(no subject)

[blightedson]

WHO: Felix and Adelaide. Then Felix and OPEN.
WHAT: Felix isn't feeling well and collapses. Adelaide tends to him. After, he's up for visitors but is still very weak.
WHEN: Current.
WHERE: The main hall. Then, Felix's private room.
NOTES: Description of illness?

[For Adelaide]

Felix was probably pushing himself too hard, if he was honest. It was becoming more and more clear every day that his time was running out. He didn't have much left and he wanted to try to get as much done as possible before. He had been up all night drafting letters home urging those he had ties with to support the Inquisition.

Then early in the morning he had gone to visit his father. The elder Alexius had fussed more than anything, but Felix still made the effort to try to see his father as much as he could, while he could. Then came arranging the letters to be sent north.

He was exhausted just doing those few things, though the lack of sleep hadn't been helping. He felt the headache coming on. There was a pounding in his head. It was rhythmic. A song. His ears were ringing with it and his head felt like it was swimming.

He made his way up the stairs to the main hall of Skyhold. He was planning to use this path to get to his room while picking up something to drink along the way, but when he bent to pick up the cup he felt his head swarm. His vision blacked.

He heard the gasps and exclamations from those in the hall as his body fell to the ground, but he wasn't aware of much else outside of that.


[OPEN]

Later he's in his room, resting. His body feels clammy. He's sweating but his skin feels so cold. There's very little color left in his cheeks which seem hallow and thin.

Still, he knows rumors are spreading about his health and he's willing to see visitors if anyone wants to see him.

Comments

[fleurdesel]

She'd done her best to mind him. To offer what relief that she could when he called for her- to check in even when he hadn't because if she knew men and their stubborn foolishness at all, she knew he wouldn't call near as often as he truly would require. The more she treated any one patient- so long as she was in their relative vicinity Compassion would stretch out, now and then, to check on them. Today that stretch ends with a trill of concern loud enough to have Adelaide seeking Felix out for herself. Something was worse than usual. She'd told him to mind his health. To take care with how much he did in a day.

They both knew he was fading.

To find him wavering in the main hall, tipping, falling- she ran to his side to spare him a cracked head- stumbling under his weight. Slight as she was she could not hold him upright- kneeling instead to support his head and shoulders in her lap while she called for aid.

"Felix? Felix." Hands steady, voice pointed, she peered into his face for some sign of his waking.

[blightedson]

Felix still wasn't entirely aware of what was going on but he was saved severe injury thanks to Adelaide's quick action. His head tilted to the side as he gasped a bit for air.

His face was very pale and around the edges of the collar of his robe one could see brown lines of his veins. The discoloration was noticeable now as the symptoms were getting harder to cover up using his father's treatments.

He responded to her voice, eyes fluttering a bit. "The song," he muttered, his voice low and hard to ear. "It won't stop."

[fleurdesel]

"We need to move him to his room- I do not care who you get to carry him but get someone." She snapped to the nearest guard, clerk, whoever before resting her hands on his jaw- the lack of color, the way his veins were darkened- the exhaustion.

The ache she could feel in her teeth from here, Compassion's light flaring and flowing from her fingers into him to ease some of that as she has ever since she's met him- he had but weeks, now. Perhaps a month if they were fortunate and he was careful.

"Breathe deeply, ma Douleur, we are going to get you back to your room where you can rest."

[blightedson]

Felix heard her enough to follow her orders. He focused on breathing and that brought some of the world back to him, at least it was able to break through the song that seemed to be coming from the very blood in his head.

Then there were men around helping Adelaide get him to his quarters. He was able to force his eyes open and saw the shapes that belonged to the faces around him, peering at him.

"Fasta vass," he muttered now. He wasn't usually one for cursing, but it seemed appropriate to do so when he had made such a scene in front of many of the Inqusition's most important guests.

"I can walk." Though, honestly, he probably wouldn't be able to without support.

[fleurdesel]

"As I cannot trust you to gauge how much you can do in an hour, let alone in a day, without causing yourself to collapse I am not trusting you to know whether or not you can walk." It probably wasn't all that kind to snap at a dying man- but this. He knew better, and if he did not? She would make certain he knew better for the future.

"Careful with his legs- I have his shoulders. Yes I can manage- do you want to interrupt this spell? No? Good." Walking and working- it wasn't something she'd done often but this was familiar enough for her to manage. "Focus on me, Felix. Deep breaths."

[blightedson]

The snapping worked though. Probably because it reminded him of his mother, who had been so powerful and strong. The woman speaking now was much kinder than she had been, but the command still had that same power.

He goes silent then, and lets her have her way. Instead of trying to protest he just breathes.

[fleurdesel]

It took some maneuvering- some soft swearing on her part when they were not as gentle as need be- but Adelaide saw Felix to his room. Sent the remainder away as soon as he was set on his bed. No matter how much power she poured into him, how much of the ache she took- that song.

That did not come from just any illness. Nor did those veins.

"...Felix. What is killing you?"

[serannas]

Once word spreads enough that it reaches Ellana's ears, she has to ask around to actually find his room before she turns up, knocking softly on the door. Softly, because she's afraid he might be sleeping and if that's so, she doesn't want to rouse him. But then she worries that he might be too weak to answer if he is awake, so she opens the door a crack and keeps her eyes on the ground to not invade his privacy. As someone who's grown up without much of it, she's learning the value of it now.

"Felix?" she whispers. "It's Ellana."

[blightedson]

Felix finds himself stupidly running a hand over his blankets to straighten them when he hears her voice, as if he's desperately trying to make himself presentable when he knows he looks like death.

