Completed Broken Roads Lead to Home

[Caliane Ruinë]

It was a surreal feeling watching the Soulfire take control of her body. A body that was close to total collapse. If it had been her on her own or with her powers bound like before she was certain she would be dead by now but the past few weeks when it had had complete freedom and then when it had broken itself away from her had turned it into a different force of nature entirely. Caliane was worried what this would mean for their relationship going forward. Could they exist still as one being? Before she had even thought the question she knew the answer. Of course. They would always be one. This was just a joining of equals now rather than master and magic.

The Soulfire wielded magic she hadn't even know she was capable of. As the arcane magic flew towards them she watched as a small circle of green flame appeared, like a shield covering her torso. Two blasts hit it and two were knocked to the side as if they were nothing more than balls being thrown by a child. The shield vanished and she strode forward. Fire dripped from her wings and the snow and ground burnt beneath her feet.

"We do not have time for this, Benjamin," was that... tenderness in the Soulfire? Cali was bewildered. She was fully expecting for it to just turn the man to ash but she could feel that was not its intention at all. Calmly they stopped in front of the man. "You need to see," their hand was gentle as they raised it and placed it over his heart. Cali tensed but the Soulfire knew what it was doing, another spell and way of using this gift she had never even thought of - memory transference to another pyromancer. The heat was not unbearable if a little uncomfortable and spread out from his heart in the symbol of a small sun as the memories from Caliane's last few months filtered into his mind.

Captivity. Rescue. The joining of Monster Hunters. The conversation with Lazule and the following weeks of battling against monsters, saving lives. The Amalgamation and the sense of Darkness that came with it. Lazule's incorporation. The near destruction of her form. The shadowy woman from moments ago.

All of these went into him. If he had any control over fire it would be hard to deny the truth to them. They removed their hand and watch him carefully.

"That Evil is still here, we must have missed a small sliver. We need Lazule and Erën to help beat it," they did not beg, it was just a certainty and a calm knowing in their voice. From the memories they had shared it was undoubtable as to why they believed that to be the case - they were both strong and capable.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

And there, knelt in the snow Erën remained. His hands cupped over the small flower, and his eyes were lost in it's colours. It was hard to know if he even still breathed as he sat there, frozen in the moment.

It was as if all the world had completely fallen away, and all purpose had abandoned him. He felt empty, and no longer did he choose fight it.

Failure.

Acceptance.

Lazule Caliane Ruinë

Forgive me... Ellias...​

 

[Lazule]

Benjamin was an archmage, but not one whose disciplines focused on direct combat; his expertise lay elsewhere. Had he been, perhaps his magic would not have been so easily denied. Perhaps he could have staved off the Avariel's fiendish approach.

He gave a short yell of defiance and determination, but the Avariel placed a foul hand over his heart. He feared, in that initial instant, that the beastwoman would ignite Lazule within his chest. Kill them both in one fell swoop.

Her actual course of action was far more insidious. The implanting of artificial memories. Benjamin's body tensed violently and the orbs of arcane energy around him dissipated as these fabrications invaded and defiled the sanctity of his mind. So this was how the Avariel had swayed the elf, by injecting carefully crafted falsehoods to elicit sympathy and--eventually, no doubt--blind devotion. And through some utter corruption of the discipline of pyromancy itself, she now was doing the same to Benjamin.

She was showing him all of the things she knew he would want to see. This whole incident was no accident, no mere spontaneous action of opportunity. This sinister creature had planned this out--for months, years perhaps. It was evident in the sheer amount of ploys she had, this latest the most desperate of all, for surely she knew that Benjamin would not be as easily cajoled as her elven thrall. Yet she tried. It was almost admirable...almost...if she wasn't a miserable, wretched deformation of a creature, a twisted and malevolent abomination, part elven and part avian and wholly consumed by wickedness and sin and utter, unforgivable cruelty.

A monster.

Yes, a monster. Who had made her last fatal flaw.

In his left hand, held down at his side, Benjamin silently conjured a large dagger. The bound, ephemeral weapon materialized from arcane energy to cold steel.

That Evil is still here...

Benjamin scowled. Said, "Correct."

And as he made a motion to thrust the dagger and into Caliane's belly and up underneath her ribs, Benjamin's right hand snapped up as if of its own accord and smacked against the side of his head. One surprised flick of his eyes to the right and he saw no more, his dagger not coming close to Caliane.

Light coalesced between the palm of his right hand and his head and five Needles of Light shot into his skull, blowing it apart in rapid sequence and in a terrible spray of blood and muscle and bone and brain matter and only the bottom of his jaw remained attached to the neck and up from it in tune with the failing beat of his heart came two thick ropes of blood whose intensity tapered in seconds and well before the steaming edges of where once the rest of his skull had been could cool in the cold mountain air.

Benjamin "Father" Murtry fell backward into the patchy snow.

White turned red.

Eren'thiel Xyrdithas Caliane Ruinë

 

[Caliane Ruinë]

The Soulfire had thought, for a second, it had got through to him at last. It felt triumphant in the way a child might be at being able to do something adult for the first time like learning how to ride a horse or shooting its first bow. Caliane couldn't help the warm feeling in her heart at seeing it. For so long she had thought the fire she wielded a dangerous and terrifying thing. When she had nearly killed her friend she had vowed that it was evil but here it was trying hard. It had leapt along in so many bounds today. She felt like a proud parent that shared in its excitement at a job well down.

The horror was both of theirs as it all turned sour. The first real hint of something going wrong was the movement of his right arm and then the explosion of light. Benjamin's brain, skin and skull splattered over her face and chest. Horror turned to shock then turned to panic. Neither of them had particularly cared about Lazule's father, but he was still her father. The more pressing concern however was Lazule who was inside her father. The body hit the ground and Cali hit it soon after, her hands running over the body searching desperately for the Life Fire that was her friend.

