There was nothing to do but play the waiting game, sit and hold the bucket and wait for the nausea to go away. Lucine did nothing but watch him, watch his discomfort as he struggled with the feeling of the nausea, and it was making her insanely worried. The poison seemed to be an odd things, whatever it was, and she began to wonder if instead of it’s effects being really bad all at once, they turn on and off, like intense periods of nausea followed by nothing at all.
“It does seem like it has been that way,” she muttered to herself, “Of course, I’m not sure, he hasn’t been affected long enough. I wonder if the nausea was present last night? No, he probably would’ve complained of it. Last night seemed to be mostly psychological, while today seems to be mostly physical.” She wished she had her journal right about now, but Lucine had left it in the room downstairs. Her primary objective at that moment had been to get Callum upstairs and into the bed. Hopefully, none of her things had been taken- that would be horrid, at least to her, but it didn’t really matter anyway. They were going home.
“The best route would be- no, I need to see a map, I’m not sure how far out we are. Perhaps Felicity is closer? I could take him there for a day or two, always is nice to see her and her brother… Ah, but then we’d have to worry about getting home after that, I think home should be where we go in the first place..” She was still muttering to herself, but it had become more like talking. She wasn’t worried about Callum being able to hear her.
She remembered, suddenly, Callidora telling her that their father was still alive. That Lucine needed to find him. Quickly, she pushed the thought from her mind, rationalizing it. He was most likely dead now, her experience had been months ago. There would be no body to find, and she needed to focus on protecting those who she knew there was a chance to save. Sorry, Callidora she thought to herself, knowing that the woman would probably just explain to her that sorry had no value and is mainly to excuse failure in social settings.
Sorry, Father..
She didn’t want to think about that anymore. Instead, she began to debate with herself whether or not taking Callum to her sister-in-law’s house would be the better option, or just taking him straight home. Suddenly though, she realized that something was different about the air in the room, and she came back into reality, looking at Callum.
When he let go of the bucket she was holding in his lap, she took it and gingerly placed it on the floor, yellow eyes wide with shock. She just watched him, quietly and almost speechless, as he laid back, color returning to his pale skin. She just nodded when he told her that everything was okay, unable to help her shock. It was so odd.
She found herself wanting to cry, but nonetheless being unable to. Instead, she just took a deep breath and went back into comforting mode. It was really the only thing she was good for.
When he placed his hand on hers, she immediately took it and smiled, letting herself try to calm down. Everything was going to be okay- he was fine and they were going to go home.
“I’m so glad,” she told him, leaning over and planting a soft kiss on his forehead, “I’m so, so glad…” and the truth was that she was glad- so so glad- that he was feeling alright again. She was just scared of how he would feel the next time.
When he commented on his arm, on the bandaging, she took a look at it, and simply nodded, beginning to unwrap it. She wasn’t sure what she would find underneath, but as she began to unwrap she started to speak.
“We’re going to be leaving as soon as possible.” Lucine told him gently, yet firmly, like she didn’t want to hear any debate on it, “And we’re going home. Depending on how far the journey is, we may be resting at my sister-in-law’s house for a few days, but the end result is we will be home and you will be on my version of house arrest, until we for sure have an antidote.”
Serilda let out a small sigh of relief as the woman, Uphira, clarified that she did infact know something about vampires, and something about poisons, and that she would in fact be willing to help. That was good news- someone to help that actually seemed like they were sane.
However, Serilda froze at her next statements, her mouth opening slightly as Uphira pulled out an exact replica of the dart used to strike the boy from her pouch, explaining that a friend of hers had been struck with it. It scared her to think that more than one existed, though she knew obviously more than one did. She reached out and took the dart from the woman, flipping it over in her hands.
“My gods..” she said quietly as she looked it over, sniffing it due to her instincts as a werewolf. Once again, she made a face when the scent hit her nose- she wasn’t really sure what she had been expecting.
Kylie watched her quietly, staring at the dart with Raven in confusion but mostly in childlike excitement. Something was really really about to go down and Kylie was really really excited for it.
Of course, the excitement was quickly quelled by Serilda.
“Kylie, go back in the room.” The werewolf told the young girl, not looking up from the dart. Kylie found herself sticking out her bottom lip in a pout, bouncing Raven slightly.
“Pleeease Serilda!! I wanna see. I wanna know what’s going on you never tell me anything and-” but she was quickly silenced by Serilda’s hand. It was sort of like her cue to stop talking- when the hand went up, the mouth closed. Kylie continued to pout.
“Kylie, go in that room now. The vampire left her stuff there- you should make sure it doesn’t get stolen.” Serilda told her, and Kylie blinked as she considered it. Sighing, she pressed her face into Raven’s soft fur before setting the wolf pup down and smiling at Uphira.
“Nice to meet you!” She said to her, “Don’t let Serilda boss you around.” Kylie then stuck out her tongue at the woman, who stuck her own tongue back out, and the young girl disappeared into the room. Serilda turned to Uphira and held up the dart.
“This is the dart that hit the kid.” she explained to her, “Well, not this one exactly, but the same kind. Obviously black market. Kid’s upstairs, but not doing well, I came down to find a bucket.” She sighed and motioned with her head towards the stairs for Uphira to follow. She didn’t want to do something so unsubtle as grab her hand and drag her up the steps.
“The kid is a human, a mage, but he’s got this sort of vampric residue on him,” Serilda explained as she began to walk up the stairs, “He’s got a girl, half-vampire, but don’t bother with her, she’s a little dense. I think the stuff in the dart is an instigator, if you know what that is. What kinda side effects is your friend having?” Serilda was intensely curious about the friend- and about how Uphira got her hands on the dart in the first place. She handed it back to her.
“The rooms over here,” she explained, leading the other woman to the open room and knocking on the wall before entering, staring at the two infront of her.
“Brought someone,” she announced, before moving aside to let Uphira in, “I think she knows about the dart.”
There was nothing to do but play the waiting game, sit and hold the bucket and wait for the nausea to go away. Lucine did nothing but watch him, watch his discomfort as he struggled with the feeling of the nausea, and it was making her insanely worried. The poison seemed to be an odd things, whatever it was, and she began to wonder if instead of it’s effects being really bad all at once, they turn on and off, like intense periods of nausea followed by nothing at all.
“It does seem like it has been that way,” she muttered to herself, “Of course, I’m not sure, he hasn’t been affected long enough. I wonder if the nausea was present last night? No, he probably would’ve complained of it. Last night seemed to be mostly psychological, while today seems to be mostly physical.” She wished she had her journal right about now, but Lucine had left it in the room downstairs. Her primary objective at that moment had been to get Callum upstairs and into the bed. Hopefully, none of her things had been taken- that would be horrid, at least to her, but it didn’t really matter anyway. They were going home.
“The best route would be- no, I need to see a map, I’m not sure how far out we are. Perhaps Felicity is closer? I could take him there for a day or two, always is nice to see her and her brother… Ah, but then we’d have to worry about getting home after that, I think home should be where we go in the first place..” She was still muttering to herself, but it had become more like talking. She wasn’t worried about Callum being able to hear her.
She remembered, suddenly, Callidora telling her that their father was still alive. That Lucine needed to find him. Quickly, she pushed the thought from her mind, rationalizing it. He was most likely dead now, her experience had been months ago. There would be no body to find, and she needed to focus on protecting those who she knew there was a chance to save. Sorry, Callidora she thought to herself, knowing that the woman would probably just explain to her that sorry had no value and is mainly to excuse failure in social settings.
Sorry, Father..
She didn’t want to think about that anymore. Instead, she began to debate with herself whether or not taking Callum to her sister-in-law’s house would be the better option, or just taking him straight home. Suddenly though, she realized that something was different about the air in the room, and she came back into reality, looking at Callum.
When he let go of the bucket she was holding in his lap, she took it and gingerly placed it on the floor, yellow eyes wide with shock. She just watched him, quietly and almost speechless, as he laid back, color returning to his pale skin. She just nodded when he told her that everything was okay, unable to help her shock. It was so odd.
She found herself wanting to cry, but nonetheless being unable to. Instead, she just took a deep breath and went back into comforting mode. It was really the only thing she was good for.
When he placed his hand on hers, she immediately took it and smiled, letting herself try to calm down. Everything was going to be okay- he was fine and they were going to go home.
“I’m so glad,” she told him, leaning over and planting a soft kiss on his forehead, “I’m so, so glad…” and the truth was that she was glad- so so glad- that he was feeling alright again. She was just scared of how he would feel the next time.
When he commented on his arm, on the bandaging, she took a look at it, and simply nodded, beginning to unwrap it. She wasn’t sure what she would find underneath, but as she began to unwrap she started to speak.
“We’re going to be leaving as soon as possible.” Lucine told him gently, yet firmly, like she didn’t want to hear any debate on it, “And we’re going home. Depending on how far the journey is, we may be resting at my sister-in-law’s house for a few days, but the end result is we will be home and you will be on my version of house arrest, until we for sure have an antidote.”
Serilda let out a small sigh of relief as the woman, Uphira, clarified that she did infact know something about vampires, and something about poisons, and that she would in fact be willing to help. That was good news- someone to help that actually seemed like they were sane.
However, Serilda froze at her next statements, her mouth opening slightly as Uphira pulled out an exact replica of the dart used to strike the boy from her pouch, explaining that a friend of hers had been struck with it. It scared her to think that more than one existed, though she knew obviously more than one did. She reached out and took the dart from the woman, flipping it over in her hands.
“My gods..” she said quietly as she looked it over, sniffing it due to her instincts as a werewolf. Once again, she made a face when the scent hit her nose- she wasn’t really sure what she had been expecting.
Kylie watched her quietly, staring at the dart with Raven in confusion but mostly in childlike excitement. Something was really really about to go down and Kylie was really really excited for it.
Of course, the excitement was quickly quelled by Serilda.
“Kylie, go back in the room.” The werewolf told the young girl, not looking up from the dart. Kylie found herself sticking out her bottom lip in a pout, bouncing Raven slightly.
“Pleeease Serilda!! I wanna see. I wanna know what’s going on you never tell me anything and-” but she was quickly silenced by Serilda’s hand. It was sort of like her cue to stop talking- when the hand went up, the mouth closed. Kylie continued to pout.
“Kylie, go in that room now. The vampire left her stuff there- you should make sure it doesn’t get stolen.” Serilda told her, and Kylie blinked as she considered it. Sighing, she pressed her face into Raven’s soft fur before setting the wolf pup down and smiling at Uphira.
“Nice to meet you!” She said to her, “Don’t let Serilda boss you around.” Kylie then stuck out her tongue at the woman, who stuck her own tongue back out, and the young girl disappeared into the room. Serilda turned to Uphira and held up the dart.
“This is the dart that hit the kid.” she explained to her, “Well, not this one exactly, but the same kind. Obviously black market. Kid’s upstairs, but not doing well, I came down to find a bucket.” She sighed and motioned with her head towards the stairs for Uphira to follow. She didn’t want to do something so unsubtle as grab her hand and drag her up the steps.
“The kid is a human, a mage, but he’s got this sort of vampric residue on him,” Serilda explained as she began to walk up the stairs, “He’s got a girl, half-vampire, but don’t bother with her, she’s a little dense. I think the stuff in the dart is an instigator, if you know what that is. What kinda side effects is your friend having?” Serilda was intensely curious about the friend- and about how Uphira got her hands on the dart in the first place. She handed it back to her.
“The rooms over here,” she explained, leading the other woman to the open room and knocking on the wall before entering, staring at the two infront of her.
“Brought someone,” she announced, before moving aside to let Uphira in, “I think she knows about the dart.”
Even with the tears gone from his eyes, Callum had to fight to keep from crying. His mind was coming to terms with what the darkest part of it was telling him. He was actually trying to find more pain than what little pain he was having to deal with at the moment, but he couldn't find anything. He felt relieved by that, though, he also felt wrong somehow. As if he was supposed to be suffering all the time. He guessed he had suffered for so long that he got used to it.
He hadn't been focusing on Lucine's past ramblings while the nausea had taken his senses over. If he had, he would've felt even guiltier. But the unseen - or in this case, the unheard - actually scared him more than the seen, or again, in this case, the heard. It was the consuming curiosity that always tormented him. For a while, his soul hadn't known if Lucine was alive. He himself hadn't known if anyone else was alive. He remembered that obliviousness terrifying him on the inside and even the outside.
He let an instinctive smile paint his face when Lucine kissed his forehead. She was happy that he was alright, and he was happy too. Even with the other emotions mixing within him, he was still happy. He was still content with her relief. He took a moment to forget about the worry she had gone through since he was hit with that needle, focusing on that sweet, sweet relief.
He felt her unwrapping the bandage now, feeling a little nervous for what he may see. Just because the pain stopped, that didn't mean nothing terrible was happening. He knew it wasn't numbness that had stopped it, because he didn't feel numb anywhere. He turned his gaze towards his wrist as he heard his own thoughts coming to fruition.
We're going home.
A saddened glint formed in his eyes as the reality of their situation hit him. Lucine was willing to put him above the man she knew for much longer. The man who raised her and was able to keep her alive up to the point when he became absent from her life. He didn't know what to say. Was he actually supposed to defy that? To tell her that it was wrong to abandon the quest? What would that do to her?
The glint slowly faded.
"...Okay."
He felt so selfish. So, so selfish. His soul didn't relent. A twinge of guilt floated about inside of the grey orb within his body, allowing Lucine's soul to feel it for just a split second. He didn't want to be selfish. This kind of thing, this kind of questing, it would probably never happen again. After this? No. Lucine would never want to venture out like this again. Bad luck happened to follow them like a relentless, yet desperate predator, too stubborn to try and find other, easier prey.
He focused his gaze on the now-fully unwrapped wrist. The blue tinge to the area in which he was struck was gone. His veins were a normal color now. However, there was a slightly swollen bump; something that should've been there from the beginning. It wasn't bleeding, as his blood had clotted. No black blood, no red blood, nothing. Surprisingly, he didn't feel sick upon looking at it.
He didn't comment on it, looking at Lucine instead. "I won't fight you on this, okay?" he whispered sadly. "I only want you to be happy... and if this is what you want to do... if this will make you happy, or at least content, then I'll give... because I love you."
He moved his hand from Lucine's own hand to the back of her head. He leaned up from where he was laying with little difficulty. He gave her a small smile before closing the gap between their lips softly.
And of course, just as he kissed her, a knock on the wall sounded, and two people entered the room.
Uphira observed the reactions to the dart she held up, finding herself surprised by Serilda's in particular. She wondered if she had said too much... or if something else was going on. She glanced at the wolf pup, who was still staring at the dart. Her eyes were widened, and she was still in Kylie's arms.
It didn't take her long to put the pieces together.
They think he was poisoned.
You know poisons, nausea, or both?
She continued observing the people in front of her, remaining silent when Serilda took the dart from her and told Kylie to go back into their room. She had no business getting into other people's business, so she didn't intervene. She fiddled with her hands; a nervous tick of hers. The completed puzzle in her mind taunted her. She had a feeling that this case was worse. Somehow, it was worse. She was clueless as to the reason... and she hated being clueless. However, she had always been clueless. She should be used to it by now, surely.
The woman came back to herself when the girl finally did leave and return to her room, not before earning a noise of affection from the wolf pup. She gave the girl a soft smile prior to her leaving. Just from that, she could tell this was about to become more grim than it already was.
She was slightly confused when the girl didn't take the pup with her. She had just assumed that the pup was hers, but something was telling her that she belonged to someone else... probably the couple upstairs. She frowned as she was told exactly what her thoughts had pieced together earlier. That boy was shot with the same kind of dart, and he wasn't doing well. When Serilda told her that she had come down the stairs to retrieve a bucket, Uphira became more worried. She knew what was going on with him just from that.
"I see," she whispered, nodding a little to herself while continuing to fidget with her hands. She didn't express her confusion when it came to whether or not these darts were actually sold on the black market. Those were her original thoughts too. She had been to plenty of black markets, and hadn't seen a single person carrying these darts.
She followed Serilda up the stairs when she caught the motion of her head. She listened as the other woman explained who the boy was; a human and a mage. She was a little confused about the "vampiric residue" that was mentioned. She didn't think much of how Serilda described the girl with him. She took the dart back when it was given to her, thinking her question over.
"To start, this friend is a shapeshifter," she explained. "I was told he was shot not too long ago. At first, he was suffering psychological effects. Hallucinations, panic attacks, only able to be comforted by the closest person to him; his brother. Yesterday, he was vomiting, had a fever, and was experiencing other symptoms of illness. Now today, I heard that his skin became easily breakable, meaning that just a simple scrape is worse than it usually would be, and he is bleeding faster too. I haven't heard anything else, but I remember him claiming to be feeling better at some point yesterday, when the nausea and other symptoms mysteriously stopped."
She prevented herself from saying anymore the moment she was lead into the room. Her eyes met a boy and a girl in the middle of sharing a kiss. The boy had noticed them quickly, pulling away from the pale girl and blushing intensely. Not necessarily in an embarrassing way; she could tell. Her eyes widened when she studied him. He looked insanely familiar, and the pieces managed to click when he opened his mouth.
"...Uphira?"
His voice was quiet, but recognizable. She approached the two of them, kneeling near them. This boy looked different, yet it had to be the same one. That made things worse for her.
"Callum..."
She frowned worriedly. "Are you okay?" she asked him carefully, trying to hide her concern.
"I'm fine right now. I wasn't feeling so good earlier, but I'm fine right now."
He tilted his head a little at her before glancing at the girl who was with him. Kylie wasn't lying when she inferred that their relationship was that of a couple. "Lucine, this is Uphira," he introduced gently, glancing between the two.
Uphira took Lucine's hand and shook it briefly. "Pleased to meet you," she greeted kindly, smiling. She noticed the boy leaning back to lay on the bed again. On the outside, he didn't seem to mind that she, as well as Serilda, had seen them kissing.
"Lucine, could you tell me what symptoms Callum has been going through?" she asked calmly.
Even with the tears gone from his eyes, Callum had to fight to keep from crying. His mind was coming to terms with what the darkest part of it was telling him. He was actually trying to find more pain than what little pain he was having to deal with at the moment, but he couldn't find anything. He felt relieved by that, though, he also felt wrong somehow. As if he was supposed to be suffering all the time. He guessed he had suffered for so long that he got used to it.
He hadn't been focusing on Lucine's past ramblings while the nausea had taken his senses over. If he had, he would've felt even guiltier. But the unseen - or in this case, the unheard - actually scared him more than the seen, or again, in this case, the heard. It was the consuming curiosity that always tormented him. For a while, his soul hadn't known if Lucine was alive. He himself hadn't known if anyone else was alive. He remembered that obliviousness terrifying him on the inside and even the outside.
He let an instinctive smile paint his face when Lucine kissed his forehead. She was happy that he was alright, and he was happy too. Even with the other emotions mixing within him, he was still happy. He was still content with her relief. He took a moment to forget about the worry she had gone through since he was hit with that needle, focusing on that sweet, sweet relief.
