[The Home Cave] Let Me Love The Wind (Term/PM Invite)

[Abashai]

Abashai felt the cramp in his own gut as Nya vomited, saw the pain twist his bondmate's face. He immediately laid one hand on her back, the other gently grasping the loose strands of hair hanging in her lowered face and placing them behind her ear. "Nya," he spoke softly, his voice laced with concern. His ire stirred again as he saw how this Res tortured her body, filled her and forced itself out of her. The man hated to see something cause Nya pain, nothing made him more desperately angry. That primal anger had once earned him a crossbow bolt through the chest. Abashai shot Terminus a dark glare, seeing the reinmancer momentarily caught off-guard by Nya's overproduction of the stuff. Terminus knew well enough that the benshiran's baleful gaze was only a instinctual reaction to the threat he saw to his loved one. But there was no mistake in the crystal blue-green eyes....Fix her!

As Nya curled up on the furs, the puddles of magic goop already dissipating, more of it running out her parted lips and down the side of her face, her bondmate stroked her hair worriedly. As Terminus began to instruct Nya, Abashai's hand trailed down her arm to grasp her hand. He did not want to interfere with what she had to learn, but if Nya returned the grip on his hand, he would not let go of it.

[Nya Winters]

Nya was a very literal creature. When someone was trying to instruct her on something and told her to do something, she generally tired to do as the teacher asked. Rarely did she realize there was need for further instruction, though she'd gotten better at this with Abashai around. If someone she trusted said hunt and she desired to please them, then she'd do so immediately killing first and asking questions later. To her, magic was no different than Ry'vata or Abashai's blade work, or even hunting with claws and fangs. It was a tool used to create a means to an end. Terminus, if he was going to be around Kelvics for any length of time, would have to learn this lesson just as fast as Abashai had - for her bondmate had something of a fast tract instruction on being very specific on such things when thoughtless comments had fallen from his lips. The "I'm so hungry I could eat a whole Syliran Yoke Ox!" he'd made last fall after they'd been working on Sus' lean-too and had lost track of the time and forgetting to eat. It had resulted in Nya dragging one of the huge smelly hairy creatures all the way up into the mountains to the base of the cave just to please him. Abashai had felt guilty and tracking down the farmer she'd snatched the poor beast from had been something of a thorn in his side for a few days afterward.

Nya had been more careful to question him or at least raise an eyebrow when something he said had been a little off from the normal since then, but her bondmate too had been really clear since then. Magic however, was something a bit newer, and she honestly thought Terminus had meant create res now. Which is why she had, and put such effort into it.

Terminus, having no such yoke ox experience of his own (though he soon would with Avi), wouldn't have known better. But his quick action decidedly got the forest cat's attention long enough for her to stop thinking 'make it make it' and start thinking of it going back to its original form - djed. One of Nya's hardest problems would not be achieving Res... that much was clear to Terminus from the onslaught. She came from a family powerfully gifted in the magical arts so aptitude wouldn't be an issue. Nya's problem would be finesse. She was a good hunter, but it was a skill that hadn't come easily. Both men had missed her childhood awkwardness, her lack of patience, her inability to time things right. Her parents, for the longest time, had been at a loss to teach her. They were not hunters, nor forest cats, and they had no idea how to help her hone her skills.

Then Zivila had done the hardest thing a parent had ever had to do in order to force Nya to learn timing, and increase her skill. She'd withheld food. Zilvia had watched her daughter slim down, loose her baby fat, then become ribby all in a matter of days. The Kelvic metabolism was a fierce thing, especially for the Talderian creatures, and if they didn't eat regularly of large quantities, then they quickly lost their tone and grew gaunt.

Hunger honed Nya's skills nicely. Hunger taught her patience. Hunger taught her to study the ways of her prey and not bumble into unknown territory and try for the easy kills. Hours being held down by her laughing father while her mother pulled porcupine quills out of her snout as she bled all over the marble floor of Lormar Tower's kitchen taught her selectivity.

Magic would have its own lessons. Panicking her bondmate and nearly panicked her friend was one of those lessons. Abashai's primal anger scared her, even though he tamped it down, she felt it through the bond like a burning Kopesh slicing through her mind. She growled in response, almost joining him in his rage until she realized he was feeling her discomfort, her twisted protesting stomach as the Res overproduction spilled out everywhere. She broke all of societies politeness rules in those next few moments. But it was Abashai's cold rage that she latched onto. It spread like an icy fire through her mind and allowed her to break the cycle of production enough to dispel the Res back to djed.

Their lair though, was filled briefly, with glittering bluish res. A touch to her face caused her to sigh, and a familiar warm calloused hand in hers made her grip it tightly. She laid there for a while, a little shocked, before she sat back up, shook out her brindled hair as if the phantom stuff still clung to it, and nodded to Terminus. The sound of his voice permeated her mind, and she understood then that this was about control. Embarrassment flooded her mind, and her cheeks flushed red. In that moment, she wanted to burrow under the furs and hide... to make them forget she'd messed up the Res production. And she longed for music suddenly.

She longed for Abashai's oud to be exact, for it soothed her when she was troubled or embarrassed. And as she thought about what Terminus said, about making a ball, the res pooled out of her hands once more, this time far more sedate. He said anything she wanted to choose. Rather than forming a ball, the blue substance formed what looked like a rough shape of an oud. It had no strings, and its neck was crudely made with a bulky barely recognizable body... but it looked good to Nya. To the men, it would look like a child's clay creation. Then, as Terminus asked, she released it.