"No, no, no, no, no... Lazule?!" Tears were streaming down her face and they melted the snow when they fell. Her hands were shaking. The Soulfire too called in case the Life Fire responded more to something akin to it than Caliane herself.

"Please... Lazule. No!"

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

Empty eyes rose from the flower in his hand. He struggled to lift his head. His one arm fell to the side, his magic having left him and the strength it had afforded his broken bones with it.

His mouth hung from his weakness, and his breathing was somewhat harsh from the pain in his ribs - but he was silent.

He beheld with an invisible sorrow the aftermath Benjamin's tragic demise, with Caliane frantically searching for Lazule...

"By not talking sense to a father she helped you love again,"

He'd tried to slay Lazule's father, and now he lay dead. He tried to imagine a life for his own daughter, going throughout life with the guidance of her father prematurely stolen from her.

The gentle shake of his head, and his eyes once again fell.

Perhaps... it is better that she perish, Caliane...

He couldn't bear, even if his voice would carry, to utter the words.

Lazule Caliane Ruinë​

 

[Lazule]

Lazule sat attentively in Lena's body within Father's Tower. It had been nearly seven months since her creation. Her grasp of language and concepts enough for Father to have deeper talks with her on the nature of the world.

Benjamin paced back and forth slowly before her, saying, "What line of reasoning could sway the unreasonable, Lazule? What words could convince that which cannot conceive the meaning behind them? And even if the opposition with whom you disagree does have the capacity for reason and language, what can you do if your disagreements are mutually irreconcilable?"

What can you do if a monster assails you, he was saying. What can you do if you are to be slain unjustly by a wicked man, or if you should witness such an unjust attempt at slaying another innocent? What can you do? Lazule did not know the answer.

Benjamin stopped. Looked at her grimly but with a stern confidence. Said, "There is only one option left. Force. Violence. For it is violence that reigns as the supreme authority, the final arbiter, the almighty judge of all disputes which are so elevated beyond the lower courts of reason and discourse. Remember this, Lazule. The monsters and wicked men of Arethil shall give you no clemency. And to them you must show none, either."

And Lazule nodded.

Firmly.

* * * * *​

The Life Fire of Lazule was inside of Benjamin's chest, manifested now in his heart, such that it appeared as though the organ was aflame. There without the cradling protection of his fire magic, but without direct exposure to the air.

No sense of the outside world. All of that gone with the death of Father's body.

A voice. Through a connection of fire magic.

Lazule responded in a hollow voice.

You were right.

A pause.

About Sveren.

Quiet, for a moment.

Then:

Please leave me.

Eren'thiel Xyrdithas Caliane Ruinë

 

[Caliane Ruinë]

Caliane was almost so distraught she missed the connection and the voice in the storm of her emotions. Grief rode rampant most of all. This had all stemmed from that one fatal moment when the soulfire had grabbed Benjamin's neck after all. In her mind this all could have been avoided if she had just been strong enough. The tiny voice was hope though - she still lived. Though she had no idea how she was going to find her another body she would share her own again for a while longer until they could.

I couldn't save Sveren.

It was a painful memory of her friend she brought up in this moment. Of a man she had cared deeply for twisted by the grief of losing his twin sister. A part of his very soul.

But I can save you, Lazule.

Was it selfish to take her when she had asked to stay. Carefully she pulled the green fire from the corpse of her father and cradled it in her hands gently. The Soulfire was more than content this time to allow another back into the fold but what then? Her hands shook.

Do you know how your father makes the bodies? Would any corpse do?

Any little glimmer of hope and she would keep on carrying her.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

Once more, he found his foot. And then the other. Each step forward was painful, but only his limp betrayed his discomfort, and the lifeless arm swinging at his side. He drew close to Caliane. He came near and observed the Life Fire there in her hands.

He could feel no connection as they likely did, but he could percieve Lazule's grief. It pained him.

His eyes cast down, and then he started toward the Tower. He surmised that within, there would be a place - perhaps another capsule, and perhaps even a body. If Lazule wished to bring things to an end at that point, he would understand. But, that choice would need to be on her conscious.

Gods knew his couldn't handle any more.

"Come, Caliane..." he said, rasped and quieted as he was.

Lazule Caliane Ruinë ​

 

[Lazule]

Lazule wanted only to spend time with Father, to rest inside his heart for a while longer, but she could not. She was drawn away. This fact indisputable based on the content of Caliane's words.

Lazule heard her question. Heard as one might hear the tiny metal ping of a coin dropped to a floor amidst some great clamor. The withering horror of what she had done, slithering black tendrils slowly creeping into her thoughts, drowned out the true recognition of Caliane's words and their associated meaning.

Her hollow voice narrowed into a tenuous sliver.

Father...

* * * * *​

Khorvayne sighed in disappointment, but smirked in acceptance. She turned and started to descend down the mountain footpath. The frigid air was quite lovely, after all.

Erën had shown some promise. Rather much, after his ordeal with those other two of his kind. But here with Benji he had allowed himself to be suppressed. To adhere to whatever code of morality or goodness drove him. Such adherence would be his undoing, as it always was. Time always ensured the failing of the righteous, the inevitable victory of the dark. One crack in the foundation, one trial that could not be surmounted without breaking those 'sacred' tenets, and hence the ruin. And Erën had already suffered such a trial with his two fellows, hadn't he?

Yet he clung. Clung in vain.

Khorvayne resolved to keep a fleeting eye on him. His regression into the light might yet be reversed in good time. Or it might prove to be that the prey was not worth the hunt for her.

