Submission (#6511) Approved

Mary sighed deeply. Their trip to Weldwick had turned out to be pointless. No one there had heard of his parents, and it was a dead end. They had wasted 5 weeks on the excursion, and the black Elnin was irritated and exhausted.
The nights in the stormlands had been awful; thunderstorms had kept him awake most of the time, and he was constantly wet and cold. He knew he was miserable company, but Nico remained level-headed and patient with him. Once again, Mary felt like he didn't deserve the younger Elnin. At all.
Currently, they were on their way to an old shrine that Mary had discovered several years ago. Both of them desperately needed rest and a place to recharge, and the shrine seemed to be the best solution.

They had left the stormlands behind and had reached the desert and mountains. Their destination was Devara, but to get there, they had to cross the vast wastelands of Ahza.
The heat was overwhelming, even though only a few hours had passed since sunrise. They usually traveled at night to avoid the scorching sun, but they had underestimated the distance to the shrine and had been on the road longer than planned. Mary was panting softly, and Nico beside him wasn't doing much better.

"Not much further," Nico smiled reassuringly, causing Mary to laugh.

"And how exactly would you know? You've never been there before..."

"Just a hunch." Nico winked at him, and Mary rolled his eyes with a laugh before shaking his head and continuing to run.

"You're such a pain..."

"And you love me for it."

[...]

"Are you sure this is the place?" A hint of doubt colored Nicos question as the taller one looked around. Desert and rocks. Not exactly the location for a shrine. Had they gotten lost after all? But Mary glared at him, and Nico smiled apologetically.
Yeah, definitely not the time to question Marys leadership qualities...

[...]

Mary led them deep into caves where it was cooler, and the air fresher. He sensed that Nico didn't entirely trust him, but the younger one was wise enough to keep quiet this time. After a while, the darkness of the tunnels was replaced by daylight, and Nico perked up his ears as he heard a fresh breeze and the splashing of water.

Mary on the other hand was tense. Something wasn't right. It was too quiet. They should have heard the rustling of mice and the singing of birds by now.
But nothing.
Just unsettling silence.
//What's going on-?// he thought anxiously, and his fatigue gave way to hypervigilance.

The cave ceiling became increasingly porous, and they finally arrived in a large, semi-open hall. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed, and large holes in the rock flooded the space with sunlight. Rock columns reached from the floor to the ceiling, and two sides of the cave were open. Nico recognized the blue sky on the horizon and the wilderness in the distance.
In the center of the grotto was a shallow pond fed by a small river originating from deeper in the mountain. A little island stood tall in the middle of the pond, with a shrine seated on top. Green, yellow, and orange crystals were scattered around the pond and the island, surrounded by lush greenery and flowers. These provided a home for a variety of animals.
It was truly a little hidden paradise where weary travelers could regain their strength at a mana well.

At least - that's what it once was, but now… everything was different.

"Damn it!" Mary growled, ears laid back, while Nico quietly sighed beside him. "You’ve gotta be kidding me-…" Together with Nico, he continued further into the cave, but it was already apparent from a distance that the shrine was lost. The plants had withered and were rotting, while most of the crystals had cracked and laid shattered on the ground. Even the air was different; although it should have been fresh and invigorating, it was stale and bland.

Marys mood plummeted. He and Nico had intended to recuperate here, but that was completely out of the question now. It bothered him less that the shrine was destroyed - he was more angry that they had to move on, even though he was slowly reaching his limits.
This much bad luck could only happen to him, and grumbling, he stood by the edge of the pond and let his gaze wander through the cave, but all he could find was more evidence of destruction.

Nico was strangely quiet and looked around with interest. "What happened here?" he asked softly while Mary slowly waded into the water to inspect the shrine.

“Corruption. Is this your first time encountering this?” Mary asked and Nico came over to the pond.

“Yeah.. I’ve heard about it… I think. But it’s been so long, I don’t remember the details. I assume the last time you were here, everything was still okay?”

"Indeed. If I had known, …believe me, I wouldn't have brought you here." After all, Mary didn't want to endanger Nico. While they as elnin with adventurer ranks weren't in immediate danger, they shouldn't linger here for too long either. Sooner or later, they would feel the effects of corruption, and it could get quite tricky, especially since they were so far away from any cities.