The blue vaguely oud-shaped mass exploded into a gust of wind that filled the cave in that instant with a burst of music. It wasn't a unique song, but rather one of Abashai's favorites that he'd played a hundred times. It wasn't the epic sad tune Abashai normally played, but rather it was crudely formed, and tinged with Nya's embarrassment. It didn't last for more than a heartbeat, but both men could still recognize it as clearly manipulated air - not the struck string of an oud but more the whistle or thrum of a mouth pipe. Nya looked astonished. Music was, after all, sound waves, and was produced at times by air being forced through things. And she tried again, afterwards, generating just small breezes, simple gusts, well able to do it, but lacking any control whatsoever.

Several bells later, Terminus departed, escorted back to the city gates by Nya. She thanked him profusely and promised to practice every day until she had her formation of res just right and could shape it into things that made air. He promised to come back to help Abashai get started when Nya had showed him how to make Res. She knew it would take a few days to convince him, and even then she was sure it would be more than she might be able to manage.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was late almost ten days later when Nya decided the time was right. They had both bathed and Abashai was sitting shirtless patting his face with a towel. He'd been shaving, carefully scraping the excess hair from his face. Nya had been busy that day hunting and working on curing winter skins they could sell in town for a bit more money to buy the vegetables and fruits Abashai kept insisting they add to their diet.

So as Abashai finished, Nya approached him from behind, knelt down on her knees at his back, and nuzzled the nape of his neck. "Terminus will be back in a day or two..." Nya said softly, knowing Abashai knew what that meant. Nya had promised, before the Ivak Follower had left, to make sure Abashai knew how to make Res so he could help the man form it. She didn't want to let either Terminus or Abashai down, though she knew Terminus was coming for Abashai's sake. Her job was to introduce Res to Abashai's body - privately - so he'd be well and involved in making it by the time Terminus returned. They both knew it was dangerous for her to be the one to show him, but Nya understood Abashai was a male - a strong male - and for them it was harder to accept things from other males - just as it would be hard for him to accept this from her.

The cave was warm and the candles were lit. Abashai's mirror sat at kneeling level, letting him shave comfortably in the gentle muted light of the cave. He could see Nya approach and linger behind him, even if her hair did occasionally disappear into the camouflage of the darkness, her eyes were always luminous and on his.

"All living things have djed... it is the energy of who we are. When you walk into a room, before I sense you with my hearing or smell, my djed often knows your djed. Even when we do not touch, bondmate, our djed co-mingles. I know you feel this, especially when we are close. I think too that djed forms the bonds within us and intertwines our lives together. And if we just had eyes to see, we'd most likely be able to hold our own bond within our hands. It is the power of life that flows through everything. My djed and your djed touch, but so too does the djed of the stone we stand on here touch us. You have a very strong pool of it, Shai... even if you don't understand. I think, perhaps, that sometime in your people's past, you were very powerful magicians. My djed recognizes yours - it drew me to you in many ways. Even now, yours feels mine as we touch." She said, brushing her cheek lightly across his bare back and through the black curls falling across his shoulders. "If we are wise, we can take this energy and recognize it within ourselves, and as Terminus was trying to show me the other day, we can mold it to our will. This is what a reinmancer does. This is what you can learn to do. You are strong, Shai... powerful in your heart and mind. Your djed will be the same way, stoic, unbending, unpretentious. Do you feel it?" She whispered, still lingering behind him, not wanting to look upon his bare chest, but knowing his back was safe enough territory.

She remained behind him, meeting his gaze in the mirror. Nya felt things for her bondmate that Nya didn't want her bondmate to truly understand. And she didn't trust herself to do this as her and Terminus had. With her bondmate, it must be gentler, different, for there was a lot about them that was fragile. And she felt them most acutely when they were like this - alone and touching. So she reached around him and took the towel from his hand, and drew that hand across his chest to rest just above his shoulder. She didn't speak - didn't offer him any more words - but let her bond fill with the trust the pair shared. Her hands cupped his larger stronger one, holding it pulled across his chest and above his shoulder. She leaned forward, long hair brushing across his bare back, and ran her tongue across the palm. Nya had sharp teeth, sharper than she liked to admit, and so she winced with him when she peeled her human lips back and dragged her canine tooth across his palm, opening the flesh up.

It stung, even as her tongue ran across the broken skin again, and breathed out res into his wound.. It was incredibly intimate, despite the pain, and he could feel the foreign substance invade his palm and deeper still, flowing down into his limb. Fingers entwined into his and he felt a sharp pain in Nya's own palm through their bond. She took her time though, keeping one hand interlocked in his, wound pressed to wound, as she reached out with her remaining hand and pulled his other arm across and up his body. Another cut came from a light kiss by her teeth across his opposite palm, then the warmth of her tongue and then another interlocked hand. He could feel Nya's res slowly flooding into him, incredibly slowly, incredibly gently - just through her hands. The warmth of her body pressed up against his back, and she kept herself draped against him so her head was beside his, tucked into the right side of his neck. It was intimate but not invasive, though it did break the rules about pressing herself against him. She kept the contact only along his back and her torso, and slowly focused on gently releasing the Res into his bloodstream and the whole of his body's energy system.

