Private Tales Crossing Over

[Keernan]

Keernan frowned at the intrusion. He craned his neck to look at the tall huntsman. He couldn't tell if the blue marking he wore in common with his master was tattooed or simple paint. Keernan knew enough that asking for a name that had not been offered would be considered a faux pas.

"Well then, if you hear the horns and you are still here then perhaps you won't," came the calm reply before the huntsman climber further up the rockface.

Keernan turned back to Syuri and sighed. He looked less troubled than he had the day before, but he didn't look entirely comfortable.

"At the risk of deepening your frown you should know that whether malevolent or kind all fae are quite prone to playing mind games with mortals."

 

[Syuri]

Syuri's jaw tightened at the fae's snippy response and her glaring eyes watched him as he continued his climb. A sharp sigh escaped her, and she felt the tension in her muscles.

"Hm.. I figured as much." she answered Keernan as she looked back at him. "I shouldn't let them get to me so much, they're just... infuriating." she growled quietly and forced herself to ease by settling her hand on his cheek and leaning to press a soft kiss to his lips.

"Lets just go get some food and try to stay out of their way..."

 

[Keernan]

Am I a part of their world? he wondered in silence. Keernan had never quite figured out his place.

Since he had died, he had felt like a permanent outsider. He had meandered from place to place, occasionally interfering in other people's business or helping travellers on the trail.

As he awkwardly maneuvered out of the leaf and onto the rock face he he decided - without much thinking - that he didn't belong here either.

He wasn't used to questioning himself. He had always been happy with his lot in life, with his second chance.

"You were being prepared to take over your village weren't you?" he asked as he took a few steps down the rock face. "Was it comforting in a way, knowing the plan ahead?"

 

[Syuri]

Mango climbed into Syuri’s bag as she held it open and she slung it over her shoulder before following Keernan in the climb.

His question made her pause for a moment, but she sighed as she continued behind him. “I was.. And it probably should have been a comforting thing but, no. To know that the rest of my life would me exactly the same as every day so far?… It..can be a lonely thought.” She frowned.

“I love my family, I love my village and the people who live there, whom I’ve seen every single day ever since I can remember.. But, what’s the point in life to live it in one place?..” she shrugged.

 

[Keernan]

Keernan didn't want to enforce her view that it could be lonely. Especially when it would be to his benefit if she decided to stay away for longer.

"It must be nice to have such a strong bond with your people and the place you grew up in," Keernan said as he stepped off the surface. He was unsteady on his feet as he turned around, favouring his good leg.

"I don't remember where I came from. Not really. There are so many interesting places in the world, you might have been dissapointed with a boring little human town. This is...quite a bit different." The bioluminesence was fading, but not being replaced by the sun. He couldn't see it in the sky, instead this place seemed to reach a twilight in the day.

His comment seemed fair. He wasn't quite crossing a line into enticing her away from her own world.

"Do you think they eat there?" he asked, waving at a entrance into the rock face. "

 

[Syuri]

"Yes, it is.." she agreed with a small smile. She loved her people and her home, but it was possible to love those things whilst wanting more.

Syuri was close to him as his steadiness wavered, her hand reaching but not supporting him unless she had to. "Well.. Yes, it is a bit. But I like different." she smirked at him with a playful nudge at his side and she laughed under her breath.

Syuri looked up at the stone-carved building and looked around them, seeing nowhere else that they might've gathered for breakfast. She shrugged and looked at him before starting to wander toward it.. "I guess so?.." Whether it was or was not where they could find food, she was already intent on exploring more of this place.

The closer she came to the stone pillars, the quieter it grew and the more certain she became that this was not where they were supposed to be.

 

[Keernan]

"Maybe..." he wondered out loud as they stepped through the pillars. It was oddly claustrophobic to be underneath so much rock when they slept under the stars.

If there were people eating here then they were being quiet about it. There were no sounds of conversation at all. There was a quiet tapping ahead of them. A ringing of metal on metal.

He turned down the corridor towards the sound. Keernan no longer felt like calling out a 'hello' to see if anyone replied.

"I feel...drawn to that. But also...pushed away? Should we go back?"

Again the sound rang out. It wasn't a heavy sound like a hammer to an anvil, but closer to a pair of windchimes being brought together.

