you're living make believe

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

"Isla." Setting down the bodies with infinitely more care now that there was time and space to give them the respect they deserved, Remi turns back toward his friend. Smoke clings to his curls and his skin is mottled with black ash, but he looks no worse for wear despite having been dropped into a burning room with the single goal of mercy killings. "Talk to me." He implores, unsure if the medic's succinct reply was because she was in shock or if she was merely being curt and logical.

Behind him the building continues to burn, smouldering from the inside out. The walls will still be there once the sun rises, but everything his friend has worked so hard to build—and rebuild—will once again be gone.

"I am so sorry...what...what happened here?" Only vaguely aware that the fae Nephele is still lingering, his question is nevertheless only directed at Isla.

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine Isla is categorically in shock, something that manifests in swift compartmentalisation the likes of which she hasn't needed to implement upon herself since walking the battlefields of Northwind. Nephele is forgotten for the moment - she can apologise and meet with the strange Fae helper later, she thinks - and for now all she can do is try to rub out a soot stain from her white coat with no luck. "I don't know what to say," she admits as the infirmary continues to burn behind them, as people scream and call and hurry to try and douse the flames. There will be nothing left though - Isla is certain of it. "Someone set fire to the infirmary. And then you came, and you... killed my patients. You didn't see me in the room with you. I don't..." She shakes her head. "It doesn't matter now. I think I ought to get away from this heat, though."

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

'I...' Remi's instinct is to try and explain or justify what he had done in the Infirmary, but no, that was exactly what had happened. Guilt makes his lashes flutter as his eyes drop down toward the ground. Frowning, thoughts make his lips twitch before the alchemist sighs them all away with a shake of his head. "No, I didn't see you. Though...the chair, the window? That was you?" Looking up, confusion taking the years off of him, he swallows as yet more things succumb to the fire within.

"It does matter." He mumbles sounding a touch lost, before nodding hastily "Of course, do you..." Need fluid? "..are you hurt?" Turning away from her for a moment, Remi closes his eyes and remembers. Not unlike the one he'd had Ronin pull when they were first moving into their apartment, a hand cart appears. Gently but efficiently Remi loads the two bodies into it, that he might easily tug them along, before following diligently after Isla.

"Was the firE intentional do you think?"

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine Isla nods quietly, stepping away from the infirmary as it continues to burn, as her world goes up with it, small and humble as it had been. "Yes, that was me," she says, nodding to Remi and ruffling a hand back through golden hair made darker by soot and smoke. "No, I'm not hurt." She pauses as she watches him summon the hand cart, moving to carefully help arrange the bodies, resisting the urge to take a pulse that is no longer present. "Were you not allowed to save them?" she almost whispers, her brow furrowing. "The window was right there, but I couldn't..." Isla shakes her head. Was the fire intentional, though? They walk, Isla leading them out towards the small graveyard not far from the Temple, and when she speaks she sounds more like herself if for no other reason than the conviction that laces her tone. "There is no way it could have been an accident. I am Ascended - I was very careful to take all precautions and then some. And I need no sleep, so everything is checked regularly. There is no way for it to have started by accident."

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

Remi gives his head a dull shake. "No...I never am." He replies, his voice a whisper to match hers. "By the time Ludo places me somewhere, or I receive a name...it's inevitable. I am simply there to make it painless and as pleasant as I can." The lush woodland, the sunny patio; final memories to ease the transition. "Hey," Pausing to reach out for her, his fingers wanting to close softly around her arm, Remi shakes his head. "If Ludo sent me it means there is nothing you could have done." As a doctor, Isla would likely always feel responsible for those patients who couldn't be saved, but Remi would assuage her of as much guilt as he could just the same.

What Isla says rings cold and true in his mind. " That is what I thought." He mumbles gravely as they stroll through the darkness with two bodies in tow and a fire raging behind. "But who? And why? Who would attack an infirmary of all places?" Monstrously-minded though the Lullaby might be at times, even he couldn't wrap his mind around it.