She continued down the footpath.

* * * * *​

Inside the Tower, should Erën and Caliane enter:

(Laboratory)​

Floors of slick, reflective dark tile. Halls lined with thick columns, the high ceilings arched. Candles, the flames of which not natural, suspended from the walls in holders and from occasionally from chandeliers as a centerpiece in particular rooms. Ornate windows, with bits of snow having accumulated on the outsides on the protruding metal and wood designs.

The main foyer on the first floor was grand and circular, nearly the circumference of the Tower itself. A twisting staircase leading up to the left. Many smaller doors around the curving foyer, but one straight ahead that had a sign in stark font that read: ACQUISITION.

Spoiler: Should Erën and Caliane enter the foyer:

A man, young in his years of manhood, dressed in red robes. Flynn, was his name, and he was one of Father's acolytes. He would see them enter, see the horrific states of their persons, and fall down onto his rear and drop the rolled up parchments he carried and hold his hands up defensively.

And utter a whimper, saying, "Please don't kill me!"

Spoiler: Should Erën and Caliane ascend the stairs right away:

The spiraling staircase would wind around the circumference of the Tower, the arching portals leading into the next higher floors always on the right. Signs, like the one in the foyer, described the purpose of each floor.

The second and third floor marked: CREATION.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth floor marked: INDOCTRINATION.

The seventh, eighth, and ninth floor marked: PRIMING.

And the tenth floor marked: EXPERIMENTATION.

Eren'thiel Xyrdithas Caliane Ruinë

 

[Caliane Ruinë]

The emotions coming off of Lazule made fresh tears fall down Caliane's cheeks. In her tired and spent state it was hard to separate them from her own emotions and exhaustion. If this power inside of her was not there she was pretty certain she would be dead by now. For a moment more she debated adding the Life Fire to her own Soulfire but decided against it - whilst she might have spent the last few weeks in there whilst the Soulfire slowly spread its control, and it had showed that it could in fact care but... but she couldn't trust it just yet. This was uncharted territory and a relationship she had had from the age of 10 that she was going to have to renegotiate.

Erën's voice brought her out of her tunnel of thoughts and she glanced up to him. Gods how had she forgotten about the state he was in? At least the darkness that had hung off him had disappeared... for now. The Soulfire didn't seem entirely convinced of this but it was a problem to deal with next. It seemed they were always dealing with problems recently. Nodding dumbly she pushed herself to her feet, the fire in her outstretched palm.

Walking in to a place like this in the past would have warranted some attention and marvelling from the winged elf but today she was just struggling to put one foot in front of the other. The adrenaline was wearing off and her lungs and neck were beginning to once again burn from the impact of the creatures clay fingers wrapping round her neck. Subconsciously the rubbed at the blossoming black and purple bruises that were spreading down her collarbone. Briefly she glanced from the sign ahead of them to the stairs and then glanced to Erën.

"I can't..." a grimace as she spoke then she motioned to the stairs. Too tired. Caliane was too tired to climb god knows how high to reach whatever lay above them. He seemed to be of a similar opinion and they walked instead to the foyer.

The reaction from the man they stumbled upon just made her even more tired. Not that she could really blame him. Caliane could only imagine what she looked like. Blood splattered her face and chest and there were chunks of... matter in her hair she could feel but the thought of removing them made her feel physically sick. Then there was the fact she was not exactly... dressed. A few bits of some leather clothing they must have found stuck here and there but it would probably only take a gentle breeze to remove those to. Heat flared in her cheeks as she wrapped one wing around her almost like a toga. Though that seemed to only send the man scurrying further back. Her shoulders slumped.

For the first time in her life she hated her wings with venom. What would happen if she simply cut them off?

"Lazule... sent us," Cali rubbed at her throat again with a wince. Every word was fire. Instead of continuing she held out the green flame of Lazule to the man and leaned against Erën for some support.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

All but where he kept his eyes fixed upon, spun around uncontrollably, and stars lined his vision. He could collapse here and now... but Lazule still needed help. Caliane needed help.

Fuck. ​

He'd been such a fool, he'd been so damn confident. Allowing that Gargoyle to encroach on him as it had... given the time and distance he'd have destroyed it easily, and his prowess with the blade mixed with his magic without a doubt could have subdued Benjamin. What... happened...?

Even when he'd fought against Aidathin and Te'leis, the loss of the Soul Forge proved to effect his abilities little. If anything they had grown. And still, he'd failed so... utterly. In more ways than he could have possibly imagined on their way to this place.

It was known that the Soul Forge rejected those that embraced evil, and allowed it into their hearts... did he let that happen? Is that why the Forge left? Or did it happen because it left?

...

And uttered a whimper, saying, "Please don't kill me!"

"Lazule... sent us," Cali rubbed at her throat again...
...and leaned against Erën for some support.

Thankfully, he was strong enough to yet brace her, and he welcomed her to. It was the least he could do at this point.

"The Life Fire requires a new host," where there might have been a glare if contempt, only empty eyes peered from, "and there is little time."

For who?

Lazule Caliane Ruinë ​

 

[Lazule]

Lazule. Speaking quietly.

To Caliane. To herself. To no one in particular.

I am sorry.

I am sorry.

You gave me everything, Father. And I took everything from you.

But she was right. About Sveren. By corollary, about you.

I am sorry.

What shall I do?

Her voice broke.

What shall I do?

* * * * *​

Flynn dared to peek out from the shield of his arms. Puzzlement stretched across his face.

