Someone came into the tea room, and Arquis turned his head to find Carsui and Marsiquia. They were loosely holding hands. When she saw her older brother, she hurried over.
“Arquis!” She stopped when she saw the musician. The smile on her face, which had been a bit strained, turned genuine. “Oh, hello, bard! I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You didn’t. We were just about to leave,” Arquis responded, getting to his feet again. He gave Rinlos a quick look, pleading them with his eyes to go along with his lie.
She turned on the musician. “Were you? I was hoping we could talk for a while.”
Rin gulped down the rest of his food, standing up. Once he was done chewing, he responded to Marsiquia. "We are just leaving, yes, but I can speak with you later, if that's alright?" He didn't know why Arquis was so desperate to leave and not speak with his sister, but Rin was not going to question him too much.
Marsiquia rubbed her knuckles across her forehead, slightly agitated, before nodding. “That will be fine. It isn’t as if I can stop you from going!” The smile she paired with these words was clearly meant to ease the tension in the room, but it only made her look awkward. She let Carsui take her hand in his and guide her to an empty table.
Without waiting, Arquis walked out of the tea room and into the hall. He kept walking until he was outside. The warmth of the Palace was replaced by the bitter, biting cold of the outside world; the floor and walls were replaced by snow and pale gray skies. The only sounds that broke the silence of the scene were the howls of the wind.
He exhaled slowly. It came out in a great puff of mist, almost as if he were breathing smoke. The air he inhaled a second after was freezing and dry, and it burned on the way down like whiskey. He hadn’t expected the weather to be quite so frigid. The chill seeped through his clothes and raised goosebumps on his limbs.
“I hope I did not rush you.” His voice was trembling; he was shivering.
He looked over at Arquis, studying the way the young man was shivering. "Arquis, do you want to go back inside for a jacket?" he asked. "And as for rushing…it's alright. I'm only curious as to why you wanted us to leave so fast, but it's alright." he pulled his own jacket closer around himself, watching as his breath turned white as it left his mouth.
Arquis shook his head briskly and gestured to his coat. It was almost paper thin, but it was better than nothing. “It is not that cold,” he lied, still shaking, “and I will adjust over time. The difference in temperature is just a bit st- startling. But I will adjust.”
He started towards the winding pathway that led up the hill to the Palace. It wasn’t visible, but he could tell where it was due to the lampposts that stuck out from the snow.
“It isn’t that I wanted to leave quickly,” he said after a bit. A gust of wind pushed against him, and the icy dryness of it made his lungs ache. He pressed a hand over his chest and kept going. “Marsiquia just has a t- tendency to be overprotective.”
Rin followed him, still a bit concerned, but also knowing Arquis was again, an adult, and it was not Rin's job to mother him or tell him what to do. He listened to the nobleman's explanation, nodding his head slightly. "I see. I hope I'm not causing trouble between you and your siblings?"
“Of c- course not. My relationship with Q- Quirisa and Marsiquia is c- c-“ Arquis shuddered. He scrubbed his gloved hand across his lips. His face was naturally pale, but it had gone nearly as white as their surroundings. The only spots of color were red splotches high in his cheeks and across his nose. “My relationship with them is already t- tough. You are not t- to blame.”
Every step kicked up a powdery cloud of snow. It glistened on the legs of his pants, soaking through to his skin. The snow that was still falling, though sparse, had begun to gather atop his head. Some of it melted due to body heat and then froze again.
His lungs were still throbbing. He continued to absentmindedly rub at his chest as if trying to warm them up.
When Rin realized how badly Arquis was stammering, and the way he looked, he stopped walking. "Arquis, e should head back to the Palace." they said slowly, resisting the urge to reach out and pull Arquis in to share their body heat with the frozen nobleman. He did, however, unbutton his jacket and wrap it around Arquis's shoulders; Rin would be fine without it for now, and Arquis looked like he was frozen through.
“I will be f- fine,” he insisted, shrugging the jacket off. The feel of it was nice—it had been warmed by body heat—but he would be a poor host indeed if he accepted it. He passed it back to Rinlos, embarrassed to see how hard his hands were shaking. Instead of addressing them, he trudged ahead, determined to make it before the weather worsened.