Enough of Nya's arms were around him that he didn't mind that his own arms were crossed and pressed against his own chest. Nya invaded no more of his body than that, not offering to kiss him, not even remotely invading his body like Terminus had hers. It would take longer, maybe even hours, but she'd wait for it, fitting comfortably against the man she loved as his own body recognized and began to feel - in the same way she had - the presence of the foreign substance and how it was made.

And in the mean time she started to speak. Her voice was low, a pitched relaxing alto that clued Abashai in that a Zilvia story was about to be offered up. Nya didn't tell her bondmate her mother's favorite stories often, for they made her homesick sometimes, but she did realize something was needed here, to fill the time and mask the emotions she was otherwise projecting through her link. Sharing res was intimate... very intimate... even when done incredibly carefully and with as much finesse as the forest cat had been able to teach herself in such a short amount of time.

"There is a place to the far west, a place like no other here in the lands we live in now. It is along a sea, much the same way Syliras is, where the sun sets across the water, but it is not the same as the Suvan Sea. It is a land of fire and ice and was so, even before the Valterrian. The people there loved the sky. They had legends about the Sky and how they were kin to it always. And because they loved the sky so, people say they took to loving all things of the sky as well, especially birds. They tamed eagles and hawks and other more fiercer things, and in exchange for sheltering them, these things helped them hunt and taught them their ways. It is said from these people a skill called falconry came, and it is the reason we know how to raise and train hawks and falcons now." Nya said, almost whispering. She shifted, warm against his back, and nuzzled the nap of his neck again briefly. He could feel her devotion and concern, though it was only an echo at the moment as her story captured his full attention. Then she grew still to continue the story - comfortable against him even as their co-mingled blood ran down their wrists, painting his shoulders slightly in the essence of who they were - as Nya's Res continued to trickle into Abashai'a body.

She was so gentle.

"And even though they loved the sky, they could never truly be in the sky, part of it, not like their fierce bird friends or even the smallest sparrow could. But they knew all about it. They knew the winds and Zulrav's arms and where the best food was. They so strongly bonded with their birds that they understood how to be a bird, even if they were locked to the ground cruelly." Nya said, her voice changing slightly, growing dramatic. "Then the earth began shaking, and things to the far east erupted. The world changed, and a battle came raging across the land - a battle that would end up ending a war that had barely begun. The gods asked for their help - though know one knows what this help was for - and they readily agreed. And then they died. In droves... because whatever their sacrifice was, whatever the gods needed their help to do, it was something deadly. Only, when they fell they didn't die. They thought they would though, and helped willingly anyhow. But instead, they rose from the ashes of their former lives, bursting from the corpses of their piled up dead, and found wings they had always wanted. And because their hearts were so big and their sacrifices were so great, they were enormous. The gods had given them not only access to the sky but dominion over it." Nya said softly, pausing to nuzzle Abashai's throat a moment before shifting to grow comfortable, then to continue her story.

"And there were those that survived the sacrifice and lived on as the humans they were meant to. Their tears became astonishment as their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters rose up as eagles - the biggest eagles they've ever seen - free from their earth-bond chains. But the birds didn't leave those they loved; their family. Instead, they took them upon their back and climbed the mountain of bodies that was now a mountain in truth and found at the top a high-mountain bowl filled with fresh water trapped in a stone paradise. The mountain kisses the sky and is so big that all of them could live in its arms together. It was riddled with caves, all around the bowl - caves that could not be reached from the ground. The eagles nested there, on the ledges those caves had, and their families settled the interior. And their whole lives changed, so too did their lifestyle. And the mountain, though it occasionally steamed, releasing heat through the lake in its hollow heart, became their home. They live there even now, ever since the Valterrian. They never had to go underground because the air was clean so high in the sky, and even though the cold was harsh, they thrived because their family - the feathered ones - could fly long distances and fish out deep in the sea where the violence hadn't touched the world. They live there because they sacrified their own, helped the gods, and kept their secrets." Nya said softly, rubbing her jawline along his gently, admiring the smoothness of his freshly shaven face intermingled with his neatly trimmed goatee and beard. "It is called Wind Reach, and though it is very far away, someday I would like to go there and to see these people. I would like to know my mother's story was true." Nya said, dipping her head to run her tongue along the top of Abashai's right shoulder. He could tell she was still lost in the tale, her mind a million miles away, and her gesture unconscious.

Nya blinked back to the present. Almost a whole bell had passed. "Do you feel it in you? My Res?" She asked, curious... "Do you think you can make more? Terminus will come tomorrow or the day after... to help you shape it." Nya said, not releasing her grip on his hands yet, still trickling her res into him. She would until he said stop, until he gently released the grip himself. And then she'd stay with him while he tried to form his own djed into res and was successful. All the while her careful concerned moss gaze was on his, reflected back at him through the silvered glass.

NoteSorry it was so long! Term, feel free to rp a little, then leave and come back to continue with Abashai!

[Abashai]

Nya knew her bondmate well. Following a good bath, Abashai became almost serene. They usually bathed at the same time, and though they had guidelines that maintained an atmosphere of modesty, both bondmates thoroughly enjoyed the task. Abashai especially looked forward to having his hair washed by Nya. She performed the task with great care, taking her time running her fingers through his dark locks and scratching his scalp with her fingernails. She would speak to him while she washed his hair. Sometimes she would simply recite the activities of her day, other times making up some fantastic tale. It didn't matter, the soft thrum of her voice pleased him. The ritual seemed to sap the stress from his body, and he relished the sensation. Through the bond, he could feel how much Nya enjoyed it too.

