Falling apart (Trente, Semi-moderated thread by Paragon)

[Nai'shee]

1st of Spring 512AV She quietly entered the University, thinking that she should pay for another semester later that day. Place was unusually empty and silent, probably due to different rumors about that scary disaster. People were afraid to go even near to Astronomy tower and, even nor she never checked, she guessed it was forbidden anyway. She thought for a second, not sure if she could head for classes if she haven't payed yet, but while standing there she suddenly spotted a familiar face. She didn't want to yell in empty corridor, so she approached quickly. "Trente!", she said happily. She saw him only once, that night when they met, that night when Faylon was stabbed. She was full of mixed feelings, she really liked Trente, but she felt completely comfortable talking to him, instead of babbling like crazy which was what she usually did, anyways. And first question in her mind tickled her mouth to be said out loud, but she kept it inside for now. It was about his speech, about what he had planned to organize. Material art classes. How was that going? She knew she would join immediately. Also, when she saw him memories of that night woke in her. It wasn't so terrifying, but they weren't pleasant neither. She was so worried... And that light was so weird. Was Rak'kei really there? Sure she was, Faylon was healed completely, but yet... She never thought she will ever see a God. Well, she haven't actually see her, but she could feel her powerful presence. "How are you?", she asked, ignoring her river of different thoughts. If he wasn't busy they'll have time to discuss all of them.

[Trente]

Trente seemed much earthier than he had during the ball, when the two first met. His garb was the same, though lacking his armaments, but his makeup lessened, mundane, though still bolder than found on even most women. He had just come from his acting class, which had been in near desolate attendance do to the prophetic warning of the well respected Konti. Just the same, Trente refused to live his life in fear, no matter the bearer of poor news. He did trust those portents, however, and had felt slightly on edge in caution the whole day as a result. Still, he was of a confident demeanor as usual when Nai'shee approached him in the quiet halls. He had been deep in thought, plotting and wondering what the storm would bring to Zeltiva with it. Riots? Confusion? Or unity? He hoped, of course, for the last. The storm was in serendipitous cohesion with his plans in that way if nothing else. Those thoughts were quickly sidelined however by a face, and body, he warmly welcomed as a distraction. She seemed freer in her casual clothes, not done up in the confining red, though pleasantly bold, dress she stood within at the ball. He couldn't help but feel a freer look would be without clothes of a generic nature all together, more beads adorning her neck and arms, gems held in her blonde hair. To this, and her approach there was not quite a smile, but a shift of attention within his face. Welcoming, pleased, though not fake or surprised. "Nai'shee." He said with certainty, remembering quite clearly her peculiar name, along with the rest of the events of that even more peculiar night. "I was hoping we would run into one another some time." The words were genuine, and phrased in an open manner. He came to a slow stop as they met, and he stood tall, assertive, with one foot back slightly, so his full demeanor wasn't baring down upon her all at once. Self awareness was far from a strength of Trente's, but he was aware enough of her to not appear too forward. Wild women could be quite scary when cornered, just as a wild beast might be. A wise lesson he was warned of by a wise man long before. "Brave of you to journey the treacherous halls of the university today. Surely you know of the Konti's warnings, and the specific mention of our astronomy tower. I heard the officials are already planning the rebuilding project, even before it falls. No doubts if they take the warning so seriously we ought to as well." And, to that, a smile finally met his face. His smiles were never fake, or forced, when he smiled they came through genuine intrigue and pleasure. He felt naughty in a way, standing there with her. As if it were a secret challenge from them both to the god's themselves. Naughty, haughty, stupid. "Yet, here we are." A slight churning then flowed through them both, a feeling neither had ever felt before. As if their stomachs were doing flips within them, a small dose of nausea taking hold, and the sensation of rising upward, though their feet remained firmly planted. This awkward sensation was then fallowed shortly by pins and needles running long their skin. Goose bumps claimed their flesh, though heat rushed to their heads, and the hair, specifically along the line of their spine, stood straight on end. They could not ignore the Konti's warnings, and they could not ignore this. The last warning they would get before it came. Trente's eyes widened as the sensation, as he raised a slightly shaking hand, staring intently at the fine black hairs of his arm, standing vigilantly in alert. "Nai'shee." He asked with a deliberate, and focused tone. "Do you feel anything out of the ordinary?" He instantly regretted thinking a challenge against the gods, and was very thankful he hadn't said it out loud. The implication might be enough to bring wrath down upon them both.

