"N-No…! Farah!" Aiki struggled to get ahold of their power, trying their best to stop using it. "No, no, no! I-I'm so sorry, p-please… make it stop…!" He sobbed weakly, managing to switch the energy draining to his own so that he wouldn't kill Farah, but he was still unable to get the flames to cease. They could feel their strength waning as their energy was quickly expended, and they soon collapsed when their body couldn't take it anymore. Only then did the flames stop.
Farah gasped as Aiki switch his source back to himself, but the damage was already done. Any time that Farah moved, she suddenly became lightheaded. Her breathing was shallow, and she seemed to fade in and out of consciousness.
Rosalind, only slightly dazed, moved closer to Farah. A wicked grin appeared on her face, and she knelt beside Farah, taking pleasure that the young fairy could barely move. "You brought this on yourself," she whispered into Farah's ear, and Farah shivered, nearly passing out as she did so.
"Cruel…" Farah moaned softly. Her eyes moved slowly to Aiki, even in her weakened state making sure that they were okay.
Aiki's consciousness was fading as well, and they no longer had enough energy to create flame. He whimpered shakily, a few more tears rolling down his pale cheeks just before he passed out. They were limp on the ground, no longer shaking, and their breathing was worryingly shallow. His face was only barely visible with his hair and ears falling over it.
"Help…" Farah whispered. She strained to get the words out, but she knew she needed to. "H-Help… him." Her eyes stayed locked on Aiki's limp body.
Rosalind narrowed her eyes, then sighed. "Fine." She sent a dismissive wave of her hand in Aiki's direction accompanied by a burst of energy and healing magic.
Aiki woke with a start, sitting up with a sharp gasp. Their ears pricked up and their heart started to race, and they looked around to try and figure out what was going on. He spotted Farah lying on the ground and he immediately felt sick with guilt. "F-Farah…! Oh my god, I… I'm so sorry, I-I didn't… I didn't mean…" Their voice trailed off as they struggled to find the right words to say.
Farah closed her eyes since even looking around was tiresome at this point. “It’s okay,” she whispered gaining minimal amounts of energy back now that Aiki’s power wasn’t being used anymore. Still, it wasn’t even close to the amount she would need to fend of a mental attack from Rosalind.
The older fairy showed no hesitance in beginning to search Farah’s newly vulnerable mind, and she was shocked by what she found. She began to laugh. “Here I was thinking you and Saul were just a one-night stand!”
Farah’s chest rose and fell quickly as she began to hyperventilate. Everything in her head was fair game at this point.
“So you were going to use Luna to get it back…”
Rosalind continued through Farah’s memories and thoughts with unlimited access. The only benefit was, as Rosalind promised, Farah wasn't in any pain. But that was only because her entire body tingled with numbness as she'd never felt before in her life.
Aiki scrambled to his knees and moved to get in front of Farah, trying to be a barrier between her and Rosalind, but he didn't really know how mind fairy magic worked. If Rosalind ended up going through their mind as a result, so be it. He didn't really have anything to hide, or at the least, nothing he knew would be of interest to her.
As soon as Rosalind referred to them as "it", however, they froze up and paled. He started to tremble again and closed his eyes, clearly upset. No, no…! Don't think about that right now! They insisted to themself.
Rosalind noticed Aiki's reaction, and it caused a small smile to break out on her face. "Alright, let's see, shall we?" she asked, a rhetorical question, as she plunged into Farah's mind.
Farah whined softly – in part due to Rosalind's access and also feeling Aiki's trembles through the ground.
As Rosalind searched each memory, they were brought to the surface of Farah's thoughts, so Farah knew exactly what memories she was seeing. And Rosalind was going back deeply. Her first day in the battalion. Her first solo Burned One kill. Her first kiss with Saul. Her first day at Alfea. Moments much too private for Farah to share even with the people she was closest to. And here was Rosalind, perusing them at her leisure.
"Too far," Rosalind murmured. "Much too far."
Suddenly, with a sinking feeling, Farah realized what Rosalind was truly after and why. She moved her lips to speak, but no words came out.
"Shh," Rosalind urged. "This will only take a moment. Ah, there it is." Her voice came out as a whisper.
