Caspian shook his head, swallowing and taking a breath. "No. The village. Soldiers are everywhere, they're burning buildings, they're-they're killing people." He stopped to breathe, and set the food and books down on the table. "This all happened after I got the food and books. Th-thankfully I wasn't followed."
"O-Oh god, um… is… is there anything we can do??" Mylan asked worriedly. "Or… or is it better for us to just… stay here??" He sat back down on the bed, his heart pounding hard in his chest. "I don't know if I'm strong enough to put out fires that big…"
Caspian shook his head and sat down at the table, wiping his sweat with his forearm. "N-no. We need to stay here. They'll just kill us- there's-there's nothing we can do." He let out a sigh, remembering the street corner he performed on- the children he performed for. It made him so sick to his stomach, he started shaking.
Mylan nodded a bit and headed over to Caspian, hugging him tightly. "This isn't your fault, Caspian… it's… I don't think it's any of our faults, okay? We… w-we can't control them. We can't stop what they're doing."
Caspian froze, his eyes widening a bit, before hesitantly wrapping his arms around Mylan and hugging him back. "I- I should have been able to stop them… I…should have done something…"
"Shh, no… no, it's not your fault." Mylan sat down with Caspian to hug him closer. "None of this is your fault, okay? There's nothing you could've done. Neither of us can stop fires that big. We'd have been killed. You'd have been killed."
Caspian rested his head on Mylan's shoulder, letting out a shaky sigh as he gripped the other tightly. He couldn't remember the last time someone had hugged him, so it surprised him a bit, but he embraced it nonetheless. "Y-you're right…" he spoke quietly before finally letting go. He wiped a tear and looked away, angry at himself for letting Mylan see him at a weak point. "S-sorry.."
"Don't be. I'm sure it was terrifying… I wasn't there. I can only imagine what you saw in the town, Caspian." Mylan pulled Caspian close again, still trying to comfort him. "You don't have to apologize."
Caspian sighed and let Mylan pull him close, resting his head on his shoulder again. After a bit he stopped shaking and started breathing more slowly, in and out. He felt a strange sense of safety in Mylan's arms, almost as if they were in their own little bubble, completely shielded from the outside world. He could feel that Eveline wasn't watching anymore. She probably left to give the two some privacy. Wrapping his arms around Mylan, he didn't ever want to leave.
"Are you feeling any better?" Mylan asked gently, rubbing Caspian's back a bit to try and calm him. "I'm really sorry you had to see all that… I'm sure it was awful. You can talk about it if you wanna."
"I…I think I'm okay now." He let out a shaky sigh and let go, but still stayed close to Mylan. The fire…it reminded him of the fire that killed his family that night. Looking at Mylan now, even though they had just met that day, he realized how important he was to him. He needed to make sure he was safe. He didn't want to lose him like he did with all the other people who were ever important to him. "I'm okay, I just…it scared me to see the fire. When I was eleven, my house burned down and it killed my parents and brothers. There was nothing I could do about it, and I lost the ones that I care about. I don't want that to happen again."
Mylan winced a bit at the explanation and pulled Caspian closer. "Shh… I bet that was awful, wasn't it? I… that sounds a little like something I've read about in my books. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Like… when something influences a traumatic event in your past, it can have a lasting effect on you and it's just bad every time you see or experience that thing. In your case, the trauma seems to be connected to the fire."
Cas nodded. "That sounds about right…" he wrapped his arms around the taller male and began absentmindedly playing with his hair. It was actually a bit soothing. "You're helping a lot…thank you…" He paused for a moment. "Please dont be stupid. Don't go try and destroy the amulet. I need you. I can't lose anyone else. Promise me, please…"
Mylan flushed a bit when Caspian started toying with his hair, but figured he'd let him fi it as long as it helped him calm down. "I… I'll try my best not to be stupid. We'll figure something out, okay? I'm glad that this is helping you, though…"
Caspian smiled slightly. "Thank you," he murmured, before realizing what he was doing with Mylan's hair. Flustered, he pulled away. "Shit- sorry!" He went a little red but tried not to show it.
"No, n-no, don't worry about it! Really, it's okay." Mylan smiled shyly down at Caspian, toying with his own hair a bit. "I'm glad it calms you down. I don't mind."
Caspian smiled. "Well…I think I'm a little better now. How about we eat and then we start looking through those books?"
"Sounds good to me." Mylan grabbed the pile of books and brought them over to one of the beds. "You want to read through them with me? You don't have to."
"Sure, I will." He crawled onto the bed and sat next to Mylan, sitting in a criss-cross fashion, and put one of the books in front of them. " 'The Magical History of Elusia'. Seems like it'll have some useful information." He began flipping through the book and came across a chapter titled "The Cryslorn Family". The first few pages just spoke about how they founded the kingdom, until he found something about the amulet and began reading aloud. "The amulet of Cryslorn was originally found by Lucian Cryslorn, who named it after their family. He soon began to realize that the amulet had magical abilities, so he cast a spell of protection onto it, making it extremely hard to destroy. It is now a tradition to pass it down to the next ruler of the throne."
Mylan listened closely as Caspian read aloud, humming softly to himself. "So I couldn't destroy the wretched thing if I tried, could I? That's powerful magic they've put on it… I practice and all, but I could never break through something of that caliber. Does it say anything about how to get rid of it so it stops making our rulers murderous?"
Caspian scanned through the book some more and shook his head. "No…I dont think anyone knew that it made the wearer murderous…maybe some of the other books will say something about it." He opened another book titled "Elusia's magical items" and began reading. "Long ago, an ancient tribe of people found an amulet in the middle of the woods. However, the brother of the tribe's leader, a powerful magic user, cursed it so that it would control the mind of the user and the people around it, because he wanted to cause trouble. This backfired when the leader wore it and began destroying his own tribe in a rage, power hungry and ruthless. When the whole tribe eventually died, the amulet was left in what is now Elusia." Caspian paused. "Wait- you don't think…that could be the same amulet, could it?"
"Hmm… it certainly sounds like the same one…" Mylan took the book from Caspian and scoured the words, looking for every little detail. The physical description of it is the same as well… I think it's the same amulet. I wonder how it came to be in my family's possession, though? I don't think I've ever been told…" He read through the pages several times each, making sure he didn't miss any important, minute details.
((aaa I'm so sorry for being gone for a couple days! School has been really stressful so I haven't really been thinking about getting onto notebook but now i finally have some free time and i'll definitely be responding more! So sorry!!))
"I guess they found it there, when they began building the country," he guessed, skimming through pages. "There's not much else here that's of importance…" After skimming the book some more, Caspian shut it and sighed. "Those are the only books I could find that would be related to what we were trying to research. I guess that's it for now."
(No problem!)
"Yeah…" Mylan sighed softly. "That's probably all we're going to be able to find. Thanks for all the help." He moved the books aside so he could lay back on the bed. "Now we just have to find some way to get rid of the damn thing…"