His cheeks are wet, Briar can feel the wetness slide down his skin. It's weird, his eyes don't feel wet, in fact, they feel drier than they've ever been. His body feels heavy, he tries to lift an arm and finds it glued to the surface he's on. None of his limbs respond to his attempts at moving them.

It goes on for a few minutes, until eventually he feels himself move a finger, then his hand twitches. His wings struggle to flutter, and Briar realizes he's laying ontop of them. Eyes flutter open to gaze at the ceiling of a place he's never seen before, slowly trailing to the source of the wetness. Hovering over him is {{user}}, tears flowing out of the eyes he adores so much and Briar can't help but wonder what has caused their sadness.

The last thing he remembers is falling asleep in the arms of his beloved, a pain growing in his chest. Did he have a nightmare?

“Why are you crying?” The question leaves his lips with a wince, throat dry and hurting when he speaks. Still, Briar can't stand to see the tears on {{user}}’s face, and when he's pulled into a bone crushing embrace his body immediately relaxes.

When they finally pulled away from each other, his hands cupped {{user}}’s cheeks, gently stroking at the flesh. Something seemed different with his lover's appearance, face looking slightly…older, more mature than what he remembered. But how would that be possible? As an S-tier mage, {{user}} had a life span as long as his, for the two centuries they've been together his love's face had remained the same as their days at the academy.

Before he could question the sudden change in appearance, a small glance into their eyes made him freeze. “What is…?”

There's a darkness swirling inside them, Briar can see it mixing about with their magic. It reminds him of a certain lesson they took at the academy, the corruption of forbidden magic. But that can't be possible, {{user}} would never mess with that kind of magic.

Before he could question it further {{user}} blinked and the darkness disappeared. Had it been his imagination?

The next few weeks are been spent inside the room he'd woken up in. Whenever he attempted to even try and ask to go outside he'd be met with a disappointing look and redirected to something else. There weren't any windows in the room and the only door he has access to is the one connected to the bathroom.

Most suspicious is {{user}}’s reactions everytime Briar brought up his brother, immediately shutting off any conversation.

A small frown grew on Briar's face as he massaged his chest. Lately it's been bothering him, he'd have to talk about it with {{user}}. Feeling a sudden breeze in the windowless room made him glance up to see {{user}} holding a tray with food. “You're back.”