"Or..." Shivering despite the warmth of the night, the alchemist slows. "...Isla, are you in danger? Was this...was this an attack on you?"

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine "Well it did seem painless and pleasant." Even Isla has to concede that much - but it's still a damned shame that it had to happen at all. Her patients were recovering, they were in high spirits despite all else. And now they trundled, still and cold in the hand-cart that Remi pushes. She glances up at the hand that wraps around her arm, trying and failing to find a smile for him. "I suppose I ought to be grateful that Ludo did not allow them to suffer." She ought to be but she isn't. She absolutely isn't. Leading him into the graveyard, she bows her head and shoves her hands in the pockets of her coat. "I don't know," she whispers. There are too many unknowns, and Remi adds yet more onto the pile. Her shoulder lifts so she can wipe her cheek against it, and she shrugs. "I can't rule it out," she admits. "I haven't done anything that I can think would anger anyone enough to do this because of me, not directly. But if they wanted to get to you? I can't rule it out."

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

His and Isla's friendship has never quite encountered this before, and for the alchemist at least, it rises like brisk wind between them; invisible, but biting. "Mm." He hums noncommittally, wanting to frown at her lack of response but finding it in himself to offer her a reassuring smile.

"Perhaps something one of them did...?" There's no accusation in his voice as he nods toward the handcart behind him. Never would Remi suggest that either did something to deserve this sort of destruction to a place that is meant to be a safe space for all. "To get to me?" Now the alchemist does frown, his head softly shaking. "It is not hard to find me, if someone wanted it. And...I am in the Grounds often enough that this..." It wasn't necessary. "..besides, I am not so easy to kill." Not easy at all, in fact.

"Do you want me to stay with you tonight? If...this was aimed at you..." Remi's head tilts slightly to the side, his green eyes made all the more pale by the moonlight and the dark shadows the trees cast over his features. "You do not seem alright." He concludes, wondering why he felt so reluctant to gather her up in his arms the way he wanted.

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine No, they have never needed to wade through these particular waters before, and Isla is still too stunned to realise the distance between them. She keeps wanting to look over her shoulder at the billowing plumes of smoke, or at the bodies silent between them. So instead she leads them on and into the graveyard, where a few holes have already been dug (morbid and practical). "A huntsman and a grandmother?" she asks, sounding doubtful. "I don't think they could have done anything to warrant this." Remi, though? He might have rubbed a few people the wrong way in the Grounds, and when she smiles at him it's with a touch of sadness. "No, you aren't. But I am, especially when fire is involved. And that's one way to hurt someone, if you can't kill them. You kill their friends." She doesn't know either, why the distance between them suddenly seems so awkward. But then she can't get the image of him in the infirmary out of her head either. "I was just going to go home," she murmurs. "Won't Ronin worry if you disappear and don't come back?" Her shoulders slump, and she shrugs. "My life just went up in smoke. I don't think I am alright either." All of her books, her files, her tools, her medicines; the operating theatre and her office with its comfortable chairs and worn wooden desk. Everything she'd painstakingly cleaned and organised and sanitised, all gone. And people were dead. "Why would they go after an infirmary, Remi?"

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

Remi's jaw tightens as does the skin around his eyes. Snarling he looks up toward the moon, pulling in a breath that sounds all the louder given he's the only one breathing. "Only Nate ever threatened to hurt me like that." Looking down at her, Remi's eyes scan her expression, trying to see any wariness there at the mention of her fellow ascended's name. "Would he do this?" To hurt Remi? Yes. But with Isla as the means? No...Remi wasn't so sure.

Shaking his head softly, Remi holds out a hand and wiggles the fingers on it to draw attention to his wedding band. "As long as my heart is still beating, we tend not to worry. Given I disappeared suddenly from dinner, he'll assume rightly that it was Ludo who spirited me away." Such was demihood.

"Not your life." Softly said, Remi tries to evade whatever it is that makes it feel as though there's tension between them. Reaching out a hand, his thumb moves to brush a bit of soot from her shoulder. "Things. Important ones, yes. Ones you have worked for, and ones that will be hard to replace...but it was not your life. You have always been so much more than the place you work, and the things you do." More than scalpels and books, more than rooms perfected to her needs and irreplaceable items. Isla would always be more than the most precious of places or things. Though perhaps it was naive of him to think that would provide any comfort.

