Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Blish had once again woken his brother up with his coughing in the early hours of the morning.

It wasn’t a usual cough that most Asura would have, but a type of cough that makes you double over in pain as it sets your throat and lungs on fire.

“Blish?” Gorrik called out as he rushed to his older brother’s room to check up on him. As soon as Gorrik saw the state that Blish was in, he froze, eyes wide with terror and ears perked up in concern.

“I’m…f…fine.” Blish tried to console him in between bouts of coughing and gasping for air. In truth, he was not fine. He wasn’t able to breathe let alone properly reassure his brother to stop him panicking.

“You are not fine!” He protested reaching for a glass of water and the small vial of pills the doctor prescribed Blish last month. He tells Gorrik that they are helping but there has been no physical improvement.

He is still paler than normal, coughing, and unable to balance on his own two feet most of the time. They had been to every doctor in Rata Sum and Metrica Province but there was still no answer as to what was happening to Blish.

More importantly, they had no way of curing it.

No way of curing the condition that had been plaguing him since he was a progeny.

He just wanted to know what was happening. He had already come to the conclusion that his case was possibly too far advanced to treat, but there could be others that may benefit from answers. After all, that was what he had wanted to have and if he had the chance to make just one person’s life that little bit better than his has been, he would greet that chance with open arms and cherish every moment of it. Because that’s the sort of impact he wanted to leave on the world, so that they’d see him as something slightly more than ‘a condition with no cure’ or ‘a charity case’.

Once he was able to, Blish took the glass and vial out of his brother's hands and took two of the pills. Only six left, only three more attacks left until he had no help from the medicine. But he didn’t want to think about that now, it wasn’t an issue for today. Right now, Gorrik was his main priority.

“Gorrik, look at me.”

But Gorrik remained staring blankly at the vial with the six remaining tablets in.

Blish took the glass vial out of his hands steadily as not to alarm him, “Gorrik, I’m ok, see? Breathe, I am ok.”

His words had the opposite effect to what he intended, Gorrik started quietly crying and quivering, still staring straight ahead like he couldn’t comprehend anything else happening around him at that moment in time. All Blish could do was rub his back in an attempt to console his younger brother and calm him down.

Others — including his own parents — often assumed that he always knew what to do in these situations when Gorrik is unable to control his own emotions, but the truth is that Blish was just as scared as his brother a lot of the time. Scared that it would all become too much for Gorrik one day and just tip him over the edge.

To no fault of his own, Gorrik was more affected by Blish’s attacks than Blish himself was. Because even though the after effects were temporary and the pain subsided after a few minutes, Gorrik went into panic mode every time it happened. Shaking and staring soullessly to hide the pain in his head that often stayed there for hours, even after the attack had subsided.

—

“I think that we should go to Kryta.” Gorrik stated one day.

“Kryta?” Blish queried.

“Yeah, I mean they have other…doctors and stuff that could help you heal, and humans have other -– if less advanced — medical equipment and medicinal herbs that are different to ours. I have found an apothecary in Queensdale which is widely known for it’s variety of-”

“Brother,” Blish interrupted Gorrik’s anxious rambling, “you don’t have to convince me, your word is enough. If you think we should go to Kryta then we will.”

Blish knew his brother was trying to help, and deep down there was a small flicker of hope that maybe the humans would have something to assist in his condition. But in reality, he knew that probably wasn’t the case and that there was a reason they haven’t been able to find anything yet — because there was nothing to find.

Gorrik scurried off to try and find supplies to pack for their unexpected journey north but not before shouting back; “But you’re paying the waypoint fees!”

Blish couldn’t help but chuckle at that. During these hard times, it has felt like the two brothers have only become closer whilst taking care of each other. They’d leaned on each other more than ever before, and even though their fights only used to be few, there had been none for nearly a year now. That was something that even their parents could not achieve.

It was bittersweet.

They were closer than they’d ever been before, being forced together through means of needing comfort and support, but at what cost did that proximity come?

Blish was still getting worse, there was no denying it. As much as he tried to hide it for Gorrik’s sake, it hurt. It hurt so much.

