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"What?" Ela whispered as soon as we were alone.
I turned for him to help me get out of this dress. "Tath is dead, Ela. Talin needs to be at Sandrest, and he willnotbe going alone. That means we need to put on something appropriate." Once he released my dress, I let it fall to the floor with the chains attached and headed for my dresser, gesturing for him to do the same. "I'm going as a fucking guardian."
"Same," he decided, "and I'm watching you while Talin's distracted."
Which made sense. It was one less thing for Talin to worry about, since I knew he'd worry if I didn't have a big, strong protector. Then again, we also had another guardian. I was bouncing to get my ass into my black pants when I started making my way to the doorway.
"Anver?" I said, getting his attention, then I jerked my head back, summoning him silently.
When he was in the room, he turned me back towards Ela, saying, "He just started crying. Wraythe's got him. He's still not talking yet, but he's not trying to hide it."
"You need to change," I told him. "We're going to Sandrest, I'm going to need a guardian, and that's you. Sorry, Ela."
"Nope, that's a good idea," Ela assured me. "Weapons too, Anver. This is going to be tense as fuck, but we're all watching Talin this time."
The three of us nodded in agreement, and quickly got ready. Talin and Wraythe were already dressed for this, but Ela managed to get the pistols from both of them, because we had a feeling those would be a little too easy to use. Since tempers would be high, the last thing we needed was someone else dead because the wrong words were said. Then Ela went out to see if he could get Talin talking, and Anver sat me down so we could strip the decorations from my hair.
"He'll be ok," Anver promised me.
"I know," I agreed. "I just hate that he's hurting now."
Anver leaned in and kissed the top of my head. "He needs you, Nari. Just you. I think he's overwhelmed, and I know that what I'm getting through my lace is almost crippling, so I can only imagine it's more than he can take. No matter how he felt about Tath, the man was his brother."
"I know," I assured him. "We'll make it work, Anver. No matter what, we will make sure he makes it through this."
But when I made it back to the living room, Talin had tears streaming down his cheeks and his eyes looked more blue than ever. Both of his hands were pressed over his mouth and nose, and he was bent so that his elbows were braced on his knees, holding him up. I headed straight for him, dropped to my knees before him, and pulled him into a deep hug.
"I love you," I breathed against his neck. "I will always love you. I don't know what else to tell you except that I'm so, so sorry, Talin."
He sucked in a breath. "Did we do this?"
"I don't know," I admitted, aware of the other guys standing around us. "He could've fallen, or had an accident. We don't know, Talin."
Talin just sniffed, using the back of his hand to wipe at his nose, and then nodded. "But what if we did, Nari? He locked himself away right after, and he's been doing nothing but drinking himself to death, and it all started with us!"
"Tell me?" I begged, wanting to know what he was thinking. "What if we did, Talin?"
He sniffed again, but this time Wraythe shoved a pocket square for him to use as a handkerchief. Talin paused to wipe his eyes first, then under his nose, and crumpled the fabric up in his fist. The whole time, his eyes hung on mine.
"I let that happen. I didn't even try to stop it because I was so mad."
"No," I corrected, stopping him there. "I let it happen, Talin." I wrapped my hands around each of his. "Tath tried to rape me, and I fought back. I was going to kill him. I was reaching for the statue, so this is my fault. Should we request a reimmersion?"
"No," he mumbled.
I nodded once, accepting that. "You did your sworn duty. You protected me. I turned Ela loose on him, so this is on me."
"And me," Ela said. "Nari didn't do this on her own, and I won't fucking let her take the blame for it. Your brother had issues, Talin. Not just with what I did to him, or who saw. He had issues before that. Those issues made him hate Thiemo for having what Tath wanted. They made him abuse his wife. They made him torture you for years, every chance he could get."
"Shh," Anver said, moving in to caress the back of Talin's head. "He's your brother. He will always be your brother, and it's ok to be confused."
"That," Talin mumbled, looking up at Anver. "I don't... I..." He wiped at his nose again, but the tears had stopped falling. "I fucking hate him! How dare he try to touch you, Nari? What the fuck was he thinking, beating Maela - while she was holding their son! He..." Talin paused to pull in a long, deep breath. "He was given chances to change. He chose not to. He paid the price."
And then Talin stood and headed for the dressing room. Anver held up a finger and followed, but he was barely out of sight before someone knocked at the door. I couldn't deal with that right now. Shaking my head was enough for Wraythe to head that way, but I didn't hear him greet who was on the other side. Instead, I heard steps and turned around to find Amerlee hurrying over.
"Oh, Nari," she breathed, crouching down to hug me hard. "Are you ok? Is he?"
"He's not," Ela admitted. "We also need to go to Sandrest."