[Nai'shee]

"Me too! I really am glad I got to see you." They both approached each other so they could have somewhat private conversation, as private as it could be in the middle of University. Trente stood tall in front of her and his hair was falling in front of his face a bit. He wore make-up again. It stood out, but she couldn't really see it well from the distance. It was weird to her, she never actually wore make-up, she mostly looked like she jumped out from some Klevic crew, just clothed and a little more tidy for places like University was. "Yeah, I heard...", she said with a hard sight. "I was there when they announced it, actually. Everybody was in complete panic and I really don't know what to do." She almost said too much. She reminded herself that she and Trente talked only once and that she didn't tell him everything about her life just yet. Strange, it felt like they were so close already. She assumed such experiences as those on The Winter Ball were draw people together faster. Well, especially in their case. "I know it's dangerous, but everywhere is dangerous", she shrugged. "This might be the safest place if you think about it, with bunch of alerted smart peoples to protect you if something happens and old buildings to hide in." And she wasn't skipping her classes now when she needed them. She had to be prepared for that storm and learning something was better than desperately sitting in the streets. "Yeah, here we are", she repeated. After that came a moment of silence. It was awkward, but somehow enjoyable. She didn't know how she felt, she thought she might have been blushing, but she doubted that. She wasn't sure if feeling was somehow dizzy, but she knew she turned the world off for a moment. Noise around her remained just that: noise. She wasn't aware of voices anymore, not to talk about what they were saying. She felt she cowered a bit and her stomach was flipping and her heart rising to her throat. She gulped quietly on Trente's question saying only: "Well... kinda". She tried to make more or less normal voice.

[Trente]

Trente's brow knit together in worry. Any other day he would have attempted to explain away the symptoms as harmless, or simple coincidence, perhaps just emotions. But, he knew down in the pit of his tumbling stomach what was happened, and there was no rationalizing it away. The storm was coming. Part of him had hoped it wouldn't, hoped the Konti were wrong. They weren't, for which he was now firmly convinced. "It's here." The words left his mouth before his eyes could move from his arm. A moment of silence gripped the hallway, as all within it felt their chest's begin to tighten in an instinctual anticipation. Fear. The bright sunlight filtering down from the high windows above gradually grew darker, disappearing into a bleak darkness in a matter of seconds. None spoke in those moments, only watched as the faces around them grew darker. Then, for just a moment the room seemed to flash, jump into vivid colours for just another split moment. Then, before a single count could be given, the silence was violently ravenged by a rolling clap of thunder, which boomed through the formerly stagnate air of the halls, triggering more than one loud yelp, and in some cases screams from the few students still within. Lightening, and thunder; dark storm clouds above, where only moments before there was rays of sun. Trente's entire body shuddered, with a single expressive spasm beneath the intimidating sound of thunder above. Just enough to shock him out of his entrancement. His arm shot out, and he grabbed Nai'shee's, a bit firmer than necessary, and as he spoke, began dragging her to the side of the rather wide hallway. "We have-" another flash of light, as the rest of the hall jumped into actions, people shifting from a leisurely walk to an all out reckless sprint straight through the area Nai'shee and Trente had been standing moments before, "to ge-" another boom of thunder, washing Trente's words away in a rush of deafening sound. The end of his sentence gone forever in the chaos. A ringing cried out in their ears, and their eyes burned as they desperately reeled from the sudden flashes of light, while simultaneously attempting to adjust to the new darkness which had enveloped them all. Behind all of this was an energy, running like static along their skin, alerting their bind, and buzzing through their muscles. It itched uncomfortably, but at the same time felt energizing, almost pleasurable. A mystical, yet visceral, fight or flight, and there was no fighting this.

[Nai'shee]

Trente's simple sentence scared her like nothing before, and on the top of everything it was followed by slow change from light to dark. Tickling sunlight appeared and they were unable to see what was it replaced with from here. "No", she murmured in fear, paralyzed. Trente began dragging her somewhere which finally woke both her body and mind up. She saw dozens of flashes, thunders, everywhere around. She couldn't even count or locate them, she just knew they were far enough from both of them. Her body reflexively used Flux to run away and she couldn't do anything about it, her mind was blocked and adrenalin completely controlled her escape, using all of her abilities for it. In one moment Trente was dragging her in another he was tripping over trying to follow. She only heard noise around her, loud screams or breaking glass or stone, pieces of dozens of different materials were all around her and she had no idea where was Trente leading her. Whole world was shut, everything was blur, she only could think about escape. Yet, panic on faces all around her scared her even more. She knew some - many - people here and she was afraid that something was going to happen to them. Nobody listened or helped each other, it was survival fight. "Where are we going?", she finally succeed to pronounce, or yell. She didn't know if he heard her in this whole chaos.