He felt her unwrapping the bandage now, feeling a little nervous for what he may see. Just because the pain stopped, that didn't mean nothing terrible was happening. He knew it wasn't numbness that had stopped it, because he didn't feel numb anywhere. He turned his gaze towards his wrist as he heard his own thoughts coming to fruition.
We're going home.
A saddened glint formed in his eyes as the reality of their situation hit him. Lucine was willing to put him above the man she knew for much longer. The man who raised her and was able to keep her alive up to the point when he became absent from her life. He didn't know what to say. Was he actually supposed to defy that? To tell her that it was wrong to abandon the quest? What would that do to her?
The glint slowly faded.
"...Okay."
He felt so selfish. So, so selfish. His soul didn't relent. A twinge of guilt floated about inside of the grey orb within his body, allowing Lucine's soul to feel it for just a split second. He didn't want to be selfish. This kind of thing, this kind of questing, it would probably never happen again. After this? No. Lucine would never want to venture out like this again. Bad luck happened to follow them like a relentless, yet desperate predator, too stubborn to try and find other, easier prey.
He focused his gaze on the now-fully unwrapped wrist. The blue tinge to the area in which he was struck was gone. His veins were a normal color now. However, there was a slightly swollen bump; something that should've been there from the beginning. It wasn't bleeding, as his blood had clotted. No black blood, no red blood, nothing. Surprisingly, he didn't feel sick upon looking at it.
He didn't comment on it, looking at Lucine instead. "I won't fight you on this, okay?" he whispered sadly. "I only want you to be happy... and if this is what you want to do... if this will make you happy, or at least content, then I'll give... because I love you."
He moved his hand from Lucine's own hand to the back of her head. He leaned up from where he was laying with little difficulty. He gave her a small smile before closing the gap between their lips softly.
And of course, just as he kissed her, a knock on the wall sounded, and two people entered the room.
Uphira observed the reactions to the dart she held up, finding herself surprised by Serilda's in particular. She wondered if she had said too much... or if something else was going on. She glanced at the wolf pup, who was still staring at the dart. Her eyes were widened, and she was still in Kylie's arms.
It didn't take her long to put the pieces together.
They think he was poisoned.
You know poisons, nausea, or both?
She continued observing the people in front of her, remaining silent when Serilda took the dart from her and told Kylie to go back into their room. She had no business getting into other people's business, so she didn't intervene. She fiddled with her hands; a nervous tick of hers. The completed puzzle in her mind taunted her. She had a feeling that this case was worse. Somehow, it was worse. She was clueless as to the reason... and she hated being clueless. However, she had always been clueless. She should be used to it by now, surely.
The woman came back to herself when the girl finally did leave and return to her room, not before earning a noise of affection from the wolf pup. She gave the girl a soft smile prior to her leaving. Just from that, she could tell this was about to become more grim than it already was.
She was slightly confused when the girl didn't take the pup with her. She had just assumed that the pup was hers, but something was telling her that she belonged to someone else... probably the couple upstairs. She frowned as she was told exactly what her thoughts had pieced together earlier. That boy was shot with the same kind of dart, and he wasn't doing well. When Serilda told her that she had come down the stairs to retrieve a bucket, Uphira became more worried. She knew what was going on with him just from that.
"I see," she whispered, nodding a little to herself while continuing to fidget with her hands. She didn't express her confusion when it came to whether or not these darts were actually sold on the black market. Those were her original thoughts too. She had been to plenty of black markets, and hadn't seen a single person carrying these darts.
She followed Serilda up the stairs when she caught the motion of her head. She listened as the other woman explained who the boy was; a human and a mage. She was a little confused about the "vampiric residue" that was mentioned. She didn't think much of how Serilda described the girl with him. She took the dart back when it was given to her, thinking her question over.
"To start, this friend is a shapeshifter," she explained. "I was told he was shot not too long ago. At first, he was suffering psychological effects. Hallucinations, panic attacks, only able to be comforted by the closest person to him; his brother. Yesterday, he was vomiting, had a fever, and was experiencing other symptoms of illness. Now today, I heard that his skin became easily breakable, meaning that just a simple scrape is worse than it usually would be, and he is bleeding faster too. I haven't heard anything else, but I remember him claiming to be feeling better at some point yesterday, when the nausea and other symptoms mysteriously stopped."
She prevented herself from saying anymore the moment she was lead into the room. Her eyes met a boy and a girl in the middle of sharing a kiss. The boy had noticed them quickly, pulling away from the pale girl and blushing intensely. Not necessarily in an embarrassing way; she could tell. Her eyes widened when she studied him. He looked insanely familiar, and the pieces managed to click when he opened his mouth.
"...Uphira?"
His voice was quiet, but recognizable. She approached the two of them, kneeling near them. This boy looked different, yet it had to be the same one. That made things worse for her.
"Callum..."
She frowned worriedly. "Are you okay?" she asked him carefully, trying to hide her concern.
"I'm fine right now. I wasn't feeling so good earlier, but I'm fine right now."
He tilted his head a little at her before glancing at the girl who was with him. Kylie wasn't lying when she inferred that their relationship was that of a couple. "Lucine, this is Uphira," he introduced gently, glancing between the two.
Uphira took Lucine's hand and shook it briefly. "Pleased to meet you," she greeted kindly, smiling. She noticed the boy leaning back to lay on the bed again. On the outside, he didn't seem to mind that she, as well as Serilda, had seen them kissing.
"Lucine, could you tell me what symptoms Callum has been going through?" she asked calmly.
Lucine continued to unwrap his bandaging, her pale fingers working gently and nimbly to make sure she wasn’t bothering him. She was unsure of what the condition of his wound would be, but she hoped it wouldn’t be too horrible. She assumed that the blood would probably had clotted, as it didn’t look like any more had surfaced. The black blood was truly something to watch out for, however. Lucine had never seen anything like it- in all her books, in all her research she had never seen anything like black blood.
It scared her.
She was relieved to hear that Callum hadn’t put up a protest of her announcement that the couple was returning to their home- the girl had expected her would. He would probably say he was fine, and she’d have to drag him out, but this way he was going willingly. She smiled sadly to herself and didn’t look up when he commented with only an affirmative “okay”, yet she found that for a moment, she could feel that he felt selfish, and it made her feel even sadder. That wasn’t her intent at all- she didn’t want him to feel that way.
When she finally looked down at his wrist, she was slightly relieved to see it looking like a normal puncture wound. His veins were normal, the blood had clotted, and it was slightly swollen- but those were all things she could deal with. The girl found herself muttering about how this was much better, much much better. She reached out with her finger and gently applied a bit on pressure on the swollen area, just to see what would happen, and then pulled it away and began to try and fix the bandages. Still, not looking up, she began to explain herself.
“I can’t- I cannot allow myself to risk losing you for someone who I don’t even have confirmation is alive-” she told Callum, not looking up as she set the wrappings down on the floor beside her. “My only evidence is from my sister, and well, you know my sister.”
“Please, don’t have guilt.” She said quietly, feeling like she was going to cry as she finally looked up at Callum, yellow eyes foggy, “It’s not your fault, non of it. I-”
She stopped when he began to speak, listening. Would this make her happy? Would it really? It would make her feel safe. It would make her feel secure in knowing she was protecting Callum within the walls of their home. But would she be happy? Happy knowing her father could very well be suffering somewhere? The man who raised her? Lucine wasn’t sure she could be happy, but she had to keep Callum safe.
She let her thoughts quiet, or rather forced them too, as Callum moved his hand to the back to her head, bridging the gaps between their lips. For a moment, her confusion flew away as she gave into his kiss, letting herself feel content for just a moment, just a brief brief moment.
Of course, as with always, they were interrupted.
As Serilda climbed the stairs, stopping after a few of them to allow Uphira to walk alongside her, she listened to her answers of the questions, processing them in her mind. First, there was psychological effects- that had already been experienced, if the vampire girl’s journal could be trusted. Secondly, there was nausea, sickness, normal symptoms of a sickness- essentially what was happening now. There would be a brief down period, before…
Before essentially, the kid could die from a freaking papercut, let alone trying to go out on whatever sort of mission he and the vampire were on. That settled it- Serilda would have to make a detour, at least to get the kid home without him bleeding to death. It was odd, but she felt a sort of connection to him, and especially to the girl, like she was obliged to help them through some unspoken law. She didn’t feel like it was because she knew what was going on either.
“So basically-” she said, but she stopped before they entered the room, letting herself make her presence known- but of course she froze when she saw the two sharing a kiss, quickly pulling apart. The boy was red, but that was nothing compared to the girl- her pale face had turned the color of a beet, and she looked about ready to hide. It was obvious she was a bit more embarrassed by certain things, and being walked in on during a kiss was one of them, no matter who she shared it with.
“You need to close the door, and use protection,” Serilda explained to them in a mocking tone, “Please.” The girl turned redder, if that was even possible, and looked past her towards Uphira, the color in her face dying slightly.
Both the girl and Serilda looked at each other when Uphira and Callum- that was the boy’s name apparently, Serilda had never gotten it- recognized each other, the girl looking incredibly confused and Serilda feeling the same way, though the mask was hiding it. She stepped back and let Uphira cross over to the pair, watching from by the door.
She remained quiet as she watched the introduction, the girl looking incredibly confused, like she knew what was going on but at the same time, really really didn’t. Serilda expected that- she’d had a lot thrown at her in the last few hours. She’d be confused out of her mind too- but the next thing she heard confused Serilda herself.
When the girl’s name was introduced as Lucine, Serilda found herself freezing. Completely freezing up, which was odd for her.
She had heard that name. She knew that name. It was an all too familiar name. But there was no way that this girl was the same person- one of the same people she’d been looking for. More than one person had the same name.
She tuned out the rest of the conversation, staring at the half-vampire named Lucine.
Lucine felt embarrassed. Not that she had been seen kissing Callum- hell, she’d climb to the top of the world and shout out her love for him if she could. She’d let the whole world know he was her’s, and that he was the most special thing to her, and that in simple terms, she loved him.
She was embarrassed that she had been walked in on during what she considered a somewhat intimate moment, and her face was certainly showing it- she could feel the heat. She smiled somewhat sheepishly at Serilda’s comments, before her face lost its’ color and turned to total confusion when Callum recognized the woman behind her as Uphira. This was the woman she’d just heard about? The Uphira who had saved him? Lucine felt in a way like she owed this woman her own life.
She tried to let the confusion on her face die down as Callum introduced her, letting Uphira shake her hand and just nodding in response, giving a small smile. It was an embarrassed, confused smile, but it was still a smile. She wasn’t sure why it felt like there were bumblebees in her brain, but it certainly did.
“The pleasure is mine,” She said in response to Uphira, giving her a small nod when she drew her hand back. She was surprised to find her hands were shaking- though not due to Uphira. She really wasn’t sure what was going on with her nerves.
When Uphira asked her the next question, she processed it, and then began her answer, standing up with the wrapping and moving to her desk, where she gathered clean ones and also began to dig through her herb pouch, looking at certain things as she spoke and trying to decide what to use.
“Ah, symptoms..” she said quietly, grabbing new linen and also making a small square of it, before turning back around to look at Uphira. Busying her hands was helping. “Well, last night when he was first affected, he had psychological symptoms- ah, I wish I had my journal, I left it downstairs- that included an episode of panic, which I didn’t think much of because they tend to be frequent, but it may have meant something, and him not able to remember anything from last night-” She finished chopping up a few herbs, and placed them on the smaller square of linen, tying it together. She then turned to Serilda, and addressed her. “Serilda, do you mind going and finding a teacup filled with hot water?”
“Would you like sugar, love?” she said after a pause, addressing Callum this time but not looking directly at him, more like glancing out of the corner of her eye as she turned around. “Ah, just get that as well Serilda, thank you.” She didn’t look up to see the woman leave the room, almost dazed, and instead continued to explain Callum’s symptoms, spreading a small green paste over the dressings she was about to use.
“He had a nightmare last night, also commonplace, however earlier today, just a few minutes ago he was suffering from an extreme nausea- hold still, dear.” She had taken Callum’s affected arm and was beginning to bandage it again, wrapping it up tightly but not too tightly, “But he claims to feel better now, which is very surprising. I plan to take him home immediately, thought it’s a rather long journey- and he won’t be walking.” She finished speaking, feeling like she’d gone on for long enough, and drew her hands away from his bandaging, remembering something.
“Ah- this was odd- his blood was black.” Lucine explained, her voice beginning to shake a little as she thought about it- “He also had a flashback to when he was, well, from the part of his life when he met you.” She quieted as Serilda entered the room again, with the things she has requested, plus the journal. It felt odd that the woman was being strangely silent, and not passive aggressive at being told to do something. Lucine placed the small makeshift teabag in and sighed, waiting for it to steep.
Lucine continued to unwrap his bandaging, her pale fingers working gently and nimbly to make sure she wasn’t bothering him. She was unsure of what the condition of his wound would be, but she hoped it wouldn’t be too horrible. She assumed that the blood would probably had clotted, as it didn’t look like any more had surfaced. The black blood was truly something to watch out for, however. Lucine had never seen anything like it- in all her books, in all her research she had never seen anything like black blood.
It scared her.
She was relieved to hear that Callum hadn’t put up a protest of her announcement that the couple was returning to their home- the girl had expected her would. He would probably say he was fine, and she’d have to drag him out, but this way he was going willingly. She smiled sadly to herself and didn’t look up when he commented with only an affirmative “okay”, yet she found that for a moment, she could feel that he felt selfish, and it made her feel even sadder. That wasn’t her intent at all- she didn’t want him to feel that way.
When she finally looked down at his wrist, she was slightly relieved to see it looking like a normal puncture wound. His veins were normal, the blood had clotted, and it was slightly swollen- but those were all things she could deal with. The girl found herself muttering about how this was much better, much much better. She reached out with her finger and gently applied a bit on pressure on the swollen area, just to see what would happen, and then pulled it away and began to try and fix the bandages. Still, not looking up, she began to explain herself.
“I can’t- I cannot allow myself to risk losing you for someone who I don’t even have confirmation is alive-” she told Callum, not looking up as she set the wrappings down on the floor beside her. “My only evidence is from my sister, and well, you know my sister.”
“Please, don’t have guilt.” She said quietly, feeling like she was going to cry as she finally looked up at Callum, yellow eyes foggy, “It’s not your fault, non of it. I-”
She stopped when he began to speak, listening. Would this make her happy? Would it really? It would make her feel safe. It would make her feel secure in knowing she was protecting Callum within the walls of their home. But would she be happy? Happy knowing her father could very well be suffering somewhere? The man who raised her? Lucine wasn’t sure she could be happy, but she had to keep Callum safe.
She let her thoughts quiet, or rather forced them too, as Callum moved his hand to the back to her head, bridging the gaps between their lips. For a moment, her confusion flew away as she gave into his kiss, letting herself feel content for just a moment, just a brief brief moment.
Of course, as with always, they were interrupted.
As Serilda climbed the stairs, stopping after a few of them to allow Uphira to walk alongside her, she listened to her answers of the questions, processing them in her mind. First, there was psychological effects- that had already been experienced, if the vampire girl’s journal could be trusted. Secondly, there was nausea, sickness, normal symptoms of a sickness- essentially what was happening now. There would be a brief down period, before…
Before essentially, the kid could die from a freaking papercut, let alone trying to go out on whatever sort of mission he and the vampire were on. That settled it- Serilda would have to make a detour, at least to get the kid home without him bleeding to death. It was odd, but she felt a sort of connection to him, and especially to the girl, like she was obliged to help them through some unspoken law. She didn’t feel like it was because she knew what was going on either.
“So basically-” she said, but she stopped before they entered the room, letting herself make her presence known- but of course she froze when she saw the two sharing a kiss, quickly pulling apart. The boy was red, but that was nothing compared to the girl- her pale face had turned the color of a beet, and she looked about ready to hide. It was obvious she was a bit more embarrassed by certain things, and being walked in on during a kiss was one of them, no matter who she shared it with.
“You need to close the door, and use protection,” Serilda explained to them in a mocking tone, “Please.” The girl turned redder, if that was even possible, and looked past her towards Uphira, the color in her face dying slightly.
Both the girl and Serilda looked at each other when Uphira and Callum- that was the boy’s name apparently, Serilda had never gotten it- recognized each other, the girl looking incredibly confused and Serilda feeling the same way, though the mask was hiding it. She stepped back and let Uphira cross over to the pair, watching from by the door.
She remained quiet as she watched the introduction, the girl looking incredibly confused, like she knew what was going on but at the same time, really really didn’t. Serilda expected that- she’d had a lot thrown at her in the last few hours. She’d be confused out of her mind too- but the next thing she heard confused Serilda herself.
When the girl’s name was introduced as Lucine, Serilda found herself freezing. Completely freezing up, which was odd for her.
She had heard that name. She knew that name. It was an all too familiar name. But there was no way that this girl was the same person- one of the same people she’d been looking for. More than one person had the same name.
She tuned out the rest of the conversation, staring at the half-vampire named Lucine.
Lucine felt embarrassed. Not that she had been seen kissing Callum- hell, she’d climb to the top of the world and shout out her love for him if she could. She’d let the whole world know he was her’s, and that he was the most special thing to her, and that in simple terms, she loved him.
She was embarrassed that she had been walked in on during what she considered a somewhat intimate moment, and her face was certainly showing it- she could feel the heat. She smiled somewhat sheepishly at Serilda’s comments, before her face lost its’ color and turned to total confusion when Callum recognized the woman behind her as Uphira. This was the woman she’d just heard about? The Uphira who had saved him? Lucine felt in a way like she owed this woman her own life.
She tried to let the confusion on her face die down as Callum introduced her, letting Uphira shake her hand and just nodding in response, giving a small smile. It was an embarrassed, confused smile, but it was still a smile. She wasn’t sure why it felt like there were bumblebees in her brain, but it certainly did.
“The pleasure is mine,” She said in response to Uphira, giving her a small nod when she drew her hand back. She was surprised to find her hands were shaking- though not due to Uphira. She really wasn’t sure what was going on with her nerves.
When Uphira asked her the next question, she processed it, and then began her answer, standing up with the wrapping and moving to her desk, where she gathered clean ones and also began to dig through her herb pouch, looking at certain things as she spoke and trying to decide what to use.
“Ah, symptoms..” she said quietly, grabbing new linen and also making a small square of it, before turning back around to look at Uphira. Busying her hands was helping. “Well, last night when he was first affected, he had psychological symptoms- ah, I wish I had my journal, I left it downstairs- that included an episode of panic, which I didn’t think much of because they tend to be frequent, but it may have meant something, and him not able to remember anything from last night-” She finished chopping up a few herbs, and placed them on the smaller square of linen, tying it together. She then turned to Serilda, and addressed her. “Serilda, do you mind going and finding a teacup filled with hot water?”
“Would you like sugar, love?” she said after a pause, addressing Callum this time but not looking directly at him, more like glancing out of the corner of her eye as she turned around. “Ah, just get that as well Serilda, thank you.” She didn’t look up to see the woman leave the room, almost dazed, and instead continued to explain Callum’s symptoms, spreading a small green paste over the dressings she was about to use.
