Closed I feel your wounds, I need to cure them!(Caelum)

[Eida]

Summer 85th, AV 513

She spent a long time along Cyphrus ever since she lose her rank to be priestess of Leth. At least she thought she can't be. And after her kelvic left her without giving her any reason why so Eida's mood often tended to swing. She had some melancholy mood sometimes but other times she was happy as always. She even gave up hunting these days. It didn't came out well for her. She was rather resting or she was thinking to what to do. Summer was a long season for her.

It was already middle of the night, Eida was at the Cliffside Grotto. She was sitting on the ground at a place where she could be alone. But she wasn't enjoying the sight of the flowers and scents of them. She was busy checking her wound on her knee which she got not long ago. She was going down at the stairs and at a moment when she wasn't careful she just realized she was falling down. But she was also thinking that she felt somebody pushed her. Although that thought flew away, she was sure that was not the case just she was clumsy and she was only dreaming.

It didn't hurt that much but she was thinking what to do with it. The best as Eida thought if she wouldn't touch it or such, expect if she wants it to get worse. It was her luck she didn't get any worse. She hit her head a bit too and bruised her palms. However her mark from Leth remained luminescent. "Oh father.. what a luck night! I'm not sure where am I now." She looked up and said to Leth who was shining down as always during the nights. Her old 'friend' melancholy visited her again and Eida was welcoming it.

[Caelum]

"A barked shin is little reason to cry at the moon," a stranger's voice intruded, dark with the music of the Ukalas they had fallen from. It was an imprisoned accent, lending his words strange shapes among the slow fading array of exotic flowers the Cliffside Grotto boasted. While his words could have been considered reproach, they held enough subdued humor to make them friendly as he slipped down a few more steps, a vibrant shadow passing her and lowering. The moonlight at last revealed him when he sank to a crouch before the ethaefal a few steps beneath her perch, placing them at a height. His smile was old in a face that was young, his hair a dark series of braids knotted back in haphazard, Drykas style. Needle fine swirls of ink lined his skin, coiling about his right eye in a ghost representation of Syna's favor and thickening down the lean muscles of his arms bared by the sleeveless, leather vest he wore that was common to Riverfall fashion. Worn leather pants in matching, faded black were tucked into his riding boots and the only color on him was the sun's burnish to his skin and golden motes floating in the iris of otherwise velvet dark eyes. "But Leth must love you a great deal, sister, because he's answered at last one half of your prayer," he went on in the same casual, easy fashion as if they were beginning in the middle of an old conversation, familiar friends. He raised his right hand and in the soft night Rak'keli's mark shone like Syna's laughter in golden opalescence. "I'm a doctor," he explained. "Not the best of them, but not the worst either. Let me have a look at your knee there and you can begin telling me what you're doing in a garden alone dreaming at the sky. Don't you know --" He tilted his head, teasing. Or maybe pointed. "The sky always squints back."

[Eida]

Cry at the moon. Eida turned her head over there. So somebody did find her or at least cared for her. And he was right, Eida was crying at the moon much. But he had calm voice tone so Eida didn't fear . She actually was happy to have a company for this night. And as he was coming closer she could see his appearance as Leth's light was shining on him.

She could tell he was a Drykas. He had marks on him and his hair knotted back in a Drykas style. He looked like a Drykas but there was something different on him. His eyes, his smile, his voice, his all appearance. He was not someone from this city, he was not someone from this world. Eida got a strange feeling again. Something melancholy, the loss and the times with Leth. He could be another one.

Sister. Definitely, he was a Syna fallen. And he called himself as Leth's answer for his prayers. Did Syna send him? She felt better, he was so kind and he had a good atmosphere. He had also a mark on his hand. Like she had Leth's mark on her wrist but it was different. Could that heal her wound? It must be and he was so confident. After another nightdreaming Eida finally answered him. "Thanks you, Brother... I was just coming here alone, to enjoy the sight of these flowers and enjoy their scent also. I guess." She looked at the sky and back to him." Leth answered many times and in many different ways to my prayers. How about your prayers, Synaborn? " She asked as she was sure now he was an ethaefal too. " I gave myself the name Eida in this world, what's yours? "

[Caelum]