So, clean-skinned, shaven and trimmed, kneeling in the warm candlelight of their lair with his scalp still tingling from Nya's ministrations, Abashai was prime for her to bring up the subject of reimancy.

He saw his bondamte approach in the mirror's reflection and kneel down behind him, her hair still darkened with the dampness of their bathing. Abashai welcomed her nuzzling at his neck, and when she mentioned Terminus's return, he hid a smile. He knew what was coming next. Nya had tried to be subtle in recent days, working to convince him of all the benefits they would have if both of them knew the magic. The whole thing still made him apprehensive, but Nya was persistent.

The benshiran listened to Nya describe djed, and he began to understand. In fact, it helped him to see how their bond worked, why it was so strong, that it was truly tangible, not just emotional. He listened to her hushed, soothing alto voice, felt her soft cheek against his skin. Abashai wondered if she knew how the sound of her voice affected him, or indeed how the gentle affections moved his resolve. She would never have to use her Hypnotism on him, their deepening bond simply made it more difficult to find reasons to tell her no. Whether she knew it or not, in most matters, Nya could turn him with a whisper and a brush against his skin. It was something his pride had not allowed him to reveal, but nothing could prevent the bond from telling his secret. Already at ease, Abashai's heart opened and the bond expanded. At the moment, if Nya had asked him to learn to fly, he would have leaped out of the cave with his arms outstretched. She was right, he knew everything Nya said was true, though he had no idea about the nature of the djed within himself. For that he would take her at her word. He would accept the Res from her, learn to use it, so they could be stronger together.

Abashai met Nya's luminous feline gaze in the mirror. If she hadn't sensed his acceptance of the initiation through the bond, she would see it in his bright blue-green eyes. In fact, she would feel his complete trust in her.
Abashai thought he caught a hint of something in the bond, something Nya pressed down, but it fluttered and dissipated. As Nya reached for his hand, made her incision and licked his wound, he closed his eyes, focusing on the sting of the cut, then the warmth of her breath. He felt the first wisps of her Res leak into his bloodstream, a hot tendril that reached down into his wrist. It was not startling, but gentle...not invasive, but definitely intimate. He grimaced slightly, feeling Nya's own pain as the cat opened her palm as well. Then she clasped his hand in hers, her Res breaching the opening in his palm and following the shred that her breath had produced.

Abashai's breath quickened as his bondmate took his other hand. He watched her in the mirror lick clean his palm, then bare her teeth. He did not turn away this time as she slit his skin, though his eyes closed slightly as he felt her tongue on his palm again and her own bleeding hand pressed against his. His heart fluttered at the unexpected intimacy of the exercise.

Abashai welcomed the comforting press of Nya against his back. His head tilted back slightly as his eyes slowly closed. He felt the slow creep of the stuff move to fill the vessels of his hands, then begin to inch down his wrist. The sensation was wonderful, so slow and warming. Quite the opposite of what he had witnessed during Nya's initiation, and what he felt then through their bond.

The rivlets of their mingled blood tickeld as it ran down his arm. As he felt her Res begin its small steady course into his bloodstream, Abashai felt his head swim as every nerve seemed alive and super sensitive. He felt Nya against him, her arms around him, holding him still, her hot breath against his neck. There was a subtle throb in his palms where her substance crossed to bleed into his body. It was like no experience he had ever known, and he almost swooned under its effects. Overwhelmed, Abashai gave himself over to Nya and her Res. His body consumed Nya's Res in a gentle, steady trickle across their finger-entwined hands, which he subtly squeezed tighter. Abashai had never experienced anything so tactile, so sensual. The intensity of the incredibly intimate ritual began to consume him, laying bare designs on Nya that he had only entertained in his most private thoughts. He struggled to seize hold upon those desires, prevent them from reaching Nya through the bond.

Abashai opened his eyes long enough look in the mirror and see Nya's thick, soft, brindled hair draped over one of his shoulders, a glimpse of her silken face pressed at his back. He saw the crimson smears of their lifeblood on their hands, running in thin trails down their arms and over his shoulders and chest. The sight ignited such a strong primal urge that he moaned aloud, almost in a growl. With great effort he squinted his eyes shut, straining to find a focus that could distract him from a powerful need to have Nya.

Then his bondmate spoke again, her soft gentle voice a soothing balm, a rope to grasp onto. Eyes still shut, he wrapped his mind around her sentences, knowing that one of Zilvia's tales was about to unfold. He clung to every word, strained to create a mental image of every detail. Though he was still acutely aware of her supple grip on his hands, the flow seeping between them, ever spreading through his form, he was able to quell his passion. He lowered his head, concentrating on the tale of the people of Wind Reach, thankful for the wisdom of his bondmate.