[Trente]

Trente was startled by Nai'shee's sudden burst of speed, though no more than the storm had, and certainly not displeased at the fact. Instead he stumbled along, trying to remain balanced, trying to pay attention. Something was happening to his senses, not just the panic all around him, something more. He was finding it hard to stay aware, his vision tunneling horribly, and his chest compressing. Everybody felt the effects of the thick storm's air. The rending wind ripped through the hallways of the school, though with it carried no cold. In fact, the air was hot, and heavy. Trente felt sweat begin to pour from his skin, and as they ran could see the sheen of sweat upon Nai'shee's own in the flashes of lightening. The flashed themselves seemed to be changing after not even a few seconds of running, an impossibly long time. The flashes elongated, and instead of simple white, each flash seemed to shift boldly through each colour of a rainbow, painting Nai'shee's form before him in each outstanding colour. Knowledge came with this, useless knowledge, white light, combination of all light, a rainbow is fractured white light. He couldn't stand it, his head was splitting and it had only been meer moments. This was wrong, Trente thought to himself. The crushing warmth, the strobing colours. Sweat in moments. The moments themselves felt like minutes. This had to be unnatural. Unreal. But it was happened, Trente wasn't the type to doubt his senses, no matter how skewed. Nai'shee's question brought him back for a moment, the heat dissipated, and he felt suddenly very cold and clammy, numb and distant from his own voice. His own mind. "We need to get to..." He couldn't remember, he couldn't remember his own plan, it seemed like so long before he had formulated it. So instead he cast a look around as he continued to stumble with little grace down the hallway, which seemed to be spinning. East Wing. Storm above, they had to get to safety. "Out of the halls." He called with more confidence than he thought he had left in him. A wave of the heat hit him again, and he tripped, sprawling out on the floor, face first. He felt the sheer pressure, slight taring of skin on his face as he hit the stonework floor. The pain was replaced by alarm in the pit of his stomach, a warning. Her rolled over and looked up, just as a loud crashing sound, separate from thunder, met his ears. And, with it, he witnessed a large crack shooting up the wall of the tall hallway they both stood in. "Shyke." He muttered, laying prone on the ground, as at the pinnacle of the crack a headsized chunk of stone dislodged from the wall, hung almost cereal in the air a moment, before maliciously plummeting straight down toward Trente. He throw up his arms in defense. He couldn't think of what else to do. In his awkward position he could hardly right himself in time to move, he simply wasn't fast enough. In body, or mind.

[Nai'shee]

Trente's voice seemed weak when he spoke and he seemed airy too, but by the end of the sentence he was back confident. They kept running, but Trente's explanation wasn't much, so she tried to pull herself from running that fast, so she wouldn't pick wrong direction. She was sure he had something in mind in the beginning. She felt abnormal warmth and, even trough she was used to stand hot weather without a shelter, it bothered her a lot in this season of year. She began sweating and she could hardly breath. She felt some itch around her eyes and for a second she thought she will lose consciousness, but Trente pulled her back by falling down. He must have tripped. "Trente!", she yelled, more because of noise than panic, kneeling before her. Few moments later she only felt intense hotness on her back and left hand from the thunder that just cracked a wall too close to them. She moaned quietly while trying to help Trente stand up. "Are you hurt?" She did care, but just to see how much will that slow them down. She knew their lives depend on this and scratches or even much more dangerous wounds mattered less. They had to get away somehow. She forcefully pulled him up and put him on legs, trying to help him walk. He was quickly on his feet by his own, but he still seemed a bit dizzy. "Can you walk?", she asked softly. She could even carry him, but she knew he'd rather die than accept that... okay, maybe not literally, but it would be easier if he was alright by himself. By that time heat was really hard to stand for her too and she only wanted to lay down, or at least sit, but she knew they must go on and it won't help if both of them just sat around. She almost gave it up when it hit her. "Basement! This thing must have something underground! We should be safe over there. Do you know how to get underground?", she was pretty positive that Trente heard only about a half of what she just said, but it was enough to pick up with the plan. She just prayed he knew something about it. She overheard it's used for Magecraft lessons, so it must be some kind of laboratory or something, but she never found a location, and she doubted that Trente knew..