Was that...Lazule? Actually Lazule? Master Murtry told all of his new acolytes about his First Slayer, the inspiration for his grand project here in the Tower. Flynn couldn't be sure--Life Fires looked alike, save for some rule-proving exceptions of minor differences in coloration--but it could be. How else could the elf with the wings (and the bloodied face and near complete lack of attire) have known that name? Did Master Murtry know about this--that these two ragged-looking elves had come into his Tower with Lazule? What happened to the gargoyle guarding the front door?

Flynn disregarded the questions in his wondering mind. He didn't know what these two where doing here--invited, uninvited, or what--but he didn't want to anger them. He wasn't a combat mage, no; he didn't have the stomach for battle. And it was this aversion that spurred him on to the particular studies at the College of Elbion that, eventually, led him to Master Murtry's Tower through the interweaving of a few connections (Flynn's uncle who knew a friend who knew a dwarven merchant who often frequented Brendalgrim). Above all else, Flynn wanted to live. To continue doing his work here under Master Murtry's tutelage and along with his fellow acolytes. It was for the good of all of Arethil.

So, when the armored elf in a voice that chilled Flynn's spine said that there was little time, Flynn scrambled up to his feet. Not too fast! Not with too many jerky and sudden movements! He didn't want to upset these people.

"Okay, okay, I can,"--he swallowed nervously--"see about doing that. I won't ask questions. That's not my...heh, not my business. Just. Back this way. To Acquisition."

Flynn pointed back at the sign over the large door behind himself. Started backing up toward. Taking the time to explain every movement he was making. Then, in the manner of someone struck by a sudden realization, he dispensed with the time-wasting nonessentials and simply went to the door. He opened it, carefully but with a certain amount of effort, for the door was indeed large and considerably heavy. Wispy fingers of frigid air leaked out from the edges of the jamb and beneath the opening door.

Flynn beckoned for Caliane and Erën to follow.

Inside Acquisition was another large room, not as big as the foyer itself but expansive nonetheless and in a curving rectangular orientation, stretching off to the left and the right of the door. A strong sterile smell pervaded the frigid room, masking a faint but persistent unpleasantness beneath. Glass containers on shelves laid into the walls held a diverse host of small organic parts, and giant glass tubes housed the corpses of various creatures--a vampire, a monstrous spider, a ghoul, and other beasts--suspended in some kind of translucent preservative liquid. There were no windows in the Acquisition room, and the ambient lighting was as blue and cold as the magic leaking out from charged crystals embedded at intervals in the walls to keep the temperature within lower even than the air of the mountain heights outside.

And, in the room, a female komodi, young like Flynn but much taller than him and wrapped up in a bundle of thick, warm clothes, examining the labels on some of the shelved glass containers.

Flynn said to her, with no shortage of urgency, "Feenix, I-I need a body. For a Life Fire. Right now."

Feenix looked up. Saw Flynn's "companions." And started violently, nearly knocking over some of the containers in her fright. She was looking squarely at Caliane. "That's--that's--that's an--!"

Flynn hissed for her to stop, gesturing intently with both hands, communicating through his eyes alone the sentiment: Just listen to me, or else we're both done for.

He said, "Do you have any bodies? Ready for implanting or close to it?"

Feenix's eyes darted to Erën and back to Caliane and back to Erën and back to Caliane and finally to Flynn. said, "Yeah. I have a selection."

Flynn turned back around to face Caliane and Erën. Asked, "If we do this...you'll let us live? That's the deal, right? We h-have your word?"

Eren'thiel Xyrdithas Caliane Ruinë

 

[Caliane Ruinë]

Unbeknown to Caliane it was the Soulfire who replied to Lazule.

You grow strong.

You do what he could not.

* * *
​

Goosebumps broke out all along Caliane's skin as they stepped into the room the young man beckoned them to follow him into. Cali had never been cold. The fire had always warmed her but she was too scared to ask it for assistance here - the wings were freaking the poor boy out enough let alone coating her skin in a layer of warm flame. So she rubbed her arms with her free hand and tightened her wings around her. As they walked she drew closer and closer to Erën. She couldn't take her eyes off of the tanks. This was just a better run version of the hell she had lived in. Her heart began to hammer in her chest the further in they went and the jars of organs turned into full bodies. She turned her face away and buried it instead in Erën's arm. She couldn't bear to look anymore. What did they do here? Were... were these the people her captors had worked for?

Cali was pulled from her thoughts by the young boy talking again and the fact they came to a stop. Another wave of repulsion ran through her at the woman's fear. It hurt more actually coming from the Komodi. It wasn't like her own kind were welcome everywhere. Her wings shuddered. The fire that was Lazule still burned in her palm, held close to the Avariel's chest.

"Nobody..." Caliane winced. Her voice sounded like a broken birdsong. She tried again. "Nobody is getting hurt. We were fighting the monster at Bhathairk and Lazule's body was damaged." Perhaps reports had reached them here and it would ease their fears they were not evil. "Though if you had any spare clothes I would also be grateful..." the winged elf half stepped behind Erën as she grew increasingly conscious of her state by the way they both stared.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

"That's--that's--that's an--!"

His pupils shrank. His eyelids narrowed. Teeth clenched. If the communications with Flynn were not so legible - then his most certainly were. Do it. Right. Now.

"Yeah. I have a selection."

"Good. Then we will begin..." his leg trembled, and he swallowed and found a better place for his foot. His vision flashed white, and he blinked it away and rubbed his eyes, the flower still gently held by his thumb. He rumbled deep within, and then looked back to affirm Caliane's words.

"There will be no more death...

... unless you continue to stand there and waste time!"

He was more or less was referring to Lazule, and her prolonged waiting which for all he knew was a detriment to both of his friends. But... he quite possibly also meant them. By the way he looked at Feenix and Flynn and with the anger that was well enmeshed with his words - it was difficult to tell.

Lazule Caliane Ruinë​

 

[Lazule]

A small moment of time.