It was about halfway through the walk when things took a turn for the worse. His breaths, which had been made raspy from the cold, became rapid. It was more wheezing than breathing, and the wheezing evolved into full-on coughing. He stopped short in his tracks and squeezed his eyes shut. The ice that had gathered on his lashes blurred his vision when he opened them once more.
The nervous energy from earlier slammed back into him at full force. Panic—he was panicking, and he couldn’t breathe. It felt as if he’d been sprinting.
The force of the coughing drove him to his knees. Thankfully, his legs had already gone numb; otherwise, he was sure the position would’ve felt awful. He pressed his face into the crook of his elbow as he continued to cough.
Rin put his jacket back on, walking beside Arquis and keeping an eye on the other man. When Arquis went to his knees coughing, Rin took off the jacket again, settling it around Arquis's shoulders. "We're going back to the Palace now." He said. They weren't going to ask, now they were just telling. "Can you walk?" They could probably carry Arquis if they needed to, but he didn't want to do that if Arquis could walk, it would be too much of an invasion of privacy and bodily autonomy.
Arquis was grateful for the jacket, but he couldn’t answer the question; he couldn’t catch his breath. The coughing was punctuated with quick, ragged gasps. Every part of his chest was in agony. His heart was beating so fast that he began to feel dizzy, and the dizziness made him panic worse.
His eyes widened suddenly. He pushed Rinlos away and staggered to his feet. There was a bush nearby, and he stumbled to it before dropping down on his knees once again to dry heave. It was lucky indeed that he hadn’t eaten anything, for nothing came up.
The retching stopped after a moment, but the wheezing continued. It was weaker now. Using a last bit of strength, he turned to Rinlos, his eyes wet from exertion. There were little red patches scattered unevenly on his cheekbones—blood vessels that had burst from the strain—and the hair around his temples had curled from sweat.
“Rin,” he croaked. “C- can’t breathe.”
Rin cursed under his breath, taking a quick step forward and lifting Arquis, one arm under the man's knees and the other curled around his shoulders. The cold, without his coat, was already starting to get to him, but he would be fine. "Shh, stop talking, I'm going to carry you back to the Palace." they replied, a faint shiver moving through them as they began walking back the way they had come, walking as quickly as they dared. He did not want to slip and fall on the snow, but also knew that Arquis needed to be back inside as soon as was possible.
Arquis was shocked by the sudden touch, but he didn’t resist. Instead, he melted against the musician’s chest, pressing his head against their shoulder. He was still wheezing painfully, though at least some of the panic had resided.
The shiver that ran through them didn’t go unnoticed. He looked at them through his frosted lashes and weakly shifted in his arms. Slowly, he managed to tug the jacket off. He limply held it outwards.
“T- take. I’m w- w- warm.” Being carried was warming him a little, and it shielded him partially from the wind. Speaking, however, was still a risky game. Every time he talked, he used up more of his already dwindling energy. But it was worth it.
Rin frowned down at him. "I'm fine. Put it back on before you freeze to death, and stop talking." his voice was firm, and he kept his gaze focused on the path ahead. He didn't know how long it would take to get back to the Palace, and just hoped that Arquis would be alright, that the cold would not leave permanent damage.
Arquis shook his head a fraction of an inch. He pressed in closer to them, wrapped half of the jacket around one of their shoulders, and arranged the other half so that it still covered part of his own torso. If Rinlos wouldn’t accept the whole thing, then they’d have to settle for part.
The coughing triggered his gag reflux again. He clamped a hand over his mouth and turned his head sharply so that it was facing away from Rinlos. Several shudders ran through him before the urge thankfully subsided, and he went almost completely limp, his grip on their shoulder nearly slipping off.
“Sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so s- sorry.”
"It's alright, now stop talking." he replied. "You are wasting your energy and I would really not like to turn up with you unconscious or, gods forbid, dead. Your sisters would have my head for it, I have no doubt." that, and he really just didn't want Arquis to die, for a few different reasons.
