𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 𝑰𝑺 𝑨 𝑾𝑰𝑺𝑯 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝑴𝑨𝑲𝑬𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟒𝟏

Everything felt...weird.

That was the only way Delphina could describe it. Weird. And dark. And floaty. She couldn't see or feel or smell anything, but it wasn't like in the bathroom. Her life force wasn't slipping through her fingers and the darkness wasn't closing in. It just stayed where it was, keeping Delphina all floaty and weird.

She didn't know where she was or if she was supposed to be doing anything. The last thing she remembered was standing on the tourney field, half-chewed pineapple in her mouth as her world went dark.

The pineapples. She had spilled the pineapples.

If Delphina could talk, she'd whine in disappointment.

They were really good pineapples.

Somewhere in the very, very far distance, Delphina could hear...something. It was muffled and quiet, like the voice of one of those faceless adults in a kids' cartoon. More of the muffled noises joined in, forming one distant, garbled orchestra of...voices.

They were voices.

Someone was talking.

Actually, two someones were talking.

Delphina couldn't talk. She couldn't see. She couldn't feel. But she could hear. She just needed to hear a little better.

Finding the energy to focus her hearing was almost an olympic effort. Her limited consciousness seemed to be whining in protest, as if she was forcing it to do too many things at once.

'We are doing nothing but laying here.' She scolded her mind. 'You can listen in on a conversation.'

The sense of whining seemed to increase, but her hearing perked up regardless. The voices got closer and Delphina was slowly able to pick out different, but distinctly familiar voices.

"....You can't blame yourself!" Fairy Godmother. That was definitely Fairy Godmother. "She made sure no one would–"

"The hell I can't!" Ben. That was Ben. And from the sound of it, he was pissed. If Delphina could feel her stomach, it would be churning. Ben was right in front of her when she collapsed. He probably knew everything by now. He wasn't mad, was he? He said he wasn't mad. Right? That happened, didn't it?

Everything before the collapse was still a little foggy.

"Something was wrong. Something was wrong and she needed me and I knew she needed me and I wasn't there!"

No. No, no, no. Ben couldn't blame himself. Delphina wouldn't let him. She was at the center of this mess. She was the one who had pushed away and closed off any chance of help until the last second. Ben couldn't blame himself for the fact that she was a stubborn little shit.

If she could just wake up.

"Ben, it is not that simple. Even if you knew something was wrong, there isn't much you could've done to help. The dark magic in her soul was too potent and too abundant. The most you could've done was try and be there for her, which you did."

"Yeah, until I almost killed her with a fucking pineapple."

"Hey! You listen to me very closely. You did not hurt her. More than anything, you helped her, Ben."

There was a derisive scoff as Delphina tried to will herself back into full consciousness.

"Those pineapples just gave her a faster magic cleanse than her body could handle, but it did cleanse her. You did most of my work for me. The only one to truly hurt her was Mal. And I need you to remember that. Because when she wakes up, I want her surrounded by everyone who loves her, and that can't happen if you're off beating yourself up for something you didn't do. Do you understand?"