"I do not know. It is...unthinkable."

It was the sort of things over which wars were fought.

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine "No," Isla murmurs about Nate - it's neither a fervent defence nor an unsure warble. It's a simple admission of what Isla knows as true. Nate wouldn't do this; not to a fellow Ascended, not to a fellow doctor. Especially not one who is a member of his medical guild. Nibbling at her lower lip, she glances as well to his wedding band, nodding absently in understanding. "Would you like to come with me back to my place then? After we..." She nods at the bodies. But then Remi is brushing soot from her shoulder and Isla feels the spell between them break - silently she moves into his arms, hugging him tightly and burying her head against his chest. "I just wish other people hadn't been hurt. There was no need for them to be involved in this, whatever it was for." She huffs out a sigh that is entirely not needed. "Yeah... it is unthinkable. I want to find out what happened."

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

"Do you know them well enough to know who we should tell?" They can't leave them like this to be sure, but Remi feels strange burying them alone in the dark like this. 'But then yes I would. Even if it was not Nate, someone did this. You can take a shift from me too, or whatever you like." His shoulders shrug slightly. Whatever he can give to her, he will. He always will.

With a shivery exhale of relief and love and sadness, Remi wraps his arms tightly around Isla as he presses his cheek to the top of her head. His heart is pounding even if hers isn't, and with her pressed up against him he can keenly feel the unsteady tug of her emotions: the ones about the fire, about things lost which can never be replaced (memories, firsts..), and of course, Remi's role in the death of her patients. "I am sorry..." He whispers, his fingers threading around her back to hold her near for just a moment or two more.

"I..." But there isn't anything to do or say, and Remi feels his bones wanting to sag beneath the weight of that knowledge. Instead, he stands taller, his jaw tensing against the top of her head. "We will find who did this. The lives lost tonight...it was because of their choices."

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine It doesn't exactly feel safe, gathered up against Remi, but it doesn't feel dangerous either. So as his arms come to encircle her, she sags against him and holds him all the tighter, pressing her eyes shut. "Yes, I remember from their files. We ought to circle back to the Temple before we head to my place. I will write a notice for the board, in case their families come looking before I can tell them directly." Sniffing, Isla steps back and glances to the bodies. "I'm sorry too," she mumbles. "Do you think we might be able to wrap them in something, and not fill the graves in just yet? I wouldn't want to interfere with the families' wishes." She nods, somewhat absently, to the offer of a shift - it would be foolish not to take one in the current circumstances. "Yes," she says softly. "It was. And what happens next is because of our choices." And Isla plans to be as quiet and composed and unflappable as ever.

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

Swallowing, Remi nods, careful to ensure that his own emotions aren't reflected back against Isla. With all that she's dealing with, it would be unfair to additionally burden her. Releasing her and shoving his hands into his pockets that his hands might not betray the unsteady state of his mind, Remi considers. "I can create tarps and blankets for them." He suggests, though likely Isla will know best what sort of material would work best.

Raising a brow and finding his best friend suddenly quite unreadable, the alchemist just nods a vague agreement. 'Understood.' She looks both harder but smaller in the moonlight. Not less powerful in her own right, but...charging, perhaps. Unable to find the words for it, his fingers scratch against one another in his pockets.

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine "Blankets will be better, I think. In this heat something breathable will be best, until the morning." It's an easy choice to make in that respect, and providing Remi doesn't have any trouble making them, she'll help to wrap the bodies and transfer them into the graves. Only once that is done and she has checked to make sure everything is in order does Isla turn back to the smoky skies and the garish amber glow of the Temple. Quietly, she reaches out to slip her arm through Remi's leaning against him. "I'm sorry," she mumbles. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Even in the wars in Northwind, you didn't... attacks on medical personnel were considered war crimes." She had expected more from Caido, she thought. Gods knew why.