“RED!? Oh my god! RED!?” Noel felt a wave of relief wash over him as he rushed forward and caught Amari in his arms. He ignored the burning sensation and the hissing sounds of his peeling skin and instead of pulling away he wrapped his arms tighter around her. He buried his face in the crook of her neck. “Don’t do that! Don’t ever do that again.” He sobbed into her. The damn giant Snake was right about one thing and and the strange viper revealed to him what he didn’t know till now.
He loved her.
Noel loved Red, he wanted to be with her he wanted to see her smile and he wanted to drag her away from the Crimson Hand and live a happy and simple life with her. He wanted to enjoy her cooking each and every night and he wanted to bed her. He wanted all that and more, but he knew it would never happen. Her next words cemented his crushing heartache.
“M-Master is going to love this…” Amari pushed herself up off the ground with Noel carefully supporting her shaking legs. “Well shit… “Amari said as she turned the blade over with the flick of her wrist. “The blade is crimson.”
Noel smiled despite the crushing feeling in his chest. “Yeh...matches your hair. C’mon, we need to get you cleaned up.” He tried his best to hide the dejected feeling but it still came through in his tone of voice.
“N-Noel?” She looked up at him. “You worried?” Amari laughed as the two began to backtrack through the tunnels. “It’d take more than a giant fuck-off snake to kill me.”
“That’s what I am afraid of… “ Noel muttered.
It didn’t take as long to navigate out of the tunnels as it did to navigate in to the tunnels. The two made it out in a little under an hour and by nightfall they were back in the lavish room in the hotel in Ettimere.
The sword was wrapped up in cloth and was propped up in the corner of the room between a iron heater and the desk. Both Amari and Noel had been fed and showered. Amari sat on the edge of the bed swinging her good leg back and forth, covering a yawn with her hand. “There’s more out there, I want to find them and get as many as I can under the control of the Crimson Hand.”
“Red, we need to rest and recover… you can’t be serious!”
“We do, and I am.” Amari swung her legs back onto the bed and shuffled under the covers. “Tomorrow, we will rest. The day after I want you to travel back to Salvar and deliver it to Master Ulroke for safekeeping whilst I stay here and gather intel on the other remaining swords.”
“Red, I don’t-”
“That’s an order!” Amari grumbled sleepily. Her eyes were already closing.
Noel sighed. “Yes Miss Red.” He knew there was no changing her mind. Once the red-headed woman set her mind to something she’d do anything to accomplish it.
Noel was just worried that that ‘anything’ may very well cost her the things that made her, her.
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