“He had a nightmare last night, also commonplace, however earlier today, just a few minutes ago he was suffering from an extreme nausea- hold still, dear.” She had taken Callum’s affected arm and was beginning to bandage it again, wrapping it up tightly but not too tightly, “But he claims to feel better now, which is very surprising. I plan to take him home immediately, thought it’s a rather long journey- and he won’t be walking.” She finished speaking, feeling like she’d gone on for long enough, and drew her hands away from his bandaging, remembering something.
“Ah- this was odd- his blood was black.” Lucine explained, her voice beginning to shake a little as she thought about it- “He also had a flashback to when he was, well, from the part of his life when he met you.” She quieted as Serilda entered the room again, with the things she has requested, plus the journal. It felt odd that the woman was being strangely silent, and not passive aggressive at being told to do something. Lucine placed the small makeshift teabag in and sighed, waiting for it to steep.
Uphira pushed aside most of the exchanges that had occurred before asking Lucine her question. She did take notice of Lucine's hands shaking, wondering if it was because of her. She didn't seem as though she wanted to be anything other than kind and gentle. She couldn't imagine how stress the girl had had to deal with since the dark-haired boy was shot with that dart.
She fiddled with her hands slightly before taking notice of the girl sorting through some sort of pouch. She took out a small notebook of sorts from the same place she had retrieved the dart she had been given, getting on her knees on the floor and beginning to jot down bullet points of what she was hearing from Lucine. She was nodding as she wrote, able to do so without even having to look down at the pages she was scribbling on. She did glance down at it occasionally, however, to make sure she was writing the correct information down.
-Psychological symptoms 1st night, panic episode, unable to remember anything from the 1st night, nightmare...
Uphira stopped writing as Lucine asked Serilda for some hot tea, soon asking Callum if he wanted sugar. She studied his pale face, noting that his eyes gave away tiredness, even sleepiness. She gave him a small smile, even if he was looking at Lucine rather than her. She could also see a dash of affection in those eyes. Now the memories decided to aid her, and when they did, she felt more comfortable, as if she hadn't been comfortable enough, to be honest.
This truly was the girl he had talked about... and cried over.
She remembered the days when there had been sobbing coming from the guest room in her home. She hadn't been able to provide the comfort he deserved. Over and over, she would hear the name. Lucine, Lucine, Lucine...! Sometimes, those desperate whispers and gasps would turn into screams. Even when she came into the room, those screams wouldn't cease so easily. They were horrible to listen to, and she could still vaguely hear them in the darkest, darkest depths of her mind.
She snapped out of it in time to see Callum just nod after Lucine asked Serilda to get sugar for his tea. Even though he had answered her question late, he was still getting what he wanted, so it didn't matter anyway. She then saw him close his eyes, which were... different. Sure, one was still grey, but the other looked as though fire had permanently taken over his eye, and somehow made it blurry as well. She only saw blurry eyes in the blind.
She returned her attention to Lucine, jotting more notes down as she spoke about the symptoms again. She glanced over at the work she was doing on Callum, noticing that his eyes were still closed and his breathing had calmed. Not that it wasn't calm, but it was more calm. In other words, he had somehow managed to fall asleep in a short amount of time. He didn't even have to be told to stay still; he was already still.
She took a mental and literal note of that before something else was mentioned. The boy had bled black. She could pick out the shaking in Lucine's voice, which made her a little worried and guilty. If she had known this was going on, she would've shown up much earlier. Then she was told about a flashback. By flashback, Lucine probably meant that Callum saw actual pictures in front of his eyes, even though he was no longer back there. The farthest her flashbacks got were images simply in her mind; they never showed up in her vision.
She wanted to ask, but she kept her mouth shut, nodding and writing down more notes.
-More physical symptoms today, extreme nausea... no vomiting, however... seems as though all symptoms have disappeared for the time being... black blood... visual flashback possibly...?
She watched as Serilda gave Lucine everything she had requested while thinking about her notes. She had forgotten to tell Serilda about the black blood, as well as amnesia. However, she was confused as to how the boy hadn't thrown up at all. The shapeshifter certainly had. From the contrast of Callum's skin now compared to how he looked when he was staying with her led her to believe that he was somehow human again. She recalled him saying he used to be human, but she never thought it possible for a turned human to suddenly revert back into a human.
She felt the urge to run a hand through her hair as her mind spiraled off topic, but she ignored it. She looked at the girl with a soft, apologetic expression.
"I'm very sorry... I can't imagine how big of a toll this is taking on you," she said solemnly. She glanced between Lucine and Callum before speaking again, this time closing her journal and revealing the dart she had shown to Serilda earlier to Lucine.
"Serilda told me Callum was hit by a dart that looked exactly like this one," she began to explain calmly. "Not this one, but one similar. I hope I'm right in saying that. I know I am right in saying that he wasn't the only one hit. I've been checking up on someone else who has been experiencing very similar symptoms to Callum here. The only differences I can note are the nausea and flashback; the other boy who was hit actually threw up multiple times, and he didn't have a flashback of any kind. Everything else is the same, even the black blood."
She paused for a moment, as if considering something.
"...These occurrences are certainly worrying me," she admitted, glancing down at the floor. "To think that more than one person is being affected... I know I have to stop it. I have to find a cure, and I have to stop more of these darts from being made... or rather, the substance. I'm planning on getting a hold of some of that substance. This dart is empty, that much I can tell. If I'm correct, then these darts inject every bit of substance into the victim before they can even be pulled out."
She let out a slightly saddened sigh. The calm tone she had before was slowly waning. "A friend of mine is going to meet me here at some point," she added. "We're planning on solving this together. This information is useful... I just wish it didn't have to be this way."
A pause, and then the quick silence was broken.
"But wishing for the past to have turned out different isn't as important as looking to the future. The past already happened, and it's out of your control at that point. The only thing left to do is to try and make things right. I intend to make things right. Lucine... I don't intend to have Callum suffer any longer. I promise."
Where am I?...Why does my head hurt? Ugh... come on... don't pass out again...
Callum's eyes slowly opened, but he wasn't where he was supposed to be. He didn't wake up in bed with Lucine, Serilda and Uphira nearby. He didn't wake up in the real world. Instead, he was in a familiar place. A place far too familiar.
His mind.
It was mostly dark all around, and why wouldn't it be? A Shadow mage would have a mind this dark. He remembered the last time he was here. The place was tinted a very dark shade of purple. Like last time, he was able to stand and walk on seemingly solid ground, despite there being no evidence of solid ground at all. He was expecting the temperature to drop. That was what happened last time.
But it didn't.
It stayed the same, and he quickly remembered that the Whisper was no longer apart of his mind. It almost saddened him, actually. To think that those were actually simpler times? It was sad. He sighed lightly. What was he supposed to do in here?
"Something's probably gonna visit me," he muttered to himself. "I mean, I wouldn't be pulled in here for nothing, especially since I'm aware that I'm still asleep in reality. This can't be a dream, because the last time I assumed that, I was proven wrong. Of course, the Whisper isn't in my mind anymore. All the other voices were purged from it, and they sure as hell didn't come back when I had to be cursed again. There has to be something else to this. It can't be the toxin..."
He shut himself up when he realized that he was emulating what Lucine would normally do; he was muttering every single one of his thoughts to himself. He was expecting someone to come, and someone would probably come. He just had to wait and see.
Uphira pushed aside most of the exchanges that had occurred before asking Lucine her question. She did take notice of Lucine's hands shaking, wondering if it was because of her. She didn't seem as though she wanted to be anything other than kind and gentle. She couldn't imagine how stress the girl had had to deal with since the dark-haired boy was shot with that dart.
She fiddled with her hands slightly before taking notice of the girl sorting through some sort of pouch. She took out a small notebook of sorts from the same place she had retrieved the dart she had been given, getting on her knees on the floor and beginning to jot down bullet points of what she was hearing from Lucine. She was nodding as she wrote, able to do so without even having to look down at the pages she was scribbling on. She did glance down at it occasionally, however, to make sure she was writing the correct information down.
-Psychological symptoms 1st night, panic episode, unable to remember anything from the 1st night, nightmare...
Uphira stopped writing as Lucine asked Serilda for some hot tea, soon asking Callum if he wanted sugar. She studied his pale face, noting that his eyes gave away tiredness, even sleepiness. She gave him a small smile, even if he was looking at Lucine rather than her. She could also see a dash of affection in those eyes. Now the memories decided to aid her, and when they did, she felt more comfortable, as if she hadn't been comfortable enough, to be honest.
This truly was the girl he had talked about... and cried over.
She remembered the days when there had been sobbing coming from the guest room in her home. She hadn't been able to provide the comfort he deserved. Over and over, she would hear the name. Lucine, Lucine, Lucine...! Sometimes, those desperate whispers and gasps would turn into screams. Even when she came into the room, those screams wouldn't cease so easily. They were horrible to listen to, and she could still vaguely hear them in the darkest, darkest depths of her mind.
She snapped out of it in time to see Callum just nod after Lucine asked Serilda to get sugar for his tea. Even though he had answered her question late, he was still getting what he wanted, so it didn't matter anyway. She then saw him close his eyes, which were... different. Sure, one was still grey, but the other looked as though fire had permanently taken over his eye, and somehow made it blurry as well. She only saw blurry eyes in the blind.
She returned her attention to Lucine, jotting more notes down as she spoke about the symptoms again. She glanced over at the work she was doing on Callum, noticing that his eyes were still closed and his breathing had calmed. Not that it wasn't calm, but it was more calm. In other words, he had somehow managed to fall asleep in a short amount of time. He didn't even have to be told to stay still; he was already still.
She took a mental and literal note of that before something else was mentioned. The boy had bled black. She could pick out the shaking in Lucine's voice, which made her a little worried and guilty. If she had known this was going on, she would've shown up much earlier. Then she was told about a flashback. By flashback, Lucine probably meant that Callum saw actual pictures in front of his eyes, even though he was no longer back there. The farthest her flashbacks got were images simply in her mind; they never showed up in her vision.
She wanted to ask, but she kept her mouth shut, nodding and writing down more notes.
-More physical symptoms today, extreme nausea... no vomiting, however... seems as though all symptoms have disappeared for the time being... black blood... visual flashback possibly...?
She watched as Serilda gave Lucine everything she had requested while thinking about her notes. She had forgotten to tell Serilda about the black blood, as well as amnesia. However, she was confused as to how the boy hadn't thrown up at all. The shapeshifter certainly had. From the contrast of Callum's skin now compared to how he looked when he was staying with her led her to believe that he was somehow human again. She recalled him saying he used to be human, but she never thought it possible for a turned human to suddenly revert back into a human.
She felt the urge to run a hand through her hair as her mind spiraled off topic, but she ignored it. She looked at the girl with a soft, apologetic expression.
"I'm very sorry... I can't imagine how big of a toll this is taking on you," she said solemnly. She glanced between Lucine and Callum before speaking again, this time closing her journal and revealing the dart she had shown to Serilda earlier to Lucine.
"Serilda told me Callum was hit by a dart that looked exactly like this one," she began to explain calmly. "Not this one, but one similar. I hope I'm right in saying that. I know I am right in saying that he wasn't the only one hit. I've been checking up on someone else who has been experiencing very similar symptoms to Callum here. The only differences I can note are the nausea and flashback; the other boy who was hit actually threw up multiple times, and he didn't have a flashback of any kind. Everything else is the same, even the black blood."
She paused for a moment, as if considering something.
"...These occurrences are certainly worrying me," she admitted, glancing down at the floor. "To think that more than one person is being affected... I know I have to stop it. I have to find a cure, and I have to stop more of these darts from being made... or rather, the substance. I'm planning on getting a hold of some of that substance. This dart is empty, that much I can tell. If I'm correct, then these darts inject every bit of substance into the victim before they can even be pulled out."
She let out a slightly saddened sigh. The calm tone she had before was slowly waning. "A friend of mine is going to meet me here at some point," she added. "We're planning on solving this together. This information is useful... I just wish it didn't have to be this way."
A pause, and then the quick silence was broken.
"But wishing for the past to have turned out different isn't as important as looking to the future. The past already happened, and it's out of your control at that point. The only thing left to do is to try and make things right. I intend to make things right. Lucine... I don't intend to have Callum suffer any longer. I promise."
Where am I?...Why does my head hurt? Ugh... come on... don't pass out again...
Callum's eyes slowly opened, but he wasn't where he was supposed to be. He didn't wake up in bed with Lucine, Serilda and Uphira nearby. He didn't wake up in the real world. Instead, he was in a familiar place. A place far too familiar.
His mind.
It was mostly dark all around, and why wouldn't it be? A Shadow mage would have a mind this dark. He remembered the last time he was here. The place was tinted a very dark shade of purple. Like last time, he was able to stand and walk on seemingly solid ground, despite there being no evidence of solid ground at all. He was expecting the temperature to drop. That was what happened last time.
But it didn't.
It stayed the same, and he quickly remembered that the Whisper was no longer apart of his mind. It almost saddened him, actually. To think that those were actually simpler times? It was sad. He sighed lightly. What was he supposed to do in here?
"Something's probably gonna visit me," he muttered to himself. "I mean, I wouldn't be pulled in here for nothing, especially since I'm aware that I'm still asleep in reality. This can't be a dream, because the last time I assumed that, I was proven wrong. Of course, the Whisper isn't in my mind anymore. All the other voices were purged from it, and they sure as hell didn't come back when I had to be cursed again. There has to be something else to this. It can't be the toxin..."
He shut himself up when he realized that he was emulating what Lucine would normally do; he was muttering every single one of his thoughts to himself. He was expecting someone to come, and someone would probably come. He just had to wait and see.
The vampire girl stood over her teabag, using the tips of her fingers to move it through the hot water in an attempt to quicken the steeping process. She had been aware of Uphira taking notes on what she was saying, and she didn’t really mind- she would have done the same thing. She stood over her tea for a moment, almost frozen, before turning to look at the masked woman standing by the door. Serilda was looking away from her, and was instead watching Uphira, saying nothing. Lucine turned back to the teacup for a moment and then turned completely around, facing Uphira and Callum in the bed.
The boy had fallen asleep, and a small sad smile crossed Lucine’s face when she saw that. The more he slept, the better, especially in his condition. To her, at least, he was still sick, still very sick, and she needed him to have his rest if they were to get home. Quietly, she crossed over the bed and sat on it, leaving the cup on the counter to cool for when the boy awoke.
When Uphira spoke again, the young vampire girl just shook her head lightly, curls slightly bouncing as she did so. “I don’t… hmm, I suppose the right way to word this would be that I don’t consider it a burden.” She was very calm, tilting her head as she thought of what to say, “I see it more as an obligation, a duty if you will, but not in a bad way. Caring for him, even when he’s like this… it’s sort of my job. Though that doesn’t remove how horrible I feel for him..” She turned her head to look at the sleeping boy, reaching out with her hand and brushing his hair away from his forehead with her wooden fingers. She then paused for a moment, and placed her other hand on his forehead to feel the temperature, looking up when she noticed from the corner of her eye that Uphira was retrieving something from her bag.
Lucine blinked her yellow eyes a few times when she saw it- the dart sitting in the woman’s hands. It was identical to the one that Callum had been hit with- which Uphira clarified that Serilda had already told her. Lucine looked over to the woman for a brief moment, noticing that she had come closer to the others and was now standing behind Uphira, looking down at the dart. Lucine couldn’t help but stare at it, listening to everything that Uphira was telling her.
“So, that means…” She began, her mouth wide
“There’s gotta be more than this.” Serilda finished, shaking her head, “Some of the a**holes down at the black market, I swear…. If this is from Don’s market, I swear to the gods I’m gonna-”
Lucine blinked again, thinking back to how the symptoms that the other person who was affected was experiencing mirrored Callum’s. She briefly glanced behind her to the boy, and then back in front of her, watching Uphira. To her, the woman looked slightly sheepish, or embarrassed.
“It’s going to be alright, madam.” Lucine said gently, shaking her head, “Don’t believe you are at fault for this, or that you have to take down the culprit alone. It’s noble of you just to try to… Yes, don’t worry. Maybe we’ll stick around until your friend reaches the location, to assist you. I’m sure Callum would want to do the same thing, should our positions be switched.”
She looked behind her again at the sleeping boy, masking the worry that she was feeling deep in her stomach. There was more than one dart, more than one person hit. The poison could be mass produced. If she could only have a sample of it, she could break it down and see what herbs it reacted with.
“I can stick around a help her,” Serilda offered to Lucine, the girl looking up and towards the woman, “I mean, if you want to get him home-”
“No, nonsense.” Lucine told her, shaking her head. She was surprised at how amicable the two were now being towards each other, “You obviously had some for of.. Mission you were on before I intercepted you. Take Kylie and carry on with that.”
The woman just shook her head. “Changing my plans.” Lucine sighed for a moment and then looked back to Uphira, waiting for the woman to finish.
When Uphira assured her, the young girl just smiled at her, reaching out to take the woman’s hand. “Thank you, Uphira… I’m truly grateful for you, for everything you’ve done for Callum and for this… I have a debt to you.”
Callidora yawned and stretched out after being awoken from her nap rather rudely, lying around in the air as though she was sleeping on a cloud. She had began to become bored of purgatory, and instead just laid around all day, waiting for someone who she liked to kick the bucket and let her mess with them. Existing outside of space and time was rather boring, after the novelty of watching things had worn off. Not bothering to be quiet, she sat up and took a look around at who had been summoned to her place of rest.
She was surprised, and yet not surprised at all, to see the boy standing there. Callum, who she had come to know as Lucine’s “boy toy”, was standing in her crib, muttering to himself and looking incredibly confused. She didn’t stop herself from laughing, the noise echoing throughout the area loudly. Callidora stopped for a brief moment to pay attention to what he was muttering to himself, focusing on his words. She knew what was going on with them- she’d been following Lucine once she knew the girl was actually listening to her about their father- so she was aware of the poison and the effects it had been having. It was great fun to watch, actually, something she hadn’t seen in a while. Quietly, she moved herself from her position up high to standing right behind the boy. Teleporting was fun for big entrances, but took way too much work for just any day.
She placed a pale hand on the boys shoulder, and leaned in, whispering in his ear. “You’ve been hanging around my sister too much,” she told him, grinning, “you’re starting to talk to yourself.”
She then pulled away from him and clicked her tongue, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for the boy to react. Curiously, she tilted her head as she watched him.
“I’m not sure who’s in the bigger pickle, you or Virginia?”
The vampire girl stood over her teabag, using the tips of her fingers to move it through the hot water in an attempt to quicken the steeping process. She had been aware of Uphira taking notes on what she was saying, and she didn’t really mind- she would have done the same thing. She stood over her tea for a moment, almost frozen, before turning to look at the masked woman standing by the door. Serilda was looking away from her, and was instead watching Uphira, saying nothing. Lucine turned back to the teacup for a moment and then turned completely around, facing Uphira and Callum in the bed.
The boy had fallen asleep, and a small sad smile crossed Lucine’s face when she saw that. The more he slept, the better, especially in his condition. To her, at least, he was still sick, still very sick, and she needed him to have his rest if they were to get home. Quietly, she crossed over the bed and sat on it, leaving the cup on the counter to cool for when the boy awoke.