When Nya brought her story to an end and lightly licked Abashai's shoulder, he groaned softly, almost unknowingly, but otherwise remained still. When she asked if he could feel her Res, sitting with his head bowed and eyes closed, he uttered , "Yes my dear, I feel your Res in me." His tone surprised Nya, husky and thickly enraptured. After a moment, his face glowing euphorically, his head raised up and blue-green eyes slowly pried open. Abashai gave her a sheepish grin in the mirror, embarrassed by his carnal reaction to the ritual. Though the sensuality in his tone was gone this time, he still spoke in a hushed, deep voice. "I will try to make my own, but not yet." His eyes fluttered closed again, his head leaning back and to the side, searching for the soft touch of her head. He squeezed her hands lightly, pulled his arms down to draw her closer against him. He knew he had broken his own rules, probably a lot of them, but he did not care. A full 20 chimes longer he remained in her embrace, relishing the flow of Res. Then he straightened himself, took a deep cleansing breath and opened his eyes once more to peer at his bondmate in the mirror. His face once again resembled the confident, controlled, loving man she knew.

Staring at her in the mirror, He didn't think he had ever seen Nya look more beautiful. He also knew now that he would never be totally content until the day that he made her his own. He tried hard to keep that to himself.

"Alright Ny, I'm ready, show me what to do." He slowly, reluctantly released her hands.

[Terminus Norin]

Terminus watched with great relief as the Res slowly stopped flowing from Nya. He now knew something new about Nya in that she would take his instructions literally so he would have to be very specific when he gave instructions. He also realized that she was very adept at producing the stuff,her problem would be finesse and refinement.

He felt Abashai's cold rage and knew that the benshiran did not blame him anymore than he did about the ritual. But he also understood that Abashai loved Nya and did not wish to see her hurt or uncomfortable. He also felt the same rage build in Nya as she channeled it to return the Res to Djed . He smiled and simply let her work with it and get the hang of it while he watched for any more issues.

He watched as she created a pool of Res and shaped it into an instrument. He smiled as he saw that it resembled Abashai's instrument. He could also feel the profound embarrassment as she did not get the shape she wanted. He also knew it was from the mistake earlier with the overproduction of Res . He was simply glad that she was well and would be slightly suffering form the over-giving. He smiled again as the oud burst into a wind that carried a song for a brief instant. He watched as she created small gusts and breezes.

Soon he was ready to go since all Nya needed now was some practice. She escorted him back to the city and he told her she was doing great and he would return in about two weeks time

[Nya Winters]

She didn't move for a long time. Even after he spoke to her, she remained still as if afraid to break the moment. There was so much between them that Nya was having trouble processing. Her emotions ran strong, but it wasn't like hunger or thirst or loneliness. It was a new sensation, something as deep as the bond but different from it, and it had her caught up as fiercely as one of Zulrav's storms. She needed to protect Abashai. She needed his approval. She needed to be close to him - with him - in the same room often enough. And his happiness and satisfaction where foremost on her mind often - she needed that. But in that moment she felt a different kind of need, something intimate and powerful, and something she'd never experienced before. It might have taken her one breath or ten, she couldn't quite remember afterwords, to respond to his voice. When it did finally register, Nya rose, circled around him, took his hand and urged him to rise. She pulled shai gently away from the mirror where she'd settled behind him and lead him over to their sleeping furs where she could sit face to face and knee to knee with him.

She was quiet, and though she was normally a quiet soul, her silence was a bit off her normal forest cat nature. And if Abashai caught a glimpse of her green eyes, he'd see something in them that perhaps his maleness would recognize easily enough for all that Nya didn't understand the sensation herself. Reimancy was incredibly intimate. It was intimate in ways the pair couldn't have been forewarned truthfully about. And because they were bonded and had feelings between them that were growing in ways neither had yet to acknowledge, the sharing of res was perhaps even more intimate than it necessarily needed to be.

Her smile was hesitant for all the reasons that were in her eyes, and she took a moment to lick the last of the blood off their arms and palms. It was a long moment and she enjoyed the metallic taste more than he would understand. "I was careful with Yahal's Marks." She said, but was somehow pleased he would have a scar from her on his palms as well. Even when she was gone from his life, he'd wear her marks like he did that of his god. It was an arrogant notion, but one she was incredibly pleased about anyhow.

Nya offered him a smile.

"It is like breathing, Shai. You feel my res inside you. You know what it is, how it feels, how it moves through you. You yourself are full of djed, its what res is made from. It is the energy inside you that is not your blood or your thinking... it has a particular feel, like when you are afraid and you have a sudden dry mouth because your djed has fled to other parts - your feet to run, your hands to draw your sword, your lungs to catch wind enough to shout a warning - and got you ready to react. It is strongest in you around your heart, Shai. For part of your strength is your conviction, and djed can be that as well. So feel your essence, your djed, and tell it to come together, to become tangible, to weave itself tightly over and over until it is something you can touch - but you cannot contain it within yourself. Remember what happened to me? I thought it was so easy to make, but there was no room for it all within me and it came spilling out.... think of how you need only a little Shai, and cup your hand like a bowl. Let it flow like water out through your cut, though truthfully it can exit your body anywhere, even your elbow if you need it to do so. I've tried it. And fill your palm with it. Breath it out if its easier... though I assume you'll find your own way." Nya said as she cupped her palm and blew a soft breath into the bowl her fingers made. Her res, a pale substance tinged with the same green as her eyes, filled the interior of her hand. It swirled around, restless, wanting to be made into air.

Of course, with Nya, it would be air.

