Zee looked both shocked and confused by what her sister was saying. "Gone? Wha-what do you mean gone? What are you even talking about?" she asked as she pulled herself free from Mae's grip and turned to face her. "Y-you're just making things up to make me stay now?" Her voice shook as she spoke.
"I'm not making up anything, Zee," Mae replied, her eyes narrowing into a glare. "I'm telling you exactly what will happen if you go." She pointed toward the motionless figure lying on the bed. "He's catatonic, right? Unable to take care of himself?" Zee glanced toward Nori before looking back at her sister. "If you leave, who is going to take care of him?" Mae continued. "Me? I won't be doing that. I do not really care about him at all."
The words were cold, but there was no dishonesty in them.
Zee immediately shook her head. "Even if you won't, someone else obviously will!" she exclaimed, pointing toward Nori. "He's a patient, and he helped us fight the Demon King! The medics, the healers, the doctors or whoever takes care of people here will look after him!"
"Did you forget he's The Fiend?" Mae asked.
The question hit like a hammer, and Zee fell silent instantly.
Mae stepped closer. "He's one of the most wanted criminals in the world right now," she said. "Someone with a massive bounty on his head. Someone who would be executed because of the severity of his crimes." Her eyes never left Zee. "He may be Xain's best friend or whatever else he is to him, but do not forget that."
Zee's lips parted slightly, but no words came out.
"Do not forget," Mae repeated, leaning in closer, "that he is a criminal."
The room felt smaller with every word.
"If you leave, he will not be taken care of. He will not be treated kindly. All it takes is one person deciding they want to get rich quickly while doing Aetheria what most people would call a favor," Mae continued, her gaze briefly shifting toward Nori before returning to Zee. "And then he'll be executed."
Zee's breathing became uneven. Her eyes darted between Mae and Nori, back and forth, each glance heavier than the last. Nori remained motionless, unresponsive, staring blankly at the ceiling as if nothing in the world could reach him anymore.
The image twisted something painfully inside her chest.
She wanted to go after Xain. She wanted to find him. She wanted to bring him back.
But if doing that meant abandoning Nori, if it meant leaving behind the person who was clearly one of the reasons Xain had lost control in the first place, the person who seemed to matter to him more than almost anyone else, then what would happen afterward?
If Nori died because she left, would Xain ever recover from it, or would it simply break him even further?
Zee stared down at the floor. Her fists slowly loosened. Tears spilled from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.
Because deep down, she already knew what she was going to have to do.
"You're… so awful," Zee whispered, her voice breaking as she looked up into her twin's emerald eyes. "But I'll stay… you made me stay." She let out a shuddering breath, shoulders trembling as she struggled to keep herself together. "I forget just how much of a mean person you are… I… I hate you!"
The words came out sharp, but fractured by tears. Before Mae could respond, Zee spun away and ran past her, wiping at her face as she rushed out of the room.
Mae remained still for a few seconds after she left. Then her shoulders began to tremble. The calm expression she had been holding collapsed piece by piece as she slowly lowered herself onto one of the nearby beds. She covered her face, rubbing at her eyes as her breathing hitched.
"I'm sorry, Zee," she whispered, voice barely audible. "But I don't want you to get hurt… your big sister is sorry for treating you like that, for making you cry… but I couldn't let you go through that." Her hands tightened slightly as she bowed her head further. "I'm sorry…"
The apology fell into quiet sobs, raw and restrained, as she sat there alone with the weight of what she had said. The argument had left both twin elven sisters wrecked, the distance between them now carved deeper than words alone.
"I'll get him back," Mae murmured through her tears. "I promise that… I swear that I will get him back to you…"