easier. But this was different, that much was obvious, and she was just slightly worried.
Biting her lip and pushing aside the crawling feeling and worry in her gut, she stepped closer, hesitantly reaching out. Whatever it was, she didn't try to shake him out of it, just very gently guided him over to the bed, in case he fell. She didn't want him getting hurt.
Wolf barely registered Lily guiding him to the bed, a flicker of gratefulness going through him as it was very likely he'd collapse after this. And that was the last thing he remembered before he was fully dragged under, consumed by the crystal clear future, heightened somehow by Lily's touch. It was as if his Seer gifts were waiting for her to do that, guiding her hands to make a hidden connection.
Mossy walls damp with perspiration. The Eyes of the Seer drifted through the halls, twisting and turning, going down, down, down, down… It got darker and darker, the moist earthy scent surrounding the Eyes and clinging to the phantom. There was seemingly no reason for their path. That is, until they reached a set of three different paths. Follow the Eyes, said a voice, and then darkness. Seconds went by, and the phantom was greeted by the stone doors of a tomb. It was new looking, a set of giant wings embracing the double doors. A square was carved into the center of the seal between the doors. The Eyes turned, turning attention to a web with a glint of steel behind it.
A trembling breath escaped Wolf's lips, the only sign that he was coming back to reality. It was a slow process, though, and he slowly sank down to the bed, his legs giving out. He didn't reach out, didn't seek help. How many times has he collapsed on his own, with no help? It was to be expected, now.
It took some effort, but as Wolf began to collapse, Lily reached out again. Of her own volition, she kept her hands only at his shoulders, helping him sit on the bed as she searched his face worriedly. "Wolf? Are you alright? Should I-go fetch Cinthia?" She wasn't sure if she was expecting a response or just talking to herself, musing over what would be the best thing to do right now. She had no clue what to do, or how to make sure he was alright. It was surprising, finding herself this worried about a person she barely knew. He's your friend. And the brother of your other friend. He's Rhydar's brother. You don't want anything to happen to him.
Wolf blinked rapidly, now teetering on the edge of the present and future. It took a few tries, but he managed to find his voice. "N-no, I'm fine. Just… Get a piece of paper while I remember this." He focused on the turns, knowing that he'd need to remember them all before it got fuzzy. That vision was too abrupt, too clear to be dismissed. He suspected it was something important to Lily, as it had happened when he was close to her, and the clarity got even better when she touched him. "I'm sort of blind at the moment, so if you'd be so kind as to write this down for me…" He rubbed at his eyes and ducked his head away from where he sensed Lily, an action similar to that of Rhydar when he used his abilities near her.
Lily nodded quickly, releasing him once she knew he was steady enough to not fall off the bed, and grabbed a piece of paper from within the drawers in the room. Finding a pen took a bit longer, but she managed. "Of course. What do you need me to write down?" She asked, settling next to him and crossing one leg over the other. The dress inhibited her motion a bit, especially with the measures taken to avoid looking at it. That was far from her mind, though, her current thoughts just relieved it was nothing serious. Actually, it almost reminded her of the morning she and Rhydar had spent together, after his nightmare.
He didn't waste time explaining it all to her, which he felt slightly guilty for, but that was just how it was. "Copy down what I say," he ordered softly, but firmly, then began reciting what he saw replaying—though the image was getting grainier by the second. "Underground, somewhere wet. Stone. Left, right, right, left, right, left, left, right. Three staircases. Follow the Eyes. A newish set of tomb doors with large wings. A dagger behind a web." He rubbed at his eyes, the heels of his palms digging into his eyes to try and rub away his blindness. "I–think that's it. Anything needing repeated?"
"No, I got it all." She said, taking a moment to stare at the paper. Her schooling had, of course, ended abruptly, and hadn't been all that in depth as it was. So writing was a bit of a struggle for her, especially after eight years being forbade to even look at a pen. Finally, she managed to get the things he'd listed down, though her hand writing was reminiscent of a drunk doctor riding a lame mule. Nothing was spelled wrong, though, thanks to the amount of time she spent reading. "You said…wings? What kind of wings?" She asked suddenly, looking up at him as a thought flickered through her head.
