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Post by Willow on Jan 7, 2013 14:40:10 GMT -6
Inside the library, the demons inside Asina's belly slowly calmed. She turned to Mikael with a tired smile. "Hm, I think he likes you," she said with a chuckle, then looked toward the door and the corridor where the two demons were talking. "You're protective of her," she said, then nodded. "Good. This is a hard place for her to be right now, and I can't be there for her nearly as much as I want to. I am glad she has you."
Outside in the hall, there was no calm.
Zanen and Ryell faced each other, evaluating, both thinking, and it was Zanen who spoke first. "You owe me your respect, Ryell," he said seriously. "It doesn't matter what happened between us. I am still your superior, and your friend should also be careful of what he says." He shot a look back toward the library before focusing on Ryell.
With the dead calm she'd used to speak to him in that sacred garden when she'd found out not only that Zanen had found another but also who and what that other was, she responded. "Zanen, for the past one thousand years I have not had to defer to you, and Mikael is not one of yours to command. You are the one who should know better than to get upset over silly protocol when there is a pregnant queen five feet away." She frowned and looked up at him, directly in the eye. "What is wrong with you?" The words were out before she could stop them, but she didn't bother to try and take them back.
The brush of Air that Mikael had sent with her curled around her and gave her strength, and for that she was more than grateful.
Zanen grit his teeth, fists clenching at his sides. "Tell be about the heartbeats."
Ryell sighed. "Five young raves. Mikael and I awakened them with Dance several months back. It was one of the reasons it took us so long to return. We wanted to stay and give them some basic training before we left so that they could begin to tend to the Rhythms, which have gone far too long untended. That is the duty of the raves. To preserve the balance."
Zanen was shocked for a moment. Then he let out a low and vicious snarl that took Ryell aback. "Do not lecture me about what is the duty of the raves!" he hissed. "You did not think to notify me that there were more? Why didn't you bring them with you? What were you thinking training them yourself!?" His tone was harsh and his tongue a lash.
For a second Ryell fumbled, then she slowly inhaled and breathed out again. "I thought--"
"No Ryell, you were not thinking," he barked back, voice rising. "Did you forget what it meant to be a rave all those years trapped in that place? Did you forget your honor? What have you become Ryell?" He shook his head, angry and hurt. "The first thing you should have done was to bring them back here to Danalli and myself. There are desperate few of us left here Ryell! In the time that you spend dallying, playing Clan and pretending to lead we could have figured out how to revive the raves."
"The raves which were destroyed because of YOUR perfect little pony!"
SMACK. Ryell hit the floor.
Inside the library, Asina went still, her whole being on edge as she wound her arms protectively over her belly. Zanen started it, but Ryell just said the worst thing the could have said in that moment, and if even one of them berserked.... Eyes a wary gold, she mentally reached out to Ciel, who she was more than certain was either nearby or already on his way. Because the two angry demons in the hall were blocking her exit. Inside her belly, the babies turned restless again. One afraid and the other desperate to protect.
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Post by libellule on Jan 7, 2013 15:24:24 GMT -6
“I was dead,” he said coolly to Asina, “There was no in between.” A chill ushered through the room. “She healed me with raw energy for a month because I couldn’t even contain broth without choking.”
I can’t be there for her nearly as much as I want to.
He chuckled softly. “It’s as easy as breathing for me,” he smoothed over, trying to outweigh the worry as he spoke to Asina, “I’ve been doing it for a thousand years.”
He was a man of patience. He had endured wars and injuries and he had outlasted them. But this… this spar that was going on outside had him on edge. His calm and patience was beginning to wear thin. She did not need this. She was here to delegate and explain, not to bicker with a hot temper…
His eyes narrowed, lightening in defense as he heard his voice raise. He was slowly getting up as he heard Zanen’s attacks.
…forget your honor? ... In the time that you spend dallying, playing Clan and pretending to lead we could have figured out how to revive the raves…
He winced at her painful blow she shot back, but Zanen was silent until Mikael heard skin connect against Ryell’s and her body drop to the ground…
He couldn’t hold it back, couldn’t restrain his celesti fire that rose and fueled his eyes with a blue inferno. The snarl that befell and filled the library was treacherously loud and feral. An angry wind funneled around him and launched towards the door in a whip and snapped the library door wide open to were Zanen stood and Ryell was picking herself off of the floor slowly.