When Uphira spoke again, the young vampire girl just shook her head lightly, curls slightly bouncing as she did so. “I don’t… hmm, I suppose the right way to word this would be that I don’t consider it a burden.” She was very calm, tilting her head as she thought of what to say, “I see it more as an obligation, a duty if you will, but not in a bad way. Caring for him, even when he’s like this… it’s sort of my job. Though that doesn’t remove how horrible I feel for him..” She turned her head to look at the sleeping boy, reaching out with her hand and brushing his hair away from his forehead with her wooden fingers. She then paused for a moment, and placed her other hand on his forehead to feel the temperature, looking up when she noticed from the corner of her eye that Uphira was retrieving something from her bag.
Lucine blinked her yellow eyes a few times when she saw it- the dart sitting in the woman’s hands. It was identical to the one that Callum had been hit with- which Uphira clarified that Serilda had already told her. Lucine looked over to the woman for a brief moment, noticing that she had come closer to the others and was now standing behind Uphira, looking down at the dart. Lucine couldn’t help but stare at it, listening to everything that Uphira was telling her.
“So, that means…” She began, her mouth wide
“There’s gotta be more than this.” Serilda finished, shaking her head, “Some of the a**holes down at the black market, I swear…. If this is from Don’s market, I swear to the gods I’m gonna-”
Lucine blinked again, thinking back to how the symptoms that the other person who was affected was experiencing mirrored Callum’s. She briefly glanced behind her to the boy, and then back in front of her, watching Uphira. To her, the woman looked slightly sheepish, or embarrassed.
“It’s going to be alright, madam.” Lucine said gently, shaking her head, “Don’t believe you are at fault for this, or that you have to take down the culprit alone. It’s noble of you just to try to… Yes, don’t worry. Maybe we’ll stick around until your friend reaches the location, to assist you. I’m sure Callum would want to do the same thing, should our positions be switched.”
She looked behind her again at the sleeping boy, masking the worry that she was feeling deep in her stomach. There was more than one dart, more than one person hit. The poison could be mass produced. If she could only have a sample of it, she could break it down and see what herbs it reacted with.
“I can stick around a help her,” Serilda offered to Lucine, the girl looking up and towards the woman, “I mean, if you want to get him home-”
“No, nonsense.” Lucine told her, shaking her head. She was surprised at how amicable the two were now being towards each other, “You obviously had some for of.. Mission you were on before I intercepted you. Take Kylie and carry on with that.”
The woman just shook her head. “Changing my plans.” Lucine sighed for a moment and then looked back to Uphira, waiting for the woman to finish.
When Uphira assured her, the young girl just smiled at her, reaching out to take the woman’s hand. “Thank you, Uphira… I’m truly grateful for you, for everything you’ve done for Callum and for this… I have a debt to you.”
Callidora yawned and stretched out after being awoken from her nap rather rudely, lying around in the air as though she was sleeping on a cloud. She had began to become bored of purgatory, and instead just laid around all day, waiting for someone who she liked to kick the bucket and let her mess with them. Existing outside of space and time was rather boring, after the novelty of watching things had worn off. Not bothering to be quiet, she sat up and took a look around at who had been summoned to her place of rest.
She was surprised, and yet not surprised at all, to see the boy standing there. Callum, who she had come to know as Lucine’s “boy toy”, was standing in her crib, muttering to himself and looking incredibly confused. She didn’t stop herself from laughing, the noise echoing throughout the area loudly. Callidora stopped for a brief moment to pay attention to what he was muttering to himself, focusing on his words. She knew what was going on with them- she’d been following Lucine once she knew the girl was actually listening to her about their father- so she was aware of the poison and the effects it had been having. It was great fun to watch, actually, something she hadn’t seen in a while. Quietly, she moved herself from her position up high to standing right behind the boy. Teleporting was fun for big entrances, but took way too much work for just any day.
She placed a pale hand on the boys shoulder, and leaned in, whispering in his ear. “You’ve been hanging around my sister too much,” she told him, grinning, “you’re starting to talk to yourself.”
She then pulled away from him and clicked her tongue, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for the boy to react. Curiously, she tilted her head as she watched him.
“I’m not sure who’s in the bigger pickle, you or Virginia?”
Uphira thought over Lucine's response to her comment about the potential toll this entire situation was taking on the girl. She nodded, seeming a little relieved on the outside, though it was impossible to tell how she was feeling on the inside. She found herself wondering what their days together were truly like. She had been told about how close they were, and it came from Callum himself, but she was curious nonetheless.
She felt her heart sink the moment she processed the reactions to the dart she held. She could hear Serilda swearing behind her, and Lucine had looked surprised upon seeing the dart, for her mouth had been wide open. She found herself glancing down at the object. That vile object. She inwardly gritted her teeth. This had to stop now. It was dreadful to just think about the possibility of there being more out there. The worst part was that it made sense for there to be more... which was why breaking down the substance was important.
She snapped back to herself as Lucine talked to her, presumably trying to ease her worries. A small smile came to the woman's face, her eyes softening. "Thank you," she said gently, looking at the sleeping boy on the bed. He looked at peace, as if he wasn't in danger at all. His breathing remained calm, and he was completely limp. He somehow looked younger, having a more innocent look to him. The guilt inside of Uphira increased.
She was silent while Lucine and Serilda shared a short exchange. Her thoughts were wandering to her friend. He would be here soon, she was sure of it. She hoped he was doing okay, and wasn't in danger or anything like that. She felt like her worry was darting all over the place.
Her eyes went from Callum to her own hand as it was taken. Those same eyes then traveled up to Lucine's face. She took her words in carefully, her smile growing a little. The kindness in her eyes was very much present, pushed to the forefront almost immediately.
"Lucine... you're more than welcome," Uphira said quietly, giving Lucine's hand a soft squeeze. "I am very happy that Callum managed to find you. It was something he was completely set on doing when he finally left. I still remember the look of determination in his eyes... and I am more than happy that it paid off. Again, I apologize for this situation. I will try to fix it as fast as I can. Don't feel you owe me a debt, that's too kind of you."
She chuckled for just a couple seconds before taking a deep, yet soft breath. "He told me of how much he loves you," she added. "He talked about you the most. He described you as endlessly beautiful. He told me of how strong your will is, and just from this moment, I can definitely say that he wasn't lying."
The laughter made Callum stiffen.
He completely froze. Sure, he had expected someone to come, however, he hadn't expected that familiar laugh to shake his surroundings. He wanted to turn around, but his body didn't work. Either that or he just didn't want to move. He took controlled breaths, trying to calm his nerves.
He soon felt someone directly behind him. It had happened within a second, and he hadn't heard or seen the person coming. He already had an idea of who was with him in this space, and he sincerely hoped he would be able to survive this encounter. He wondered for a moment if the other presence had heard him talking to himself. He didn't know whether or not he would be embarrassed or just indifferent.
His eyes widened slightly as he felt a hand on his shoulder. His body reacted by jolting him slightly, but he still didn't move. A chill crawled down his spine when the person behind him leaned in closer and whispered directly into his ear. The action caused him to yelp a bit. Well, now he knew exactly who was in here with him. If he had turned around, he would've been able to confirm that further by laying eyes on the grin stretching across the other half-vampire's face.
He finally turned around as soon as he felt the hand being lifted from his shoulder, hearing the familiar clicking of a tongue. He took her appearance in, taking his time as well. He nearly shuddered upon seeing that one of her eyes was gone. He glanced at her hand, seeing some sort of stab wound... oh wait. That was in the same place he had stabbed her when fighting her in the old, old Colsar. The first Colsar, in his eyes.
If he didn't know better, he would've just assumed her soul was sucked into the Shadows. But if that had been the case, then she would’ve mostly likely have been one of the God's soldiers. Besides, it looked like something else killed her first. He didn't know why he was thinking that.
He tilted his head a little when she asked him a question. "Virginia?" he repeated quietly, crossing his arms in thought. He felt as though he was supposed to know who that was. After a while, he just let it go, sifting through the other questions floating about. Like, for example... how did he end up in here to begin with??
"So... are you basically an entity now?" he asked sheepishly, still looking at Callidora. "I didn't actually see it, but I swear you teleported from somewhere farther away to being directly behind me. I don't recall you having teleportation." After a pause, he shook his head slightly. "That is not what I've been wanting to say... damn, my brain keeps passing me by," he muttered under his breath.
The boy's face suddenly heated up. This is so awkward... I'm talking to someone I used to... you know, be against. How can this not be awkward?
"How'd you end up here?" he suddenly asked, looking particularly at Callidora's missing eye. His voice sounded more quiet than he had intended. "You told the Whisper you died an anti-climatic death. That's as far as I can remember about that encounter. Actually, the farthest I can get is you about to grasp its arm, and then it just goes dark."
"What are we going to do about this?"
A group of people were gathered around a dark stone table in the middle of the room, packed inside of a cabin made of dark wood. They could barely hear the breeze brushing past the dark trees surrounding them. It was always almost eerily quiet in this place, save for their voices.
A purple-eyed boy with faded green hair and pointed ears scowled, already standing from his seat while everyone else was sitting down. "We better do something," he said, darkness lacing his voice. "Whoever did this is probably still out there!"
A woman with dark grey skin and pointed ears similar to the boy spoke up. "Syn-"
"Don't 'Syn' me, Ocalara," the boy hissed in response. "Whoever the hell is carrying those darts hit my brother, and I swear I'm gonna find this guy and-"
"Syn."
A towering Wendigo covered in dark blue and black fur with large black antlers stared Syn down with blazing orange eyes as he spoke. The Wendigo was at the front of the table, giving him the most authority. In response, the boy sat back down quietly, giving Ocalara an apologetic look for a split second. Anger swam behind his eyes, along with something more. No one could tell what that something was.
"We are working on this," the Wendigo clarified. Everyone else was quiet, paying attention to what he was saying. "As far as we know, Osiris is on his way to meet with the one who offered to assist us. He is either close to the village or already there."
"Where do you think it comes from?" a demonic humanoid hissed curiously. His fully red eyes remained on the Wendigo, his arms folded on the tabletop. The Wendigo didn't change his expression or posture.
"Our working theory is the black market. The problem is figuring out who is dealing them out, and more importantly, the manufacturer."
"Maybe it's someone we've encountered before?" a girl with big eyes and pointed ears suggested. She was skinny as a twig, and looked to be a child, no older than ten years old.
"Zina's got a point," Syn agreed, having calmed his tone down. "It hit my brother. It shouldn't have been him. Why him out of everyone else? It has to be someone we p**sed off."
"I secon' tha'," a gargoyle chimed in.
"It is plausible," the Wendigo responded. "However, we cannot ignore the other possibilities."
"That's true too," Zina said, her voice sounding as though she was thinking something over. "We don't have enough to go off of. Osiris has to get back first with more."
"But what if that doesn't happen?" Syn asked, his fists curled by his sides as he struggled to keep his nerves calm. "What if he doesn't come back? What if he does come back and it turns out we might as well have not f**king bothered??"
"Syn... we will figure this out," the Wendigo said, obviously trying to sound soothing. He was usually gruff in terms of how he sounded. "Mick is going to be okay. For now, do we all agree on the substance being from the black market?"
Everyone present nodded.
"Good. It is time to end this meeting, then, until we have more information to stop this. I will be checking on Suki, and by extension, Mick, if anyone is looking for me. There will be no disclosure of this information to anyone outside of the Syndicate without special consent from Osiris and I. Everyone is dismissed."
One by one, the members around the table exited the cabin until a single person was left. By the time everyone was gone, Syn was shaking furiously. One more moment of silence passed before he slammed his fist on the table once, ignoring the physical pain. Oh God, Mick...
Syn gave in to the emotional pressure and let the silent tears fall.
Uphira thought over Lucine's response to her comment about the potential toll this entire situation was taking on the girl. She nodded, seeming a little relieved on the outside, though it was impossible to tell how she was feeling on the inside. She found herself wondering what their days together were truly like. She had been told about how close they were, and it came from Callum himself, but she was curious nonetheless.
She felt her heart sink the moment she processed the reactions to the dart she held. She could hear Serilda swearing behind her, and Lucine had looked surprised upon seeing the dart, for her mouth had been wide open. She found herself glancing down at the object. That vile object. She inwardly gritted her teeth. This had to stop now. It was dreadful to just think about the possibility of there being more out there. The worst part was that it made sense for there to be more... which was why breaking down the substance was important.
She snapped back to herself as Lucine talked to her, presumably trying to ease her worries. A small smile came to the woman's face, her eyes softening. "Thank you," she said gently, looking at the sleeping boy on the bed. He looked at peace, as if he wasn't in danger at all. His breathing remained calm, and he was completely limp. He somehow looked younger, having a more innocent look to him. The guilt inside of Uphira increased.
She was silent while Lucine and Serilda shared a short exchange. Her thoughts were wandering to her friend. He would be here soon, she was sure of it. She hoped he was doing okay, and wasn't in danger or anything like that. She felt like her worry was darting all over the place.
Her eyes went from Callum to her own hand as it was taken. Those same eyes then traveled up to Lucine's face. She took her words in carefully, her smile growing a little. The kindness in her eyes was very much present, pushed to the forefront almost immediately.
"Lucine... you're more than welcome," Uphira said quietly, giving Lucine's hand a soft squeeze. "I am very happy that Callum managed to find you. It was something he was completely set on doing when he finally left. I still remember the look of determination in his eyes... and I am more than happy that it paid off. Again, I apologize for this situation. I will try to fix it as fast as I can. Don't feel you owe me a debt, that's too kind of you."
She chuckled for just a couple seconds before taking a deep, yet soft breath. "He told me of how much he loves you," she added. "He talked about you the most. He described you as endlessly beautiful. He told me of how strong your will is, and just from this moment, I can definitely say that he wasn't lying."
The laughter made Callum stiffen.
He completely froze. Sure, he had expected someone to come, however, he hadn't expected that familiar laugh to shake his surroundings. He wanted to turn around, but his body didn't work. Either that or he just didn't want to move. He took controlled breaths, trying to calm his nerves.
He soon felt someone directly behind him. It had happened within a second, and he hadn't heard or seen the person coming. He already had an idea of who was with him in this space, and he sincerely hoped he would be able to survive this encounter. He wondered for a moment if the other presence had heard him talking to himself. He didn't know whether or not he would be embarrassed or just indifferent.
His eyes widened slightly as he felt a hand on his shoulder. His body reacted by jolting him slightly, but he still didn't move. A chill crawled down his spine when the person behind him leaned in closer and whispered directly into his ear. The action caused him to yelp a bit. Well, now he knew exactly who was in here with him. If he had turned around, he would've been able to confirm that further by laying eyes on the grin stretching across the other half-vampire's face.
He finally turned around as soon as he felt the hand being lifted from his shoulder, hearing the familiar clicking of a tongue. He took her appearance in, taking his time as well. He nearly shuddered upon seeing that one of her eyes was gone. He glanced at her hand, seeing some sort of stab wound... oh wait. That was in the same place he had stabbed her when fighting her in the old, old Colsar. The first Colsar, in his eyes.
If he didn't know better, he would've just assumed her soul was sucked into the Shadows. But if that had been the case, then she would’ve mostly likely have been one of the God's soldiers. Besides, it looked like something else killed her first. He didn't know why he was thinking that.
He tilted his head a little when she asked him a question. "Virginia?" he repeated quietly, crossing his arms in thought. He felt as though he was supposed to know who that was. After a while, he just let it go, sifting through the other questions floating about. Like, for example... how did he end up in here to begin with??
"So... are you basically an entity now?" he asked sheepishly, still looking at Callidora. "I didn't actually see it, but I swear you teleported from somewhere farther away to being directly behind me. I don't recall you having teleportation." After a pause, he shook his head slightly. "That is not what I've been wanting to say... damn, my brain keeps passing me by," he muttered under his breath.
The boy's face suddenly heated up. This is so awkward... I'm talking to someone I used to... you know, be against. How can this not be awkward?
"How'd you end up here?" he suddenly asked, looking particularly at Callidora's missing eye. His voice sounded more quiet than he had intended. "You told the Whisper you died an anti-climatic death. That's as far as I can remember about that encounter. Actually, the farthest I can get is you about to grasp its arm, and then it just goes dark."
"What are we going to do about this?"
A group of people were gathered around a dark stone table in the middle of the room, packed inside of a cabin made of dark wood. They could barely hear the breeze brushing past the dark trees surrounding them. It was always almost eerily quiet in this place, save for their voices.
A purple-eyed boy with faded green hair and pointed ears scowled, already standing from his seat while everyone else was sitting down. "We better do something," he said, darkness lacing his voice. "Whoever did this is probably still out there!"
A woman with dark grey skin and pointed ears similar to the boy spoke up. "Syn-"
"Don't 'Syn' me, Ocalara," the boy hissed in response. "Whoever the hell is carrying those darts hit my brother, and I swear I'm gonna find this guy and-"
"Syn."
A towering Wendigo covered in dark blue and black fur with large black antlers stared Syn down with blazing orange eyes as he spoke. The Wendigo was at the front of the table, giving him the most authority. In response, the boy sat back down quietly, giving Ocalara an apologetic look for a split second. Anger swam behind his eyes, along with something more. No one could tell what that something was.
"We are working on this," the Wendigo clarified. Everyone else was quiet, paying attention to what he was saying. "As far as we know, Osiris is on his way to meet with the one who offered to assist us. He is either close to the village or already there."
"Where do you think it comes from?" a demonic humanoid hissed curiously. His fully red eyes remained on the Wendigo, his arms folded on the tabletop. The Wendigo didn't change his expression or posture.
"Our working theory is the black market. The problem is figuring out who is dealing them out, and more importantly, the manufacturer."
"Maybe it's someone we've encountered before?" a girl with big eyes and pointed ears suggested. She was skinny as a twig, and looked to be a child, no older than ten years old.
"Zina's got a point," Syn agreed, having calmed his tone down. "It hit my brother. It shouldn't have been him. Why him out of everyone else? It has to be someone we p**sed off."
"I secon' tha'," a gargoyle chimed in.
"It is plausible," the Wendigo responded. "However, we cannot ignore the other possibilities."
"That's true too," Zina said, her voice sounding as though she was thinking something over. "We don't have enough to go off of. Osiris has to get back first with more."
"But what if that doesn't happen?" Syn asked, his fists curled by his sides as he struggled to keep his nerves calm. "What if he doesn't come back? What if he does come back and it turns out we might as well have not f**king bothered??"
"Syn... we will figure this out," the Wendigo said, obviously trying to sound soothing. He was usually gruff in terms of how he sounded. "Mick is going to be okay. For now, do we all agree on the substance being from the black market?"
Everyone present nodded.
"Good. It is time to end this meeting, then, until we have more information to stop this. I will be checking on Suki, and by extension, Mick, if anyone is looking for me. There will be no disclosure of this information to anyone outside of the Syndicate without special consent from Osiris and I. Everyone is dismissed."