Every cough felt like his lungs were being set ablaze from the inside, cutting off his airways and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. His head became dizzy and light whilst his vision tunnelled and started to go dim. He didn’t need to worry Gorrik more than he already was,and he knew that Gorrik would be just as hurt if he found out that Blish had been keeping the pain all to himself, but…

“Are you coming?” Gorrik asked from the doorway, carrying his half-packed bag.

“On my way.”

Chapter Text

The first thing that Blish felt when he left the city of Thaumanova was relief, freedom almost. That tiny flicker of hope that they would find a cure still lingered inside of him like a plague. Even if this trip amounted to disappointment, the experience of going on an adventure with his brother once more was worth it.

He and Gorrik always used to wander off together on ‘adventures’. Usually just to catch a firefly or spider for Gorrik’s entomological experiments but they still felt dangerous and unauthorized to the two progeny. Blish remembered on one occasion when they had strayed too far from home and accidentally run into a rouge inquest golem.

His brother had looked so scared — Blish had never seen him like that before — gazing up at the golem’s optical haptic with nothing but fear in those tiny eyes of his. They had short circuited the golem to temporarily power it down long enough for the two of them to get back to safety.

They forgot to catch a new test subject.

That was the first time that Blish had felt truly terrified for Gorrik’s life and, to this day, they both still didn’t dare go near any inquest golems they found. It wasn’t worth salvaging parts from.

Now, they were both walking the same path they had all those years ago. The trees were still the same — par a few extra centimetres in height — and the flowers were in bloom.

Their plan was to head to Rata Sum, and then to Lions Arch to stay the night before they ventured into Divinity’s Reach the next day. Neither of them had been further than Lion’s Arch before so this journey was new — both exciting and terrifying.

Blish couldn’t stop worrying that something would go wrong on the way and they wouldn’t be able to get there, or they wouldn’t be able to get back, there were countless possibilities of what could potentially happen and well, maybe they should just turn back now to spare them both the pain if this plan did go sideways and what if-

“Ooh a Heteropona Jugulanus!”

Gorrik broke Blish out of his momentary panic with his excitable exclamations about what appeared to be a normal spider sat atop a tree branch.

“What is it?”

Gorrik picked up the spider and placed it in the palm of his hands and gestured for them to continue on their way up the hill as he explained.

“A Heteropona Jugulanus, they are most commonly found in the Maguuma region, especially in places such as Metrica Province and Brisban Wildlands. I have experimented on them before mainly to test the strength of their webs against other arachnids in the area, these are by far supreme in stability so far, but did you know that-”

He told Blish about the differences in the markings between species and how they were adapted to survive in certain conditions. He talked about where they could be found, what environments they enjoyed the best and their primary food sources.

Blish tried to listen, he really did, but the faster Gorrik spoke, the faster he walked and Blish struggled to keep up. His legs became weaker as they climbed the hill which appeared to grow with every step he took. Before long his vision started to tunnel and grow dim as his breaths became shorter.

In front of him, Gorrik was still focused on his hypothesis about jungle spiders versus cave spiders, staring intently at the small creature in the palm of his hand. Blish had to stop, he couldn't keep walking like this. He paused, hunched over, and gasped for air as his lungs refused to cooperate with the rest of his body.

"Gorrik?" His voice came out strained and breathy as he tried to get his brother's attention. Gorrik's head snapped around to where he was stood, panting and shaking, his legs about to give out any moment.

"Sit down." Blish heard his brother say but it felt like he was hearing it from underwater, "Blish, you have to sit down!"

Something in his brain understood Gorrik's requests — even if he had to strain his ears to hear them — and sat him down on the side of the path.

With his head resting on his knees, the underwater feeling eventually started disappearing and the buzzing in his ears went away as his breathing became level again.

It took him around ten minutes of sitting there in that same position before his heart rate decided to slow down along with his breathing and they could continue on their way.

He felt awful, Gorrik had been so excited to leave home for an ‘adventure’ and now he looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack each time he glanced over at Blish. They were already half way across Metrica Province now, Blish was determined not to stop for the night until they reached Rata Sum. Hopefully, they'd be able to get through the gate before the sun set.