Shanirin doesn't know if he's ever felt urgency like this before. The kind that spurs on his body outside of his will. Keep moving, you will die if you stop, it feels like.

Umi might die if you stop.

Shanirin inhales a sharp breath, grits his teeth to hold back the sobs clawing their way up his throat. His vision has long since blurred with the stream of tears that pours from his eyes. He stumbles his way back to the hollow tree, half blindly grasps his way inside of it, basically trips over the gate of the pulley and finally grabs the lever inside it that will take him back up and pulls it. The pulley creaks as it begins to ascend.

He can feel his blood flow deep beneath his skin, feels it rush from his hammering heart, he can feel his bones shift with his body. Umi was taken. He sacrificed himself to save Shanirin.

Umi's gone.

Shanirin's jaw clenches harder as a tide of searing pain grips his chest, drowns his soul in its ocean. Umi can't be gone. Everything else can be gone, but not Umi. Not his little one.

The short while it takes to reach the top lasts several eternities, and he only cries harder as he stands there. Despite his best efforts to hold himself together long enough to run to the council, the sobbing still rips him apart at the seams, and he gasps for air through it.

Whatever that Elder wants with Umi can't be good, and Shani can hardly bear the thought of it harming him.

Finally, finally, the pulley slots into place at the top and stops. Shanirin rushes out, dragging the two soil baskets with him. He'd have tossed them away, but Umi wanted him to bring them to the people, and Shanirin can't disappoint him anymore than he already has.

He's supposed to be the caretaker of the two of them. The protector. But he failed to keep Umi safe today, and that guilt burns.

As he meanders across the various bridges toward the council's den, Shanirin tries in vain to draw in breath, stop crying. The tears simply just keep coming. He barely feels the ache of his sore body from the battle, fueled by fright so utterly visceral it permeates all hollows of his being. He tastes ash on his tongue.

Umi has to be okay. Shanirin's world will end otherwise.

He takes the last bridge toward the den, urging himself to calm down, hard as it is. It's going to be okay, he will tell the council what happened and then they will organize a search party to go find Umi and bring him home. That's gotta be the course of action here, Shanirin can't imagine anything else. That notion is mildly comforting, just enough to allow his body to stop seizing with sobs, to return himself to a modicum of sense.

He reaches the front entrance of the council's den then and rushes in, dropping the two baskets in the hall. All of the councilors are there, thankfully, sitting behind a table curved like a crescent moon at the back of the room, following the den's round shape.

Councilman Bnirin rises to his feet first when he sees the state of Shanirin, and steps out from his seat, makes his way around to Shanirin, "What happened? Where is Umirin?" he asks, a frown etched into his brow.

The words burst like a river from Shanirin's mouth, pouring out so rapidly they are barely legible, "We were attacked by an Elder and tried to fight it off, but it was too strong and overpowered us. It was about to bite me but Umirin struck a bargain with it to save me and now it's taken him away and—"

"Woah, easy now. Please, speak sensibly," Bnirin interrupts Shanirin's rambling.

Shani sniffles and nods, taking a breath to try to explain himself better. His voice shakes like the rest of him, "Umi struck a bargain with the Elder to save me and the Elder took him away into the woods somewhere. We have to go find him," he repeats, his eyes wide and trained on Bnirin.

The councilman regards him silently for a few moments, before speaking, "Are you—completely certain of this chain of events? No one has ever communicated with an Elder to the extent it would take to broker a deal with it, what you say is difficult to believe,"

Shanirin blinks and rubs his wet eyes with his hands as more latent tears spill, swallowing a thick lump, "Yes, yes, I'm sure, please sir, I was there. I know the rough direction the Elder went with Umi, please let's just make a plan to go find him—"

"Umirin is likely already one of them," Bnirin interrupts again, shaking his head, his tone of voice sympathetic however.

Shanirin feels his heart hitch in his throat, "No, no," he shakes his own head, he can't think about that possibility, "no, you don't understand. The deal Umi made was doing anything for the Elder in exchange for it sparing me. It took him away so he could fulfill his end, he isn't bitten," he explains, grasping the councilor by his arms, pleading with him to listen.

"Shanirin, I...I do understand that you love your husband, but the reality is—" Bnirin tries, face twisted into a grimace.

This time Shanirin is the one who interrupts, "Is that Umi is not bitten, just taken away. I don't know what the Elder wants from him, but it's definitely nothing good. So we have to go save him now, right now, before it actually hurts him," he grips Bnirin's forearms tighter, his voice sounding a little shrill by now.

They cannot say no. They cannot. The council cares for the people, it always has, surely they wouldn't refuse to rescue one of their own.

Bnirin falls momentarily silent, his eyes wavering on Shanirin's pale and panicked face, before he sighs, "Give me and the rest of the council some time to discuss," he says.