Farah winced as the visions from a very specific day came to the forefront of her mind.
Though they both knew exactly what happened, where, and when, Rosalind grinned and whispered the name of the settlement in Farah's ear.
"Aster Dell."
Aiki screwed his eyes shut, struggling to not just curl in on himself and cry. There wasn't really anything they could do at this point. The damage was done, and Rosalind was going to go through Farah's memories either way. He had no idea what Rosalind was after since he barely knew Farah, but he still felt awful for inadvertently exposing it by weakening Farah.
They were drawn back to when they were ten again and they started trembling harder, biting their lip and looking increasingly upset. "S-Stop… please…"
Rosalind went into the memories from that fateful December day. It was this day that had made Farah aware of the person her mentor really was. So many people… so much death… all her fault… And Rosalind forced her to rewatch the entirety of the moment.
Then, a flash of light and a new memory took its place. A glimpse of the night before when Farah had used so much of her energy that she passed out and woke up in the middle of the night with Saul. Then this morning, when they had both woken up. Then the moment Farah stood up to Rosalind just earlier this morning. With that, Rosalind withdrew from Farah's mind, causing Farah to gasp softly.
"Ah," she sighed, caressing Farah's face with a smile before she stood up. "Thank you, dear Farah. If you both will excuse me, I have must go pay the princess of Solaria a brief visit." Rosalind walked to the door and grinned back at them. "And don't even think about escaping." With that, she placed a Cryo-Inducement Veil like the one Farah had created earlier, shut the door, and locked it for good measure.
Farah slowly turned her head to look at Aiki. Her eyes were shining with tears she didn't have the energy to cry. Farah Dowling never let her emotions show like this before. The word "vulnerable" had never applied to her. But being forced to stand by as Rosalind browsed through her private memories made her feel so weak and helpless. There was nothing to be done that could've stopped her. "Aiki," she whispered. "It's… It's alright."
"I'm sorry… I-I'm sorry… I'm so s-sorry…" Aiki whispered apology after apology, burying their face in their hands as they trembled and sobbed. He was still stuck in his own memories, although Rosalind presumably didn't care to see them. She was just glad to see them suffering and upset, even if she didn't know the reason.
He found himself feeling like there was something over his mouth, like the muzzle that had been put on him when he was just a kid. Their throat was starting to tighten and their ears flattened back against their head as they gasped for breath. Despite Rosalind's assurances, he definitely felt trapped. They didn't think it was below her to lie and keep them around to use for her own purposes.
"Aiki," Farah said slowly, sitting upright with small movements. "Darling… come here…" She opened her arms – again, slowly – to welcome Aiki into her embrace. "There's… no… need… to be… sorry." It took a little while and a lot of energy to get the words out, but Farah was determined to reassure them. "Rosalind… is good… at… m-mani…" She sighed and collected her breath to finish. "Manipulating."
Aiki looked up at Farah weakly, clutching at their throat as they drew in harsh, shallow breaths, and tears rolled down their pale cheeks. He shakily moved over to her and clung tightly to her, burying his face in her shoulder. "B-But I should've—should've b-been—stronger—l-like you…" They managed to choke out. "I-I just… s—s-she kept talking about—h—h-how I'm n-never gonna see Eiji again…" He sobbed a bit harder, feeling guilty and still terrified.
It took her a moment to find the energy, but she wrapped her arms around Aiki in return. "How… long… do you think… it… took…" A labored breath. "For me… to become… so… strong? It takes… time." The words dripped from her mouth. She had so much more she wanted to say, but not enough energy to exert. "It… takes… trials." Her hand slowly rubbed his back to comfort him. "You will… see… Eiji… again… I swear… on… my own… life." After all her talking, Farah was exhausted, so she closed her eyes and sighed.
Aiki whimpered shakily, keeping their face hidden for now. "I-I just… she… s-she wanted to know about my power…" He whispered weakly. "I-I think I told her more than I should've, I… I should've lied or something, I dunno… left something out…? B-But I guess she would've found out either way, even if she needed to use force… I'm weak… weak and stupid."
