Old Wounds & Crossroads [Closed.]

[Kaelyn Ianale]

[OOC: This thread will be a detailed documentation of the events to follow regarding this story. This thread is open only to those directly involved. Metagame this sh*t and I will find a way to terrorize you with a brick. Thanks!]

Splayed hands reach up to the end of the bed, fingers digging ruthlessly into the old and worn wood as she makes to heave herself up off of the ground. Trembles shake through her weary and sob-racked body as she carefully draws her feet beneath herself and eases herself to a stand before her fingers release their vice-like hold of the bed's wooden frame. Her left hand raises from the bed to brush her fingertips slowly down the side of her face. Her eyes, still shut tightly to block out her surroundings, are swollen and flushed red for the tears that she had wept. Her cheeks are warm and still wet though it feels like an eternity after the sobs had stilled and she'd relented herself to silence. A soft breath plays from her lips as they part, her fingertips continuing their idle inspection of her own features. Brow, nose, eyes, lips, jaw - her absent touch meanders downward before it fades away with the fall of her fingers from the tip of her chin. She swallows thickly, standing statuesque at the bed's end for the breadth of a few slow and deeply inhaled breaths. Then slowly she wills her eyes to open, ignoring the sting of fresh air against them. A look is turned over the room she stands before, casting over the beds lined up along the wall. Over desks, past the mirror tucked in the corner and onward does her gaze drift before it lingers still and cold upon the door left flung open to the stairwell. The emotions expected to surface as she stares to the door fail to do so. Instead, she finds nothing but listlessness.

Blinking twice against the sting and ache that surrounds her eyes, Kaelyn glances to her side to watch as her right hand drags away from the bed. It falls obediently to her side before she looks back up a second time. She hesitates, distinctly aware of the sudden sense of confusion worming its way into her idle thoughts before she just rocks forward. Her feet move, carrying her languidly to the doorway and the stairs beyond. She moves slowly through the House, following an almost habitual pattern from one room to the other until she finds herself facing the still-open door leading outside. Her attention flicks down to the floor and the door's threshold before she cocks her chin at an angle near her shoulder. Having grown still, she simply listens to the building behind her for a long moment.

Silence.

A heavy breath escapes her as she shakes her head once, her face twisting in a look of helpless discontent. Stepping over the door's threshold and to the grass beyond, the woman idly drifts about the building until she's stood amid the garden, lingering just off to the side of the empty, ash-strewn firepit. The mild grasp of hope she had held as she stepped from the House had died with the glance cast about the area. The outbuilding's doors were flung open just like the others behind her and all around her, nothing but the waves lapping against the bay shore accompanies her for sound. The silence that she normally would have so deeply cherished now rests heavy against her, a crippling weight kneading into already slumped shoulders.

Turning in her spot, Kaelyn looks about the garden and building as if seeking some sign of what to do next. Her mind stirs, echoing her lost look about the surroundings. What does she do now? Should she wait and linger in the silence or run? Run to where, Bane? The mainlands? Her eyes fall closed briefly in a vain attempt to still her frantic thoughts, her lips parting and chest rising with a deep breath meant to help her keep hold of her composure. As the panic eases, echoed words pass through her thoughts.

"Gods, Kae, I love you. I... I don't know what I'm going to do now. Everything will all seem so dull and lifeless... pointless." The words sounded forced from him as he spoke them, anguish lacing through their entirety. Then he was gone, leaving her with nothing more to hold onto. The finality of the remark sat like a barb in her, poisoned at the tip to wither her away.

Shaking off the memory, Kaelyn purses her lips into a severe line and slowly makes her way across the grounds. Her bare feet brush over the close-cropped grass, chilled by the early-morning dew that clings to the green blades. Slipping into the darkness of the outbuilding, the woman fumbles for a moment until a slow-burning flame splutters to life upon a torch. She reaches up, shoving the torch into the sconce upon the wall before she turns to the two locked chests tucked snuggly against the wall. Crouching to the one closest to the corner and nestled against the leg of the tailor's desk, Kaelyn reaches forward to work the lock until the chest opens. Her hands dig into the depths of the chest, fumbling about and searching almost frantically through the various bags stuffed into its unnatural depths. Her motions turn sharp and irrate as she digs, enough so that the seams of one bag suddenly rip, its contents spilling into the chest's depths. A curse slips from her, hissed in a bare whisper as she stops short and grips the edge of the chest before her. The hand clasping the now torn bag fists slowly into the leather. Then, in a sudden surge of frustration and violent whiplash, she flings the ripped leather from her. It lands with a dull sound in the far corner as she twists at the waist, slowly sinking to the dusty floor of the building. Her chest rises with quickened breath, holding steadfast against the seething anger that threatens her as she sits in the dark silence of the room, the weight of all that had passed that night washing over her.