“Leth’s likely been waiting ages for a chance to show these flowers how pretty you are.” Caelum’s smile grew more broad, his tone light and teasing, complimenting her as he might a little sister. And she was his little sister, wasn’t she? She was in the eyes of their gods. “You can call me Caelum, Eida,” he went on while dropping a calloused hand to her bare ankle. “That’s the name I found for myself here.” He was careful as he drew her leg out by the ankle, his touch sure but necessarily brief. Dark eyes were speculative in consideration of her injury. Yet even that brief contact with her sent ripples of a different kind of divinity altogether across the floor of his soul, lapping up against the walls of his consciousness until Nikali’s blood red chains rustled within. The first of Eida’s needs was disgustingly simple to meet. From the pocket of his trousers, he withdrew a clean, rumpled handkerchief that he proceeded to use to dab at the blood staining her knee. With an inward nod to yet another goddess, Caelum eased Rak’keli’s power of healing through the channels long since emblazoned upon his spirit and into the luminous daughter of Leth seated before him. The scrape to moon pale skin healed rapidly and the bruising dispersed, taking with it the discoloration of oxygen carrying blood to leave Eida without a scar. Caelum’s nose twitched, smelling ghost memories of green things and afterbirth. “How about my prayers,” he murmured in echo of Eida’s question. The hankerchief stained with her blood was folded neatly between his hands, ultimately tucking it away into his pocket for safe keeping. He might could use it, he imagined, for her blood would be a key to her chavi. Slowly, he lifted his eyes back to her face. “My prayers are usually answered,” he confessed. He smiled again, this time sharp and wry. “But in the most frustrating of ways.” And he had considered of late that he himself may well be under the process of becoming an answer himself. OOCNikali’s gnosis has been used! Please PM me any especial needs of Eida’s. You can be brief or extensive. We’ll have fun with it.

[Eida]

Eida let a big smile on her face when he commented. She was suprised that her brother could be even that calm in his earthbound form. For her it was harder these days. But... he was a Drykas ethaefal in Riverfall and she was a symenestra ethaefal in Riverfall. She sighed and as she did that Caelum already was working. She was suprised that he knew what to do.

He quickly took care of her injury. Eida could also notice a mark on his hands. A beautiful sigil, which was surely not part of the tattoos. She thought it might be a gift from a god or a goddess. And she was right. Her injury, like it was never there, she didn't feel the pain. It was pleasent feeling. She was curious why did he take away the blooded handkerchief but she didn't want to be rude, after all he helped her.

She looked at him. He was smiling but it wasn't that bright. What did he experience? But this season she didn't feel at the top either. She lost her life purpose and she was eagerly searching for new but also breaking a bond with her bondmate was a big shock for her. She didn't even know the reason which made it worse. Her body was moving its own. And she hugged him.

That moment Caelum could feel that Eida had a feeling that was common among their kind: The loss. Thought she had deep faith in Leth and she wasn't about to turn into a forsaken, her feeling about the loss was bigger than ever which made her little bit blind about things which were obvious.

[Caelum]

Caelum studied Eida as their silence stretched. There was a surprising well of patience in that sun-struck regard, the sort that went right through the bottom of a man until it could catch on the bedrock of the world. He had spent far too many enslaved hours learning the hard lessons of care and restraint, and while they no longer left him cowered, they made themselves evident instead by a watchful quiet. A half smile continued to curl his mouth, and it was knowing. Nonetheless, he went still when Eida spilled forward and into his arms. His own rose instinctively, snaking around her when she reached for him. It rocked him back on his heels, still crouched on the cliff steps, but he was not afraid of falling. No, he had no room left in him for fear of heights. He had already suffered the very worst of falls, and survived. Knowing swamped his sense, blood quickening in answer to the connection of flesh on flesh. Nikali's gnosis suffused his skin, triggering a series of memories to tumble through his mind like a snapped string of prayer beads, bouncing and clattering across his consciousness. Rak'keli had already replied to his unvoiced plea on Eida's behalf, channeling a breath of her grace to allow him to ease his sister's physical pain; but now, at Nikali's behest, he felt the shadows of those other gods whose path he had crossed dapple over him. Syna, though by night she slept, stirred somewhere long enough to remind him to comfort her lover's daughter as well as he was able. So Caelum shifted carefully around, his arms still cuddled about Eida, to settle himself to a seat on the steps and her securely in his lap. By this touch, he attempted to remind Eida that despite her loss, she was not alone. "It can be lonely down here, can't it?" He prodded quietly once settled, encouraging her to talk to him.

[Eida]

As the Caelum was carefully tried to sit with her, his touch was gentle. It was giving Eida a chill. Her arms were going around his body tighter. Lonely. One thing she didn't want to experience. But she did even it wasn't fully true. "I'm sorry..." She was about to cry out her heart. "I'm so sorry. I know you feel it too. We all have to feel it. You know under your mother's light I'm a symenestra." Her arms let his body and she only sat on his lap now. She started her story.

"And you know this city for sure, I don't have to tell that they look at me like a monster. Only a few them didn't. I had a good chat with two of them. They have kind hearts." She didn't look at him, she was staring at the Moon. "But I didn't care as long as I was at the wilds with my dear kelvic... until I lost my purpose in this world. I wanted to be Leth priestess, but I'm surely not here for this. Even though I wear his mark with pride. " She showed her wrist with crescent moon on it and she contineud. " Then I lost my love of life. My kelvic left me without reasons. I promised I will do anything to help Leth but... I don't know anymore."

She crossed her arms and looked back at Caelum. It was strange, it wasn't him who made her feel the loss now."How about you?" She felt that he was so reliable for unreason maybe because he was her brother in some point. She couldn't help but smile again. She looked at his pocket and now she felt more confident in herself to ask the question..."Why did you take the handkerchief away like this?"