The library and hallway were decorated with arbitrary plain potted plants that wilted as he stepped by them. “Well, well,” the Focused aeon smoothed in a calm, chilled timbre. “Look what we have here. Wouldn’t Goderic be pleased of his zephyr counterpart… Here you stand, ‘honorable and proud,’ reunited with your devoted.
“And here he thought you were always just a child with a big sword on his back and bad uncontrollable temper,” the aeon mused with a sardonic snarl. His tattoos had swelled with a glow that matched his ever whitening eyes.
“You want to know about the heart beats, Oracle,” he snarled hotly once again, his hand twitching to unleash his Soul Edge, “They only came to pass because of us.”
“I will allow you to have your conversation with a soldier. I will allow you to serve your protocol to make your emotions indifferent. And I will allow you to judge me and seethe hatred like you are prone to classically do.”
He was tired of hiding it. If it was going to be all out on the tile, Zanen had asked for it. He offered a hand to Ryell and pulled her up to her feet. He didn’t graze her cheek and ask if she was. He knew she would be. He rested a hand on her shoulder.
His voice rose as the hallway began to chill, losing the Aeonic calmness they often had in Focus. “But I will not allow you to walk away from this. No one hits /my/ Partner.”
--
Danalli’s head snapped to the palace, tightening her grip on Zane. Ciel had just begun to snarl at the feel of Asina’s beck.
They nodded to each other and he was gone. Danalli stayed with Necro. She could feel him willing it. Zane began to whimper.
--
Ciel was going to go through the main entrance, but uh… there was a huge source of energy that was almost blinding his entire sense. He could barely see Asina in the library!
As far as he could tell she was unharmed. The fight was in the hallway. Ciel knew there was a window. His mate had him snarling. Anything done to her and there’d be HELL to pay. He found a window, thankfully it was open. He was okay with foregoing the glass shards. They were such a bitch to dig out.
“Asina,” he growled defensely and affectionately as he took a defensive stance next to her. But the source of power had his back to him.
Ryell?
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Post by Willow on Jan 7, 2013 15:52:22 GMT -6
Well, this wasn't going as planned. She'd expected it to be hard and more than a bit prickly, but this was worse than she'd ever imagined. She'd figured Zanen to be upset but this was intense.
Ryell was slowly starting to pick herself up off the floor when Mikael arrived, though 'arrived' was much too tame a term for his appearance. He was riding power, and a lot of it. He was angry, and it was never wise to offend and aeon, especially one as powerful as her Mikael. But Zanen had done just that. By insulting her, he had offended her Partner, and he had come to collect the price.
She took his hand as he pulled her to her feet and stood by his side. She kept herself steady, pushing the warmth of her fire into the chilling corridor. Little flames danced through her hair and up Mikael's arm from where he gripped her shoulder, harming neither of them. She reached out to him with her heartfire, trying to keep him here, in his own mind, because she could feel him toeing the edge and she knew that if he went into Focus now they would both die, because while Mikael was powerful and so was she, neither of them would be able to come out alive when both Zanen and Ciel attacked them, and she knew that Ciel was on his way if he weren't already here. He would not allow any threat to befall his mate.
Then Zanen broke her concentration. "Don't be absurd," he lashed out was a barking laugh. "Ryell has no Partner."
Ryell hissed and almost lunged for him, managing to contain herself at the last moment.
Zanen looked at the pair of them and felt a bitter rage rising in his heart. It was an aching, burning thing that made him want to rip the two apart. Not into pieces, but apart from each other. He hated that her flames danced over him, like she was taunting him. He hated that they stood together, side by side in defiance of him. His gaze focused in on this aeon and memory sparked.
"Mikael," he growled. "You always were a cocky bastard. You have no right to interfere here. She insulted my mate and kept valuable information from her superior. This is between the two of us. Back. Down."
Ryell growled, leaning forward slightly and battling the impulse to attack him. "Even if I was still your soldier, that information was rave business, and I hold no responsibility to direct those to you."
"I am the head of the Order, Ryell," he growled at her. "In the absence of the rest of the Council, I AM the Order. The raves fall under me. They are mine to direct and protect. You endangered them by keeping them to yourself like a greedy child trying accomplish who knows what!"
--
Asina looked over at Ciel stormed in through the window. Her hands were still on her belly protectively. "Zanen and Ryell got into a row. Mikael is the aeon lightbulb in the doorway there. He rushed off to stand by Ryell." She looked up at him, eyes cool but worried. Very worried. "No one is happy out there."