"Uh…stone wings?" he said slowly, blinking one last time before he could see clearly and his head wasn't spinning. He met Lily's gaze and ran a hand through his hair, tugging slightly to make sure he was completely grounded. He then hurried to elaborate, his hand moving as he talked. "There was this set of double doors leading to some sort of tomb. No decoration besides this set of really big wings that were kinda curving around them, like a hug? No paint or anything, even though it all looked relatively new, in terms of a tomb, that is. A few years old, maybe?"
It seemed far fetched, but the nagging in the back of her mind wouldn't cease. A constant 'this means something. You know what this means.' It took her a moment to connect the dots beyond a feeling, but then her eyes were lighting up and widening, and she looked down at the paper in her hand, then Wolf. "Wings, a few years old? What did-did they look feathered, or more bat-like?" She asked, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth as she mulled over everything on the paper in front of her.
He was confused, but he answered honestly. "Feathered." So his hunch was right—whatever he had seen was important to Lily in some way. What it was, he had no idea, but Lily seemed to be onto something, and he wouldn't pry. "I have a feeling this is important to you," he said, then rubbed the back of his neck and let out a small breath. "If I were you, I'd follow it. I haven't seen a vision as clear as that one in years. The clearer, the more important. Especially when it's so abrupt."
She looked back up at him, eyebrows furrowed. Studying his face for a moment, she nodded, tapping the paper in her hands. "It is. More important to someone else, but that makes it important to me. The clearer ones mean more?" Lily tilted her head, curious about that itself, and what it might mean if this vision was what she thought it was.
Wolf opened his mouth, then closed it and tilted his head as he thought of how to describe it accurately. He understood it, but it was more instinct than actual knowledge. No one taught him what everything meant. "That, and more certain. What I see is the future, just like my siblings. But with me, I can look whenever I please, and however far I want. The further into the future I look, the more possibilities there are, and the less clear they are. The clearer, the more certain it is to happen. These random visions happen to us all, usually meaning something significant to either us or someone within close proximity to—or in contact with. Just like with my sight, the clearer, the more certain. The more abrupt, the less time I have to prepare, the more important my Eyes seem to think it is." It took a second for him to realize she didn't know what he was referring to in that last bit. "When I say 'my Eyes,' I mean what we all Seers have to look where our normal eyes cannot. It's like a phantom we're looking through, sorta. There, but not really."
Lily listened to his explanation quietly, head still tilted as she did. It made sense, even if he didn't think it did. "Eyes of the Seer." She said softly, once he was finished. "My mother used to tell us tales, the myths of our people, in which people with power beyond imagination saw things that even the gods could not. Gifts, straight from our Fates. It might not be that, but…I get what you mean. And that means this is just as important as I think it is." She looked down at the paper as she folded it up, standing to tuck it carefully into the drawer she kept her family photo in when she had no pockets. "I know…you may not have had control over seeing it, but thank you. For telling me of it."
Wolf nodded and smiled, standing up after making sure he could stand. "Don't mention it," he said, then checked the time and bowed with a brighter smile. "Well, I'm glad I could help, but I really should be going. My mother won't be particularly thrilled if I'm late to being early. I'll see you at the ball, doll." He straightened up, then went to the door, though he lingered a bit to give Lily a chance to say something.
"Set aside a moment or two to raid the food with me, if you're looking for friendly company." Lily said, shooting him a tiny, but warm smile. She lifted her hand in a wave, eyes sparkling with their happy colors, though not quite the bright look they got with Rhydar. That was special, it would seem, just for him. "Try not to upset the Queen. And say hello to Cinthia, if you see her, please?"
"She's my twin, of course I'm gonna see her," he said with a grin and a wink, then waved goodbye before slipping through the door and closing it behind him. He went into his room and changed into his outfit that would match Cinthia's except it was blue as opposed to her green. A small joke, referring to their two different colored eyes. Once he was changed, he decided to borrow a cuff earring from Rhydar—it would just cook around his ear, no piercing needed. He said hello to his brother, who was in the middle of changing and shot an incredulous look at the unannounced intrusion, and dug through Rhydar's stash to find something.