Arquis managed to curl himself up tighter in their arms again. He felt awful both physically and mentally. Ever since he’d met the musician, all he’d done was make mistakes. He couldn’t stop messing up. Even when given chance after chance, he only made things worse. And now they would have to deal with so much more because of him; they might even have to deal with Muria. The thought of her made him jittery again. He had to take several seconds to calm down for fear that he might actually pass out.
She wouldn’t be pleased with him. First, he left the ballroom, passing everything off onto her and Marsiquia. Then, he went out into the snow without taking any precautions. He knew the risks of what he was doing, and he still did it anyways.
He just wanted to have one good day. One day away from the Palace. But they were returning there now. The journey couldn’t have much more than five or so more minutes left. He wished for just a second that Rinlos had left him in the snow.
He wished even more that he would stop coughing.
Rin was doing his best to suppress his own shivering, not wanting to stress Arquis out with it. But it was there, in the way his hands trembled faintly, and the way his whole torso would twitch for no reason before they went still again. He did not breathe a word of discomfort, just kept trudging through the snow with Arquis gripped in his arms. "Just try and breathe for me, okay?" he said, keeping his voice as low and soothing as possible. Luckily, his teeth were not chattering quite yet, or he would not have tried to talk at all. "In and out, Arquis. Big, deep breaths, okay?"
Arquis wished he could follow the musician’s instructions, but his body wouldn’t listen. He buried his face in his shoulder. That was when he felt their slight shaking, and he subtly rearranged himself so that Rinlos would get most of the jacket. He wanted to offer his own. Doing so, however, would most certainly irritate them, and so he instead settled for rubbing the palm of his hand soothingly across their shoulder blades. He hoped that it wasn’t inappropriate; he wasn’t sure how else to warm them up.
Rin let out a quiet breath at the touch against his shoulderblades, still carrying Arquis. The palace was in sight, and it would not be long before they arrived there. He only hoped that Arquis would be alright; the nobleman was destined to be ill from this, but how ill, Rin had no idea. He hoped not deathly so.
As they approached the Palace, Arquis began to cough more violently. The noises ricocheted around the empty courtyard. His grip on Rinlos’s back tightened. He was terrified suddenly that Muria would be waiting at the door. The idea of her, a single, dark-haired figure piercing him with her gaze, made him thrash weakly in the bard’s arms.
“No, pl- plea-“ He couldn’t even get the words out. It felt and sounded like his throat was on fire.
Rin paused in the courtyard, looking down at Arquis. His grip tightened faintly on the young nobleman. "Hey, hey, shh. We're here, you need to get inside." he tried to soothe Arquis, even though he was not quite sure what was wrong, what was going on here. He just knew Arquis seemed even more panicked now.
Someone was at the door, but it wasn’t Muria. It was Quirisa. She was wearing a black faux fur wrap over a sweater and a pair of thick pants. When she saw them pause, she came running over, the snow crunching under the slap of her boots.
This time, there were no games, no teasing glances. She was deadly serious. “I thought I heard something. Here, get inside.”
She practically shoved them through a side door into a private study. There was a fireplace inside that she lit. Her movements were calm and collected, but her eyes betrayed her fear. She pointed Rinlos towards a couch near the fire and gave him a nod.
“Alright. I’m going to get you both warm clothes to change into. Don’t leave the room.” She turned invisible and went back out through the door.
Rin gently set Arquis on the couch, movements slow and careful. He hoped that Arquis would be alright, and that whatever Quirisa was afraid of…well. He just hoped it would be alright.
Quirisa returned with two different sets of clothes, a stack of blankets, tea in a kettle, and, most surprisingly, Marsiquia. Her younger sister grew teary-eyed with concern when she saw Arquis.
“I’m going to find a doctor. I believe I met one on the premises last night, and I don’t think she has left yet,” she whimpered before rushing back the way she’d come.
Quirisa stayed. She placed the blankets close to the fireplace so they’d warm up and took two teacups of the mantle. Quickly, she poured Rinlos a piping hot cup and thrust it at him.
“You need to warm up,” she muttered gruffly. She set the kettle and the other cup aside after one glance at her brother; he was wheezing too much to drink. “I brought you both those clothes. Don’t know if he can dress himself, though.”
