Gonna live this life as the Heroine Villianess

🌊Chapter 11- Edge of Dragonspine🌊

After experiencing the frigid temperature of Dragonspine in real life, Wren thought she finally understood why you could literally die of "Sheer Cold".  It didn't help that she had been hit by a Cyro slime's attack straight in the chest. How she had missed that, she didn't know, but she was paying for it. Wren was still shivering as they headed towards Springvale. It was like her face had been freezing off. When she had asked Ajax why they couldn't just use teleportation ports, Ajax said it was so they couldn't be tracked. Back then, she had just sulked. And she was sulking now. Ajax was sitting on the carriage behind her, seemingly unaffected by the cold- other than the slight redness of his cheeks. "Oh, stop it stinky." She muttered under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear. The mention of the nickname shut him up, but he continued to poke her teasingly in her side. 

"So..." Wren shook under her two coats (she had stolen Ajax's) "Are we gonna go to Mondstadt?" She turned to him, trying to focus on something other than the cold- which was thankfully slowly beginning to fade away. Ajax shook his head. "No- the young master won't be in town that day. He'll be with his father." "Ah." Wren couldn't help but be disappointed. Ever since she had came into this world, she had wanted to see at least the regions that Mihoyo had released... and Mondstadt was the first city the traveler encountered on their journey. It seemed fit that she visited it.

"Well then..." Ekaterina stood up and exited the carriage, knocking her out of her stupor. "We've arrived." Wren shook out the pins in needles in her leg, then hopped out from the carriage. Outside, the sun was just beginning to set, sending streaks of reds and pinks across the sky. Normally she would have been amazed by such a glorious sight, but she was only reminded of what was about to happen once it rose again. What would happen tomorrow. 

Taking Ajax's hand, they entered the small inn that Ekaterina had booked for them. It wasn't nearly as nice as Wangshu, and was much more smaller and cramped. Slowly, she sat down on the edge of the bed, which made such a dreadful sound she wondered if it was screaming. Standing up, she pulled back the covers to see a spring protruding from the center of the mattress. Wren frowned, reaching towards it. That won't do. They would have to cover it up, somehow. Suddenly, a stabbing pain in her chest sent her lurching forward, and she collapsed on the bed. 

She gasped, pressing her hand on her chest, fisting the other in the sheets beneath her. Her throat suddenly felt dry- dry like a dessert completely barren of water- and she heaved, breathing hard as she coughed into her hand. Wren shuddered, shakely bringing her hand up to her face to see speckles of blood trickling down into her sleeve. The familiar feeling of what felt like an egg sliding down her hair caused her to sigh in sadness. It happened again, Wren thought as she stared in the mirror to see a new streak of white in her hair. They were  becoming more and more frequent too- the last one had been just yesterday morning, before they had departed from Dragonspine. "Angel." Wren whipped her head around, burying her hand in the sheets as she looked at Ajax, who was standing in front of her with his arms crossed in front of her.

For a moment they did nothing but stare each other down, neither saying a word. Then he sighed, taking a clean (surprisingly) towel from the drawer beside him and beckoning towards her. Wren hesitated, but extended her bloodied hand towards him. Ajax sat down, then wet the towel with his vision and began cleaning away the blood. Wren watched him as he worked, noted how his jaw clenched tighter and tighter as the seconds ticked by. She opened her mouth to say something, but he beat her to it.

"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Wren blinked, then winced sheepishly. "...You knew?" Ajax lifted his head to frown at her. "How could I not? Do you think I wouldn't notice? Angel, you looked like you were gonna fall over this morning." Ah. So he had noticed. Well, he wasn't stupid, and it was bound to get out eventually- he knew that her so called "illness" was getting to the point where it was killing her. But what he did't know was that it was caused by the ball of growing mana growing in her body. She had to unleash it. How, she didn't know- not without hurting any innocent people.