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Post by libellule on Jan 7, 2013 23:14:13 GMT -6
Ciel silenced a sparking rage though his stance didn’t waver. He sensed the discomfort of his precious devils, they were as fidgety as was his defensive mate. He growled a croon to them, to her. They were safe with him. They always would be.
Ciel was territorial and had become incredible sensitive of his Asina, but it had not blinded him with a untamed rage that went off with every scent and motion. Perhaps it was because she was his Parallel, perhaps it was because she was divinely blessed. Or perhaps it had every do with everything he admired about her.
Ciel eyed the opened window as Asina spoke. It would be easy to leave. Even though the trio was a small distance from them it was too close. Ciel could feel the library hush with a bizarre calmness and a humble chill. It was not like Asina’s rage… It was not that full of intense rage. It was a different kind of rage. It seethed and paced as it absorbed before it was unleashed…
Mikael was sucking the heat out of the air itself. “Sina,” he spoke tautly, unsure of what to do…
--
There was a spark that cracked around him for a split second. A whip that lashed out, the heat he was absorbing from the air building within him. Oh and it felt /so/ good. How long had it been since Air bended to his will? Since heat and air combined to create such a blissful feeling? Since Focus itself had consumed him whole? It was before the Forest, before protocol, before anything mattered…
It purred in his buzzing ears, taunting him to forget, and to rise. An ancient seduction he and all aeons strove to deny, but with the way the zephyr was eying him just made it more and more difficult. And then, Zanen finally recognized him.
“Cocky bastard?” His purr was vicious and calm, shatteringly eerie from the anger he’d just displayed. He was beginning to lose emotion, beginning to ignore his earthly ties. “I’d say that’s a better feat than arrogance. You do not govern my actions, zephyr-dragonborne. Nor have you ever. You do not own every creature that is not Asina, Shadowspawn.
His chuckle was dark and ancient as Zanen ended his tirade. “When I met Ryell a thousand years, she was broken. She would whimper in her sleep, only to wake up to visions of /your/ slaughter over and over… again and again. Even months before she left the forest walls…
“And then I promised to bring her back to you. To bring her to you with every hair on her head. To look after her FOR YOU!”
His voice rose and the walls quaked in the deafening tone, he’d even taken one step towards the other male in declaration.
“And here you are… Preaching about raves, councils, directing and protecting them all,” the outskirts of his vision was beginning to get fuzzy despite Ryell’s tightening grip on his arm.
“Yet you show no mercy to one of your own. You plan on protecting every one like you just did?!” Mikael snarled darkly, with utter disgust.
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Post by Willow on Jan 8, 2013 0:14:19 GMT -6
"He's Ascending," Asina said quietly to Ciel, her eyes never leaving the back of the bristling aeon. "He's rising into his Focus. It's a state that aeons go into. It can act in many different ways. They leave behind all earthly ties to accomplish something, which can sometimes be very productive. It is also very dangerous for everyone around them, because they will always take the fastest and most effective means toward their goal and if someone gets in their way they will not hesitate to kill them. An aeon Ascending with a rage fueling their Focus is much like one of us going berserk. He won't be able to tell friend from foe, not until he completes that Focus."
It was the briefest explanation that she could give him to highlight the danger of the situation without actually getting into the damage an aeon of Mikael's caliber could do.
The Demon Queen, in normal circumstance, would have marched out into the fray to try and end it now before it got bloody, or at least have them move out of the palace and away from innocent bystanders. However, as she was she was torn. All she had to do was say the word and Ciel would take her out of danger in the blink of an eye, but that wouldn't do anything for the situation at hand.
Mikael had some serious beef with Zanen, legitimate grievances, and so did Ryell. They deserved a chance to let it out, but she wasn't sure she was willing to lose anyone over it. In fact she knew that she wasn't, but there was little she could do in the state that she was in. There was a reason zephyrs and aeons both found it hard to have children. The more power in the blood, the harder on the unborn babe. That's why zephyr mates stay so close while the female is pregnant, because the use of any magic at all could kill the child. This close to her due date, so many things could go wrong and push her into premature labor, or even cause stillbirth.
She looked up at Ciel. "They have to stop, Ciel, before it goes to far but I have no power to back up anything I'd try to do." Her eyes shifted skyward and her lips moved in silent prayer. There was nothing else that she could do. She just hoped that someone was listening that would be able to help.