[Caelum]

When tears spilled from Eida’s eyes, Caelum’s mouth twisted toward a sympathetic grimace. She was not the only ethaefal to have shed tears like skin and dusk and dawn, nor would she be the last; but she was the one within reach of his comfort. A rumpled but clean handkerchief, plain cotton and certainly not the one stained with her blood, was tugged out of a pocket and tucked wordlessly into her hand. Eida’s problems were considered in the moonlight. He understood the potential agony a severed kelvic bond could produce, and it often came hauling things such as guilt and anger with it. There had been a pale house cat in Ravok with eyes the green and gold of iodized copper and a long, long tail that swished all the time. Memory of Cora simmered inside of him, and the manner in which their bond had been severed was a black memory amid some of his most dark. He had not always been the sufferer. No, there were two sides to every coin and two parts in the daily cycle of time. A man in his life could emulate them both, and even as son of Syna could not stand outside of it. Not, at least, while he was down here. At length Caelum shifted, strong arms careful as he lifted Eida out of his lap to a seat on the steps beside him. He angled toward to him, but broke their direct connection. It was tugging him to places he dared not go for fear of relapse. “It isn’t your blood or your ancestry that makes you a monster, Eida,” he told her. “It isn’t even your thoughts and feelings. It is what you do with your own fortunes and drawbacks; it is how you act on your thoughts. There are monstrous minded Symenestra, but are you one of them?” He raised an eyebrow. “And even those monsters have reasons for what they do. The world isn’t broken down into good and evil, monsters and men.” He slumped comfortably back against the rise of the step, moonlight turning his windmarks pallid; but his faint smile glittered at the same. “Have you passed much time with the goddess Caiyha? She is the First Witch, the goddess of nature,” he explained. Reverence mixed with bemusement in his words. “I had the honor of meeting her years ago. She’s bloody terrifying. And wonderful.” He laughed a little in memory, at himself and his own bitter actions. “My point, however, is that I think you mind understand Caiyha, and She understand you. Leth is great –“ He cast his eyes towards the moon, his smile sardonic. “But he is not the only god on Mizahar. Caiyha knows more than a small thing or two about cycles, about predator and prey and what instincts and urges rule the wild creatures such as your lost kelvic.”

[Eida]

She didn't get answer for her question but she didn't mind. She took the clean handkerchief and wiped her tears. It was enough crying. She never wanted to fall to the state where she gives up. It was against her thinking. But she was the daughter of the god of change, it was time maybe. She also carefully took the seat as Caelum lifted her next to him.

She never thought she was a monster or act one. She was just a little different. "I know. I always knew, I tried to not listen to them. Even though it's maybe true. I have a wilder self, but who doesn't? I also know it's not their fault. I have heard something about the symenestra reproduction's danger. And I remember, not clearly, but I know there was a baby inside of me. Perhaps I was sacrificing my life for somebody's else life?" She looked down at her belly and put her hands there like someone was still there. Somehow it was a strange memory, and it was also strange to even think about it. But if her theory was right, she hoped that the child was healthy.

She looked at her nails which made her smile, she also let out a little laugh. "Oh and of course those nails and my fangs." Caiyha, the goddess of nature. The nature had a goddess she didn't know of, even though she loved it ... her? so much. She felt bad and embarassed. The First Witch an cycles. She remembered her adventure with Arckhebohn. Predator and Prey, she disturbed something she wasn't allow to.

"I know he isn't. But I couldn't ask... at least couldn't think of anybody to ask for help. He was always there for me, I always had high faith on him and he even gifted me with his power." She looked at him and smiled. "I believe you could always turn to Syna whenver you had to." Even though he was a brother to her, it was strange she shared that much with him. But somehow it was her nature too. She also looked at the flowers in the park. Everyone of them are from Caiyha? "How... How can I talk to her? Where I can reach her?"

[Caelum]

“It makes sense that Leth would hold a person who goes to the defense of a loved in high regard,” Caelum pointed out. If Eida had indeed died in an attempt to save the life of her child, he did not imagine even the black of Kalinor could keep it from Leth’s sight. The moon god doubtless took a few cues from the mission of his lover Syna who was determined not again to be caught unaware. The drykas tilted his head back to lift his eyes to the moon, expression thoughtful. He chose not to reply to her remark on being able to turn toward Syna whenever he was in need. She was not wrong, but nor was that state of this world so simple. There had been a time not that long ago he would have said bitterly that Syna had left him in the dark. Again, it was not wrong. But it was not the entire truth either. He had come far through the map of his soul since and knew a bit more about the shape of the and the gods who walked it. His gaze dropped back to Eida, luminous in Leth’s light, and he smiled back at her. “It is not so hard to talk to Caiyha, sister. She is everywhere. The trick, I think, is to listen.” He lifted one arm in a sweeping gesture meant to encompass the grotto they sat in. “Listen to the world, and to yourself.”