One character Making it up to another

The prompt for this week was simple. A story about one character making it up to another. As simple as that.

As Xaldor felt the energy fall from his body to the ground, his eyelids closing. He’d hoped that maybe this meant that she’d forgive him. Maybe he’d finally done enough to make it back up to her. His eyelids closed and his cruel mind replayed the moment again.

It was two weeks prior when he finally mastered his latest potion, when he heard his wife, Eless, wander through the door. He took his eye off the cauldron for a moment when it bubbled and fizzed, throwing one of his glass vials like a bullet towards her familiar that was sitting beside her. The cat went limp and he instantly knew that saying ‘sorry’ was not an option. She picked up her - now dead - lifelong companion and slammed the door as she left.

Weeks passed without so much as a word between the couple, he’d tried everything he could think of to apologise. Flowers that had been bewitched to change through her favorite colours; multiple cats that looked similar, he even offered his own faithful puppy as a replacement companion and she’d simply scowled despite how much he knew she loved the pup.

The only thing he could do was turn back time and make it so he’d never taken his eyes off the cauldron. Not an option, the ministry forbade that - apparently it took too much effort to stop timelines collapsing. While gathering ingredients down by the river, a girl on the opposite embankment was overjoyed with her pet, and yet there was something so familiar about the animal that gave him pause. After gathering his ingredients he headed for home dreading the atmosphere that clung in the house.

There, hanging on a tree, he saw a sign. “Missing cat. Reward: £100”. He recognised it as the cat from before, he began to sprint home with renewed vigour. Arriving at the door with his basket now only half full of ingredients, he burst through and raked through his bookshelf desperately trying to find it. “Allomancy, no. Elemental, no. Zodiac, that’s too far” he muttered under his breath. Eless sat in the room just staring with hatred and a small amount of joy thinking that Xaldor was finally going mad. As she turned away he found the book he was after and pelted to his study.

Hours later, a concoction brewed, he made his way outside to the grave of his wife’s late companion. He unstoppered the bottle he carried, the green liquid inside practically jumping out as he began to pour. A minute passed, nothing happened; it had been so long since he’d ventured into this area of magic that he was uncertain if what had been brewed was fully correct. Then the grass started to go brown. He knew at that moment it had started.

With each second more and more of the ground went brown, the ground began to crack to reveal the corpse of the feline as green pulses fed into it. He was so overjoyed he did not feel the drain on his own body until it was too late; until he couldn’t hold his own weight. More and more strength drained from him but he continued feeling happy. Just as he was about to pass out, he heard a noise; “Meow” it cried. He’d done it! “Go to Eless boy, she’ll be happy to see you.”, his final vision was the cat running away towards its home.

Eless sat at home sipping her tea when she heard a scratching on the door. Irritated by the noise she stood to investigate, opening the door and staring in disbelief. “CHESTER! YOU’RE ALIVE!” bending down to stroke the feline but her joy was short lived. She saw the look of shock on her familiar’s face and realised what it meant; as he pointed his paw in the direction of his grave. Xaldor wasn’t here, she thought to herself and started off into a run. She passed through the browned grass and saw Xaldor lying there, unconscious and barely breathing.

“You fool!” she shouted at him in a voice that was more sorrow and caring than anger, “You know that necromancy is dangerous.” In her purse she pulled out a small vial, elixirs were her specialty and this is one she used after a long, loooong day. She poured it into his mouth and prayed. His breathing began to get stronger, he wouldn’t fully recover today but he had a chance. Tears streamed down her face as she held him and began to carry him home. “I think we can call this even now” she said jokingly, uncertain of if Xaldor could hear or not. He heard and inside, he smiled.