One by one, the members around the table exited the cabin until a single person was left. By the time everyone was gone, Syn was shaking furiously. One more moment of silence passed before he slammed his fist on the table once, ignoring the physical pain. Oh God, Mick...
Syn gave in to the emotional pressure and let the silent tears fall.
Lucine remained quiet as the woman gave her hand a soft squeeze, listening to her words. They were slightly reassuring to her, and yet.. She still felt as though a great debt was owed. She found herself smiling when Uphira mentioned that Callum seemed to determined. Yes, that sounds like my Callum… she thought to herself, looking away from the woman and at the sleeping, peaceful boy. She tried not to let the worry that was in her chest show on the surface, and hoped that she was succeeding. Her shaking hand told her otherwise, and she was glad for a moment that her prosthetic didn’t shake. She drew her hand gingerly away from Uphira and placed it on her lap, prying her eyes away from her boyfriend when the lady chuckled.
When the lady continued, speaking on how Callum had talked about her, she felt color rising to her cheeks. It was sweet, to know that he had talked about her, and described her in a way like that to someone else, though she wasn’t sure she agreed. Still, she nodded in response to Uphira and looked at the boy, smiling.
“Well, I’ll have to thank him for speaking well of me when he wakes.” Lucine said playfully, turning back to Uphira, “And thank you, once again, for everything.”
The smell of different herbs began to fill the room, from the tea Lucine had been making, and she stood up quickly, crossing over to the desk and taking the warm cup in both of her hands. It had been for Callum, to soothe any remaining nausea and prevent any newcoming one, but as he was asleep, she just had to try and make sure it didn’t get too cold before he woke up. She looked over to Serilda and Uphira, and saw the masked woman had her mouth drawn in a thin line, like she was thinking about something.
“Uphira,” Lucine began, placing the teacup down on the desk and looking over at the lady sitting on the floor. Serilda looked up slightly, and Lucine assumed her gaze had turned towards the lady as well.
“Were you… were you present when your friend was injected with the toxin?” she asked, thinking back to the non-human presence she had felt and the utterance of the anti-vampiric words. Uphira’s friend seemed to be a shapeshifter, not a vampire, so she was unsure why he had been struck aswell. It certainly put down Serilda’s theory- she could tell the other woman had come to the same conclusion.
“When.. when Callum was struck, we were in a forest.” Lucine told her, recalling the events, “And before he was struck, we heard a voice, saying something about ‘vein-diggers’, making me believe the dart was intended for me, as, well, to most people I am considered a ‘vein-digger’. I also felt a sort of non-human presence, like it wasn’t a vampire hunter after us- something much more fearful. I was wondering if there was a similar presence..?”
When the boy standing before her finally turned his head around, the half-vampire gave him a fanged grin, tilting her head. A curl fell out of the bun on the back of her head and toppled over her shoulder, and she didn’t seem to notice. She just watched his reaction to her appearence- her gruesome looking eye and the stab wound in her hand. When she noticed he was looking at it, she held it up for him to see, turning it over so he could look at both sides.
“Nice handiwork,” she told him, looking at the wound that he himself had given her, clenching her fist, “Clean stab all the way through. The a**hole who did this-” she took the same hand and pointed to her empty eyesocket, “Could have been a bit cleaner, but it’s fine.”
She watched his expression, trying to read him, but above everything he just seemed confused. That didn’t surprise Callidora at all, the boy had always struck her as a bit of an airhead, but a very loyal airhead. He reminded her of her own lover, in that regard. Loyal airheads. She laughed again, to break the silence, and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of seemingly nowhere. Placing one between her teeth, she paused for a moment before finishing her earlier thought.
“On the topic of you talking to yourself, they do say couples tend to pick up each other’s quirks as they stay together.” The woman lit her cigarette and took a long draw from it, blowing the smoke up into the air. “Though, if I start scratching myself behind the ear with my foot, just come put me down.” She laughed at her own joke, then clicked her tongue, and waited for him to start rattling off the inevitable questions.
His first, was simply, who Virginia was. That was easy to answer, and she did so after taking another long draw from her cigarette, this time blowing the smoke out in rings. She had been practicing that, and she was a bit proud of herself for pulling it off. “You know, Virginia, my kid. Dark hair. You’ve met. Got herself into a real pickle with a time mage, my gods. I guess that’s what happens when you let humans and werewolves raise your baby, though. No offense.” She clicked her tongue again, this time to try and alleviate a weird guilty feeling she was having.
His next question, was whether or not she was an Entity- the same species as that creature who used to follow him around and was now gods know where. She laughed at that too, reaching over and placing a pale finger on the tip of the boy’s nose. “I’m not an entity, just dead.” she said casually, giving him another fanged grin. She then pulled herself back and looked around, at the dark mass engulfing them.
“This is my purgatory.” she said, gesturing, “you had one, but I doubt you remember it, you were dead for all of five minutes, more or less. I can do anything I want in here, including teleportation, to answer that question.” Callidora blew smoke in his face, smiling, “and I can make small things, things that won’t be missed, appear. Probably why I’m a chainsmoker now.”
When he tried to clarify that wasn’t what he wanted to say, the woman just shrugged, and sat down in the middle of thin air. “Well, you said it, and I answered.” she told him, blowing more smoke into the air and snuffing out her cigarette on her arm, pulling out another one. After lighting it, Callidora leaned back, thinking of how to best answer his question, her tongue clicking filling up the space.
“This is MY werewolf. Go get your own.”
“Well, your Whisper wanted me to show it you were gonna survive, so I did,” she told the boy, chuckling, “Of course, looks like I was wrong, and you went and got yourself killed. Nasty. I was kind of hoping you’d have the wound when you showed up, but you’re not dead, and it doesn’t work like that, unfortunately for me.” More smoke, and then a click.
“How’d I die…. Well, you know your sister’s f*ckin boyfriend? That dragon? He did it, knifed me with a poison knife through the eye and that was that.” She laughed, but it sounded different from her usual laughter. “I was going back to Colsar with Felicity, trying to save my sister’s sorry a**, and you as collateral, when he sort of pounced on her and tried to get her blood.”
Callidora clicked her tongue as she thought about it, the anger she was feeling in that moment. “I got defensive. Shocker, I have feelings too. Told him to f*ck off, and he threw a knife at me. My dumba** wife wouldn’t get the antidote from him, she was so pssed, and now here we are. I’m dead, you’ll probably die the same kind of death as me, and let me tell you, poisoning deaths are not fun.”
Lucine remained quiet as the woman gave her hand a soft squeeze, listening to her words. They were slightly reassuring to her, and yet.. She still felt as though a great debt was owed. She found herself smiling when Uphira mentioned that Callum seemed to determined. Yes, that sounds like my Callum… she thought to herself, looking away from the woman and at the sleeping, peaceful boy. She tried not to let the worry that was in her chest show on the surface, and hoped that she was succeeding. Her shaking hand told her otherwise, and she was glad for a moment that her prosthetic didn’t shake. She drew her hand gingerly away from Uphira and placed it on her lap, prying her eyes away from her boyfriend when the lady chuckled.
When the lady continued, speaking on how Callum had talked about her, she felt color rising to her cheeks. It was sweet, to know that he had talked about her, and described her in a way like that to someone else, though she wasn’t sure she agreed. Still, she nodded in response to Uphira and looked at the boy, smiling.
“Well, I’ll have to thank him for speaking well of me when he wakes.” Lucine said playfully, turning back to Uphira, “And thank you, once again, for everything.”
The smell of different herbs began to fill the room, from the tea Lucine had been making, and she stood up quickly, crossing over to the desk and taking the warm cup in both of her hands. It had been for Callum, to soothe any remaining nausea and prevent any newcoming one, but as he was asleep, she just had to try and make sure it didn’t get too cold before he woke up. She looked over to Serilda and Uphira, and saw the masked woman had her mouth drawn in a thin line, like she was thinking about something.
“Uphira,” Lucine began, placing the teacup down on the desk and looking over at the lady sitting on the floor. Serilda looked up slightly, and Lucine assumed her gaze had turned towards the lady as well.
“Were you… were you present when your friend was injected with the toxin?” she asked, thinking back to the non-human presence she had felt and the utterance of the anti-vampiric words. Uphira’s friend seemed to be a shapeshifter, not a vampire, so she was unsure why he had been struck aswell. It certainly put down Serilda’s theory- she could tell the other woman had come to the same conclusion.
“When.. when Callum was struck, we were in a forest.” Lucine told her, recalling the events, “And before he was struck, we heard a voice, saying something about ‘vein-diggers’, making me believe the dart was intended for me, as, well, to most people I am considered a ‘vein-digger’. I also felt a sort of non-human presence, like it wasn’t a vampire hunter after us- something much more fearful. I was wondering if there was a similar presence..?”
When the boy standing before her finally turned his head around, the half-vampire gave him a fanged grin, tilting her head. A curl fell out of the bun on the back of her head and toppled over her shoulder, and she didn’t seem to notice. She just watched his reaction to her appearence- her gruesome looking eye and the stab wound in her hand. When she noticed he was looking at it, she held it up for him to see, turning it over so he could look at both sides.
“Nice handiwork,” she told him, looking at the wound that he himself had given her, clenching her fist, “Clean stab all the way through. The a**hole who did this-” she took the same hand and pointed to her empty eyesocket, “Could have been a bit cleaner, but it’s fine.”
She watched his expression, trying to read him, but above everything he just seemed confused. That didn’t surprise Callidora at all, the boy had always struck her as a bit of an airhead, but a very loyal airhead. He reminded her of her own lover, in that regard. Loyal airheads. She laughed again, to break the silence, and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of seemingly nowhere. Placing one between her teeth, she paused for a moment before finishing her earlier thought.
“On the topic of you talking to yourself, they do say couples tend to pick up each other’s quirks as they stay together.” The woman lit her cigarette and took a long draw from it, blowing the smoke up into the air. “Though, if I start scratching myself behind the ear with my foot, just come put me down.” She laughed at her own joke, then clicked her tongue, and waited for him to start rattling off the inevitable questions.
His first, was simply, who Virginia was. That was easy to answer, and she did so after taking another long draw from her cigarette, this time blowing the smoke out in rings. She had been practicing that, and she was a bit proud of herself for pulling it off. “You know, Virginia, my kid. Dark hair. You’ve met. Got herself into a real pickle with a time mage, my gods. I guess that’s what happens when you let humans and werewolves raise your baby, though. No offense.” She clicked her tongue again, this time to try and alleviate a weird guilty feeling she was having.
His next question, was whether or not she was an Entity- the same species as that creature who used to follow him around and was now gods know where. She laughed at that too, reaching over and placing a pale finger on the tip of the boy’s nose. “I’m not an entity, just dead.” she said casually, giving him another fanged grin. She then pulled herself back and looked around, at the dark mass engulfing them.
“This is my purgatory.” she said, gesturing, “you had one, but I doubt you remember it, you were dead for all of five minutes, more or less. I can do anything I want in here, including teleportation, to answer that question.” Callidora blew smoke in his face, smiling, “and I can make small things, things that won’t be missed, appear. Probably why I’m a chainsmoker now.”
When he tried to clarify that wasn’t what he wanted to say, the woman just shrugged, and sat down in the middle of thin air. “Well, you said it, and I answered.” she told him, blowing more smoke into the air and snuffing out her cigarette on her arm, pulling out another one. After lighting it, Callidora leaned back, thinking of how to best answer his question, her tongue clicking filling up the space.
“This is MY werewolf. Go get your own.”
“Well, your Whisper wanted me to show it you were gonna survive, so I did,” she told the boy, chuckling, “Of course, looks like I was wrong, and you went and got yourself killed. Nasty. I was kind of hoping you’d have the wound when you showed up, but you’re not dead, and it doesn’t work like that, unfortunately for me.” More smoke, and then a click.
“How’d I die…. Well, you know your sister’s f*ckin boyfriend? That dragon? He did it, knifed me with a poison knife through the eye and that was that.” She laughed, but it sounded different from her usual laughter. “I was going back to Colsar with Felicity, trying to save my sister’s sorry a**, and you as collateral, when he sort of pounced on her and tried to get her blood.”
Callidora clicked her tongue as she thought about it, the anger she was feeling in that moment. “I got defensive. Shocker, I have feelings too. Told him to f*ck off, and he threw a knife at me. My dumba** wife wouldn’t get the antidote from him, she was so pssed, and now here we are. I’m dead, you’ll probably die the same kind of death as me, and let me tell you, poisoning deaths are not fun.”
Uphira chuckled in response to Lucine saying she would thank Callum when he woke up. "I'm sure he would love that," she commented. She only nodded when she was thanked for her help. "You're very welcome, Lucine."
Her nerves were calming down as the scent of herbs filled her nostrils. It reminded her of something she missed at the moment. It wasn't something she had left for good, but it was something she looked forward to returning to. She thought of her home; a secluded, cozy place. A place she always felt safe in, no matter what. It was always as if some sort of enchantment gave her that calmness, yet she always felt that it was natural. She couldn't think of anywhere better for her to live.
A cabin with warm colors painting its surroundings. During the day, bright green grass swayed in the perfect breeze. Rays of sunlight were split into mesmerizing fragments by trees with light brown trunks and leaves almost as bright as the grass. Birds would flutter about, and dragonflies would come in perfectly scattered swarms. It was her definition of a perfect home.
It was a shame that she didn't know how it looked during the darkest hours of night.
She took a deep breath, hearing her name come from Lucine. She looked at the girl as the question was asked. She hadn't glanced back at Serilda yet, but if she had, she might've been confused by the woman's expression. Besides, she was too busy trying to remember the information she needed to answer Lucine's question. More worry gathered in her eyes.
She looked straight at Lucine when she began to explain the circumstances of the moment the boy was hit by the poisonous dart. They had been in a forest, and something had been there. Something that had uttered a slanderous name referring to vampires. When that was explained to her, a severe shudder shot down her back. There was no way for her to hide it completely. Something akin to pain formed behind her eyes for about two seconds before it faded. She didn't make any noises to back it up.
What do you think of those Vein-Diggers, sweetheart?
Oh? You don't hate the beasts?
Oh, don't worry... you will soon enough...
When they're everywhere you turn.
Uphira didn't know it, but she was shaking. Her eyes nearly flashed for just a moment, and only the attentive would notice. Her mind progressively refocused on what it was doing before, doing nothing to stop her quivering. Her body temperature felt colder, including her skin. The coldness made her feel uncomfortable. But she had to answer the question and remain calm.
"Was I there...?" she repeated, sighing quietly as she thought. Calm down, Uphira. Keep yourself calm...
"Unfortunately, I wasn't. I received my information from the person who is to meet me here, who received it from the victim's brother. He claimed that they were in a forest, having just completed some sort of task. He said the temperature became cold all of a sudden, and an equally chilling presence was felt. He said it felt like something much more than non-human. They too had heard a voice, but it didn't mention anything about... you know, those words you heard. It mentioned feral beasts... and then the victim was hit before he could do anything."
Sadness glazed over her eyes. "He's young, too... both of them are," she added. "They're both only fifteen years old. I can't imagine what this is doing to Syn right now. I just hope he doesn't let this get to his head."
She paused for a moment before turning to look at Serilda. "Do you know any sellers at the black market? Maybe anyone who might be selling something like this?" she asked the masked woman, tilting her head slightly.
Callum didn't know how to react to Callidora showing him her hand and commenting on how clean of a wound he made. What was one supposed to say? You're welcome for hurting you? That sounded a bit sadistic to him. He kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything, though he kept a confused look on his face. His eyes darted to her wounded eye next. She brought up that someone made it that way, so it wasn't self-inflicted. He wasn't sure why she would stab herself in the eye, even if guilt could've led someone to do such a thing.
He was startled when she laughed again, visibly twitching. I look pathetic right now, he chided himself. He was near adulthood, he could be more... tough than this. Especially with what he had been through. He stared curiously at whatever it was she pulled out. Some kind of box with... what were those? She had stuck one in her mouth, and blow was blown out when she inhaled with the object still in her mouth. She had even lit it with something that could generate a flame before doing so.
"What the f**k?" he muttered out loud. He couldn't see himself, but he must look like the most confused person in the world right now, surely. He had never seen anyone with those... things before. Why was she even using that sort of thing? Wouldn't the smoke damage her lungs? He shook his head slightly, his mind wandering back to the forest fire. He remembered barely being able to draw a normal breath of oxygen, even when they were out of the forest and into the swamp. The Whisper had still been in there at the time, saving Felicity and just barely making it into the swamp with Raphael and Thalia.
He was drawn out of his mind when he heard Callidora's joke. Knowing that Felicity was her wife allowed him to laugh a bit. There was a point in his life when he never thought he would genuinely laugh because of Callidora - which admittedly wasn't all that long ago - but that point was erased to him. He preferred not to let that part of his life rule him.
"Dunno how I'm gonna do that if you're already dead, but okay," he replied, collecting himself and stopping his chuckling. He still had a smile on his face as he thought more about that joke. He listened as Virginia was explained to him, mentally face-palming. Of course he knew Virginia... did he perhaps forget when he had to be cursed again? The first time he was cursed, some of his memories had been stolen from him, leaving blank spaces in his mind. He didn't know.
"Time mage?" he whispered, looking concerned for a moment. He also frowned momentarily before he wiped it off of his face. "None taken," he added, crossing his arms. "Though, that doesn't sound good. I wish I could do something about it, but unfortunately, as a puny might-as-well-not-be-a-mage human, I can't, and I may just hate myself for it."
I hope she's alright... he thought to himself. He wondered if Callidora could read his mind. He sure hoped not, but it was possible. If she could teleport around the place and seemingly have access to the future, it was plausible to assume that she was a mind-reader.
Those brief thoughts faded when he felt a finger on the tip of his nose, blinking once in surprise. He managed to keep his face from turning even a little red. He hadn't meant to ask her if she was an Entity along the same lines as the Whisper; more like what the Spirits were... or maybe not. He really didn't have a comparison. He just stared at her fanged grin blankly. That grin no longer automatically brought out a negative reaction from him.
He listened as she explained where they were. Apparently, he had a purgatory at some point. He remembered absolutely nothing about it. He just remembered that sharp blade slicing through his flesh, destroying his heart, freezing his soul... and then he woke up in a different place, in a different condition, and as a different person.
When smoke was blown in his face, he coughed into his fist momentarily, closing his eyes to prevent them from stinging or watering. He didn't know what being a chainsmoker meant, but it was probable to assume that it meant repeatedly doing whatever Callidora was doing... blowing smoke thanks to some sort of small object. F**k it, he didn't know.
He remained silent as Callidora began to respond to his comment about her meeting with the Whisper. He frowned a bit. Looks like I was wrong...? he thought in confusion. So he was apparently supposed to survive, and for some reason the future was altered. He had no idea what she was talking about. However, he knew his death was partially his fault, because he was too naive to shut his mouth. He had survived before, and he let that get to his head. Apparently, he hadn't remembered what happened the last time he was defiant like that during the moment of him going against what the God wanted.