"It seems like so much of nothing, Abashai, but with enough of this and if I get strong enough, I can even fly like a bird..." She said thoughtfully, then willed the res into a stiff breeze that leapt from her palm and coursed around the room before escaping the entrance to the cave. Of course, it wasn't like one of Zulrav's breezes, with its own personality and agenda. It was something artificial, very different, even though it acted in much the same way.

"Try it, Shai... but be careful. I suspect your talents are going to be more dangerous than mine. You have always been as solid as the earth, and that can make for a dangerous reimancy." She said softly. Nya knew that wind was harmless, but earth could make stone and an untrained unskilled reimancer could manifest such things half in and half out of his body doing himself tremendous damage. Of course, that made him horribly dangerous to others as well.

[Abashai]

Abashai used Nya's pause after the res transfer to regulate his breathing, his pulse still pounding from the intensity of the initiation. He realized a dull ache he had not noticed before, one that permeated his entire body. Abashai was able to calm himself, though he could still feel Nya's res coursing through him, a sensation that was both odd and comforting.

He willingly followed his bondmate to the fur pile and settled across from her, his eyes fixed on her luminous green gaze. He caught a glimmer of something in their depths, an emotion that surprisingly brought a faint blush to his face. The emotion betrayed in her galnce was not overt, as he had seen in other women's eyes...women with particular motives. It was, however, a look that he had not seen from his bondmate before. Unlike the gaze he had received from other females, Nya's was not discomforting, but held a certain innocence and resonated pleasingly with his own feelings for her.

Those feelings spiked again as Nya lapped up the blood remaining on his skin. He resisted the urge again to act upon those feelings, still thrumming so powerfully at his core. Instead, he simply leaned in to kiss her soft hair as she finished cleaning up their blood. When she was finished, Abashai settled back, processed a deep breath, and focused on Nya's instruction and the gentleness in her voice.

He watched in fascination as she breathed her res into her cupped hands, then released it into a gust that stirred his hair as it passed, fleeing out the lair's entrance. His eyes possessed the amazement of a child as she described how one day she may even take flight. Then the real weight of the matter sobered his demeanor once again. Nya had come to be so much more than that simple girl camping in the woods. He was beginning to realize she always was more...more powerful than he had assumed. Even more than the physical strength of the forest cat. She had already confessed to using magic to hypnotize. Abashai had no doubt that Zulrav granted great boons to those he branded, and Nya bore two of the god's marks. His bondmate was like a book that, when you think you reached the last page, always seemed to reveal another chapter.

As she softly spoke her final warning, and encouragement, Abashai continued his deep breathing, closing his eyes from Nya's captivating gaze. He concentrated on her res inside of him. Much like his weapon rituals, when he would focus on the blade in his hands, a tangible thing to serve as a center for his meditation, Nya's res became that center. Abashai caressed it in his mind, even as it flowed in ebbs throughout his form. He allowed the strong emotions, desires and distractions that had saturated him to fall away, some having to be pushed off to the side.

Next he tried to identify the elusive djed that Nya described. A sudden realization struck him. He spoke in a whisper, almost to himself. "I know what it is....I feel it when I call on the gnosis." No one had ever explained to him how the power of gnosis worked. He had not really understand djed until Nya and Terminus explained it.

Abashai's sealed eyes tightened slightly as he tried to discern the djed within him. He recalled the times he had used his enervation powers, and soon identified a familiar, subtle thread. He envisioned the magic in his body, suffusing his tissue, the foreign res a substance coursing through the channels of his frame.

Abashai heeded Nya's warning carefully, vividly remembering her reaction to res overproduction, a traumatic experience he himself was loathe to repeat. With great care, he became intent in his first manipulation of djed. With a tempered will, he coaxed a long sliver of the etheral matter to a center within himself. He lost concentration for a breath, and a flood surged, giving him a momentary pang in his chest that made him wince. Then he regained control, having a better feel for the magic, and demanded other threads to gather, tightly controlled streams that he envisioned gathering from all directions into a central place. He willed it to congeal, to bind and weave together into a small mass. In anticipation, he leaned forward slightly, cupping his hands into a bowl between himself and Nya.

Abashai mentally squeezed off each stream of djed, turning the mass within him until he could feel its consistency approaching that of Nya's res within him. He opened his eyes to look into his hands, still concentrating heavily on the newly forming res. With great effort, he bled the small mass out through the fresh wounds in his palms. The res trickled out in a somewhat viscous form, thicker than Nya's ethereal substance. The semi-gel was translucent, tinted with a rust-like hue. Abashai found the color to be very similar to the landscape of the desert's Redstone Cliffs. The pool collected, rather small in his hands, and lingered. The substance seemed to begin to dissipate when he looked up to Nya, a subtle self-satisfied grin on his face. "Well....now what do I do with it?"

[Nya Winters]

Nya smiled slowly, incredibly pleased. Her bondmate was smart, smarter than most men had a right to be. "Yes, Shai... the gods use djed too but theirs is somehow richer, more exotic, than our own. I believe when they mark us, they grant us the use of their own djed and through that tie they can find us. It is why they hear our voices when we follow them." Nya said and reached out to cup her hands beneath Abashai's peering at his res slightly startled. The red rust-like hue was beautiful and she sniffed at it curiously. Glancing up, she met Abashai's eyes and smiled again.