 

[Syuri]

"We should, yes.." Syuri answered in a whisper, and glanced back toward the pillars before deciding that her curiosity had the better of her. She wanted to know more about this place and those who lived here, and if that meant snooping around then, well how was she to know any different?

"Maybe, you should stay here?.." she suggested after another few steps, pausing to look over her shoulder at him and recalling how the Aralyssian had affected him..

The chimes were louder now, the sound of them echoing around the chambers. "I just..want to see what it is.." she murmured and continued on toward the sound.

 

[Keernan]

Keernan felt torn. It wasn't dissimilar to the feeling of being held in place by The Aralyssian. It was two chords wrapped around his soul being pulled in different directions. Giving a sharp nod, he let Syuri go on alone. They had been promised safety here.

Ahead of Syuri the door was half open. The sound had stopped, replaced by a quiet scratching sound.

The room beyond was only half finished. There was aa column of raw rock from floor to ceiling in the middle. Crude shelves had been fashioned to it. Meanwhile on the far wall was clean brickwork and a fashionable book case that was half filled with books and half with trinkets forged of gemstones and gold.

Through the door Rushell could be seen hunched over a desk. He worked on a piece of glass sandwiched between brass plates. He slowly etched into the surface of one of the plates. Above, on a shelf, sat two completed containers. Within each a spark of a different colour: green and violet. He cast a glance over his shoulder, eyes widening in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" he snapped.

 

[Syuri]

Syuri crept as silently as she could, taking in every little detail of what she saw - Rushel being one of them. She lingered in the doorway, studying the room and its treasures and her eyes fixed themselves on the green and violet sparks on the shelf.

She flinched as Rushel spoke, her eyes widening briefly, though she tried to brush it off as quickly as she could. "Oh - this isn't where breakfast is?" she asked rhetorically and pushed the door open fully.

"What are you working on?" she asked, striding into the room without invitation.

 

[Keernan]

"What am I..." Rushel had stood up from his desk, looming far over Syuri. It took him a few seconds to remember himself.

"Well this is definitely not where breakfast is," he replied, his demeanour slowly shifting.

"I did not mean to snap. Nowhere is off bounds to you Syuri, I'd just ask if you don't sneak up on me in my workshop. I suppose my people buggered off hunting I stead of showing you where to get food?" he asked.

 

[Syuri]

"Apologies.." she said quietly as she looked up at him, her brow quirking. "I wasn't aware that I'd 'sneaked'." her lips twitched, and she gave a light shrug at his assumption as she casually wandered past him.

"So what are you working on?.." she asked again, her icy gaze wandering the little workshop and her fingers eager to tap at jars and graze over strange trinkets and tools.

 

[Keernan]

"No, no I suppose you hadn't been sneaking. I was simply absorbed in my work. We mad a bargain," he explained, waving a hand towards his tools.

It was a phrase to chill anyone who knew much about he fae.

"Since then I have been working on the solution to remove the shard of he Dread Lord Khalldryn from your friend."

Above the workbench were the two glass devices holding sparks of light. Those sparks were pressed to one side of the glass. Towards the door. Towards Keernan.

 

[Syuri]

Syuri reached her hand absently to one of the jars, her fingertips settling on it as she studied the little sparks. A knot twisted in her stomach and she turned to look over her shoulder at Rushel with a light frown..

"What will you do with them, exactly?" she asked cautiously. If these things were shards of part of the fae she'd seen in the Aralyssian's vision, they had to be somewhat dangerous. "Could, he return?"

 

[Keernan]

"No," Rushel replied plainly. "She doesn't even think so. She is simply so afraid of him that she will go to any length to make absolutely certain."

He flinched as she reached for the glasswear, the smile he wore was a little less easy. The sparks didn't react to her touch, instead continuing to reach towards Keernan.

"He was not the power he had galvanised around himself. Maybe there are memories and feelings locked in these, but not the fae himself."

"I have yet to work out if they have any use," he lied.

 

[Syuri]

Her brow furrowed. Before the glimpse she'd had into the Aralyssian's memory, she'd have doubted that woman would fear anything or anyone, but she understood exactly why she feared the one these fragments had belonged to.