He lifted a hand up and grasped his shirt slightly, the hand hovering over where his heart was. His clothes hid a large, deep scar that had already blackened by the time he first woke up as a hybrid. Sometimes, he swore the scar hurt a little. "Well... um, if you really want to see the scar, couldn't you just snap your fingers and make my cloak and shirt disappear or somethin'?" he asked. Suddenly, he regretted his words. His face heated up to the point of almost being dark red.
"Um, okay, I didn't mean to word it like that," he added quickly, nearly stumbling over his words. He covered his face with one hand. "By the Spirits, this is embarrassing... ugh..."
He shut himself up as soon as he heard the beginning of an explanation from Callidora. She was explaining how she died now, and he made himself listen. To say he wasn't shocked by what he heard would be a lie. His mind suddenly focused on Raph. He didn't know much about the dragon, other than the fact that his sister happened to love him very much. To his knowledge, she didn't even know about this.
He felt conflicted that this point. He sincerely hoped his confusing emotional state wouldn't affect anything around him, as it would in his own mind. He didn't want to die that way. He felt selfish for thinking that, but maybe, just maybe, he should stop being so selfless all the time. If he didn't care for himself at least a little bit, he wouldn't be the only one paying for it.
"The poison sure isn't fun right now," he whispered, lowering his gaze to the ground. "I mean, the effects have stopped for now, but I... I don't think it's just disappeared from my bloodstream. I know I can't die again. I'm sure you know what'll happen if that happens... but I'm sorry about that. And I'm sorry for treating you like s**t, while I'm at it. I got defensive too, and I'm sorry. Maybe it was also because you reminded me of my brother, who slit my throat when I was eleven years old and pushed me around even before that."
He looked up at Callidora as he spoke. There was concern and questioning in his eyes, even hesitation. "Lucine wants to take me home," he began to explain. He paused to let out a saddened sigh before continuing with what he was going to say. "She wants to abandon this quest, go home, and... and I think she wants to end questing in general. I can tell she doesn't want me to argue... and she wants to keep me safe... but as far as I'm aware, you guys have a father out there, and that's why we left in the first place. I feel like everything that led her to make the decision to abandon the quest is my fault.
"Is your father still out there?" he asked, his heart beating faster in his chest. He swore the scar over it throbbed a little. "Could you give me confirmation of some sort? Please?"
Uphira chuckled in response to Lucine saying she would thank Callum when he woke up. "I'm sure he would love that," she commented. She only nodded when she was thanked for her help. "You're very welcome, Lucine."
Her nerves were calming down as the scent of herbs filled her nostrils. It reminded her of something she missed at the moment. It wasn't something she had left for good, but it was something she looked forward to returning to. She thought of her home; a secluded, cozy place. A place she always felt safe in, no matter what. It was always as if some sort of enchantment gave her that calmness, yet she always felt that it was natural. She couldn't think of anywhere better for her to live.
A cabin with warm colors painting its surroundings. During the day, bright green grass swayed in the perfect breeze. Rays of sunlight were split into mesmerizing fragments by trees with light brown trunks and leaves almost as bright as the grass. Birds would flutter about, and dragonflies would come in perfectly scattered swarms. It was her definition of a perfect home.
It was a shame that she didn't know how it looked during the darkest hours of night.
She took a deep breath, hearing her name come from Lucine. She looked at the girl as the question was asked. She hadn't glanced back at Serilda yet, but if she had, she might've been confused by the woman's expression. Besides, she was too busy trying to remember the information she needed to answer Lucine's question. More worry gathered in her eyes.
She looked straight at Lucine when she began to explain the circumstances of the moment the boy was hit by the poisonous dart. They had been in a forest, and something had been there. Something that had uttered a slanderous name referring to vampires. When that was explained to her, a severe shudder shot down her back. There was no way for her to hide it completely. Something akin to pain formed behind her eyes for about two seconds before it faded. She didn't make any noises to back it up.
What do you think of those Vein-Diggers, sweetheart?
Oh? You don't hate the beasts?
Oh, don't worry... you will soon enough...
When they're everywhere you turn.
Uphira didn't know it, but she was shaking. Her eyes nearly flashed for just a moment, and only the attentive would notice. Her mind progressively refocused on what it was doing before, doing nothing to stop her quivering. Her body temperature felt colder, including her skin. The coldness made her feel uncomfortable. But she had to answer the question and remain calm.
"Was I there...?" she repeated, sighing quietly as she thought. Calm down, Uphira. Keep yourself calm...
"Unfortunately, I wasn't. I received my information from the person who is to meet me here, who received it from the victim's brother. He claimed that they were in a forest, having just completed some sort of task. He said the temperature became cold all of a sudden, and an equally chilling presence was felt. He said it felt like something much more than non-human. They too had heard a voice, but it didn't mention anything about... you know, those words you heard. It mentioned feral beasts... and then the victim was hit before he could do anything."
Sadness glazed over her eyes. "He's young, too... both of them are," she added. "They're both only fifteen years old. I can't imagine what this is doing to Syn right now. I just hope he doesn't let this get to his head."
She paused for a moment before turning to look at Serilda. "Do you know any sellers at the black market? Maybe anyone who might be selling something like this?" she asked the masked woman, tilting her head slightly.
Callum didn't know how to react to Callidora showing him her hand and commenting on how clean of a wound he made. What was one supposed to say? You're welcome for hurting you? That sounded a bit sadistic to him. He kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything, though he kept a confused look on his face. His eyes darted to her wounded eye next. She brought up that someone made it that way, so it wasn't self-inflicted. He wasn't sure why she would stab herself in the eye, even if guilt could've led someone to do such a thing.
He was startled when she laughed again, visibly twitching. I look pathetic right now, he chided himself. He was near adulthood, he could be more... tough than this. Especially with what he had been through. He stared curiously at whatever it was she pulled out. Some kind of box with... what were those? She had stuck one in her mouth, and blow was blown out when she inhaled with the object still in her mouth. She had even lit it with something that could generate a flame before doing so.
"What the f**k?" he muttered out loud. He couldn't see himself, but he must look like the most confused person in the world right now, surely. He had never seen anyone with those... things before. Why was she even using that sort of thing? Wouldn't the smoke damage her lungs? He shook his head slightly, his mind wandering back to the forest fire. He remembered barely being able to draw a normal breath of oxygen, even when they were out of the forest and into the swamp. The Whisper had still been in there at the time, saving Felicity and just barely making it into the swamp with Raphael and Thalia.
He was drawn out of his mind when he heard Callidora's joke. Knowing that Felicity was her wife allowed him to laugh a bit. There was a point in his life when he never thought he would genuinely laugh because of Callidora - which admittedly wasn't all that long ago - but that point was erased to him. He preferred not to let that part of his life rule him.
"Dunno how I'm gonna do that if you're already dead, but okay," he replied, collecting himself and stopping his chuckling. He still had a smile on his face as he thought more about that joke. He listened as Virginia was explained to him, mentally face-palming. Of course he knew Virginia... did he perhaps forget when he had to be cursed again? The first time he was cursed, some of his memories had been stolen from him, leaving blank spaces in his mind. He didn't know.
"Time mage?" he whispered, looking concerned for a moment. He also frowned momentarily before he wiped it off of his face. "None taken," he added, crossing his arms. "Though, that doesn't sound good. I wish I could do something about it, but unfortunately, as a puny might-as-well-not-be-a-mage human, I can't, and I may just hate myself for it."
I hope she's alright... he thought to himself. He wondered if Callidora could read his mind. He sure hoped not, but it was possible. If she could teleport around the place and seemingly have access to the future, it was plausible to assume that she was a mind-reader.
Those brief thoughts faded when he felt a finger on the tip of his nose, blinking once in surprise. He managed to keep his face from turning even a little red. He hadn't meant to ask her if she was an Entity along the same lines as the Whisper; more like what the Spirits were... or maybe not. He really didn't have a comparison. He just stared at her fanged grin blankly. That grin no longer automatically brought out a negative reaction from him.
He listened as she explained where they were. Apparently, he had a purgatory at some point. He remembered absolutely nothing about it. He just remembered that sharp blade slicing through his flesh, destroying his heart, freezing his soul... and then he woke up in a different place, in a different condition, and as a different person.
When smoke was blown in his face, he coughed into his fist momentarily, closing his eyes to prevent them from stinging or watering. He didn't know what being a chainsmoker meant, but it was probable to assume that it meant repeatedly doing whatever Callidora was doing... blowing smoke thanks to some sort of small object. F**k it, he didn't know.
He remained silent as Callidora began to respond to his comment about her meeting with the Whisper. He frowned a bit. Looks like I was wrong...? he thought in confusion. So he was apparently supposed to survive, and for some reason the future was altered. He had no idea what she was talking about. However, he knew his death was partially his fault, because he was too naive to shut his mouth. He had survived before, and he let that get to his head. Apparently, he hadn't remembered what happened the last time he was defiant like that during the moment of him going against what the God wanted.
He lifted a hand up and grasped his shirt slightly, the hand hovering over where his heart was. His clothes hid a large, deep scar that had already blackened by the time he first woke up as a hybrid. Sometimes, he swore the scar hurt a little. "Well... um, if you really want to see the scar, couldn't you just snap your fingers and make my cloak and shirt disappear or somethin'?" he asked. Suddenly, he regretted his words. His face heated up to the point of almost being dark red.
"Um, okay, I didn't mean to word it like that," he added quickly, nearly stumbling over his words. He covered his face with one hand. "By the Spirits, this is embarrassing... ugh..."
He shut himself up as soon as he heard the beginning of an explanation from Callidora. She was explaining how she died now, and he made himself listen. To say he wasn't shocked by what he heard would be a lie. His mind suddenly focused on Raph. He didn't know much about the dragon, other than the fact that his sister happened to love him very much. To his knowledge, she didn't even know about this.
He felt conflicted that this point. He sincerely hoped his confusing emotional state wouldn't affect anything around him, as it would in his own mind. He didn't want to die that way. He felt selfish for thinking that, but maybe, just maybe, he should stop being so selfless all the time. If he didn't care for himself at least a little bit, he wouldn't be the only one paying for it.
"The poison sure isn't fun right now," he whispered, lowering his gaze to the ground. "I mean, the effects have stopped for now, but I... I don't think it's just disappeared from my bloodstream. I know I can't die again. I'm sure you know what'll happen if that happens... but I'm sorry about that. And I'm sorry for treating you like s**t, while I'm at it. I got defensive too, and I'm sorry. Maybe it was also because you reminded me of my brother, who slit my throat when I was eleven years old and pushed me around even before that."
He looked up at Callidora as he spoke. There was concern and questioning in his eyes, even hesitation. "Lucine wants to take me home," he began to explain. He paused to let out a saddened sigh before continuing with what he was going to say. "She wants to abandon this quest, go home, and... and I think she wants to end questing in general. I can tell she doesn't want me to argue... and she wants to keep me safe... but as far as I'm aware, you guys have a father out there, and that's why we left in the first place. I feel like everything that led her to make the decision to abandon the quest is my fault.
"Is your father still out there?" he asked, his heart beating faster in his chest. He swore the scar over it throbbed a little. "Could you give me confirmation of some sort? Please?"
The young girl waited for Uphira to finish answering her question, yellow eyes watching the woman. She wasn’t sure if it was just her over analyzing the situation, but she was fairly certain that Uphira had become incredibly uncomfortable upon her asking, especially at the use of the rather upsetting words. The masked woman standing behind her tilted her head slightly, as if she noticed the same thing as well- though being a werewolf, her senses were probably higher than Lucine’s.
The girl listened as the woman began, as though she was trying to remember if she was there or not. This obviously struck Lucine as a little odd- either she was there or she wasn’t. However, she remembered that she herself gets a little fumbly with her memory when she becomes flustered, and let it slide, waiting for the woman to finish.
When she finally explained, the description seemed very similar to the description of their own attack, right down to the slurs, but this time they weren’t directed at vampires, as the one who was targeted wasn’t a vampire, but a shapeshifter. Lucine made a small noise as she finished, and then bowed her head at the mention of the boy’s ages. They were both young indeed, and Lucine felt pity for them. She remained quiet as the focus was turned to Serilda, the masked woman raising her head as she was addressed.
“Okay,” Serilda said, sitting on the floor next to where Uphira was, crossing her arms. “Sellers… I get most of my sh*t from Don, he runs a market that’s really big on weapons. Stuff you can’t get anywhere else, custom sh*t, etc etc. Don’s not his real name, but nobody knows what it really is, privacy stuff. Anyway, I doubt it’s Don, he doesn’t deal with poisons and stuff. For a black market seller, he’s a pretty good dude- helped me and Kylie out a lot at one point.” The masked woman thought for a moment, racking her brain. Who had Don talked about before? He was in pretty hot competition with some other markets, and because his was small, run by him, and nonmobile, he was in big danger of being taken over.
“There’s the Black Foxes,” she said, thinking, and then nodded to herself, “They’re pretty big. If you’ve dealt with a black market, odds are you’ve dealt with the Foxes. They’ve got it all- Weapons, damn good moonshine, and I’ll bet you they could get you a toxin like that, they know pretty much all the mixers.” Serilda thought for a moment about where the closest outpost was. “They’ve got outposts all over the place, where you can go in and actually get stuff, but you can also get stuff brought to you from another outpost. They’ve got a lot of people working for them, and as you can imagine, they make bank.”
“But I can’t go to one of their outposts, they hate me.” She added, almost regretting that she had. Back before she realized she didn’t have just herself to look out for anymore, she had done something stupid to try and help Don out, something impulsive. Kylie’s screams were still imprinted in the back of her mind. Never again.
“That set of darts seems custom, though.” Serilda said, nodding to herself, “Especially since they’re a set, you don’t just custom order a single. Black Fox doesn’t do custom, at least not the last time I checked. Mixers don’t like custom, not high end ones like those that work with Fox. There’s Muse, they specialize in toxins and darts, but I doubt they do custom either- a good mixer who’ll do custom is hard to find, and damn near impossible without the black market as a middleman, so I doubt whoevers firing the darts found them itself.”
“There is a slight probability the darts aren’t customs, though,” Lucine spoke up, watching Serilda. The masked woman considered that, and nodded.
“If we get desperate, we could try Muse and Black Fox, see if they have anything like this.” Serilda commented. She couldn’t think of any other big ones that would do a dart, everything else was crazy obscure, and a few were way too hard to find unless you already had roots in the market. Then again, the attacker could’ve had roots.
“Hey, Uphira, why don’t we get out of here.” Serilda said to her, turning to look at the woman. She could tell she was feeling uncomfortable, and kind of wanted to get her some fresh air. She wasn’t sure where the kindness was coming from. “I’ve left Kylie by herself for way too long, she probably blew something up, and you’ve got that friend coming. Let’s leave this two alone for when the kid wakes up.”
Serilda stood, grunting as she pushed herself up, and held out a hand to help the other woman stand.
Callidora clicked her tongue at the boy’s reaction to her cigarettes, holding one up for him to see. “This? This kid, is a cigarette- they calm me down so I don’t go crazy all locked up in here.” She clicked her tongue again, knowing full well if she wanted to leave she could. She was just waiting for someone.
When the boy commented on her daughter’s situation, referring to himself as puny, the half-vampire just raised an eyebrow, looking at him curiously. She took a long drag, blew it out, and then tilted her head at him, as though she was questioning his self loathing without words. She just sighed and sat back, waiting for him to continue asking his questions.
When he asked his question about her just snapping her fingers and making his shirt disappear, she just raised both her brows, and then began to laugh at him, as though he was really really stupid. Crossing her legs, she leaned over and observed his red face, taking on a teasing tone. “I’m fairly certain my baby sister wouldn’t appreciate that.” she said playfully, giving him a wink, “and unfortunately, I don’t think I’d appreciate it either.”
It was weird to be actually talking to the kid. Her assumptions about him being kind of an airhead were right, but there was something very endearing about it. She could easily see why he and Lucine were so happy together.
When the boy began to talk about the effects of his poisoning, Callidora just nodded, as though she understood exactly what he was saying. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when the kid went on to.. Apologize to her. For treating her like sh*t, she guessed. She just blew smoke from her mouth and processed the apology.
It felt weird, to be seriously apologized to. She’d never really had anyone apologize to her before, at least, not of their own will, but here was this kid, this dumba** kid, apologizing to her, for treating her badly, as if she didn’t try to kill him and his girlfriend and probably ruined his life forever by being the reason he was eventually marked. She didn’t really know how to respond to that.
“Your brother wishes he could be me,” she said coyly, giving a very weak smile, “I mean, slitting throats is for pssies. Rule one of being a pirate.” She inhaled a ton of smoke to mask the fact that she was about to start clicking her tongue at rapid speed. Damn, she did feel awkward.
She listened to Callum plea and stopped, exhaling and snuffing out the cigarette, grabbing another one and throwing the butt at Callum. Sighing, the older half vampire lit the new one and leaned back into nothingness, thinking about her father.
“Damn right she wants to take you home.” Callidora finally said, staring up at the nothingness above her, “My sister’s smart. She doesn’t f*ck around with posions.” Callidora clicked her tongue again, sighing, “But she also doesn’t f*ck around with her family. Our dad’s alive, but if I tell you where he is, then doesn’t that ruin the fun?” She let out a dry laugh.
“Just do what she says. She’ll come around. She always comes around if she feels like there’s someone to save.”
Kylie was bored.
The blonde was cooped up in the room, sitting in the chair next to the table that held the vampire’s belongings. She didn’t know why she had to be here, there was no way any of them would get stolen. Nobody wanted to come to this dumb inn anyway- that’s what Serilda had said when she picked it. The girl was getting tired of Serilda being all secretive. She wasn’t as young as she had been when they first met, she was 13 now, and she was old enough to know who exactly Serilda was looking for.
”They’re important,” Serilda had told her when she asked, “I have some questions to ask them. Now, you don’t ask again. I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Well, Kylie WAS older, and she still didn’t know, and Serilda was hiding whatever was wrong with the boy from her to. It was like Serilda had forgotten she wouldn’t even be here if Kylie hadn’t helped her. And it hurt, it hurt a lot to help her, and Kylie was tired of Serilda using her to get places and then casting her aside. Serilda didn’t want to protect her. She was just trying to protect her mysteriousness.
But then again, Serilda was the closest thing Kylie had ever had to a mother, or a family…
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the small leather journal sitting on the table, just begging to be opened. If she read that, she’d know exactly what was going on, and Serilda wouldn’t have to tell her. She wouldn’t have to wait to know. But Kylie knew that journal wasn’t hers, it was the vampire’s, and Serilda would be ****** with her, and the vampire would probably be upset too, and Kylie could tell from the sadness that the vampire had in her eyes, that she was trying really really hard to hide, she was already upset about a lot of things.
Still, a peek wouldn’t hurt anybody.
She reached over and grabbed the journal from the table, holding it in her small hands. Flipping through it, she saw that it was mainly just drawings of plants, with scientific names and information, properties and whatnot. However, as she digged further, she found a small section in the back of the book, where the handwriting looked messier than it normally did. She was intrigued, and began to read.
#1
These shall not be dated. I have lost my grip on time, and I am unsure of the day, month, or year.
