[Library] Amid walls of books (Leigo)

[Fiera]

For a few moments, they sat in silence. Fiera studied Leigo, with a sense of startling admiration. The silence, like water, pressed heavily upon her ears, and with each beat her heart grew louder. What would happen if she did, in fact, bond to him? So would begin her life of servitude. No, she corrected herself, companionship. That why she wanted to bond, wasn’t it? A life alone wasn’t worth much. So that was it. Did she prefer solitude to servitude, or vice versa? Somewhere in the library, a student slammed a book closed and stood to leave. She, of all Kelvics, had to have a problem with the most basic factor of her existence. Then came the observations. What he said was true, uncomfortable so, though her anger had dissipated with the silence. Fiera blinked and tried to understand why he was closing the distance between their hands. Surely he didn’t feel the same way? Was he going to touch her? No, his hand stopped merely inches from hers. “Well, obviously!” she sneered and snatched her hand back as if burnt. The anger was obvious in her voice, yet it also brought with it a thinly veiled hurt, “Try again. This time focus on your djed, the sight will come to you” She battled with herself. Half of her wanted to stand up and walk out, to prevent this from progressing any further. The other half felt the need to bravely declare her attraction to him and share a kiss of love – that’s how it went in books, wasn’t it? The latter won out eventually, yet her individuality couldn’t take such a blow. She pushed her thoughts of him to the forefront of her mind, thinking of nothing else (something she found much too easy). He had said he couldn’t read auras. In the minor chance that Leigo did find a way, he would see exactly how she felt about him. How he reacted had never been up to Fiera to decide. “Just focus. Really hard”

[Leigo]

For some reason, Fiera decided to be obnoxious all of a sudden – was it something he did? Ah, not like it mattered – women were too complicated for a straightforward answer. Without giving away much of his surprise to her mood swings, he’d try and focus on her aura again. There was something creepy about the way she had started to stare at him. Auristics wasn’t needed to tell him that. He wouldn’t turn away this time – when someone’s pissing you off – you look them in the eye. And while the Kelvic wasn’t there just yet, her direction insofar was certain. Pushing djed back into his eyes, he could feel the same awkward feeling from before. Like something was lighting up and disappearing as he blinked. Fixating his gaze, the boy tried to sustain the light that seemed to differentiate everything around them. Surprised, Leigo turned around briefly as several new flashes burst into his eyes. This was supposed to work only on things living, and what was this? Was the entire library sentient? No, it couldn’t be – he knew for a fact that at least some of the books weren’t alive. Remembering back to the first time he grappled with the theory, he’d remember a certain line. Everything gives off an aura – not everyone, but every single goddamn thing! How come he hadn’t realized it before? Struggling to maintain the djed connection, Leigo would immediately feel fatigue. His use of res in days prior had taxed his body to its limits. He couldn’t maintain this for long even if he seemed to know how. Quickly turning to Fiera, he would push some more djed into the mix, as if trying to pay for a peek. It seemed to work as her aura stretched itself in front of him immediately. Not knowing what to think of it, he’d focus her again. He knew there was some mention of how aurists could perceive senses of other people, but he found all of it terribly unnecessary, because the very next minute he could sense a change in Fiera’s somewhat calm posture. Springing at him came a strange feeling of… attachment perhaps? Not really able to tell, the blond could sense the girl having intensified emotion to something… no, someone… Wait! He could feel his head starting to get dizzy; this was a good moment to terminate the djed feed. Feeling strangely relaxed as soon as he managed to open his own, normal eyes, Leigo stared at the girl with a blank expression on his face. For all she knew he was still scanning her using auristics and seeing all kinds of shiny shyke. Not wanting to tell her otherwise, he’d try and give what he had seen and felt some consideration. She obviously felt something for him! Perhaps it was malicious hate that Nuit bastard implanted her with. No, she said she was skilled in auristics – she would know – she’d try to hide such things. Yet it felt as if she was pushing the knowing onto his senses. Almost as if… the boy was blushing head to toe for the first time in a long time. She liked him? How did that happen? When?! “Why…why me?” he’d manage to mutter, all of his cockiness gone completely. What had he ever done to have someone feeling that for him? If this was a game by that corpse snatching shyke, he’d make the creature pay. But maybe it was actually true – gods knew no one other than his parents and Anaya got really close. And Kelvics were trustworthy, he knew. What he read spoke of some bond of sorts and how it linked the two in trust. Trust was a good word.

