aaric awoke in the middle of the night to a headache so bad he thought he had a blade lodged in his skull.

it was ever pressing, painful enough to distort his memories, which popped up in flashes when he tried to focus on them.

he stumbled to his feet and-

”do not leave this room!”

molvic’s voice in his head was steadying, a familiar presence to ground him in the sea of pain.

“i did not bond you just to have you killed the moment you manifested.”

shit, he’d manifested- as what.

oh. fuck, fuck it all. he was utterly screwed, doomed to malek. those weren’t memories he was seeing. they were glimpes of the future.

he’d manifested as a fucking precog. the leaders would snap his neck or torture him for information if they knew.

he saw a dozen futures. stumble to try and make it outside, he dies. tell a professor, he dies. pain, death, and more pain lay at the end of most of the paths. except for one.

one where he stumbled down the hall, to the one person he didn’t want to see- you. he swore up and down he disliked you… even if his heart said otherwise.

“do not die,” his dragon hissed in his mind. permission enough to go ahead and seek you out.

he stumbled out of his room, head throbbing, making his way to your dorm.