Then, Lazule replying to the Soulfire, caring not if Caliane heard; her shivering tone like the last vibrations of a taut string having been strummed.

Would you have killed Caliane?

If she acted as Father had?

* * * * *​

Caliane spoke, and both Flynn and Feenix relaxed. Flynn, notably, breathing a sigh of relief that was made visible in the frigid Acquisition room air.

Erën spoke, and both Flynn and Feenix flinched hard once he said his last two words. Feenix stumbled and fell backward and her arm knocked a glass container off of the shelf she had been standing by and the container hit the tile floor with a crisp THOCK and the glass, remarkably, cracked but did not break. Flynn had his arms up in a pitiful defensive posture once more.

"Okay, okay, okay," Flynn said hurriedly. Without looking back over his shoulder at the Komodi, he said, "Feenix please tell me you have something. Something that can be done in as few steps as possible."

Feenix thought, her eyes clear evidence that this process was plagued to a large degree by quivering panic. "I-I do. The one from two weeks ago."

Flynn glanced back now. "Which one?"

"The Unknown Warrior. In the armored suit. The-the Templar. Brought it back in. The Life Fire in it...anti-magic field...poof." Feenix's ability to communicate was becoming ever more strained in her nervousness.

Flynn jerked his head in a gesture that said: Go get it, and be quick, for your sake and mine!

Feenix stammered a hasty response: "Help. You. I need. Help. From you. Heavy. The cart's heavy. With. Thing on it."

Flynn's expression changed to clearly convey Oh! and he looked back at Caliane and Erën and held his hands up pleadingly and said, "We're going to go and get the body. We'll bring it right to you. Won't even leave your line of sight. A-And we'll see about those clothes for you, after."

"Flynn!" Feenix prompted, after having gotten back on her feet.

Flynn went to her, followed her lead, and the two of them went further down the right side of the Acquisition room. Down toward the wall at the far right side, both Flynn and Feenix secured a simple, flatbed hand cart, with Feenix pulling on the "n"-shaped metal handle and Flynn bending down and pushing from behind. They brought it back up the curving length of the Acquisition room toward Caliane and Erën and stopped before them. Feenix went to work on the center stone in the chest of the armored suit, using bits of magic to coax it loose. The center stone moved. Slightly upward. Then Feenix pulled it free and attached underneath was a glass chamber--the same as the chamber attached underneath the metal plate once embedded in Lazule's old body. A little touch of magic and a twist, and the center stone was separated from the chamber.

Spoiler: The body

Feenix carefully approached Caliane, holding out the opening of the glass container toward her like a beggar holding out a cup for some meager offering of soup or water. "I-In here. Lazule. Madam. My Lady. Um. Both."

* * * * *​

The glass container that Feenix had knocked over onto the tile had something peculiar inside of it.

A peculiar thing for the noticing of Erën's eye only, for it was yet another hallucination in his mind.

A crow. Mashed together and stuffed inside the container. Its eye peering through its glass confines to stare up at Erën.

Watching.

Eren'thiel Xyrdithas Caliane Ruinë

 

[Caliane Ruinë]

The Soulfire considered this question. For a moment it was silent and perhaps it would appear that it would not answer than and then confidently.

Yes.

She would not be worthy to wield me so she would need to die so I could be reborn to one who was.

* * *
​

"Erën that was mean," Caliane spoke quietly when the two walked away from them. She knew his elfish ears would pick up her whisper and she turned slightly to face him. "What has happened since I have been...Sleeping?" her wing brushed against his back, an intimate gesture but he was so tense she hoped it would ease some of it from him a little bit. He looked as tired as she imagined she did but the man she knew was still calm in the face of these challenges, this was... not the man who she had known before the Amalgamation. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but something was missing.

His answer would have to wait as the two acolytes returned with the body. Cali raised an eyebrow. It was such a change from the one she was used to she had a hard time wrapping her mind around it for a moment but a body was a body. At least Lazule could then decide if she wanted a new one and speak for herself rather than relying on Caliane to do it for her. She gave Feenix a soul searching look as she held the flame, looked at the glass then back to the others eyes.

"She is my friend, this won't hurt her will it?" Not that she had much choice as she carefully tipped the fire inside the glass container. Her hand hovered there for a moment longer and then she peeled her own magic back and let her go. Then she gently placed her hands over Feenix's hands around the glass. "Thank you," a gentle squeeze of her hands and then she let her go.

It was an odd sensation. Even holding the flame Caliane had been aware of her and now there was... nothing. Her legs trembled a bit and she pulled out a stool and sat down heavily upon it, her hands running through her thick red hair. She had done what she had promised on the fields of Bhathairk.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

"Erën that was mean..."
"...What has happened since I have been...Sleeping?"

"I..." was weak.

His eyes cast down to the floor, and shame settled over him. He'd only so desperately wanted to succeed. To protect them. He shook his head, feeling unworthy of her kind gesture. It did well to ease his tension, but as quickly as it started to descend, it stopped and once more rose up.

Erën's hard eyes looked back up and followed Feenix and Flynn for a time, ensuring that they indeed did as they said they would. But really, in his condition, if they chose otherwise would he really be able to do anything about it? Debatable, no doubt. He could likely summon some strength to fight, but quite honestly not enough. Perhaps enough for one decisive strike - but hardly anything of any struggle.

As they began to draw near again, Erën's gaze drifted. His conciousness fought to keep hold, and though he tried against it he wavered some, threatening collapse. As his eyes traveled, he caught sight of a peculiar thing.

Feenix and Flynn came close and began their preparations with a new capsule for Lazule's Life Fire. Apparently content with the transaction taking place, Erën began to move toward the cylindrical container left there on the floor. He knelt down, and grabbed it and examined it closely. He stared at the image of the crow within, silent for a time.