"Hm.." she answered and turned to him, her arms folding across her chest. "And the others that you took them from.. What happened to them?" her head tilted. She couldn't help but fear that removing something that had become part of Keernan would change him, and she couldn't help but not trust anything or anyone she met in this realm.

 

[Keernan]

Her questions were becoming irkesome. They were also becoming quite direct towards the two that had come before Keernan. They had been harder to find, but far easier to manage once he had brought them here.

"I would like to say I knew in detail," Rushel replied, "but frankly I do not pay too much attention to the lived of mortals, not even elves. I assume they went back to...whatever it is you all do with your time."

 

[Syuri]

Syuri sighed and folded her arms with a slight frown at his answer. Perhaps she was trying a little too hard to look for something not to trust, but she couldn't help it. She could tell that her questions were starting to cause an itch, she'd pestered her brother for long enough to know.

"Hm." she shrugged casually and started lazily toward the door.. "I think he should keep it." she tested thoughtfully. "It's part of who he is. And I like who he is. If there's no chance of that thing coming back, and if those stay in their jars or, whatever you plan on doing with them, there isn't really much point, is there?" Syuri asked rhetorically and continued toward the door.

"I should go find breakfast."

 

[Keernan]

She was determined to test his patience. Rushel was very well accustomed to getting his own ways and not being questioned so much by a mortal.

"He could choose that," Rushel replied. "I would not advise it. She will hunt you wherever you go now she had found him. If he leaves the spark of Khalldryn here we can cover your tracks."

He took a breath and then gave a shrug as if the matter was not important.

"I can show you where the larder is. If my band have gone off hunting already I expect they've left plenty of food out in a mess."

They would be spoken too later about keeping a closer eye on the pair and not riding off for their own enjoyment.

 

[Syuri]

Syuri's jaw clenched. Either her bate wasn't working quite as well as she'd hoped or he was trying to bluff her too. She smiled warmly as she turned to look back at him and gave a slow nod. "I appreciate you looking out for us. But we'll take our chances, I have a deal in mind that she might be interested in." she smirked and tapped on the side of her nose.

"You've done more than enough, Rushel. We'll be getting on our way, don't let us put you to any more trouble." she insisted with a final dip of her chin.

 

[Keernan]

"If you are going to negotiate with her, then go alone," Rushel said, stepping after her. "If she gets him in her clutches there won't be any dealing with her."

He took long strides to go past her and out into the corridor. He had to stifle the impulse to throttle her as he passed.

"Let me get you some food for your travels at least," he offered. This time, just a little of his frustration slipped through his voice.

 

[Syuri]

Gods he was infuriating.

"Noted, but he's leaving with me." she smiled, her teeth clenched behind her lips. "There's really no need to trouble yourself, you've done enough for us." she said as sweetly as she could as she took longer strides to pass him.

 

[Keernan]

Rushel let her go. He stayed at the doorway and watched her leave. This wasn't acceptable. It had been far harder than he had let on to track down the next spark only to find that the Aralyssian was closing in on it.

"Fucking idiots," he hissed. He was going to have to bring them back from their hunt. Rushel went to the shelf and took the two filled glass devices.


"What was in there?" Keernan asked as she emerged. From her expression it hadn't been anything good.

 

[Syuri]

Syuri was walking quickly, her hand shooting out to grab Keernan by the arm. "A lot of weird stuff." she answered quietly, and waited until they were outside before she said anything else.

"Rushel seems a little reluctant to let us go.. And I don't like this thing with those sparks. There's something he's not telling us, he wants that spark, and I don't think it has much to do with helping us with the Aralyssian."

"You remember the way out?" she asked, reaching the cliff's edge to collect her bag and the purring Mango curled inside it.

 

[Keernan]

Keernan was led by her back towards the entrance through the rock face. He could feel a tug as his back, like a string wrapped around his chest. It became lighter with every step.

"I don't," he said. "Such things can move and shift as quickly as the moons."

"We can try and find it though. I might be able to pick it up. I don't know where it will take us."

He didn't need to question her any further. Her demeanour was enough to understand that events had shifted. They were getting out of here.

As they took their first steps away from the cliff face he heard a horn call out. Not from the distant hunt this time, but from the underground complex they had just left.