She realized something immediately. Abashai was all about control. Even on his first attempt, he was able to regulate the flow of res precisely and place it exactly where he wanted it. Her bondmate had the finesse that Nya knew she would struggle with most of her life. And that fact made her happy, far happier than she could have ever imagined. They had the bond, and it was a deep and true one, but they also had res between them. A part of her had gotten the privilege to show him something he would be able to use for the whole of his life by becoming part of him. The kelvic began to purr.

"Hold onto it... and close your eyes, Shai. Think of your home far from here of heat and stone. Think of something from your home, something you know... and remember what it is like. The res in your hand will become what you want it too, but you have to know every aspect of it. Is it going to be a palm full of sand you can throw in your enemy's face? Feel what sand feels like... its coarseness, the way it sits on your palm. Or will it be a rock, something solid and dark and heavy? Feel what it is. Decide quickly even as your making the res. You can make stone in any shape you want, even add to existing stone, or take away from stone. You just need to know what you want and will it into being." Her alto deepened as she spoke, curious and all but mesmerized by Abashai's first attempt at Reimancy.

Nya withdrew her hands from beneath his and leaned back, letting him decide what to make of it. This was his power, his choice, his next weapon in his ever growing arsenal.

[Abashai]

Staring at the res in his hands, Abashai marveled. He would never have imagined himself creating something with magic. It both pleased him, and filled him with awe. Listening to Nya's caressing voice, Abashai tried to focus again, allowing his eyelids to slip shut. As he absorbed his bondmate's instructions, a plethora of memories rushed his consciousness. He saw the deep sifiting sands of the Burning Lands, felt the gritty rock formations of the Redstone Cliffs, even the imagined the rough-hewn stones of Yahebah's walls. He mulled the earthy options, but wavered undecided too long. Abashai opened his eyes to see the last of the dark substance evaporate. Only a sigh betrayed his disappointment, and after a darting glance to Nya, he closed his eyes again.

Taking a moment to select the matter he would try to create, Abashai began the processes of res production again. He avoided the temptation to move quicker, still wary of the dangers of overproduction. Again he summoned his djed to gather, in subtle amounts. Carefully he wove it together into what he thought was a suitable amount of res, then meted out the mystical essence again into his cupped hands. The lacerations in his palms no longer stung, only throbbing slightly as the res flowed through them. Abashai allowed the reddish-brown stuff to gather in a larger pool this time. He watched it fill his hands, then squeezed off the flow.

His eyes closed, the benshiran immediately began to fathom a pile of sand, imagining himself scooping it up in handfuls. He pictured individual grains, felt the dry sand absorb moisture from his hands. He sifted it in his mind, one hand to the other. Then Abashai looked into his own hands before him. The res began to lose its translucence and grew opaque. The color lightened as the mass began to crystallize. He dared not look from it, or allow his thoughts to wander. The res granulated, shifting in a subtle undulation, before settling between his palms as a pile of tawny tan sand.

An amazed grin spread across his dusky face, his eyes alight in disbelief as he caught Nya's penetrating gaze. Almost child-like he whispered, "I did it...I don't...I don't believe it." Abashai twisted his body, careful not to spill the sand onto the furs. His cupped hands hovering over the cave floor, he began to sift it between his hands, feeling the authenticity of the magically created sand. He allowed it to pour from his palms to a pile on the floor.

He took Nya's hand, pulling her gently forward and pressing her hand into the sand, as if to say 'look what I made!'. The heap was still warm from his body-heated res. Abashai laughed lightly. flashing his bondmate another pleased smile. His gaze reflected his gratitude, and Nya could feel it through the bond, tinged with a momentary pre-occupation with Nya herself. The whole reimancy experience had brought him closer to Nya in a way he could not have expected. Abashai turned his eyes back to the sand, and the curious sensation coming from the benshiran subsided. "Thank you", he muttered.

He took her hand in both of his. He spoke in a deep, hushed tone, his accent as prominent as ever. "Nya, you said I could make rocks too?"

[Nya Winters]

She watched Abashai discover something new about himself with an equal delight. Her eyes were everywhere as she watched his body language change, his expression cycle through emotions, and his intense concentration flow through his being. If one would have asked the young kelvic if she'd ever been fascinated by another human being, she would have laughed and denied it. But now that she had Abashai, Nya couldn't help but study him deeply. Her moss green gaze missed nothing while he focused, watching the way his tattoos danced upon his cheeks and the flare of his nostrils when he breathed deeply or lost his breath control in his excitement. Abashai's eyes were hard for her to meet because they glowed with life - he seemed so alive and fascinated - as if his blue-green depths were dropping barriers and spilling secrets she simply did not understand.

His scent filled the cave, complex and as changeable as his expression. It was almost intoxicating and doing things to the young forest cat she hadn't anticipated. As his excitement rose so did Nya's until she was all but panting with the force of his sense of discovery - his awakening. Without even realizing it, Nya was trembling slightly and caught up in the sensations her bondmate was feeding her - in his scent, his voice, his djed, and through the feedback of the bond. Nya squirmed slightly and was busy trying to figure out what was distracting her horribly, making her own sense of excitement rise, when Abashai took her hand and thrust it into the neat pile of sand he had emptied onto the cool stone of the floor. It was a brilliant rust red color, far different than the golden hues of the cave walls. Her hand closed into a fist, gathering it up, unwilling to leave something that belonged to her bondmate so intimately on the floor of the cavern to be captured by the wind or unsuspecting feet or paws.