Then, likely just loud enough for elven ears to hear he said, "who are you?"

Lazule Caliane Ruinë ​

 

[Lazule]

Lazule said nothing in reply to the Soulfire.

But there was a quiet understanding.

And Lazule pondered the concept of unconditional love once more. Whether or not it was a fallacy.

And if it was not a fallacy, the ramifications of love by necessity including killing the one so loved.

* * * * *​

The grotesquely mashed crow in the container regarded Erën. Looked him up and down.

Then said, "Khorvayne."

A tantalizing pause.

"Speak my name aloud sometime...if you wish to talk."

And at the next blink of his eye, the crow in the container would vanish. Replaced by the real organic contents therein.

* * * * *​

She is my friend, this won't hurt her will it?

Feenix, less frightened of Caliane as compared to Erën, was nonetheless still nervous. She stammered, "Technically. Can't feel. Pain. Lazule. Can't. Right now."

Feenix watched the Life Fire of Lazule descend into the chamber and become buoyant (as it was the most appropriate word), flickering quietly and with a deceptive peacefulness therein. The Komodi placed the center stone back over top of the chamber and sealed the two components together, thereby sealing the chamber from the harmful air.

And she tensed hard when Caliane's hands came over her own, this tensing fortunately serving only to tighten her grip on the chamber instead of loosening it in some manner of trembling alarm. Flynn's shoulders hitched up in mild fright, even though he wasn't standing all that close and wasn't touched himself. Feenix simply nodded succinctly in response to Caliane's Thank you.

Lazule secured inside the chamber, Feenix turned and stepped to the armored body on the hand cart and crouched down and slid the chamber and the attached center stone back into the body. She pressed down on the center stone and coaxed it back in firmly with a touch of magic here and there, until the center stone was once more congruent with the armor as a whole, no indication that it was even removable.

A moment passed.

And the armored body stirred.

* * * * *​

Nothing save thought.

Then all of Arethil slamming into consciousness.

The body was different. Different than Lena's. Different than Caliane's. The most immediate noticing of this difference was the lack of proper legs, only severed stumps less than a foot long each below the waist--similar to when Lena's body had been destroyed by the Amalgamation. But this specific and diminished quality was the least of it. The body, in general, was...bulkier. Firmer. Rougher. All of these descriptors applied in their own ways, but none of them individually covered the totality of the difference felt. The most blaring difference between this body and those of Lena/Caliane happened to be the distinctly dissimilar genitalia.

Lazule was in a man's body. The Unknown Warrior, though he did not know that Flynn and Feenix referred to this body by this moniker. One of Benjamin's Slayers, the rogue Amygdala, had known that Lazule was only as female as the body Lazule inhabited, and this remained true. With a change of body, an adoption of the body's gender. A change exactly as involved as the implanting of the Life Fire into the new body itself.

But it was not only the newness of the body's unfamiliar characteristics that captured Lazule's regard.

This male body was itself completely encased in a suit of armor made from carefully crafted living stone, meticulously forged metal, and spectacular golden crystals charged with luminescent power. The armor itself...he could feel it. Like a second skin atop the skin of his body protected underneath. It provided tactile response near indistinguishable from regular flesh contact; he could feel the coldness in the Acquisition room, the hard wood of the hand cart at his back.

He looked out from behind the visor of the helm on his head, yet at the same time, the visor provided an unobstructed vision all its own, laterally wider than the vision of the Unknown Warrior's eyes. It was extremely disconcerting and disorienting--far more than the presence of wings while in Caliane's body--trying to adjust to having two asymmetrical fields of visions, one far more expansive than the other.

Lazule was not breathing. A mild panic at this, but calm settled in. It was not necessary, breathing. Somehow this requirement of life was being fulfilled through another means. A brief pondering, whether other natural functions of the body were changed or modified or perhaps not applicable: sweating, eating, drinking, excretion, urination, sleep.

Subtle hints from the Warrior's body leaked into Lazule's consciousness. Faint and indiscernible like a whisper at the edge of being heard, vague and silhouetted like a figure shrouded in shadow. This, just as it had been when first Lazule awoke in Lena's body. Pieces of a puzzle destined to never be completed, but from which perhaps imperfect truths and aid could be found.

Lazule moved his fingers first. As easy as he remembered it in the kind of body he was more accustomed to.

Then Lazule sat up on the hand cart.

"Not...not too fast!" said Flynn. "The feet of the suit are definitely going to take some getting used--"

Lazule stood up and off of the cart and on the floor on those pointed feet in question. Balanced.

Flynn blinked. "...to."

Lazule turned his head, his helm, toward Erën. Said in the male voice of the Unknown Warrior, his words gaining the reverberating, metallic quality of having to speak through the helm:

"Please hand me your sword."

Eren'thiel Xyrdithas Caliane Ruinë

 

[Caliane Ruinë]

If she was going to reply to the acolyte she didn't get a chance to, her ears twitched slightly as she heard Erën's words and glanced over to him instead. Cali couldn't understand who he was talking to. The jar was what appeared to be some sort of heart. Her eyebrows slowly drew down and knitted themselves into a frown. Her concern for him was growing. The darkness, the snappy way he spoke, and now talking to things only he seemed to see? Of course it could just be that he was tired. The weeks she had been in Sleep were still a massive blank gap in her mind. The Soulfire had watched but its concern had been more internal than external at the time and even it had been weak after the attack on the Amalgamation. She didn't know what trials either of her friends had faced in that time, she wasn't even sure if Jirou was alive.