[Trente]

Trente held firmly to Nai'Shee's arm as she hoisted him up with surprising strength, and speed, the large plummeting stone colliding with the ground and shattering where he had been sat moments before. The rescue triggering an extremely vivid flashback, Nai'Shee explaining her intention to study Flux at the ball, in the striking red dress. He had to admit she was damn good, and lucky for her too. He was surprised how effective it was, and was quite envious in the current predicament they found themselves in. He had barely the time to make a mental note to ask her for lessons on that at some point before the vivid flash ended and he was back in his present, back in that deadly hallway. He knew every moment he stopped to think was another he held back the women before him that could currently run nearly twice his speed. So he forced himself to focus, to ignore the barrage of rocks for a moment, the booming thunder, the apparent hot flashes. "Basement," he had heard that for sure, which made perfect sense to avoid a storm. East Wing, the magecraft labs, their thoughts synched and his face melted from it's rare dumbfounded expression to his usual resolved demeanor. "That way." He pointed to the end of the hall they were in. Trente knew there were close, but was having trouble sorting through his thoughts, his memories, to remember exactly where the entrance to the labs was. Another blast of heat hit him, this one significantly stronger, nearly blowing him off his feet, as he realized it was just the beginning, only the precursor of the storm. They had to get out of it soon or it would swallow them whole. No doubt about that. They both sprint down the hall once more, as Trente thought back in his cartography class, he had done a project on the school, mapped out every hallway, ever twist and turn, every hidden room he could find. The East Wing was his first location to map, so he ought to know where the entrance was. Then, from the obscuring mist of the storm came another unexpected vivid recollection, the information unfolding before him as if he were calmly writing the map once again. Ink calmly, carefully running along the smooth vellum map he was crafting. A hallway, the one they were in, precise units wide, and long. First room, office, another, a wash room, then a long stretch of no rooms. "Here!" Trente burst out with sudden relief and urgency, pointing at a closed door. That was it, the entrance to the system of labs. He had done it, though questioned a moment later if it was in time. There was another gargantuan sound, reverberating through the hallways, another sound akin to stonework breaking. The Astronomy tower? He wasn't sure, his contemplation was cut off by a blast from behind. It seemed like dust, a plume of small stones flying through the hallways from behind them. Nai'Shee reached the door first, fist wrapped with a death grip around the dimmly lit handle of the door. The blast hit. The vivid and painful pelting of small stones could be felt across his backs and legs as Trente's feet suddenly left the ground behind with easy. The storm was powerful, putting Trente's comparable strength in perspective. Trente had always been bound by gravity, and the storm mocked gravity, mocked thought, and time, mocked all that Trente had built his life on. All that kept him sane being ripped away. He was an ant, less then, a small insignificant loose leaf in a wildfire. He hated the feeling, it wounded his pride deeply, but that would sting later. No pain reached him in his current state of panic. Only thoughts of survival resided within his fragile human mind as the rest of his body went flying forward. He could see her in the darkness and dust, Nai'Shee grasping firmly to the handle of the door which bent and threatened to rip off, her strong arm enduring the blast significantly better than Trente. He did all he could, he reached out to her as the blast carried him past. Shot his arm out toward her and preyed with all his heart in that split moment that she would reach out to him. That her flux gave her the agility to catch him arm in the gloom, and her spirit gave her the strength to notice him in the darkness. Trente wasn't accustomed to reached out for others, but he could tell when he was defeated, when he needed help. It was time.

[Nai'shee]

Nai'shee followed Trente, finally able to surpass her own survival instincts and think properly. He knew the way to over there and she didn't, so she need to stay behind, or at least on the line with him. She followed him, a bit clumsily as he made their way to the East Wing. He seemed pretty weak, especially as the second bad heat shot them. She almost fallen down to that one, but it passed very quickly so she hurried to follow. She somehow believed in Trente. Maybe he was kind of weaker, which was perfectly normal considering their ways of living, but he was certainly the one to come up with something. They were really close to the place he pointed at when a loud sound hit their ears. Moment later she felt strong wind and pieces of stone hitting her back. Astronomy tower. Everything became dark and dusty and she could barely see, coughing loudly. She positioned her shirt over her nose to help her breathing, but she felt stones hit really hard trough her poor clothing and she couldn't see Trente anymore. She reached out for the place he pointed, but than she realized what was happening, wind picked Trente and he was flying forward in front of her. She reached out for his hand, but she couldn't catch him in time. She hurried in that direction, trying to reach out for him before he hit the wall. She was holding his hand a moment later, but she wasn't strong enough, or perhaps gravity wasn't strong enough, to keep them both on ground. Her feet rose a bit and they started to fly together with little pieces of stone. She had no idea what to do. Her body might have unnatural strength, but she wasn't so sure about bones hitting the wall at this speed. However, she had to try something, so she pulled Trente forward using Flux and changed their places which pretty much made them hug. Stones started hitting her eyes and she had to close them, trying to protect her face somehow. She sent all of Djed she possessed into her legs and succeed to face the wall and pull them both back on ground, crawling. It was somewhat easier to fight the wind facing it like this, especially crawling. She couldn't talk, but she reached out for Trente and tried to pull him with her. There was more and more stone pieces in the air around them and they both needed extreme effort to get back to entrance. She reached for the door and opened it. It wasn't hard, because storm almost cracked them down and they succeed to enter. They were both panting and Nai'shee was touching her face trying to see if she had any wounds from stones. They were on the stairs, leading down.The door were still opened, but she couldn't make herself stand up and try and close it. She would have to fight wind again. After two minutes or so she finally collected strength to stand up and murmured "Help me" to Trente. She couldn't use much more Flux if she wanted to keep her consciousness, so they barely did it with their natural strength. After that she felt extremely sick and dizzy and she just sat down quickly, holding her head. She wanted to say she didn't felt well, but it was... well, kind of obvious. And logic. And he probably felt the same. Only without Djed loss. She didn't know if she was going to puke or something and she realized they were probably in danger over here too and that they need to get down there, but she couldn't force herself to move. She probably could move, but she wanted to lay down and enjoy the feeling. Her head was hard and she was hot and her stomach flipped around like crazy. Her legs hurt a bit too. It seems like Flux wasn't enough to protect them from that wall, but nothing was broken, she was pretty positive. Tho, her sickness reminded of the feeling when you break something, but this was somehow different.