--
His rage was contagious. Just by touching him she could feel the depths of his anger, and knew that it had been festering not just in him but in herself as well. A rage that had been curdling in her heart ever since she learned of the woman who had taken her place. It filled her, rushing through her blood to every inch of her body. It invigorated her, thrilling her and exciting her senses.
She grinned, dainty fangs flashing and her eyes glinting the bloody red of berserker. She wanted to give in, to sink into the release and rip and tear and slaughter. Crimson met the violet gaze of Zanen and she nearly howled with rage, all of that energy focusing on the solitary figure in front of her. Gods, she needed to rip her talons into those pretty eyes of his so they would never look at her again, so she could get them out of her mind, so she never had to dream about them again or cry about them again. So she would never have to see them looking at that other woman, or the spawn that had been produced from the two of them.
Distantly, she could hear Mikael growling at the other man. She could hear him speaking in a dead calm, and then in rage. She could feel the pulse of his power, and she could feel her rising in tandem with his. The corridor was at once freezing and blazing, some kind of invisible wind whipping at all of them alternately with seconds of eerie stillness.
--
Zanen let out a vicious, animalistic snarl and stepped forward to meet the challenger. This man. This creature. This shimmering problem that was in his way, talking down to him. This outsider that had no right to challenge him in his own domain. And he had absolutely no right to speak to him this way about Ryell.
Violet eyes snapped over to the bristling woman and for a moment, just a moment, he was back in time. It was a thousand years ago and Ryell was his. She with the fire in her hair and on her tongue. He had felt the heat of her anger many times, but never in all that time that she had been his and he hers had she ever looked at him with that amount of hatred in her eyes. That brought him back to reality, to the here and now, and his eyes snapped back to the Ascending aeon.
"This does not concern you," he hissed at Mikael, his own demon rising to the bate as both Ryell and Mikael faced him down in a joint rising rage. "Get. Out." This came out as a low and threatening growl. "Before I have to remove you."
That rage was boiling inside himself, also. He wanted to rip this intruder to ribbons for disrespecting him, for DARING to interfere when he was with one of his soldiers. He didn't care if he was Ryell's friend, her Partner, or her mate, she would always be his soldier first and foremost. She was a part of his territory whether she had been away for ten minutes or ten thousand years, and this recent addition to her life had no right to come between what was happening between them. Zanen did not appreciate being pushed aside, and that was what this aeon was trying to do. He was trying to take his soldier, and he was trying to take his raves that he had fought so hard to get back. Now the chance was here and this little snake was now trying to take control of what he had no right to even touch.
“And then I promised to bring her back to you. To bring her to you with every hair on her head. To look after her FOR YOU!”
Zanen let out a terrible roar of a sound. "Well thank you for your services. Though I wish you hadn't taken the extra effort to turn her head away from her home and her honor. You may now take your leave."
--
That was it for Ryell. She snarled and lunged forward only for time to suddenly stop. She snarled with fury and rage, fighting her own frozen body.
"Hush, HearthChild, tame your spirit," a warm voice said from behind her. It was a sweet sound, full of love and calm that drained her berserker and gave her back her mind. She blinked and looked around her, eyes widening in shock and surprise at the twisted look of rage on Mikael's face. She had never seen him like that before.
"Now is not the time for bloodshed, Ryell," the voice said again and, finding that she could now move, Ryell turned around to find herself looking at a stunning woman bathed in an ethereal golden glow. Instantly she dropped to one knee and bowed her head deeply, certain that she was in the presence of a Goddess.
"My Lady," she murmured softly, "I am honored to be graced with your presence."
The Goddess giggled, still sounding graceful and regal despite the childlike quality of the sound. "Please, child, stand up." Ryell complied, rising and lifting her face to meet the incredible gaze of the Goddess. In that moment she was more than positive that this was the Sun Goddess, Baelli. "There we go," the Goddess crooned, pleased. Her eyes filled with a deep sadness despite her smile as she went on to say, "You are filled with so much hurt, Ryell, and so much grief and sadness, but it will not always be so." She nodded to both men in the hallway. "If these men fight right now, one of them will die. Mikael is not close enough to my get for me to pull him back from how far he's gone into his Focus, but you-" she looked back at Ryell "-you can, my dear. If you pull him back, Zanen will also withdraw and many lives will be saved today."
"But how?" Ryell whispered, eyes wide and unsure as she looked from the glittering Goddess to the aeon rave. "I am not an aeon, I can't tap into whatever power he has..."
"Ah, but are you not a rave and his partner? Reach him in that way."