"Come in," he calls as much as he can given that his voice is weak and soft.

[serannas]

Ellana enters and looks around the space. Seeing Felix looking even weaker than before is hard, and for an instant she's taken back in time to when the plague hit the clan. She recalls how pale and fragile her parents looked as she tried to make them comfortable. How they weakly protested she had to leave them or she would grow sick too. The thought leaves her rooted to the ground for a moment before it passes and she moves a little closer.

"Hello. Is it all right if I come up to the bed?"

[blightedson]

He hesitates only for a moment. He's been reassured that he's safe, even with the symptoms showing at least they can control the spread. It won't save him, but it will protect others.

He'd hate it if something happened to her. "Of course," he says. "Your presence will certainly brighten up the room."

[serannas]

"Oh, I should have thought to bring flowers," she says, chastising herself, since she thinks they would brighten up the room more than she ever could. But she approaches the bed, giving him a gentle smile. There's worry in her eyes that she can't hide, but she's making sure to smile.

"I heard about what happened. Are you feeling any better?"

[blightedson]

"A bit, yes," Felix says. "I imagine I look much worse than I feel." That's not exactly true, but he's trying to cheer her up. He offers her a small smile.

"And you don't have to worry about flowers. It's enough that you came to check on me."

[serannas]

"I hope it's all right that I did," she begins, unsure what his friends will think of an elf coming to see him. If his friends are anything like him, hopefully it doesn't matter.

"Do you need anything? I'm sure the healers have done plenty, but do you need any water? More blankets?" She just wants to do something for him, because she feels so helpless. It isn't right that people grow ill and then just slip away.

[amygdalae]

When he heard the rumors, he knew.

The Blight was never a pleasant thing, and to witness the way it slowly and methodically destroyed a person from the inside out only made everything worse. After the first few times Bruce saw him he already figured out what was going on, but now... Now, his time was getting close.

Bruce did his best to make time once he heard the rumors going around. From the kitchens he got some of the usual tea and biscuits that Felix preferred, and like the other times he visited he brought it up to his room, although this time he didn't wait for Felix to answer his knock before he entered the room.

"Alexius? Are you awake?"

[blightedson]

"It's Felix," came the feeble reply from inside of the room. He would keep reminding Bruce to call him by his given name until he could no longer speak.

"Come in Bruce."

[amygdalae]

Bruce never argued back, of course, but this time he had even less desire to really say anything much, the reality of the situation weighing heavily in the air. The Blight within him was spreading and getting worse and soon--

Best not to think about it now. Bruce walks over to the side of Felix's bed, setting down the tray and pouring the tea out for him. "I heard you took a pretty bad fall earlier," he began, by way of conversation.

[blightedson]

Felix can't move a lot but he does look over curiously at the tea. He smiles a bit, with a tinge of embarrassment at the corners of his mouth.

"Yes. I'm afraid you missed all of the excitement."

[amygdalae]

"I think I'll be fine having missed that." The words were wry and no matter how Bruce tried, there was no real way to keep off the grim expression on his face. In his travels Bruce had seen a fair number of people wasted away by the Blight, and each time was no better than the last. And now to see it once more, somebody who clearly didn't deserve such a fate having to suffer it--

It wasn't fair. Nothing about this was fair.

Bruce set the teapot back down and carefully brings the cup over to Felix, helping the other up and making sure he gets some of the tea down. "You shouldn't have pushed yourself so much," he said, and despite the words there was no anger to his voice, only understanding. He can understand why Felix is trying to do all of this, but it doesn't make anything easier.

[blightedson]

Felix is grateful for the tea, and for the distraction it provides. He isn't sure he'll be able to keep much more down. He watches Bruce move around the room as he gets it and brings it to him.

He doesn't respond right away. He really isn't certain what can be said.

"I need to make sure I do everything I can to change minds," he said finally. "I've made peace with the inevitability, but now as it draws nearer all I can think on are the things that I can do with the time I have left."

[amygdalae]

It was hard to blame Felix for what he thought - if he were in his place, Bruce knew he would be doing the same. But once again it didn't make anything easier, and it certainly wasn't going to make the situation better. The reality of everything still hung between them, heavy and laden with unspoken words.

"You're not going to help anybody by collapsing either," he chides gently in return as he places the teacup back down. "Try to be reasonable about that, at the very least."

[paperwing]

Collapses in the main hall were not very common, and Skyhold was a breeding ground for rumours and whispers. The story has passed through several hands and versions by the time Sabriel hears it, but it doesn't take long. She feels all the right emotions, concern, a wondering as to what happened, but it was the description of the man who had collapsed that made her suddenly lose her appetite.

There's a lot of stories, but she remembers the sensation of something blighted. She did not sense her other Wardens, but she does sense darkspawn, Archdemons, things that are tainted.

She isn't sure. But there's a nag, and it's not long after that Sabriel goes in search of Felix and his rooms. Several people later, she arrives, and knocks.

[blightedson]

"Yes?" comes the feeble voice from the other side of the door. Felix is not expecting her, though he doesn't seem displeased by it. Their interaction in the library had been comforting.

[paperwing]

Sabriel hesitates, but not overlong. He sounds weaker than she expected, and this is time he should spend with friends, not almost strangers. But she is here, now.

"It is Warden Sabriel," she says, softly. "Might I enter?"

[blightedson]

"Of course, Warden." Felix straightens himself up and worries a bit about this. He had met her, and had liked her, but after such a public display of his symptoms he worries that the Wardens have something to say about the Blight.