[Fiera]

She didn’t blush or smile. So he had learned. Stillness settled around them as Fiera lowered her frightened eyes. Frightened because she had just possibly damned her own future. Like a small child, afraid of the dark, Fiera stood rooted to the spot. Leigo did colour slightly though. Mortified or honoured? Time would tell. His question astounded her, why him? Wasn’t that obvious? He’d saved her when no man would have dared. But she chose to word her answer differently, “I think you may already know” It wouldn’t be surprising if he didn’t know - gods knew how she even remembered the events of that fateful day – but even a fool could see the link between saving a Kelvic and them coming to trust you. Fiera couldn’t deny that it was more than that, nor could she promise to anyone that her desire would not grow. In her eyes, trust was a tree that bore many fruit. Was this high time to remind Leigo that he had succeeded in reading her aura? No, probably not, she answered herself. While this proved a pivoting moment in Fiera’s life, Leigo may have dismissed it as unimportant. For the second time that evening, an overwhelming desire to talk to Nakita washed over her. She would know what to do and how to do it. But Nakita was too far away, and Fiera was alone. Alone. Still shocked, she reached for his hand, which lay so close and looked into his eyes. Fiera expected him to pull away, and reached slowly, so he could see her intentions. Having grown weary of fighting a doomed battle, she would not falter any longer, she would not fear a certain future or try to evade destiny. Born a Kelvic, to die a Kelvic, and in the process make many children and serve a master. Yes, Lhex may have frowned upon her, but she would not give him reason to laugh.

[Leigo]

Struggling to stay composed, Leigo would feel his own hand shaking at the realization it was being targeted. The whole situation seemed both right and wrong to him at the same time. Normally he would need more bells and days and weeks and maybe even cycles to think – but he wasn’t alone. Discussing things with himself became a whole lot easier, albeit more frustrating, ever since Onuo came along. And now that same creature would voice its concerns with the situation. I don’t think we should do this. Somehow Leigo was certain that if Onuo had a face it would’ve been a serious one this time… not like Onuo could ever do anything else, but the situation was still serious despite the comic elements. Why? We can’t trust her! But that’s just the thing! We can! There’s no time to explain it now, but do you have any other reason against it? No, but there are questions. Later, I promise. Very well then… He had been along for so long it wasn’t even funny anymore. And strictly speaking he was never even involved with anyone to begin with. It was all so new to him, but judging by her awkward approach she was just as lacking confidence as he was. Perhaps a bit braver than he currently, but the boy wrote it off as her Kelvic blood. Yet what would they be should he ever accept? He could never look at her like a pet or a slave – that was simply wrong! But then what was she? Attractive certainly, but somehow that seemed of lesser importance at the moment. For the longest time it was just him. And then came Onuo, and with it the solitude was diminished. Still no matter how much he thought about it, some things were still set in stone. Onuo was another one of him, but he wasn’t another. Having the familiar around had been pretty much like carrying an extra observant and careful version of him around. While it did seem to give companionship at first, that too soon turned into one life of two minds. The Irylid was no longer someone else. And Leigo needed someone else every now and then. But was he re… damn it all! Trying to look more confident than he felt, he would let her hand reach him and with it his fingers clasped around hers. She was wrong, he didn’t know why. More importantly – he didn’t care. She was staring at him again and it felt unpleasant, but much less so than the first time around. This time he at least knew just why that was – hopefully. No longer needing to keep his cool, he’d ask her what seemed to be the most important question so far. “What now?” he was fairly new to this himself and therefore just as clueless. One thing he knew is that he didn’t want to let go. Hand grasping her tighter, he hoped he wasn’t hurting her, but the damn thing was still shaking slightly. What was he to do? What were they to do?