The Goddess then vanished, as quickly as she had arrived. The sound of her last words hung for a moment, ringing, and then the world started up again.
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Post by libellule on Jan 8, 2013 0:44:14 GMT -6
Well thank you for your services. Though I wish you hadn't taken the extra effort to turn her head away from her home and her honor. You may now take your leave.
“Pathetic,” the aeon snarled, “She is not yours to own. Not anymore. You failed her.”
The light blue of his eyes, lightening, whitening. There were whispers of an aeon’s Focus churning to white rather than blue as demons Beserk churned black at their darkest depths… An ethereal glow had settled about him, disturbingly. There was a small tear in the present, altering and disrupting the air. Perhaps with Sight, Zanen would see the beginning of wings attach to Mikael from the Veil itself, as his Judge fell on his shoulders in their form. An old world charm…
Of what fire Ryell had churned into the hallway, Mikael had absorbed it all. Consumed it. It was within him awaiting to be unleashed as the hall and the library dropped in a temperature.
There was a rumor that it was never possible for zephyrs to become Valkyries because they could not let go of their earthly rage, it was their fuel, their power. Aeons and celesti were the only ones because of Focus, because in their rage they forgot about their ties and fell into the arms of their Judge, their divine dictator of who would pass and who would be cut down.
Because now, Mikael had no earthly ties. He’d let them go with Zanen at the end of his Focus. Amethyst eyes being the only jewels for this dragon’s prize. Mikael cocked his head to the side in vicious, swelling pride. It was unwise to challenge an aeon as all challenges were taken seriously. Mikael was bent on showing this zephyr true homage to his heritage and right.
“Come,” his power-filled, pupil-less blue-white eyes bore down on the pureblood, “Dance to agony, dragonborne. Dance and be judged-“
Something had blocked his vision. Gotten in his way. The Focus gorged aeon growled uncharacteristically, beautiful strong fangs bared. Who /dared/ to get in his way? His strike was precise and true as his hand found a dainty neck to wrap around and lift off of the ground. He did not recognize beautiful eyes of fire and snow-touched tresses. Something burned at him, but he did not notice. He was reveling in his glory. The dragon in him hungered for justice and his prize. After this pretty neck, amethyst jewels were /his/.
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Post by Willow on Jan 8, 2013 1:08:48 GMT -6
It was something she'd never done before, and yet she knew exactly what she was supposed to do. She'd gotten in the middle of things, in the way of an aeon with his Focus in sight, and yet she was completely calm. There was an angry demon at her back and an aeon in the state of what amounted to berserker in front of her, ready to rip out her throat to get to his goal - a Focus he was after because of her in the first place.
But Ryell wasn't scared. She was in that eerie calm place she went to when terrible things were happening, but this time it was rimmed with an odd sort of peace, a confidence that she knew exactly what she was doing. At the same time, she placed her hand on Mikael's chest and reached deep inside of herself internally. She grabbed that part of her that was a rave tightly in her mental grip and brought it to the surface, calling for the other half of herself from within Mikael. She called to him as her Partner, beckoned that part of him to the surface. Somehow, she'd tapped into the power that only Dance could bring them to, had reached into the power of World and had pushed it forward, filling him with it, filling the both of them with it.
It was the strangest feeling, like she was expanding and contracting at the same time, getting both bigger and smaller at once, but she could feel him now. She could feel his breath, could feel his air wrapping around her. She could feel his heart thudding in her chest, slowing as hers was speeding up again to met his in the middle. In tandem. Where they belonged.
"Mikael..." She breathed his name and looked up at him, locking eyes with him, silently prayed that looking back he would not rip her to shreds and instead take notice of her. But she knew that he would see her. Somehow she knew he would. There was no ifs, no doubt. She knew that when she looked up at him, he would look back, and he would hear her.
"Mikael," she murmured, sounding calm but inside she was pleading, begging him, "step back, Mikael. Please. I cannot lose you. It would destroy me."
She touched him with both hands now filling them with Dance even though they were not moving. "Please hear me, Mikael. Please hear me."
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Post by libellule on Jan 8, 2013 1:34:44 GMT -6
Mikael’s eyes narrowed as he did not feel his prey squirm in his hand. They /always/ squirmed and begged. Pleaded for mercy. He was disappointed. Perhaps he would tighten his grip and pull the air from them. Maybe then they would squirm and /beg/. The shrieks and cries enthralled him. He purred excitedly.