Mary had arrived on the small island and examined the shrine more closely. He grew uneasy when he noticed cracks in the shrine, and vertical lines flickered in the air around it.

Mana bleed.

//Not good,// Mary thought instantly, but then he got distracted by Nico, who pushed some plants aside to check on a broken crystal.
"So... what now? How do we repair this?" Nico stood at the edge of the pond, looking expectantly at his partner.

"What? Repair-? No... Nico, no. We can't repair this. This is beyond our control." The older one felt somewhat taken aback. Did Nico not understand what had happened here?
"This isn’t something you can fix, puppy."

"Hey now... No need for pet names…" Nico raised an eyebrow. "We have some magical things from Weldwick that could help? With the Pomus, we could piece the crystals back together and clear away the plants here. It would be a shame if the shrine deteriorates any further. We're already all the way out here."

Mary couldn't believe his ears. Nico couldn't possibly be serious, could he?! He growled unwillingly and glared at Nico, who defiantly returned the gaze.
"What? I don't understand why you're just giving up and not even trying..." Nico sounded disappointed and he made moves to follow Mary into the water and towards the shrine.

"You can’t be serious right now. I don't think you understand what's at risk here, do you-?!" Mary hissed, his patience wearing thin. Sometimes Nico was too kind-hearted and optimistic for his own good. "Also, stop! For heaven's sake, stay where you are. The shrine is already exposed to Mana bleed. You shouldn't come any closer."

"That's nonsense," Nico said. "You just don't feel like it."

Mary bit his lip in order to restrain himself from lashing out at Nico any further. This couldn't be happening. Angrily, he leaped back into the pond; his head was spinning, and he already noticed that he wasn't feeling well. He had lingered at the shrine for too long, and the exhaustion from the long journey only made it worse.

"I would really appreciate it if you'd just trust me on this and stop arguing with me. There is nothing we can do here. Maybe someone from the guild would have more luck and experience or someone with a higher rank; but we're both gonna end up hurt if you attempt anything stupid here. We need to leave, now. Messing with an infected area is dangerous. Now move it-"

Mary stood in front of Nico, ears laid back and he was digging his heels in; under no circumstances would he let the younger one near the corrupted shrine. But he realized that the other one wouldn't easily give in, and Nicos tail whipped across the water's surface. The younger one lost patience.

"No - And stop trying to parent me. We can't just leave it here..."

“Let it go, Nico! ” Mary's voice was sharp, and his pink eyes mirrored frustration as he looked up at the taller one. "I just want you to be safe, damn it. You can't fix everything just because you would like to; that's not how it works. Some things are just out of your control. Don't make me drag your sorry ass out of here. This shrine is lost, and if you keep- …uh…-" Suddenly, the smaller stopped mid-sentence; his knees went weak, and, alarmed, Nico took a step forward to catch Mary.

"Mary! Hey -"

The older one slumped against the younger, quietly gasping for air. His head spun and the air shimmered strangely. With closed eyes, he leaned on Nico, while desperately trying to figure out which part was up and down. He felt cold and sickly, uncomfortable, and so incredibly tired…

"Hey, hey-... stay with me," Nico sounded frantic.

“I’m fine.” Marys voice was weak, but annoyed. Not at Nico, but at his own limits and the whole situation. He should’ve been more careful. Why did he stay near the shrine for so long?

“You’re not fine- We need to get you out of here.” The younger was concerned about his partner. How foolish- why did he argue with Mary for so long? //I’m such an idiot-//, he scolded himself. He finally realized this area wasn’t safe and he slowly helped Mary get out of the pond.

“...Glad you're finally agreeing with me...”

[...]

It took them almost half an hour to find another place to rest. Mary needed to take more frequent breaks the longer they walked, but finally they found a little nook with fresh water and plantlife. The older elnin still was somehow cold, despite the rising heat and he laid down in partial shade. He knew he didn’t want to risk getting a sun stroke on top of everything, but he needed the warmth of the sun.
Nico was collecting fresh water in the meantime; they hadn’t dared to use the water in the contaminated shrine cave, but by the time he returned to Mary, he found the older one passed out from exhaustion. Still unhappy with how everything turned out, Nico sat down next to his partner and snuggled up to him.

What a disaster.

He was worried about Mary and the next couple days. They were still almost a week away from Devara.

//What do we do?//