She looked up, with her hand fisted in Abashai's sand, and met his gaze with her own eyes blazing. When he took her other hand, her free one, she lost the last bit of war for control she was waging. Moss green eyes met his icy gaze. There was excitement in the stormy look, a luminous gaze that could never be mistaken for anything other than what it was - possessiveness and protectiveness flavored with pride and arousal. She growled low in her throat, but it wasn't a threatening sort of noise. It was something else, something more far more dangerous to the Benshira. It was something that he could clearly read through the bond. It was a growl of primitive hunger, and not for food. It was so soft so fast, he might have left himself doubting what he heard and felt for the forest cat wearing her human shape dropped her gaze (something she wouldn't have done a month ago) and tried to smile even though she was trying to catch her breath.

Bondmates were not easy to have at times.

Nya glanced back up and met his gaze. Her voice was even deeper, though not masculine, but rather rich with something he could clearly sense through the bond.

"Anything, Abashai... anything of earth you can make and later other things too as you gain more elements. And there is more. So much more. You can call the earth, summon it, with your res. All you have to do is think of that being what you want in your mind when you form your res. Call to it and sand will flow to your feet and be attracted to your res like you are something it desires to be with... you and only you. And once gathered, you can mold it." She whispered, not trying to remove her hand from his. She broke his gaze though, and glanced around the room at the stone walls that lovingly sheltered them. "You can even make a thin film of res, coat the walls, and everywhere your res touches, you can begin to shape them - making stone shelves for your books, cradles for your weapons... and you can even coax stone to move for you if you call enough of it with enough of your res. It is a whole new world, Abashai.... a powerful one." Nya said softly, all but out of breath. She wanted to lean over, against him, and lick at the sweetness of his skin - but it wasn't proper. So she waited, willing him to release her hand so she could have some room to catch her breath a second time.

[Abashai]

The humble cave seemed to transcend reality, becoming a mystical timeless room, exposing Abashai to mysteries could only barely comprehend. As he lifted his hand from his bondmate's, her's resting on the sand he created, Abashai watched curiously as Nya grasped the fistful of russet sand, stray grains spilling to the floor. He felt compelled to take Nya's other hand, to look into her hypnotic gaze.

What met his eyes evoked an electric sensation that shot through his nerves, terminating in powerful claws that gripped his abdomen. He found himself eye to eye with a Nya he had not known, seemingly a woman and wild creature at once, projecting primal emotions that left him in a breath both wanting to recoil from her in surprise and lunge at her in abandon. So sudden was the reaction, there was no concealing it from her. The phenomenon existed for only a moment, vanishing as Nya averted her eyes from Abashai's. The night had shaken the balance between he and his bondmate, and Abashai realized the two were teetering over a chasm both would find unfamiliar and incredibly tempting. There was a thickness in the environment around them. The benshiran sensed in their lair an essence of magic and the tension of a new, dangerous depth to the pair's bond.

Abashai met the kelvic's returning glance, once again the gentle friend he knew, though there was still an intensity that did not wane in her feline stare. The beshiran returned her smile, an understanding smile that both acknowledged what had passed between them, and a willingness to leave it be for now. The heady realization that he wielded true djed magic still buzzed in his brain, and his eagerness to learn what it really could mean for him, for them, gave him the strength to surpress his distracted libido.

So, drawing on his benshiran fortitude, Abashai listened in awe as Nya described the potential power he could exhert, though he was sure much practice and experience would come before such feats could be performed. His head turned to examine the cave walls, to imagine the formations his bondmate described, to see grains of sand collect about his feet at his bidding, stones to gather at his call. She made it sound so....seductive. He allowed his mind to wander, to contemplate the possibilities. His usual stoic humility, softened by the battering epiphanies of the night, could not prevent the desert warrior from pridefully wondering if someday he could, in fact, make the earth itself shake with the power.

Steely blue-green irises met Nya's again, His own breath matched hers in its rapid cycle. His body was weary from the intensity of his initiation, his mind shredded by the world he had plunged into, his emotions exhausted by their battle with his will. He feared a loss of control, a lapse in wisdom that could destroy so much. Abashai realized his heart was pounding heavily, a quick thudding that he wondered if Nya could see against his bare torso. Still locked in the forest cat's stare, he reluctantly released her hand.

Things were changing. He was changing. Magic? Who would have fathomed the desert wanderer would espouse such arts. The overtly sensual interactions with Nya? Unmistakable designs upon one another brought to light. He knew things between them would never be the same after tonight, even if never spoken. But he would speak of them. He knew he could no longer contain all that was hidden from her. When the time was right, before they left this cave again for the city, she would know all.

Though he longed to reach out to caress her soft cheek, he refrained. Instead, he offered a warm, loving smile. "Nya, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for this gift. I share inside me something of you that I will carry all my days, something of your essence that gives me power to do amazing things. I pray to Yahal we will learn to wield our power together, wind and earth." His benshiran resolve returned, Abashai allowed himself one simple pleasure. He leaned in to press his lips against Nya's head, inhaling her musky natural scent mixed with the aromatic concoction she used to wash her hair.

He leaned back, enjoying a cleansing sigh and a silent thanksgiving to his god. If she wished, Abashai would receive more training from his bondmate, even now. He would be equally satisfied to relax at her side, once he prayed fervently to the God of Purity for strength.