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Elyan’s hand snapped shut around the Ascian’s wrist. An impulse borne out of annoyance, a growing hatred for the man’s tendency to vanish at a moment’s notice, and the sense that he knew something which refused to be shared past his sneering comments. Before Elyan could get so much as another word past his teeth, he felt himself falling. The same dizzying loss of gravity that came with every other memory gifted by the Echo as the world faded before his eyes. The hair at the back of his neck stand on end as he realized just what he had done. Some memories were not meant to be rifled through, not by him.
He blinked, and he was there. A dark room with a tall window that stretched from floor to ceiling, filled with distant, glowing lights that stretched up into an evening sky. The bedroom. Someone sat next to him at the edge of the bed. Next to Emet-Selch, Elyan reminded himself. The other figure was looking out the window, deep in thought, as he so often was whenever he returned home. He reached out and touched a line of darkened flesh on the other’s bare shoulder, feeling the raised scar beneath his fingertips. The scar marred the perfect expanse of his back like a chip in fine porcelain. Frowning, he narrowed his gaze.
“When did you manage to get this?” He asked, in a voice that Elyan had never heard leave the Ascian’s mouth before.
The other turned his face toward him, sending a cascade of hair the color of sunsets and polished bronze over his back as he did so. “When I traveled the shores of Hylonome on this last journey.” He replied in a warm, quiet tone.
In answer to the frown on Emet-Selch’s face, a smile curled at the edge of the unknown man’s full lips. He waved a hand dismissively. “You mustn’t worry so much over me. It’s only a scar. I’m healed, and I’ve returned home as hearty and hale as always.”
He scoffed, his fingers still tracing the line of the wound. “You shouldn’t be coming home with scars of any sort at all,” He said. “What sort of misadventures are you finding where you wind up with an injury that cannot be healed away in entirety?” A scowl deepened on his face. “What if you find yourself in graver danger the next time? What shall come to pass then?”
“Dear one,” The other stopped his line of question with an apologetic glance. “I can look after myself, despite what your worries are telling you.” With a sigh, the lithe figure lay down again. He reached across the empty expanse of the bed and pressed a warm hand against the side of his face, holding his gaze in the dim light of the room. “If I am ever in true danger, you will know,” He said. “And I will call upon you, and you will begrudgingly save me from whatever peril I find myself in.”
Emet-Selch hummed his acquiescence, unconvinced, but satisfied. The other man smiled. Closing the gap between them, the fire-eyed man leaned in close.
“Just as you always have, yes?” He dipped his head, pressing his lips into a deep kiss.
As Emet-Selch’s hands ran through the curtains of hair that fell on either side of his face, Elyan felt the cold rush of the memory falling away into nothingness.
He scarcely breathed before the sound of a snarled voice brought him back to the present, to the First, to his own life. No more bedroom, no more strange figure, no more soft-spoken words. Emet-Selch’s eyes blazed into his own. “How dare you?” His voice shook at the edges.
Pain seared through the side of Elyan’s face. He had hit him, he realized, blinking in the bright sunlight. “I didn’t mean to,” He said. “I can’t control it,” Elyan stepped back, shaking his head. The Ascian grabbed his collar and dragged him back in one sharp movement. He loomed close, baring teeth that seemed imperfectly white.
“Are you hearing me clearly? You would be wise to remember this little chat,” He spat, tightening his grip on the fabric of his shirt. “If you ever pry into my memories again, hero, it will be the last mistake you ever make. Do you understand?”
Elyan stared back at him, eyes wide, still stumbling over excuses. Emet-Selch shoved him with enough force that he nearly lost his footing. His mind still racing with questions of who, or what, he had just pulled from the depths of the other’s mind, he tried once more to call him back, to apologize for whatever it was he had done to him. The Ascian only scowled, and in an instant, vanished, leaving Elyan to parse through the storm of confusion left in his wake.