Shanirin swallows heavily, forcing his fingers to unclench so he releases the other man. He manages a shaky nod, "Okay. Okay, just—please," he begs one final time, for whatever that's worth, and retreats outside to let this discussion to happen.

He paces the length of the slab jutting out before the entrance while he waits, still feeling just as jittery as ever, wanting to gnaw his own flesh off his bones from the awful agony of the constant tremors that roll through him.

Every single second that passes with no rescue mission underway feels caustic on his skin, wasted away into dust. There is precious little time, but hopefully soon some people will be sent down with him to go find Umi, when the council is done figuring things out here.

When they call him back in, Shanirin runs in, filled with hope, "Yes?"

Bnirin, stood at the front of the council, seemingly representing them, looks upon Shanirin heavily, then shakes his head, "We will not be attempting to rescue Umirin," he says with deathly finality.

Shanirin feels his soul empty out its contents into the rest of his body, set on fire in an instant, when those words come over him, "...What?" he barely manages to mumble. This cannot be right. He misheard. This isn't...they wouldn't...

Bnirin repeats himself however, "We're very sorry, but we have discussed and decided we cannot organize a rescue effort," he explains.

Shanirin stands there, his ears ringing from the overbearing crackling of those flames engulfing him. Everything hurts. He shakes his head, "I don't—I don't understand. Why not? Umi is one of the people," he pushes more words out through a throat that feels raw, his flesh aching as if scorched.

Bnirin averts his eyes when he replies, seemingly cowed, "We know. We agree this is a tragedy. However, it would be too dangerous to send more people out into the Soulbiter ruled forest, to look for a location which could be who knows where, in search of one person that is likely already lost forever and far beyond helping," he clears his throat as he elaborates.

Shanirin cannot accept this, "You send out people every day into the Soulbiter ruled forest to gather soil though. Why should this be any different? We'd just be looking for Umi instead," he protests, his chest throbbing with panic and terror. He can't let it end like this, he has to change their minds.

Oh Heart, he and Bnirin had been ones to relentlessly convince Umi his worries were ridiculous and all would be well, only for things to turn out this way. They owe him this. For his sacrifice too. His brave little one still thought of home even as he was being taken away by a beast and sent Shanirin back with the baskets.

"When we send soil gatherers out, it is for the good of the entire nation. A more worthwhile cause. This is the complete opposite. You wish for us to endanger the many for the good of one, which is not even guaranteed. We cannot," Bnirin stands firm, his tone patient and steady yet uncompromising.

Shanirin feels his eyes sting all over again, "But—you can't just abandon him! He gave himself up to save me, to help all of us!" the words spill, his voice now a helpless yell, he can't stop himself, he can't believe they are so readily willing to let his Umi die.

Bnirin, still composed as ever, just shakes his head, "Umirin did a brave thing, he did his duty as he was trained to, and we won't forget it. But that does not justify risking more innocent lives," he shrugs, in the end.

He shrugs. Shrugs!

Shanirin burns up in a flash at that, overtaken by force not his own, his fist flying forward and slamming into the jut of Bnirin's jaw, a whoosh followed by a crack echoing out, "How could you?!" he hears himself basically wail, his voice broken and jagged, louder than Bnirin's cry of pain when he tumbles to the floor, his hands rising to cradle his broken jaw.

"We all trust you to take care of us and yet the moment one of us needs your help you shrug!" he keeps yelling, fury coursing through him, too blinded to even remember he ought to feel bad for punching a superior, "How dare you?!"

Another councilman calls for guardsmen at the sight of this scene, but Shanirin barely hears that. He barely registers anything except for this horrible betrayal ripping a wound open within him. He'd truly believed in them...

He doesn't remember the last time he'd gotten angry, let alone this angry, but the love of his life is in danger and the people that are supposed to be looking out for him refuse to lift a finger.

Bnirin curls up, unable to speak from his injury, pushing himself away from Shani.

Within moments more Shanirin feels hands on him, grabbing his arms and yanking him back. He immediately struggles, breaking down into sobs of despair, "No! Let me go!" he yells as he jerks his body to get free at all costs, "If you won't go save him I will! I'll go alone, let go of me!" he pulls and yanks and kicks out his legs, fighting the two guards trying to take him away. Umi's in danger, he can't waste any more time—

A sudden smell of spicy herbs comes under his nose, and his eyes widen. He knows this drug, used by healers to subdue struggling patients.

Shanirin holds his breath, tries not to breathe it in, his body burning. He can't let himself get knocked out. But the scent doesn't cease for way too long, and he cannot just stop breathing forever. He yells with devastation as his body gives out eventually and he inhales desperately, his nostrils filling with the drug.

"Umirin!" he screams for his beloved as he feels his limbs grow loose, heart shredded into bloody tatters in his chest, panicked with knowledge of what is mere moments away. His head feels heavier and heavier from the cloying scent permeating his skull itself, until he simply slumps over, unconscious, the world turning black.