"... What did you ask and take as answer, Kae?" he queried slowly, the quieting of his voice a keen indicator of the wary irritation that had begun to build between them. She found herself silenced, knowing all too well what to expect for a reaction if she were to be honest with him. Her lips parted, a breath playing between them before she answered in a careful manner, holding the distance between them as she sat in the worn, padded chair. "I asked her what exactly this Ritual could fix..." she began carefully, her brows knitting just above the bridge of her nose. "I pushed her until she told me that the only way she'd honestly attempt to aid me in any way was if I agreed to enslavement for a year and a day..."

"Only those blood bonded as a slave or partner can learn of some things," the elfess spoke up, the words said as if they were a mantra, a sentence recited and repeated to perfection. Their implications burned through Kaelyn, straight to her core as she stood fast three long strides before Kyre. She swallowed once against the bitterness touching her tongue as she held the elfess with a wary regard. Kyre was speaking again, an explanation of sorts. "A slave for a year and a day guarantees acceptance in knowledge but..." Kyre's voice faded, leaving the sentence unfinished. The silence that drifted between them was weighted, expectant. Finally, Kaelyn turned her look off to the forest at her back and all around her. "A year and a day. That is what you would require of me to tell me either a "yes" or "no" to whether I can be fixed?" The elfess before her nodded once, her voice quiet in the darkness around them. "It is not lightly I offer bonding even as a slave...it is not easy on me either. The only reason I do is..."

Drathe's voice was clipped and forced as he barked at her, his hands having taken hold of the chair before him in his flaring anger. "No, Kae! I'll not have this, not see you humiliated for nothing more than idle promise." The last words were hissed, pointed at her and they did precisely what he intended for them. The dug beneath her skin, irritating her for his lack of seeing the entire situation in the same light as she did. She could care less for the steps she would have to take all for the chance of a "what if". It was the end result that lured her like a moth to a flame. The frustration weighed her down, her shoulders slumping as she brough her hands up to shield her face and the expression twisting its features from the man as he stood aside from her. When finally she spoke, her voice was thick with bridled emotion, desperation. "Twelve years, Drathe. Twelve years I have been like this and only recently has it all started crashing over me like this dead weight, pressing on me. I have this one chance to fix it. I am desperate enough to sit here and consider signing myself away for a year on a simple chance possibility. It'll either be worth it or she'll end up dead for her empty promises..."

They both stood, face to face and locked in each othe'rs hold as what little control either of them harboured slowly frayed and cracked at the seam. The embrace they had entangled themselves in was not one of love or passion or lust or adoration but something colder, fiercer. Their holds were borne of some bitter desperation to make one another realize the other's thoughts - to no avail. It was a losing battle, a wedge between them growing by the moment even as her arms and hands clutched about his shoulders, against his neck, refusing to give him the distance he sought from her. The tears had fallen now, swift and scalding over her cheeks. What had begun as a simple explanation had escalated like a harsh wave over them and now they stood at an empasse, brow to brow as their ragged breaths mingled. Kaelyn had fallen silent for a long moment, willing her panicked and quickly numbing mind to find some combination of words to keep him from turning away. When she spoke, it was with a voice of that final straw, that last hope and attempt. "I want this, Drathe. What can I do to make you understand? I-it's not the torment or humiliation or "enslavement" that I'm focusing on.. It's that little image.. At the end of all of this.. Of a damned black haired, grey eyed child, half you and half me that I can't look away from..." Her voice cracked harshly at the very end, fading into an exhausted whisper as her eyes closed against the burn of the tears. She felt him tense even further beneath her touch, something she'd momentarily thought impossible. The dread that such a reaction stirred in her was almost overwhelming, setting to life a wrenching nausea in the very pit of her stomach. That bitter coldness only grew as he spoke up, his voice stilted and breathless for his own harsh emotions. "I'm worn out Kae. I've run from all I know and had. I've nothing left but you and you ask me to do this with,you. Talking like it's a done and sure deal, not just hope. It's all just hope for everything you'll gamble and go through..." His head shook once against her before his arms tensed and crossed, making to shove roughly against her chest. The force pulled her arms free of him, leaving her unstable on suddenly weak knees. Her actions mirrored his as they both backed up a step, her thighs pressing against the wood of the small bed that had been behind her. Her knees gave then, causing her to slowly sink down onto the floor. "I don't want hope, I just want you. Kaelyn Ianale, the desert wind that no one's tamed, no one's broken... That never went down on her knees," Drathe's words breathed over her as she turned, the irony in his chosen departure hardly lost on her. A bitter chuckle slipped from her, lost for sound as it just bobbed against her shoulders. And for all she willed it, she could not find the willpower in her to stand and keep him from moving to the door.

"Give Athian back Jen's things... Without thought of child, but with hope that will have him ease his blistered pride.."

"Gods, Kae, I love you. I... I don't know what I'm going to do now. Everything will all seem so dull and lifeless... pointless."