Cali forced herself to her feet and walked over to where Erën was holding on rigidly to the case and very slowly she touched his hands and then took it from him, placing it back on the side. Her green eyes searched his gaze intently. There were many things they needed to discuss but now was not the time. Instead she took his hand and led him back to the stool she had been sitting on and sat him down instead.

"Rest, Erën," her fingers lingered on his hand and then she folded them back against her stomach as her wings drew once again around her for warmth. She was debating saying something more but then the sounds from the table caught her attention and she turned her gaze instead to Lazule and her new body.

His new body?

It was definitely a daunting change and it was hard not to take an instinctive step back away from him as he asked for a sword. Did Lazule get full control of the body or was it like a programme reset? Would she- he - attempt to try and kill something her - his - father had thought was a monster?

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

Erën remained knelt there with his eyes staring into the container for a long moment even after the image of the crow dissappeared.

Khorvayne... hmm.

It was a strange feeling - a drawing. But he could hardly understand the compulsion, at least not fully. He had been abandoned by his people it seemed, and left wanting. He resigned though that he would investigate this further when all that they had left to deal with was done.

Then Caliane arrived, and gently took the case from his hands. She looked at him, and he at her. There was something in his eyes... they were empty... but it seemed more than this. Quiet. Alone. Forgotten. As he looked up to her he remembered what they'd shared - what had been taken from him. His eyes fell, and almost pitifully he took her hand and allowed her to lead him back.

He sat, and it was as though all the world wanted to roll off his shoulders. He slumped, and leaned himself against the table.

"Please hand me your sword."

His eyes were abruptly upon Lazule. He had not even been aware enough to know what had transpired. It took a moment to sink in, but he realized that she, or rather he, had been properly restored into a host of her... his own. However, he thought Lazule's request peculiar. Being a Light Bearer he should have no need for such tangible weaponry. Not only this...

But Erën's eyes fell to the sword at his hip.

...it whispered to him...

...not to trust...
​

He ignored it. He grabbed it with his hand and pulled it free. The red of it gleamed in the light, and a coldness came from it. Twisted. He hesitated, then offered it to Lazule.

Lazule Caliane Ruinë ​

 

[Lazule]

Lazule took the sword offered and, with no other words spoken, turned with the sword in hand and started walking. Flynn, and to a lesser extent Feenix, was surprised at how the Life Fire had taken so readily to walking on the experimentally designed feet of the armored suit. Then, almost as soon as Flynn had thought it, Lazule stumbled and fell down and spared himself from complete collapse by staving off his fall with his outstretched free hand to the floor. He stood, regained balance, and continued. Found the open door of Acquisition and turned and departed the room.

Flynn glanced with no lack of uncertainty to Feenix, and Feenix the same toward him. Neither made any motions to follow.

* * * * *​

Lazule stumbled once more while walking through the foyer of the Tower--Father's Tower, some facets of it recognizable, most of the interior having changed in his (or her, as it was back then) ten years removed from it.

But he continued. Through the round foyer and toward the open front doors of the Tower, no other soul around save for Caliane and Erën and Flynn and Feenix, not on this particular floor.

Lazule would be heedless to any attempt to stop him, heedless to the strangeness of the sword in his hand. Single-mindedly determined in his pursuit.

And Lazule stepped out from the Tower and into the cold air of the mountain shelf and stepped down to the patchy snow of the ground and walked to the body of his Father, a blossom of blood sprouted from his neck as he lay there, the snow having melted where the blood had touched it and allowing the blood to sink down to the ground proper.

Lazule looked down at Benjamin Murtry's corpse. Father's corpse. Measured as precisely as possible with sight alone.

Then raised up Erën's sword with both hands and plunged it down into Father's chest and slowly began to saw away, up and down and up and down and new lakes of blood--small and lacking the vigorous spreading they otherwise would have had were it not for the substantial loss of blood already sustained--coated Father's robe. Lazule carved out a particular shape and simply tossed Erën's sword aside once done and knelt down before Father's mutilated corpse and then, with his hands and his fingers, dug into the fresh wound and pulled off the cloth of the robe and the flesh of his chest and the bone of his rib cage and tossed these aside as well.

Then Lazule carefully reached in and extracted Father's heart. Held it up with both hands and brought it close to his own chest. Close to the center stone in which he was now chambered inside the armored suit and inside the body of the Unknown Warrior. Cradled Father's heart like it was the most fragile thing in all the world.

"I am the holder," Lazule said quietly. "I always will be."

Eren'thiel Xyrdithas Caliane Ruinë

 

[Caliane Ruinë]

From the expressions on the two acolytes faces this wasn't exactly normal behaviour for a newly risen Life Fire and Caliane winced as he fell to the ground after a few steps. There was something however that stopped her from following like she would naturally. It was the Soulfire. This was something Lazule had to do in a moment of privacy. There was nothing else offered and though she was a little confused she did not press the matter. Whatever the two fire spirits had discussed was apparently private. It unnerved her a little that her gift was apparently operating on such an independent level but in this instance she would let it slide.

Puffing out a bit of air that fogged she turned her attention instead to slightly more personal pressing matters.

"I-if you h-have any c-clothes they would be m-most ap-p-preciated now," Caliane's teeth were chattering. Gods was this what it was like for those without the power of fire all the time? Now with both her hands free she rubbed at her arms fervently to keep some warmth in them but even her wings were shuddering. "A-also, where e-exactly are w-we?" probably a dumb question considering her body had walked here but it was a tiring story to explain how Lazule had in fact travelled from the Orcish city to here.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

Erën watched Lazule depart. Despite her- his misstep, he was quite impressed with how Lazule carried himself. There was an admiration, still. Before when they had battled with Zeng, he had learned many of at the time her ways. He suspected that in some sense, he sought to recompense for Benjamin's loss. Erën would have followed if not for the shame of raising his blade against him.