I have not eaten anything since she took me. I have not had anything to drink since she took me. I can feel my heart pounding in my own ears, my body telling me to drink, drink quickly or you will snap, and never return, but I am okay with never returning.
I have not left the room provided to me since I have arrived at this house. I have said only a few words to its’ owner, her brother, but he looked at me with a strange pity in his eyes I did not fancy. I do not wish to be pitied.
She has spoken to me, once, twice, through the door, trying to coax me to eat something, drink a squirrel, come out and have a wash. I plan to rot in here until I am over.
Kylie blinked her eyes as she read.
#2
I wrote another letter today. I cried while doing it, however I seem to be crying a lot more recently than I was before. Probably due to a hormonal imbalance. There is no use crying on what cannot be changed.
She tried to get me to come down again. I ignored her this time, hoping she would go away. She compared me to my sister, and I became so furious at that I called her good for nothing, a drunk who abandoned their child. She went away, and I sat in the room, scratching the walls. I am going to snap very soon, and break through the window.
#6
Three more letters today. First was about a bird I saw outside the window, it was very lovely, and I wished he could have seen it. I use a different tone in my letters, you see, I don’t wish for him to worry about me. If he saw me in the state I am in, there would most certainly be an incident. But the bird was very lovely, and I thought he should know about it, wherever he is.
I keep knocking myself out with things in the room, hoping that I will see him in my dream, but it is always the same. I always stab myself, and awaken, and feel disappointed that he is nowhere to be found, even if it is only a mirage.
#17
They broke into my room today.
Felicity and her brother, who I finally was able to take a good look at, broke down the door with something sharp and dragged me out. They forced me to eat a potato, I would only eat one, and then I was forced to drink the blood of a rabbit they had killed the night before. I felt horrible afterwards, but my mind was clearer, and I suppose that was not so bad, for it gave me an idea.
She raided my room, and took away all the things I had been using to knock myself out, had me explain to her what I had been doing with them. After that, she just stared at me, sadly, and I wondered for a brief moment if she understood.
I locked myself away again after that, but now I have work to do.
The young girl reading looked up to make sure nobody was coming, before reading more.
#21
I feel slightly lightheaded after taking today’s sample. I have been taking many lately, just small ones, because I don’t want to work with too much. That will become unmanageable, and I certainly cannot have that, not here.
I requested some herbs from her brother, as I didn’t want to go outside myself. He tried to force me to come as well, but I told him I would just burn in the sun. This was partially true, but he either believed me or no longer felt like arguing, because he left and returned with many herbs- and an apple.
I returned the apple to him and locked him out, setting to work.
#28
I have done it.
After many, many attempts, and many different combinations, I have managed to separate a small amount of human blood away from my own, vampric blood. I believe this will only work on those who have human in them, as there had to be human to seperate, but I have succeeded in this regard.
I only wonder how much it would take to separate a whole person’s blood, and how the excess would be removed. I imagine it would be slightly painful, and probably very dangerous. I am likely to die.
But, there is a small chance I will survive, and that I can help others like me.
I must take the risk.
Kylie’s hands were shaking as she held the journal, reading it over. She thought she understood, that the girl was trying to make herself human. But why? Kylie kept reading.
#30
I have not written a letter in a very long time, I have been so busy. However, I wrote one today, just to assure him I’m doing alright. I don’t want him to worry about me anymore, and I only said that I am making something that will help so many. I want him to be proud of me.
I miss him.
#32
They found my research.
I hadn’t eaten in a while, so they broke in again, and found me hunched over my samples, a large one this time, and she freaked out. She actually picked me up and hugged me, and the touch felt so foreign after this long. She kept apologizing, and I wasn’t sure what it was for, but she kept saying she had let it get way too bad.
That’s when I realized she was apologizing, both to me and to Callidora.
They destroyed it in front of me. All of my work. They ripped the pages from my journal where I documented it Kylie noted that a few pages seemed to be removed, and destroyed my samples. I was heartbroken.
They forced me to eat again, and drink more disgusting blood, and now I must sleep on the floor in Felicity’s room, where she can keep an eye on me. I feel as though I am a small child.
#37
I became very anxious after not writing a letter in so long. I knew he would be worried about me, and so I complained to her brother, because I knew she would reject this behavior. He, however, seemed to understand, and within a few minutes he had brought me all the letters I had written, and the materials to write a new one.
I wrote one, a very last one, and then he forced me to walk with him to a river near the edge of town. We waited until after dark, so I would have no excuses. When we got there, he took a letter from me, and began to fold it into a boat. I was incredibly confused, and seeing as I currently have only one hand, I was unsure if he wanted me to copy or not. When he finished, he placed the letter in the river, and we watched it float away.
“How will they reach him, if you never send them?” He asked. I then realized I had never remembered his name, and asked him for it, somewhat out of the blue. His name is Alfred.
He helped me to finish folding the letters- he folded them for me and I placed them all in the water, watching them float away, hoping they would at least metaphorically reach who they were addressed to.
When they disappeared, he handed me an apple, and told me to eat. I did, and we walked back to the house together.
Kylie finished reading, that was where the entries ended, and closed the book, placing it on the table. She felt jumpy now, and also a bit sad. Sad for the vampire.
When she thought she heard footsteps in the hall, she jumped for a moment, and suddenly, everything around her seemed to freeze. There was no longer a draft, no birds chirping outside, and world around her seemed dulled.
Kylie sighed and scrunched up her eyes, unfreezing the world around her, as time continued its’ flow. The mage tended to freeze things when she got jumpy, or when she wanted to hide, but never for too long. She always felt sick if she froze for too long.
She just wished she could speed up time.
The young girl waited for Uphira to finish answering her question, yellow eyes watching the woman. She wasn’t sure if it was just her over analyzing the situation, but she was fairly certain that Uphira had become incredibly uncomfortable upon her asking, especially at the use of the rather upsetting words. The masked woman standing behind her tilted her head slightly, as if she noticed the same thing as well- though being a werewolf, her senses were probably higher than Lucine’s.
The girl listened as the woman began, as though she was trying to remember if she was there or not. This obviously struck Lucine as a little odd- either she was there or she wasn’t. However, she remembered that she herself gets a little fumbly with her memory when she becomes flustered, and let it slide, waiting for the woman to finish.
When she finally explained, the description seemed very similar to the description of their own attack, right down to the slurs, but this time they weren’t directed at vampires, as the one who was targeted wasn’t a vampire, but a shapeshifter. Lucine made a small noise as she finished, and then bowed her head at the mention of the boy’s ages. They were both young indeed, and Lucine felt pity for them. She remained quiet as the focus was turned to Serilda, the masked woman raising her head as she was addressed.
“Okay,” Serilda said, sitting on the floor next to where Uphira was, crossing her arms. “Sellers… I get most of my sh*t from Don, he runs a market that’s really big on weapons. Stuff you can’t get anywhere else, custom sh*t, etc etc. Don’s not his real name, but nobody knows what it really is, privacy stuff. Anyway, I doubt it’s Don, he doesn’t deal with poisons and stuff. For a black market seller, he’s a pretty good dude- helped me and Kylie out a lot at one point.” The masked woman thought for a moment, racking her brain. Who had Don talked about before? He was in pretty hot competition with some other markets, and because his was small, run by him, and nonmobile, he was in big danger of being taken over.
“There’s the Black Foxes,” she said, thinking, and then nodded to herself, “They’re pretty big. If you’ve dealt with a black market, odds are you’ve dealt with the Foxes. They’ve got it all- Weapons, damn good moonshine, and I’ll bet you they could get you a toxin like that, they know pretty much all the mixers.” Serilda thought for a moment about where the closest outpost was. “They’ve got outposts all over the place, where you can go in and actually get stuff, but you can also get stuff brought to you from another outpost. They’ve got a lot of people working for them, and as you can imagine, they make bank.”
“But I can’t go to one of their outposts, they hate me.” She added, almost regretting that she had. Back before she realized she didn’t have just herself to look out for anymore, she had done something stupid to try and help Don out, something impulsive. Kylie’s screams were still imprinted in the back of her mind. Never again.
“That set of darts seems custom, though.” Serilda said, nodding to herself, “Especially since they’re a set, you don’t just custom order a single. Black Fox doesn’t do custom, at least not the last time I checked. Mixers don’t like custom, not high end ones like those that work with Fox. There’s Muse, they specialize in toxins and darts, but I doubt they do custom either- a good mixer who’ll do custom is hard to find, and damn near impossible without the black market as a middleman, so I doubt whoevers firing the darts found them itself.”
“There is a slight probability the darts aren’t customs, though,” Lucine spoke up, watching Serilda. The masked woman considered that, and nodded.
“If we get desperate, we could try Muse and Black Fox, see if they have anything like this.” Serilda commented. She couldn’t think of any other big ones that would do a dart, everything else was crazy obscure, and a few were way too hard to find unless you already had roots in the market. Then again, the attacker could’ve had roots.
“Hey, Uphira, why don’t we get out of here.” Serilda said to her, turning to look at the woman. She could tell she was feeling uncomfortable, and kind of wanted to get her some fresh air. She wasn’t sure where the kindness was coming from. “I’ve left Kylie by herself for way too long, she probably blew something up, and you’ve got that friend coming. Let’s leave this two alone for when the kid wakes up.”
Serilda stood, grunting as she pushed herself up, and held out a hand to help the other woman stand.
Callidora clicked her tongue at the boy’s reaction to her cigarettes, holding one up for him to see. “This? This kid, is a cigarette- they calm me down so I don’t go crazy all locked up in here.” She clicked her tongue again, knowing full well if she wanted to leave she could. She was just waiting for someone.
When the boy commented on her daughter’s situation, referring to himself as puny, the half-vampire just raised an eyebrow, looking at him curiously. She took a long drag, blew it out, and then tilted her head at him, as though she was questioning his self loathing without words. She just sighed and sat back, waiting for him to continue asking his questions.
When he asked his question about her just snapping her fingers and making his shirt disappear, she just raised both her brows, and then began to laugh at him, as though he was really really stupid. Crossing her legs, she leaned over and observed his red face, taking on a teasing tone. “I’m fairly certain my baby sister wouldn’t appreciate that.” she said playfully, giving him a wink, “and unfortunately, I don’t think I’d appreciate it either.”
It was weird to be actually talking to the kid. Her assumptions about him being kind of an airhead were right, but there was something very endearing about it. She could easily see why he and Lucine were so happy together.
When the boy began to talk about the effects of his poisoning, Callidora just nodded, as though she understood exactly what he was saying. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when the kid went on to.. Apologize to her. For treating her like sh*t, she guessed. She just blew smoke from her mouth and processed the apology.
It felt weird, to be seriously apologized to. She’d never really had anyone apologize to her before, at least, not of their own will, but here was this kid, this dumba** kid, apologizing to her, for treating her badly, as if she didn’t try to kill him and his girlfriend and probably ruined his life forever by being the reason he was eventually marked. She didn’t really know how to respond to that.
“Your brother wishes he could be me,” she said coyly, giving a very weak smile, “I mean, slitting throats is for pssies. Rule one of being a pirate.” She inhaled a ton of smoke to mask the fact that she was about to start clicking her tongue at rapid speed. Damn, she did feel awkward.
She listened to Callum plea and stopped, exhaling and snuffing out the cigarette, grabbing another one and throwing the butt at Callum. Sighing, the older half vampire lit the new one and leaned back into nothingness, thinking about her father.
“Damn right she wants to take you home.” Callidora finally said, staring up at the nothingness above her, “My sister’s smart. She doesn’t f*ck around with posions.” Callidora clicked her tongue again, sighing, “But she also doesn’t f*ck around with her family. Our dad’s alive, but if I tell you where he is, then doesn’t that ruin the fun?” She let out a dry laugh.
“Just do what she says. She’ll come around. She always comes around if she feels like there’s someone to save.”
Kylie was bored.
The blonde was cooped up in the room, sitting in the chair next to the table that held the vampire’s belongings. She didn’t know why she had to be here, there was no way any of them would get stolen. Nobody wanted to come to this dumb inn anyway- that’s what Serilda had said when she picked it. The girl was getting tired of Serilda being all secretive. She wasn’t as young as she had been when they first met, she was 13 now, and she was old enough to know who exactly Serilda was looking for.
”They’re important,” Serilda had told her when she asked, “I have some questions to ask them. Now, you don’t ask again. I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Well, Kylie WAS older, and she still didn’t know, and Serilda was hiding whatever was wrong with the boy from her to. It was like Serilda had forgotten she wouldn’t even be here if Kylie hadn’t helped her. And it hurt, it hurt a lot to help her, and Kylie was tired of Serilda using her to get places and then casting her aside. Serilda didn’t want to protect her. She was just trying to protect her mysteriousness.
But then again, Serilda was the closest thing Kylie had ever had to a mother, or a family…
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the small leather journal sitting on the table, just begging to be opened. If she read that, she’d know exactly what was going on, and Serilda wouldn’t have to tell her. She wouldn’t have to wait to know. But Kylie knew that journal wasn’t hers, it was the vampire’s, and Serilda would be ****** with her, and the vampire would probably be upset too, and Kylie could tell from the sadness that the vampire had in her eyes, that she was trying really really hard to hide, she was already upset about a lot of things.
Still, a peek wouldn’t hurt anybody.
She reached over and grabbed the journal from the table, holding it in her small hands. Flipping through it, she saw that it was mainly just drawings of plants, with scientific names and information, properties and whatnot. However, as she digged further, she found a small section in the back of the book, where the handwriting looked messier than it normally did. She was intrigued, and began to read.
#1
These shall not be dated. I have lost my grip on time, and I am unsure of the day, month, or year.
I have not eaten anything since she took me. I have not had anything to drink since she took me. I can feel my heart pounding in my own ears, my body telling me to drink, drink quickly or you will snap, and never return, but I am okay with never returning.
I have not left the room provided to me since I have arrived at this house. I have said only a few words to its’ owner, her brother, but he looked at me with a strange pity in his eyes I did not fancy. I do not wish to be pitied.
She has spoken to me, once, twice, through the door, trying to coax me to eat something, drink a squirrel, come out and have a wash. I plan to rot in here until I am over.
Kylie blinked her eyes as she read.
#2
I wrote another letter today. I cried while doing it, however I seem to be crying a lot more recently than I was before. Probably due to a hormonal imbalance. There is no use crying on what cannot be changed.
She tried to get me to come down again. I ignored her this time, hoping she would go away. She compared me to my sister, and I became so furious at that I called her good for nothing, a drunk who abandoned their child. She went away, and I sat in the room, scratching the walls. I am going to snap very soon, and break through the window.
#6
Three more letters today. First was about a bird I saw outside the window, it was very lovely, and I wished he could have seen it. I use a different tone in my letters, you see, I don’t wish for him to worry about me. If he saw me in the state I am in, there would most certainly be an incident. But the bird was very lovely, and I thought he should know about it, wherever he is.
I keep knocking myself out with things in the room, hoping that I will see him in my dream, but it is always the same. I always stab myself, and awaken, and feel disappointed that he is nowhere to be found, even if it is only a mirage.
#17
They broke into my room today.
Felicity and her brother, who I finally was able to take a good look at, broke down the door with something sharp and dragged me out. They forced me to eat a potato, I would only eat one, and then I was forced to drink the blood of a rabbit they had killed the night before. I felt horrible afterwards, but my mind was clearer, and I suppose that was not so bad, for it gave me an idea.
She raided my room, and took away all the things I had been using to knock myself out, had me explain to her what I had been doing with them. After that, she just stared at me, sadly, and I wondered for a brief moment if she understood.
I locked myself away again after that, but now I have work to do.
The young girl reading looked up to make sure nobody was coming, before reading more.
#21
I feel slightly lightheaded after taking today’s sample. I have been taking many lately, just small ones, because I don’t want to work with too much. That will become unmanageable, and I certainly cannot have that, not here.
I requested some herbs from her brother, as I didn’t want to go outside myself. He tried to force me to come as well, but I told him I would just burn in the sun. This was partially true, but he either believed me or no longer felt like arguing, because he left and returned with many herbs- and an apple.
I returned the apple to him and locked him out, setting to work.
#28
I have done it.
After many, many attempts, and many different combinations, I have managed to separate a small amount of human blood away from my own, vampric blood. I believe this will only work on those who have human in them, as there had to be human to seperate, but I have succeeded in this regard.
I only wonder how much it would take to separate a whole person’s blood, and how the excess would be removed. I imagine it would be slightly painful, and probably very dangerous. I am likely to die.
But, there is a small chance I will survive, and that I can help others like me.
I must take the risk.
Kylie’s hands were shaking as she held the journal, reading it over. She thought she understood, that the girl was trying to make herself human. But why? Kylie kept reading.
#30
I have not written a letter in a very long time, I have been so busy. However, I wrote one today, just to assure him I’m doing alright. I don’t want him to worry about me anymore, and I only said that I am making something that will help so many. I want him to be proud of me.
I miss him.
#32
They found my research.
I hadn’t eaten in a while, so they broke in again, and found me hunched over my samples, a large one this time, and she freaked out. She actually picked me up and hugged me, and the touch felt so foreign after this long. She kept apologizing, and I wasn’t sure what it was for, but she kept saying she had let it get way too bad.
That’s when I realized she was apologizing, both to me and to Callidora.
They destroyed it in front of me. All of my work. They ripped the pages from my journal where I documented it Kylie noted that a few pages seemed to be removed, and destroyed my samples. I was heartbroken.
They forced me to eat again, and drink more disgusting blood, and now I must sleep on the floor in Felicity’s room, where she can keep an eye on me. I feel as though I am a small child.
#37
I became very anxious after not writing a letter in so long. I knew he would be worried about me, and so I complained to her brother, because I knew she would reject this behavior. He, however, seemed to understand, and within a few minutes he had brought me all the letters I had written, and the materials to write a new one.
I wrote one, a very last one, and then he forced me to walk with him to a river near the edge of town. We waited until after dark, so I would have no excuses. When we got there, he took a letter from me, and began to fold it into a boat. I was incredibly confused, and seeing as I currently have only one hand, I was unsure if he wanted me to copy or not. When he finished, he placed the letter in the river, and we watched it float away.
“How will they reach him, if you never send them?” He asked. I then realized I had never remembered his name, and asked him for it, somewhat out of the blue. His name is Alfred.
He helped me to finish folding the letters- he folded them for me and I placed them all in the water, watching them float away, hoping they would at least metaphorically reach who they were addressed to.
When they disappeared, he handed me an apple, and told me to eat. I did, and we walked back to the house together.
Kylie finished reading, that was where the entries ended, and closed the book, placing it on the table. She felt jumpy now, and also a bit sad. Sad for the vampire.
When she thought she heard footsteps in the hall, she jumped for a moment, and suddenly, everything around her seemed to freeze. There was no longer a draft, no birds chirping outside, and world around her seemed dulled.
Kylie sighed and scrunched up her eyes, unfreezing the world around her, as time continued its’ flow. The mage tended to freeze things when she got jumpy, or when she wanted to hide, but never for too long. She always felt sick if she froze for too long.
She just wished she could speed up time.
"I don't understand."