But a snarl beset his visage as Air did not come to him and his grip remained the same, if not loosened. And around him he could feel the heat of fire rise. There was sudden pressure at his chest as his arm had lowered his prey to the ground, his hand still resting loosely around her neck. It’s hand was resting on his chest. Golden skin, that glistened like the sun. Mm…
Focus, his rage hissed, seething and pacing, drooling to be unleashed. To destroy the amethyst jewels. His hissed back, attempting to crush the hand that touched him. His honor! His homage!
Mikael…
It swelled within his rage, churning and twisting within him. A heartbeat that pumped in his ears and off of his own. Racing and racing until finally it met in tandem with his own and another hand rested on his chest. Again it sounded…
Mikael… I cannot lose you… It would destroy me.
Though it was calm, the aeon felt the begging, but it was not the begging his Focus craved moments before. No… it was pleads for him to listen. To hear! His body could obey these pleads as his body relaxed for a fraction. Slowly a hand slid over Ryell’s and the one over her throat, turned to cup her cheek. And Mikael /finally/ blinked back, his eyes still white-blue, his rage still churning the hallway to chill, and his Focus still set on Zanen... He finally met her eyes.
’My, my, kitten,’ he purred soundlessly, through her mind, ’What beautiful blue eyes you have, the fox said.’
Ryell had awakened his sense in Focus, in his blind rage, and he in turn, had returned her pleas with power of his own, channeling pure aeon Focus through her, his Partner. Their bond allowed True Dance, their flow of elements, and now his very own raw energy filled her to her pupils. She had achieved ‘Ascension,’ a fable, the ability for zephyrs to experience Focus, for their aeon counterparts to be able to recognize them, protect them. Through Dance she found him. And now she could witness what and how he saw in Focus, in rage.
But the aeon shifted gears, pushing her to the side, glowering at The Oracle. He knew of Ryell, but though she’d broken into his Focus, she had not backed him down. He just wouldn’t kill her on accident. He grinned wolfishly, no we wouldn’t want that.
“Now where were we?”
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Post by Willow on Jan 8, 2013 1:58:33 GMT -6
Focus was different from and yet so terrifyingly similar to the berserker state that enraged demons enter. She felt it swim through her and she felt aspects of herself swirling and twining to turn around and weave through Mikael, too. They were combining their powers, like they did while Dancing. It was the power that made them Partners, that connection of the spirit and the soul.
Her feet were on the ground, and a bloodlust filled her like but unlike anything she had ever felt. It wasn't the hot, hungry desire that drove a demon in berserker. It was something colder but just as savage, and it filled her to the brim, nearly making her shake with the fierceness of this drive.
Mikael cupped her cheek and she found herself sighing, turning her face into the touch. But he would not be dissuaded from him Focus. He pushed past her, not killing her but not yielding to her either. And she burned to turn and follow him. She did, because she wanted to rip out those violet jewels too. She wanted to crush those amethysts beneath her heels. Wanted to turn them to a dull dust in her hands.
Her lips curved into a frightening smile as she turned toward Zanen, standing even with Mikael, her eyes glowing a stunning bright and brilliant blue. Aeon blue.
Zanen, who had been watching the situation unfold with a bristling but wary rage, took an alarmed step back when Ryell turned to face him. He had been unnerved enough when the aeon put her down. He'd been sure that she was about to be ripped to shreds before him and had been one moment away from lunging forward to attack, to letting the monster within take over and indulge in the massacre. But then he'd stopped, he'd put her down, and he'd treated her in an eerily tender way. It was something that he had never seen before. An aeon couldn't just come down from Focus like that - yet.... he didn't. She somehow made him recognize her, but he was not diverted from his focus, as he saw a moment later.
Then Ryell turned to face him, her formally crimson eyes a bright and unsettling blue. Aeon blue.
You have him listening now, HearthChild, a voice whispered in her head.
It pulled Ryell back into what she was trying to accomplish, and as much as her body and her blood disagreed with her at the moment, it wasn't killing Zanen.
She turned in toward Mikael and touched him again, her hands slowly roving down his arm to take his hand and turn him toward her. "Mikael," she murmured. "Come back down, Mikael, please." She pulled him a step, then two, letting the Eternal Rhythm fill her as her body moved. Dance in each swish of her hips, each light step she made. Her eyes burned blue, but there was fire dancing in her hair, teasing him, playing with him, catching his attention. She held his gaze and pulled him close. She didn't speak aloud when she spoke to him next, instead caressing her mind with the warm alto of her voice. Please Mika, she crooned, come back to me now. He isn't worth your blood. Dance with me instead... Dance with me Mika, as only we can Dance.