Her eyes close tightly for a long moment as she wrenches herself from the consuming thoughts. Lifting her left hand, she scrubs her scarred palm over her eyes before dropping it back down to the chest she had abandoned, its depths now cluttered with the contents of the spilled back. Pulling a bitter face, Kaelyn rocks back up onto her heels and twists to the chest. Finding what she had been seeking in the first place, she irritably wrenches a particular purse from one of the bags stuffed into the corner. Workings its ties loose, she gazes silently to the contents of the old leather drawstring purse. A pile of silver coins rest in the leather curve, topped with two rings that eminated a soft glow from the gems. Managing a derisive snort, the woman abruptly shakes her head and presses stiffly from the cold and filthy floor of the outbuilding. Her empty right hand shoves the lid of the chest down until it clicks with the lock. Then she turns away, leaving the room and her thoughts with it.

Stepping back into the cool air of the oncoming morning, Kaelyn stills near the tall and entangled grapevines just outside of the small building. Her gaze turns up to the sky, drifting wayward until she finds the greying horizon and the rays of sunlight splintering against the ever present clouds around Gobaith. She beholds the sight for a long moment, the fingers of her left hand slowly worrying the soft leather of the purse she'd snatched from her stores. And as the moments tick by, a sense of quiet affirmation settles about her. She blinks twice, her expression drawing impassive with the decision having been made. Parting her lips, she inhales the cool and salt-laden dawn air deeply, her chest rising until it can rise no further. Then she turns away, tossing the bag in hand up once to let it land back in the cup of her palm. Her back is turned upon the House and all that has come to pass beneath its roof in the past hours. With bare feet, she strides forward slowly to the cobbled path, following its winding lea beyond the hedges of the House and onward to the forest.

Never had she been one to simply let her desires slip through her fingers. If there was one thing Kaelyn could attest to with absolute honesty then and there, it would be that she would not start now. Chuckling flatly to herself, she shakes her head once before a soft, breathed curse slips from her lips. "Screw you, Nargun..." The words draw a curious grin to her lips as she strides forward, turning east and north to the so deeply hated town of Troll's Bane.



She sought three people that day. One expected her, as was proof by the parchment coated in red lettering that found itself tucked away upon its delivery. One wanted nothing to do with her, yet she was not content to let him simply walk off any longer. And the third - the third wanted her dead and was willing to pay for that result if he must.

It was he that she went to first.

[Kyre]

Kyre woke to the faint smell of burned fabric as dark eyes opened quickly while first gazing toward their sleeping babe seeing him safely slumbering in his crib then toward Will still fast asleep with hair in disarray and pillow thrown on the floor. Suppressing a chuckle watching him...and taking great care, Kyre slowly moves from his side while folding back the covers with her ungloved hand and finally touching feet to the cold stone floor. Gazing toward one of the small windows, seeing just the briefest hint of dawn, Kyre moves toward the door opening it as quietly as possible. Moving first to the guest room, she whispers to the Nanny already rising for the day that Corvus was still asleep in his crib before opening the door to the middle room. This room is to be their son's room when older yet in a fit of rage ... justifiable as far as she was concerned, the bed was burned to ash. The one William and that...that woman were sitting on laughing with each other! Corvus would never use that bed even though William said it meant nothing! Ready for some changes, Kyre dressed quickly and went to the Academy library taking her parchment and pen out then writing four letters.

Will,

I have a couple of meetings today but hope to see you later.

Love,
Kyre

Grinning Kyre leaves the parchment with the librarian then walks back to the table whispering to herself.

Hopefully he won't find out until it is all done.

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Celegail,

I plan on meeting with Athian today about the hand regeneration, you were interested in it so I hope to see you!

Kyre

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Oxi,

I worry something will happen to you.. we need to talk.. in a public place.

Kyre

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Kaelyn,

I can meet later today, I have a couple of things to do first.

Kyre

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After a long day with Athian using every bit of support Celegail could give, the pain was now a simple ache as she wrapped the ugly stump in clean dressing and prepared for her meeting with Kaelyn. She knew the woman well.. after all that had happened to them and the taint of her blood still on her tongue. Kyre knew to show no weakness to this woman as she prepared to be every inch the tall elfess witch she was.

The moonless night seemed to welcome her deception as Kyre kept her arm behind her back the entire meeting stifling a grin at the woman's obvious discomfort .. almost fright of most magic. With the gold safely tucked in her bodice, Kyre lead them to Lake Adron as an unusually quiet place to work the bond. Pulling the book from her bag after tucking her wand away, she hands it to Kaelyn then points to an emblem on the front...

One drop of blood.

Much later Kyre gazes toward town while resting against the trunk of an apple tree taking deep breaths finally showing the weariness descending upon her. Kaelyn had left and...dare she say, she almost liked that woman especially since she was safe and bonded now. Kyre didn't think even Drathe would dare upset the bond for fear what would happen. Will and Corvus would be safe also because she would use all her powers to protect her family. Kyre could hopefully use some of what she learned on the regeneration of her hand to do the extended ritual for Kaelyn then their time together should be at an end...maybe.