She stood in front of the other woman. The other... creature. Her own light purple eyes were locked with a pair of normally seductive, bright yellow eyes, which were surrounded by black scleras. Dark purple eye shadow adorned the space above those eyes. Her long black hair flowed as it usually did, slowly transitioning to a ghostly white in the bottom half of her hair. Her ears were pointed, but only the tips were visible thanks to her hair. A white and dark grey tiara of sorts sat atop her head, the tiara having a nature aesthetic; dark grey leaves rested underneath white antler-esque bark. Her features were smooth, thin and attractive. Like a being conceived by a dream.
And yet, this being was very real.
"Why?" Uphira whispered. She then rose her voice. "This is wrong. Very wrong! Why are you wanting to do this? Why? I don't-"
The other woman placed a pointed fingernail on her lips, shutting her up. A sharp-toothed grin formed on the strange woman's face. "Oh? You don't hate the beasts?" she cooed, tilting her head slightly. "I thought you would after what happened to you..."
Uphira pushed her hand down, taking her finger off of her mouth. "Revenge only leaves you in ruin," she shot back, balling her fists. "There is no point to it."
"What if I happen to be very bored, sweetheart? What am I supposed to do? I can't just pleasure myself with you forever, you know."
Uphira felt an intense chill shoot down her spine. "Why don't you travel the world without killing anyone? Crack a book open for leisure? Watch the stars? Virtually anything other than your idea of fun??"
"I prefer not, sweetheart. Last time I checked, I am in control of my own decisions. If you want to help, however, you are most certainly allowed to..."
The grey-skinned woman kept the same grin on her face as she cupped Uphira's cheek, eliciting a quiet growl that wasn't supposed to be there. The grin didn't fade, however. "Pass," Uphira said through grit teeth. In response, the woman tilted her head at her.
"Darling," she began, sliding her hand up to her hair and running her fingers through it slowly. "These monsters are ruining us. They are ruining everything. This world would be so much better if they were dead... and staying hidden will soon be nigh impossible for them. If they don't die from this, then they will be hunted down. Either way, they will be dead. The world can be beautiful again..."
Uphira felt the fingers in her hair tighten. She had no idea why she wasn't fighting back. In fact, she never had a clue as to why she never fought back against the woman's advances. One moment, she could be kicking and spitting... and the next moment, she'd essentially become her b*tch.
Not anymore.
A shard of glass embedded itself into the woman's side. A foot collided with her and sent her flying backwards. She couldn't do anything before Uphira began to run.
She didn't look back.
Not even once.
Uphira tried to keep it under control. There was a frown on her face, but she wasn't showing any other signs of discomfort. Her eyes were locked with Serilda's, trying to stay focused on them. She didn't say a single thing throughout the entire explanation, as if she spoke, she wouldn't be able to hear the rest. She kept her breathing calm. Never again.
Don, Black Foxes, Muse... she hadn't heard of these names before. She didn't prefer to deal with the black market. It was too dangerous, especially while she was caring for a kid who had lost more than he deserved to lose. She had to dial down the amount of freedom she had to care for him in a way that would heal his mind and soul enough for him to carry on with life.
Especially when letters in the form of boats arrived.
She looked surprised when Serilda offered to take her outside. She hadn't expected an offer of that kind to be given to her. She glanced at Lucine and Callum before looking back at Serilda and nodding. "Sure," she answered softly. She took the other woman's hand and stood. She released the hand as soon as she was up on her feet. She turned and looked down on Lucine, smiling gently at her. She didn't say a word, however. The kindness in her eyes would hopefully be enough.
She needed to talk to Serilda alone, anyway.
She had an idea of who was behind this. She didn't like to think about it, but she felt as though she had to. She couldn't be alive still, or she would've found her by now. If only she had been there for when Mick was shot... she had a feeling she would already know who had all these darts. But that couldn't be possible, surely. It didn't make enough sense for it to be possible. It was something she needed to get off of her shoulders. She had had an opportunity to do that before, but she hadn't wanted to. Those were the days when she believed in the woman still potentially being alive and out there.
Too much time has passed.
It couldn't be possible.
Callum stared at Callidora as he waited for her reaction to his apology. In all honesty, he felt conflicted about the apology. What was he, stupid? How did he do anything wrong? Part of the reason he was thrown into a prison cell was because Callidora decided to follow them and incite a fight. At the same time, he had absolutely no problem acknowledging the fact that it was also his fault for staying behind in the first place. He felt as though he had to in order to keep Lucine, as well as the others, safe.
While everyone else had to leave, he stayed behind and tried to deal with it himself.
As of the present, he didn't know whether to consider his action a good or bad thing. June and Tem could've decided to leave him behind in Colsar and continue on their way to Visage, and he would've preferred for it to have been that way. He was going to be sent back anyway, and they weren't in time to stop him from being Marked. If they all could go back in time and change anything, he would've chosen to convince them to leave him, since he was going to be sent back regardless of what happened.
He was conflicted over whether or not never meeting Athus would've been better for him. He was conflicted about a lot of things, actually. Since he was the reason for Callidora's capture, he inadvertently caused the end of the world. That alone made him wonder why the Night Spirit decided that he of all people should be apart of the group meant to make the past better. Now he knew that Johan was the one in the right; what he wanted to do made more sense to the boy.
It was such a shame that their mission led up to nothing good.
He was brought back to his current situation by Callidora's comment about his brother. Now more than ever, he wished to talk to Connor, wherever he was. Perhaps he had a purgatory similar to the half-vampire talking to him? That would be possible if he had died before the Exorcist and the Seer tore the world's soul apart. Though, he was more taken aback by hearing something about a pirate... he didn't know Callidora had been a pirate.
"Well, it must be, because it didn't work," he replied quietly. He grew a little self-conscious of the scar across his throat for a moment. He might as well not have it at all, because when was the last time someone actually acknowledged it? He recalled Eirach referring to it, but he hadn't heard anyone else mention it, not even Uphira. He supposed that was for the best. He didn't want anyone to make a big deal of it.
He flinched a little when the end of the "cigarette" was thrown at him. He was a little unsure of why Callidora decided not to tell him anything about where her father was, but he was also distracted by how surprised he was at Callidora calling her sister smart. He hadn't expected Callidora to praise the sister she apparently hated. Maybe she finally realized that Lucine hadn't willed their mother to die of childbirth, and that it hadn't really been her fault.
At least, that was how he saw it.
Do what she says.
He didn't think that would be it, but he found himself in agreement. That way, they wouldn't have to fight about it. He was endlessly loyal to her. Maybe even too loyal. Putting that loyalty to good use was the best solution he could come up with, and presumably, the best one Callidora could come up with. Lucine would come around eventually...
However, there was a concern.
There was a possibility that if Lucine did come around, she wouldn't allow him to help. She would probably lock him in their house and leave him there while she went out to help her father. He frowned in thought without even being aware of it. He wanted to help, he really did, but thanks to this poisoning incident, he would probably never be allowed to help with virtually anything again.
If I can be convincing, then maybe... I can spend years of training, maybe, and toughen my skills... maybe stopping my use of Shadow magic wasn't a good idea.
"...Thanks, Callidora," he finally said, trading the frown for a small, maybe even sad smile. He ignored the chill that was slowly traveling down his spine. His head felt fuzzy, and his vision certainly began to look fuzzy. That was when he knew that he didn't have much longer here. He didn't know if he was going to wake up or be taken into a nightmare by the curse, but he hoped that it would be the former.
Well, there's no reason not to do this.
He approached Callidora, and before she could do anything, he hugged her. He felt incredibly awkward when he did so, but at the same time, he also felt a weight being lifted off of his shoulders. He would wait until she inevitably pushed him away to do anything else, he decided. It didn't hurt to try, after all.
A little optimism never hurt anybody.
Raven was pacing the room, having nothing to do aside from that. There were times when she wished she could talk for an unimportant reason, such as communicating warnings or advice to people. This was one of those times, because she desperately wanted to talk to someone. Kylie wasn't part canine in any way, so that wouldn't be possible.
Speaking of Kylie, she noticed her picking up a journal. The pup stopped what she was doing and looked at her for quite some time. It was Lucine's journal. She wasn't sure if she should stop the girl from reading it, or go along with her and read it as well. She had never seen the contents before. Her curiousness, coupled with the fact that she was a pup and not in her other form, eventually won her over in a short amount of time.
She moved behind Kylie and peered over the girl's shoulder, observing everything she was seeing on those pages. She made a small noise when she saw extensive writing, appearing to be some kind of... undated entry. The writing looked messier and more disjointed than normal. She read along with the girl, her eyes widening.
She ended up letting out small whines and other noises of sadness as she read the entries, her tail still and her ears drooping. By the time Kylie was done reading them, her heterochromic eyes were watering with tears. Being Lucine's journal, she knew exactly who wrote it. She also knew who had taken the girl in... and she knew exactly who the girl missed over the dates those entries were written.
Raven herself hadn't been blissful during those months either.
She whined as memories flooded to her head. The pup jumped away from where she had been, but before she reached the ground, she found that she had... frozen. Frozen in midair. In fact, everything seemed fuzzy and frozen and... what was going on? She couldn't move her body, her eyes, nothing. She couldn't even take another breath. Her mind was stuck, which was very unfortunate for her, considering what she was thinking about.
When time seemed to unfreeze itself, she wasn't able to process it in time to flap her wings and keep herself from colliding with the ground improperly. She felt her left hind leg twinge painfully as she tried to use it, stumbling and ultimately plopping down fully on the ground. She bit her tongue to prevent a howl from escaping, though, the tears that were bubbling in her eyes did fall. She kept those eyes open, staring at the door without trying to get up.
"I don't understand."
She stood in front of the other woman. The other... creature. Her own light purple eyes were locked with a pair of normally seductive, bright yellow eyes, which were surrounded by black scleras. Dark purple eye shadow adorned the space above those eyes. Her long black hair flowed as it usually did, slowly transitioning to a ghostly white in the bottom half of her hair. Her ears were pointed, but only the tips were visible thanks to her hair. A white and dark grey tiara of sorts sat atop her head, the tiara having a nature aesthetic; dark grey leaves rested underneath white antler-esque bark. Her features were smooth, thin and attractive. Like a being conceived by a dream.
And yet, this being was very real.
"Why?" Uphira whispered. She then rose her voice. "This is wrong. Very wrong! Why are you wanting to do this? Why? I don't-"
The other woman placed a pointed fingernail on her lips, shutting her up. A sharp-toothed grin formed on the strange woman's face. "Oh? You don't hate the beasts?" she cooed, tilting her head slightly. "I thought you would after what happened to you..."
Uphira pushed her hand down, taking her finger off of her mouth. "Revenge only leaves you in ruin," she shot back, balling her fists. "There is no point to it."
"What if I happen to be very bored, sweetheart? What am I supposed to do? I can't just pleasure myself with you forever, you know."
Uphira felt an intense chill shoot down her spine. "Why don't you travel the world without killing anyone? Crack a book open for leisure? Watch the stars? Virtually anything other than your idea of fun??"
"I prefer not, sweetheart. Last time I checked, I am in control of my own decisions. If you want to help, however, you are most certainly allowed to..."
The grey-skinned woman kept the same grin on her face as she cupped Uphira's cheek, eliciting a quiet growl that wasn't supposed to be there. The grin didn't fade, however. "Pass," Uphira said through grit teeth. In response, the woman tilted her head at her.
"Darling," she began, sliding her hand up to her hair and running her fingers through it slowly. "These monsters are ruining us. They are ruining everything. This world would be so much better if they were dead... and staying hidden will soon be nigh impossible for them. If they don't die from this, then they will be hunted down. Either way, they will be dead. The world can be beautiful again..."
Uphira felt the fingers in her hair tighten. She had no idea why she wasn't fighting back. In fact, she never had a clue as to why she never fought back against the woman's advances. One moment, she could be kicking and spitting... and the next moment, she'd essentially become her b*tch.
Not anymore.
A shard of glass embedded itself into the woman's side. A foot collided with her and sent her flying backwards. She couldn't do anything before Uphira began to run.
She didn't look back.
Not even once.
Uphira tried to keep it under control. There was a frown on her face, but she wasn't showing any other signs of discomfort. Her eyes were locked with Serilda's, trying to stay focused on them. She didn't say a single thing throughout the entire explanation, as if she spoke, she wouldn't be able to hear the rest. She kept her breathing calm. Never again.
Don, Black Foxes, Muse... she hadn't heard of these names before. She didn't prefer to deal with the black market. It was too dangerous, especially while she was caring for a kid who had lost more than he deserved to lose. She had to dial down the amount of freedom she had to care for him in a way that would heal his mind and soul enough for him to carry on with life.
Especially when letters in the form of boats arrived.
She looked surprised when Serilda offered to take her outside. She hadn't expected an offer of that kind to be given to her. She glanced at Lucine and Callum before looking back at Serilda and nodding. "Sure," she answered softly. She took the other woman's hand and stood. She released the hand as soon as she was up on her feet. She turned and looked down on Lucine, smiling gently at her. She didn't say a word, however. The kindness in her eyes would hopefully be enough.
She needed to talk to Serilda alone, anyway.
She had an idea of who was behind this. She didn't like to think about it, but she felt as though she had to. She couldn't be alive still, or she would've found her by now. If only she had been there for when Mick was shot... she had a feeling she would already know who had all these darts. But that couldn't be possible, surely. It didn't make enough sense for it to be possible. It was something she needed to get off of her shoulders. She had had an opportunity to do that before, but she hadn't wanted to. Those were the days when she believed in the woman still potentially being alive and out there.
Too much time has passed.
It couldn't be possible.
Callum stared at Callidora as he waited for her reaction to his apology. In all honesty, he felt conflicted about the apology. What was he, stupid? How did he do anything wrong? Part of the reason he was thrown into a prison cell was because Callidora decided to follow them and incite a fight. At the same time, he had absolutely no problem acknowledging the fact that it was also his fault for staying behind in the first place. He felt as though he had to in order to keep Lucine, as well as the others, safe.
While everyone else had to leave, he stayed behind and tried to deal with it himself.
As of the present, he didn't know whether to consider his action a good or bad thing. June and Tem could've decided to leave him behind in Colsar and continue on their way to Visage, and he would've preferred for it to have been that way. He was going to be sent back anyway, and they weren't in time to stop him from being Marked. If they all could go back in time and change anything, he would've chosen to convince them to leave him, since he was going to be sent back regardless of what happened.
He was conflicted over whether or not never meeting Athus would've been better for him. He was conflicted about a lot of things, actually. Since he was the reason for Callidora's capture, he inadvertently caused the end of the world. That alone made him wonder why the Night Spirit decided that he of all people should be apart of the group meant to make the past better. Now he knew that Johan was the one in the right; what he wanted to do made more sense to the boy.
It was such a shame that their mission led up to nothing good.
He was brought back to his current situation by Callidora's comment about his brother. Now more than ever, he wished to talk to Connor, wherever he was. Perhaps he had a purgatory similar to the half-vampire talking to him? That would be possible if he had died before the Exorcist and the Seer tore the world's soul apart. Though, he was more taken aback by hearing something about a pirate... he didn't know Callidora had been a pirate.
"Well, it must be, because it didn't work," he replied quietly. He grew a little self-conscious of the scar across his throat for a moment. He might as well not have it at all, because when was the last time someone actually acknowledged it? He recalled Eirach referring to it, but he hadn't heard anyone else mention it, not even Uphira. He supposed that was for the best. He didn't want anyone to make a big deal of it.
He flinched a little when the end of the "cigarette" was thrown at him. He was a little unsure of why Callidora decided not to tell him anything about where her father was, but he was also distracted by how surprised he was at Callidora calling her sister smart. He hadn't expected Callidora to praise the sister she apparently hated. Maybe she finally realized that Lucine hadn't willed their mother to die of childbirth, and that it hadn't really been her fault.
At least, that was how he saw it.
Do what she says.
He didn't think that would be it, but he found himself in agreement. That way, they wouldn't have to fight about it. He was endlessly loyal to her. Maybe even too loyal. Putting that loyalty to good use was the best solution he could come up with, and presumably, the best one Callidora could come up with. Lucine would come around eventually...
However, there was a concern.
There was a possibility that if Lucine did come around, she wouldn't allow him to help. She would probably lock him in their house and leave him there while she went out to help her father. He frowned in thought without even being aware of it. He wanted to help, he really did, but thanks to this poisoning incident, he would probably never be allowed to help with virtually anything again.
If I can be convincing, then maybe... I can spend years of training, maybe, and toughen my skills... maybe stopping my use of Shadow magic wasn't a good idea.
"...Thanks, Callidora," he finally said, trading the frown for a small, maybe even sad smile. He ignored the chill that was slowly traveling down his spine. His head felt fuzzy, and his vision certainly began to look fuzzy. That was when he knew that he didn't have much longer here. He didn't know if he was going to wake up or be taken into a nightmare by the curse, but he hoped that it would be the former.
Well, there's no reason not to do this.
He approached Callidora, and before she could do anything, he hugged her. He felt incredibly awkward when he did so, but at the same time, he also felt a weight being lifted off of his shoulders. He would wait until she inevitably pushed him away to do anything else, he decided. It didn't hurt to try, after all.
A little optimism never hurt anybody.
Raven was pacing the room, having nothing to do aside from that. There were times when she wished she could talk for an unimportant reason, such as communicating warnings or advice to people. This was one of those times, because she desperately wanted to talk to someone. Kylie wasn't part canine in any way, so that wouldn't be possible.
Speaking of Kylie, she noticed her picking up a journal. The pup stopped what she was doing and looked at her for quite some time. It was Lucine's journal. She wasn't sure if she should stop the girl from reading it, or go along with her and read it as well. She had never seen the contents before. Her curiousness, coupled with the fact that she was a pup and not in her other form, eventually won her over in a short amount of time.
She moved behind Kylie and peered over the girl's shoulder, observing everything she was seeing on those pages. She made a small noise when she saw extensive writing, appearing to be some kind of... undated entry. The writing looked messier and more disjointed than normal. She read along with the girl, her eyes widening.
She ended up letting out small whines and other noises of sadness as she read the entries, her tail still and her ears drooping. By the time Kylie was done reading them, her heterochromic eyes were watering with tears. Being Lucine's journal, she knew exactly who wrote it. She also knew who had taken the girl in... and she knew exactly who the girl missed over the dates those entries were written.
Raven herself hadn't been blissful during those months either.
She whined as memories flooded to her head. The pup jumped away from where she had been, but before she reached the ground, she found that she had... frozen. Frozen in midair. In fact, everything seemed fuzzy and frozen and... what was going on? She couldn't move her body, her eyes, nothing. She couldn't even take another breath. Her mind was stuck, which was very unfortunate for her, considering what she was thinking about.
When time seemed to unfreeze itself, she wasn't able to process it in time to flap her wings and keep herself from colliding with the ground improperly. She felt her left hind leg twinge painfully as she tried to use it, stumbling and ultimately plopping down fully on the ground. She bit her tongue to prevent a howl from escaping, though, the tears that were bubbling in her eyes did fall. She kept those eyes open, staring at the door without trying to get up.