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Post by libellule on Jan 8, 2013 3:03:27 GMT -6
Mikael was so close to lunging and clawing into Zanen he could taste the savory spiced blood on his lips. He took a deliciously deep breath and his back muscles were pulled taut. He was so ready to tear into to him. To teach him a lesson. To make him feel /everything/ she had felt. He deserved a much darker pain than Mikael could give him, but the blinded raging aeon was about to offer him everything he could.
And then… there was balm. Comfort. It beckoned him, pleaded him.
Come back down, Mikael, please…
He breathed for the first time, crisp clean air feeling his icy lungs. His eyes darkened a fraction of a hue, blue spiking through the white gleam as it simmered. A degree or two filled the room as Ryell’s hands thrummed against his flexed sinew. Hands that had healed him, hands that had held him when he was lost to oblivion.
But his rage, his homage. The beast inside him snarled, apparent in his eyes, but all was lost when she stepped… Because when Fire stepped he could not deny it, could not forsake it. Fire was his to stave, his to fuel. He purred, stepping back from the fray, away from Zanen, and into her space, their space. Their Dance.
She had him. With her fire and her playful spritely demeanor, she had him.
Her eyes burned with his blue essence, his life force, and with that he smirked in a manner that was more Mikael than it was Focus and his Judge. She had found him, pulled him back, and like a mirror he saw her eyes dull from their ‘Ascension’ as they stepped. As her eyes dulled it only meant his were as well.
Dance with me Mika, as only we can Dance.
Yes… To Dance… with his Fire. With her fire and her spark, she caught his attention and with it turned his Focus back to its restraints. The vision of his cleared as he stepping and moved with her, they moved, without words or hints.
“Hn…” he grinned to her finally, the blue idly rimming his steel eyes, “Was that your neck in my way, Fire?” It was an adorable mock, but in his stare he only gave her an unending amount of gratitude and adoration.
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Post by Willow on Jan 8, 2013 3:25:11 GMT -6
Zanen did not believe what he was seeing. Aeons did not just come down from their Focus. That was supposed to be impossible. And yet that was exactly what he had just witnessed. He had backed fully out of his berserker from the combined shock of Ryell's aeon eyes and her sudden ability to bring her aeon Partner down from his Focus.
All he could do was watch as she swayed him, then as he moved her. They Danced together as the breeze leads the flame, the fire heating the air and the air pushing back to twirl and bend that fervid, flickering source of raw energy. He watched as they merely moved and summoned Dance. And in spite of himself, he found that he was in awe. It was beautiful. They swayed, turned here and there, and it was beautiful. He had never in all of his years seen True Dance summoned with so little effort. With just a sway and a touch.
He had returned to her. She could feel it in the shift of his heart, in the redirection of his energy, in the Dance that swelled around them with their little movements. Ryell let that feeling fill her, and for a few moments allowed the relief to wash over her.
His little comment made her smirk up at him, then with her eyes now dark again her expression shifted to an angry glower. -CRACK- Her hand stung from where it had connected with his face. There were bright and angry tears in her eyes and her cheeks were puffed out and flaming red.
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GODS THAT FARTED YOU OUT WERE YOU THINKING MIKA!!!!?!?!?!?!?" Her breathing was coming fast with anxiety and her whole body was shaking. "If Baelli hadn't frozen the world and come to me do you KNOW what would have happened!? You would have DIED. DIED MIKA DIED!" Tears flowed down her cheeks. "And I can't lose you..." she added so much softer.
Zanen, shocked at her sudden outburst even though he recalled her as an emotional roller coaster from so long ago, a vivacious, emotional thing that had always reminded him that he was alive, opened his mouth in a gape and stared. He must have made some sort of sound to remind her of his presence because Ryell now rounded on him, a mask of tearful, vivid, beautiful fury on her face.
"AND YOU!" she bellowed. He should have been, but he wasn't prepared for the vicious slap that hit his own pretty face, bared because he didn't wear veils at home anymore since little Zane had been born. The difference between this slap and the one Mikael got, however, was that this one left deep red gashes in one cheek as his head snapped to the side. "You," she hissed at him, "would have been the reason he had died." The venom in her voice was dripping a poison that could kill any living thing. The air sizzled with the lash of it.
Then she turned and stormed off down the hallway.