[Trente]

Trene's hand caught fast in Nai'Shee's flux induced grip, with a slight popping sensation. He was relieved in the moment before the shot of pain reached him. He gave forth a yelp of pain, but held as tightly as he could despite it. Despite his shoulder suddenly being on fire. In that moment he forgot about his life being in danger, and fretted over his sword arm. His writing hand. Then a piece of shrapnel, it felt wooden, bounced off his forehead and he realized how easily it could have been a stone. His focus was back, and he gritted his teeth through the pain as Nai'Shee lifted off the ground with him. She pulled him closer, and he swung his free arm around to grab onto her. Again, life threatening or not, it was embarrassing. His face flushed both from exertion, and how helpless he felt. He had promised himself once he would never be weak like that again, defenseless and vulnerable. Still, he swallowed his pride, and held to Nai'Shee. He couldn't help but touch upon the thought as he clung to her, as she crawled, dragging them both up. The vision he had when he first saw her at the ball. A wild women, unleashed, free. Crazy, yet on possession of godly strength, and grace. This was her, a glimpse of the women he had craved in the moment they met. The women she could be. A true Svefra women. She hauled them into the door, and Trente collapsed, cradling his objecting arm. He wasn't sure exactly what was wrong with it. It felt out of place, the joint throbbing with pain. It seemed almost as bad as a break, but not as blatant. Four times he had broken bones, and he was familiar enough with the pain to know that the injury was neither a break, nor a sprain. He decided there was nothing he could do for the time being, and gritting his teeth looking to Nai'Shee. From what he could see through the whipping of his own hair before his face, she seemed weak. She was some goddess of strength minutes before, but then she was weak, draped onto the cold unforgiving stone steps like some child's neglected rag doll. He wasn't sure ont he details, but it made enough sense to him. She had used flux, and in doing so over exerted herself, she was defenseless. This brought Trente no savior from his own pained pride. Instead he simply took the situation at face value, and when she pleaded for help he nodded, helping her pull closed the fragile door against the frightful storm. Once secure he let his injured arm fall painfully adangle to his side, as he without hesitation wrapped his good arm around Nai'Shee's back, laced under his arms. "We have to get down." He said with little emotion in his voice, still trying to block out the blinding pain. And, one step at a time he began the decent, pulling her along. She had saved him, and now it was time for him to save her. This was teamwork, and survival. He had spent so much time since the ball contemplating what it meant to be free and autonomous from the powers that ran Zeltiva, ran his life. But, that was all gone in that moment, when he realized the importance of teamwork. The importance of being able to rely on ones neighbors. He realized, without a doubt, that had Nai'Shee not arrived just before the storm he would just be another casualty of the storm already. But, here they were, in the darkness: alive. Their last step connected with the even floor at the base of the stairs, accompanied by little more than residual heat, their own fatigue, and the roaring sounds of horror from above. Carefully he sat Nai'Shee down on the bottom step, and began fumbling about in the darkness for tinder and a torch, giving forth a series of hissed and grunts against the pain of his shoulder. "I'm going to find a light." He said clearly as he could, his voice traveling better than he expected now that they had escaped the storm. "I'm right here, Nai'Shee." He clarified, not wanting her to think even for a moment that he would wonder off without her. He still wasn't convinced they were safe, and his adrenaline still hadn't fully passed through his system. He reluctant to give up the false strength it lent him, clung to it, milking it for every ounce of energy he could.