"Aiki, you are not weak or stupid," Farah stated firmly, wincing at the tremendous amount of effort it took to get the whole sentence out in one go. "You… ah," she let out a long sigh and stayed silent for a moment. "You… are… young. Do you… have… any… idea… how… Rosalind… took… advantage… of my… youth?" It hurt to talk about, especially with some of the memories Rosalind had brought back up. She squeezed her eyes even tighter shut, hoping to wash away the memories.
Aiki sighed weakly, fresh tears welling up in their eyes. "I-I just… I feel like a dumb little kid… all I do is whine about being homesick and wanting to see my brother and my parents, and get upset over stupid things, and get taken advantage of b-because I wasn't careful enough despite your warnings… t-this is all my fault, and I'm s-sorry… I'm so sorry… I'm sorry that I drained your energy… it'll be a little while until you recover, I'm afraid." He laughed dryly; humorlessly. "That's what I end up doing to myself all the time… a-and plus the hypoglycemia…" They trailed off.
"Darling," Farah whispered, finding it was easier to talk this way. "This is not… entirely your fault. Rosalind… is a very skilled… manipulator. You never… met me when I was… your age. I was very… similar to how… you are now. And Rosalind made me… do things I never… should have done." She rested her head against Aiki's looking for every possible way to conserve her energy. Ideally, she would sleep it off, but she knew Aiki needed her now. "It's alright… I will recover eventually. Look at… you. You do this… all the time."
Aiki was growing tired now as well, and Farah's assurances were slowly but surely helping them to relax. Besides, they were stuck in this room until the Cryo-Inducement Veil was removed anyway. "I tried… I-I tried to drain her energy instead…" He whispered. "B-But I don't have very good control when I'm taking someone's energy other than my own, since I don't practice that… understandably, most people don't want to have their energy drained. It's not very fun… b-but anyway, when she… when she pushed you towards me, I couldn't… I couldn't keep it on her… it just switched to whoever was closest, a-and I was super upset, so… s-so I couldn't get it to stop. It's hard to control when I'm not stable and focused…"
"Practice," she murmured. Her eyes flew open so she didn't fall unconscious. "When I get better… I will help you. All it takes… is practice and… patience." She felt herself using up whatever energy she had left, and slowly, the pull to sleep grew stronger and stronger. "Rosalind gave me… the practice, but… but not the patience. That I… had to learn on my own. I can… teach you both."
"O-Okay, but… but after this, I'm sure you don't want to have your energy drained again…" Aiki said softly, moving to support Farah a bit more since he knew how tired she must be. "I'm sure we'll figure something out later, but for now, do you want me to call Saul?"
Farah appreciatively curled into Aiki. "I will… if it helps you… Oh, Saul!" she gasped quietly. "Yes… call him… please. He… must be… worried." She slipped her phone out of her back pocket and handed it to them. "His number… is on speed dial," she murmured before letting her eyes close again.
"Alright, if you're sure…" Aiki sighed and accepted the phone, managing to locate Saul's number and call it. He held the phone up to his ear and waited for an answer before he started to speak. "Um… hi? This is Aiki… I-I'm with Farah in Rosalind's office, and… and there's the ice thing on the door, I think, so we can't leave…"
Saul stood in the corridor still, entertaining himself by counting the steps it would take to get from one end of the doorway to the other. Suddenly, his phone rang. Seeing Farah's name and contact image pop up, he smiled and quickly answered. "Hello?" Hearing Aiki's voice instead of Farah's set him off into an initial panic, and as Aiki explained what was happening, his panic only increased. He heard "Rosalind's office" and immediately set off in that direction. "Wait," he cut in when Aiki paused. "Explain it again, slower. And where is Farah?"
"Um… F-Farah is with me in Rosalind's office. Rosalind left to… um… I-I can't remember if she said what she left for." Aiki replied, his voice still sounding like he'd been crying. "Farah is okay, she's… s-she's not injured. She's just really tired. That's why I'm calling instead, um… on her phone since I don't have your number or anything." They were still pretty uneasy, and it was hard to keep their voice even. "And… and I think there's that ice thing on the door to keep us in, so you can't just walk in here."