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Post by libellule on Jan 8, 2013 4:19:35 GMT -6
Oh he’d gone and done it now.
He was too slow, coming off of his exerted body, to divert her attack. Honestly, though, he wouldn’t have dodged if he could have. Damn, could that woman could deliver a crack. He was about to whine about how she wasn’t allowed to use wind against him unless he was about to kill her. But he could only blink as she shrieked at him, tears streaming. She… was crying?! His fire ferret?!
He watched her attack Zanen, watched her threaten him with treacherous certainty. Strangely, Mikael could not will rage in his heart, couldn’t feel the shift in gears as he only felt it. Zanen was nothing to him now. What he felt was more important than his rage. Because it was Ryell who took in the emotion for herself.
Her fury, her concern. And I can’t lose you…
His teeth gritted and his heart knotted as he watched her depart. He spared no one a glance as he immediately took off after her. She was already down the hall, but he caught up to her.
“Ryell,” he called after her, even if she picked up her pace, even if she tried to lose him. Mikael snatched her by the wrist and flung her around to face him. Her eyes alive with fire, alive with fury and raw beauty. For once, the cocky bastard in him bit back a witty remark.
He lifted a hand to wipe her cheek, frowning as she struggled against him. “Stop,” he crooned sternly, “Just stop!” He had encircled her, held her, even if she may have bruised his ribcage as he held her.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered into her hair, swaying them as he rested his head on the top of hers, “I’m sorry, Ryell. I’m so sorry.
“I was protecting you,” he offered solemnly, sighing in defeat. He never meant for it to get out of hand.
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Post by Willow on Jan 8, 2013 4:43:29 GMT -6
She should have figured that he'd come after her, but she was too pissed to think about it. She just needed to get out of that hallway, get away from Zanen and even Mika. She was just so fucking pissed at the both of them. At the men of the world in general for being so stupid. All the time stupid.
Ugh!
He called after her, she could hear him, but she just moved faster until she was almost at a run moving down the hall not even aware of where she was going. But he caught her. Of course he caught her. He would always catch her, she should know that by now. He's supposed to be Mr. Speedy after all. It could be very useful to be friends with the wind.
Ryell fought against the arms that held her, but he just kept pulling her in. He was speaking to her, and as much as she resisted, the power his arms had over her was sinking in. She stopped struggling and just leaned into the embrace. She thrust her arms around him and held him tightly as she breathed in his scent and tried her tears on his shirt.
"I know, I know," she murmured against his collarbone. "I know... I just, I can't lose you Mika. And you scared me. You really scared me. Not by grabbing me, by nearly dying. You were going to die, Mika. If Baelli hadn't set me right..." She took a deep and shuddering breath before murmuring ever-so-quiet into his chest: "I want to go home..."
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Post by libellule on Jan 8, 2013 5:01:15 GMT -6
He wasn’t going to die. If Mikael knew his goddess well enough, they did not just going to go through all of this turmoil for nothing. But the ancient aeon hummed nothing witty back to her. There was not reason to argue with her. No reason to bring anymore negative energy around her.
He was just enjoying being there in the hallway with her breath on his skin, tickling his collarbone. He closed his fully clear grey eyes against her hair, Mikael sighed. “Let it go Ryell,” he hummed to her, “It’s over and though Zanen’s not /ever/ going to disappear from your life, we won’t have to deal with him very much often.”
His heart tightened as she spoke of home. He didn’t want to be here either. “Then we’ll leave,” he said quietly, “Let Asina have her devils and enjoy them for a few weeks and we’ll be gone.”
He brought her chin up with his finger as he rubbed her shoulder and bicep, looking down at her. “No Focus, no Beserkers,” it was a purred that had his eyes excited, “Just peace, no agenda, and dancing with our home. Our place.”
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Post by Willow on Jan 8, 2013 5:14:17 GMT -6
She let him hold her, cradle her, assure her that he was alive and whole and would continue to remain that way. It was something she learned always made them both feel better.
He spoke of going home after all of this and she almost wept again at the idea. Oh yes, yes she would love that. More than anything she wanted to go home. She wanted to sing and dance with the others again. She missed her patients and the young man that had started training under her to help with the healing. He really had a gift.
And the kids. Connor. She missed him so badly. All of them, they needed her. They needed her and Mikael. That was their place, their home. She knew that she had things to do here, and she really did want to be here with Asina but... she couldn't live here.
"I would like that," she murmured, holding him tightly to her. "I would love that."
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