But he'd had no choice...

"I-if you h-have any c-clothes they would be m-most ap-p-preciated now,"

Erën's attention returned to Caliane, and his eyes grew wide at the sight of her state. His senses had been so skewed since the battle outside he'd failed to realize a few things. He reached for his cloak with his good arm and unbuckled its ties, and slid one sleeve off, and then the other. His right arm hung rather limply, something he would shortly deal with.

He handed his cloak to Caliane. It wasn't much, but it would at least do to cover her more appropriately, and spare her flaunting her wings about as he knew she took little comfort in doing. Especially, no doubt, after all this mess.

As he turned from her back to the table, he more or less set his injured hand upon it. He pulled its glove off, and rolled up his sleeve. As he did, ringlets of his mail spilled out onto the table and floor. He tore the sleeve off, seeing his arm peppered with small bleeding punctures, and quite badly bruised and disfigured. The black and purple on him stretched across over his chest and down his side over his ribs, and as though the sight of it all was its trigger, the pain of it all shot through him at once.

He buckled, groaning as he nearly dropped to his knees before catching himself back onto the seat.

"We are.. in the.. Spine."

With his final word, he could hold back no longer hold back. His eyes closed and his head fell onto the table with a hard smack.

Lazule Caliane Ruinë ​

 

[Lazule]

I-if you h-have any c-clothes they would be m-most ap-p-preciated now.

It didn't really sound like a demand to Flynn, but, given how easily set off her elven friend was, he didn't want to stick around and provoke the elf's ire again. And as it so happened, he was probably more of Caliane's size--Feenix being notably taller as Komodi tended to be over humans and...winged...elves? He thought he had heard of some race of winged elves, something like that, at some point in time, but in the frustrating way in which certain names eluded one's grasp he just couldn't recall what that race had been.

Flynn, keen on not wasting any more time, said to Caliane, "I'll go grab something. I swear I'm not up to some trick! I-I'll meet you out in the foyer; not as cold. You know...yeah, you know."

And with that he jogged out of the Acquisition room, leaving a frightened and awkward-eye-glancing Feenix standing there, shifting her eyes between Caliane and Erën.

And the latter, after providing some semblance of clothing to Caliane and removing the armor about his arm and answering Caliane's (odd, Feenix noted) question, collapsed onto a table and a few metal tools and implements fell off of it and clattered on the tile.

Feenix shifted her eyes from the collapsed Erën to Caliane, intense, haunting worry plaguing her gaze, and she squeaked, "Am I...next?"

* * * * *​

Flynn had gone to his own personal room on the first floor of the Tower. Indeed, it was one of the those smaller doors in the foyer, off to the side where the Acquisition door had been front and center. He quickly went to procure one of his spare red robes; a small price to pay for his life, as far as he was concerned. Just where were the gargoyles, anyway? And Benjamin? He knew about these uninvited guests, didn't he? Of course he had to know.

Well, until the gargoyles or Master Murtry or maybe even one of the Slayers near the top floor, one that was nearly ready for release, happened to come down, then Flynn would have to keep giving in to the demands by the intruders. No choice.

He froze for a moment after picking up the spare robe from where he had hung it on the wall. Where...where did all that blood on the winged elf's face come from, anyway? It seemed...recent. And the armored elf, would he even permit Flynn and Feenix to live, even if they complied with everything? He sounded...

Flynn shivered. Figured it best to, again, not waste time.

Robe draped over his arm, Flynn stepped out of his personal room and shut the door behind himself and stood out in the foyer.

When Lazule--what he assumed to be Lazule, at any rate, he wasn't exactly sure yet--came back into the Tower and back into the foyer. Carrying, in both armored hands, a heart. A fresh heart.

Lazule approached Flynn directly. Coming uncomfortably close to him.

And said, "I want his heart to be placed inside the chamber with me."

Eren'thiel Xyrdithas Caliane Ruinë

 

[Caliane Ruinë]

Caliane nodded mutely to Flynn as he left the room, bouncing onto her toes and back to try and get some sort of feeling back into her skin. That was until she felt the thick cloak come about her shoulders and she glanced up and behind her to Erën with a thankful look. She pulled it tight about her and sighed a little as it staved a bit of the cold off. It didn't help it was creeping up through the soles of her feet but it was better than nothing. It alarmed her just how comfortable she was that her wings, too, were hidden from view. It was not how she should have felt and his made her uneasy.

An awkward silence seemed to grow in which only the noises of Erën's armour could be heard. She offered the girl an small smile as if that might ease some of the tension but it fell quickly and a look of sadness overcame her face. After what had transpired outside she held little hope any of them would see her as anything but a monster. Cali had been about to suggest they moved out of the room with all the pickled bodies after Erën spoke but then she heard the thud and turned, alarmed, to see him collapsed on the floor.

"Erën!" the winged elf dropped to her knees beside him and gently raise his head, glancing for something softer to put under it than the marble floor. Sighing deeply she relinquished the warmth of his cloak and bundled it up to put it under him instead. If she had not been so tired she might have been able to heal him with the spells she did know but she was already running on empty.

"Am I...next?"

Caliane blinked at her like she had spoken a different langue before her brows drew down and knitted themselves together.

"You... think I did this to him?" Disbelief. Hurt. There would be no sanctuary here for them. Quietly she gathered him in her arms instead and stood and began walking back the way they had come. If they were in the Spine they were close to Thyasari. She would at least be able to feel safe there. But as she walked into the foyer and beheld Lazule with the dripping bleeding heart she had a sinking feeling things were about to get worse before they got better.

"Lazule...?" her eyes flicked between the heart, the new body and Flynn.