✧*~☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ - .*☆

"Asling,"

Steve said to the girl who sat on the floor in the living room, surrounded by books. It was late, almost one in the morning, but Asling had insisted on staying up so she could work on her magick and hopefully create a portal back to Scanthia to figure out whatever it was she needed to know about the past to fix her future. She was obviously tired, however, dark circles had formed under her green eyes and she was slouching and nodding off more and more as the night went on.

"I think I've got it this time, watch."

She instructed to Steve as her eyes began to glow with white magick and whisps of white magical energy swirled around her fingers. She muttered a spell under her breath and before she knew it her magick started to form a ring in front of her. Then, eventually, an image of another world flickered to life inside the ring.

"Scanthia!"

Asling shouted with a smile but as soon as the words left her lips the image faded and the ring disappeared like a flame of a candle being blown out by a harsh winter wind. Her magick faded and Asling frowned.

"You're getting better."

Steve said encouragingly.

"Better isn't enough."

She said.

"I need to be the best."

"Well right now you need to get some sleep."

Steve countered.

"Steve,"

Asling pleaded but Steve wouldn't have it.

"You're exhausted, Allie look at yourself."

He said.

"Come on,"

He offered a hand for her to stand up.

"Lets go to bed."

He added and asling yawned.

"I think I'm to tired to stand up."

She said with a small grin and Steve sighed.

"Are you seriously going to ask me to carry you?"

He deadpanned and Asling didn't say anything, she just grinned. Steve sighed and leaned down to her.

"I'll give you a piggy back ride."

"A what?"

"Just climb onto my back."

Steve said and Asling did so. Steve held her legs on either side of his waist and Asling loosely wrapped her arms around his chest as he carried her up the stairs to his room. It wasn't long though, however, until Asling fell asleep in his arms.

✧*~☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ - .*☆

"I see you."

Asling felt her eyes open. But she wasn't in bed with Steve she was on the ground in a very dark and cold place she recognized that used to be part of Scanthia but now had been taken over by the upside down. She felt a force pinning her to the ground and she looked up. Kierran towered over top of her, pinning her arms to the ground. His eyes were wide and looked to be full of insanity. He grinned at her.

"I see you daughter of Jupiter."

He added, his voice echoed as if he were down a very long hallway.

"And I am coming for you."

He added. Asling squirmed to try to get out of his reach, free from his arms but it was useless. Kierran was twice her seize, twice as strong, and twice as powerful with Magick. Her struggling would only make things worse for her. She couldn't find her swords to fight him off, and even if she did she would be no match. Her magick wouldn't be any match for him either, he was much more powerful than she was. There was nothing she could do and for once she felt truly helpless with no way out, no way to save herself.

"I won't let you win."

Asling said, trying her best to remain strong. But Kierran chuckled as he leaned down to her ear to whisper to her.

"I already have."

He growled wickedly in her ear.

"And now I'm coming to get you, Allie."

✧*~☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ - .*☆

When Steve woke up he was surprised to see that Asling was nowhere to be found in his room. She must have gotten up before him, which was strange, Asling always slept longer than him. Steve got up, threw on a sweatshirt, and walked downstairs to find the mysterious girl. And of course, there she was, the same place as last night, sitting on the living room floor, surrounded by books - some of which were floating in the air - and white wisps of her magick surrounded her as her eyes glowed a soft white. But Steve could still notice the bags under her eyes. Asling was tired. She had been devoting all her time that she possibly could to studying this magick. He could hear her muttering spells under her breath and once again a portal swirled to life. On the other side was what looked like the upside down but it wasn't the upside down of Hawkins. It was definitely the upside down of Asling's world. Her home had been consumed by the dark and cold of the upside down and looked as if it almost never harbored any life at all. Asling was still muttering her spell to keep the portal open when a sudden growl from the other side caused Steve to be much more alert. He knew that sound all too well.

"Asling."

He said, trying to get her attention. A demo-dog came into view on the other side of the portal. It saw Asling.

"Asling!"

He shouted again with a warning tone. Asling seemed as if she didn't hear him, she kept muttering her spell as the demo-dog began to approach. Steve had to act fast. There wasn't enough time for him to run upstairs and grab his bat. So he did the first thing he could think of. He ran over to Asling and picked her up, out of the demo-dog's path just as it's head poked out of the portal. But with Asling now distracted the portal vanished and with the harsh sound of slicing flesh and a whimper the demo-dog's head fell to the ground, sliced right off of it's body.

✧*~☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ - .*☆

"What are you doing?"

Asling asked as her eyes faded back to their original apple green color. She looked up at him with narrow eyes as she wiggled out of his grasp.

"Are you serious right now?"

Steve replied.

"You almost got killed."

He added.

"I had it."

Asling said.

"I had that portal perfectly stable and you distracted me and now it's gone."

"Asling if I hadn't distracted you that thing would have killed you."

Steve said sternly as he pointed a finger to the lifeless demo-dog head that was now sitting in a pool of what Steve assumed to be blood on his living room floor. He knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to clean up later. Asling didn't respond. She just found a very interesting spot on the floor by her feet and began to stare at it, feeling a little guilty while under the pressure of Steve's scolding. Steve sighed.

"Allie."

He said, his tone much softer.

"You aren't being careful."

He said.

"I don't have time to be careful. I have to figure this out I-"

"I understand that."

Steve said as he spoke kindly to her.

"I understand that there's a lot of pressure on you right now, I wish there was more that I could do to help, but there isn't. I don't want to keep you from being whatever it is that you need to be right now, but Allie, I just don't want you dying while trying to be everything for everyone else."

He told her. There was a lot of stress on Asling to "prove herself" that she could do something for once that wasn't a mistake to prove her master wrong. She looked up at him with puffy tired eyes and sighed. She took one of his hands in hers and sat down on the couch, Steve sat down beside her. She took out a strand of leather from thin air and began to wrap it and loosely knot it around her wrist and then she took the same strand of leather and did the same to Steve's wrist.

"What are you doing?"

He asked.

"You'll see."

She replied. Once the knot around Steve's wrist was loosely tied the two were bound together by a strip of leather. Asling leaned down to the strand and began to mutter something to it. Unlike her usual spells and incantations this one sounded almost like a song. It was sweet and soothing to Steve's ears and filled his heart with hope and joy. The binding began to glow and in a flash of silvery blue light he could see blue inscriptions had formed along the leather before fading away. Asling then pulled out a dagger and in one clean swipe she cut the string that bound them together leaving them each with leather bracelets.

"What did you do?"

Steve asked.

"I bound us with the Ghile Blessing."

she said.

"Wait you bound us?"

Steve asked, going incredibly pale,

"Like marriage?"

He added and Asling laughed.

"No, the Ghile blessing is used for warriors in Scanthia. The band that's around your wrist will never untie unless something happens to me and I'm no longer alive."

She told him.

"And the same for mine. It will never untie unless you were to perish."

"lovely."