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Sono Kanshi-Sha : Reboot

Dameria

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a part of Sono Kanshi-Sha : Reboot, by Siryn.

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Siryn holds sovereignty over Dameria, giving them the ability to make limited changes.

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Default Location for Sono Kanshi-Sha : Reboot
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Dameria

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Dameria is a part of Sono Kanshi-Sha : Reboot.

1 Places in Dameria:

6 Characters Here

Tristan Belvedere [95] unable to withstand what is real
Soran Feliy Reigailia [75] "If I can imagine it, it can be built, trust me."
Kilia Yve Linovahle [69] "I don't believe that fighting is the answer. There's another way, there always is."
Rethyn Jadgarus [60] "I've walked blindly in the fog of war. Searching and seeking I will find her."
Sina Virye [12] "Well the plan is....Pfffpht haha! Screw the plan!"
Kazar Azure Jadgarus [4] "Even if you are kind of an ass... I think I like you"

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Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere
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#, as written by girlwt


Tristan and Peter

The Belvedere house and occupants made an army bug out look slow, it was like everyone that lived there knew exactly what to take and what not to take. Supplies were packed quickly and food was also ready. Everyone was given a packed breakfast, just because someone had time to do it. Tristan was in his room, he had his stuff already in the one of the vehicles. He also made sure that Soran's things were packed and ready to go too.

These moments alone were the worst for him, as he couldn't help but think about the blond seer. The what if's kept popping in his head too, but he knew that wasn't going to help him in doing what his father wanted him to do. The last of his belongings were in a backpack, which he threw on his back. He had already given Peter his coordinates and told him to meet him outside. He knew it was almost time to get the started.

He stopped to say some see you soon's first, making sure everyone was ready to go. He has missed Kilia and Jonathan leaving as they got into Victor's hummer. Why a guy that short drove such a huge vehicle was beyond Tristan's thinking. He just hoped they all got there in one piece, driving with Uncle Vic...was sort of scary. He opened the garage door and sighed, now this would have been fun to do with Soran.

The red motorcycle fit Tristan, it was at one point one of the only things he cared about. "Peter," he called hoping the other was in ear shot

"Aye sir?" Peter was in his car with the Sunroof down. "We ready to go now, these bombs are not gonna plant themselves." Peter then pointed to the road. "You lead. I'll follow."

"Okay," he looked at his pad, "first one isn't far from here, and we are going to do what I like to call a drop and pop. You get to the point, drop the bomb. I will activate the timer on my pad and then it will pop when it needs to."
"Alright. Then lets get at it." Peter said as he started his engine and pushed on the gas to start driving. When he got on the road he began driving faster towards the first mark.

Tristan's own engine roared to life as he followed Peter, eventually getting in front of him, he has only paused to look back once at his house. Hoping that it would still be standing when he returned.

Tristan slowed down slightly as he approached the first stop. He was on high alert as any possession now would be detrimental to this whole plan. He stopped with his engine running and pointed so that Peter would see him.
Peter nodded as he slowed down and took one bomb out and started to place it in the spot that was pointed to him. As soon as that was done he waited for a signal to get moving again.

Tristan waited until Peter was in his car and started moving, he was slow so the other could catch up, the next one was closer to the point where his own first possession took place. He shivered as he remember that freakin huge spider. However he shook his head trying to get his thought clear and only think of the plan. It also made him think about Rethyn, and how he hoped he other was safe.

Peter followed Tristan to the next sight as he wondered how are they going to catch up with the others after It was all said and done.

Tristan stopped at the next one, motioning. Checking his pad, he suddenly realized he forgot to fix Kilia's...darnit.
Peter stopped and placed the bomb at it's place and ran back to the car. Again the thought crossed his mind as to how were they going to regroup with the others afterwards. was there a stopping point to the false trail and were they going to be far away by the time the bombs went off?

Three more points were found and bombs dropped, one happened to be near the college, at this one, he sort of hoped this would really throw them off. Because they were going to have to backtrack to the next point. He made a signal so the other knew they were turning around, and he wouldn't be surprised when the other started heading back in the same direction.

At this one he stopped kept his engine was running, he waited for the other to get out. He pulled something out of his backpack
Peter followed Tristan to the last point and put the last bomb In place and rushed to his car and readied to go at the signal.
Tristan was looking at the paper for one sec, he pulled along side Peter, and killed his engine for a second, "Ok we need to split up, here I wrote down the directions for you. Get on the highway up ahead and follow that. It will take awhile to get there, there are places to stop should you need anything."

Peter nods as he put the sunroof on. "See you there." he said as he drove off towards the highway, then on to where the rest shall gather.

Tristan turned his bike as he would take the longer route, he would probably be the last one at the house. However he had ideas on how to occupy his time. His pad went off, "Okay Rethyn, I hope...you are doing your rescue right now." He threw up a small barrier to cover up his own tracks, as he got to the back road. He set the bombs to go off within the next hour. He made the modification at the last minute. He give them to discover that the two they held were missing first.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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Whap!

With a small clapping like sound Rethyn's heels struck the sidewalk as he dropped down a short distance from where he exited the teleport. The area around the young man was desolate as the destruction of the city had seemed aged. There was no longer fresh smoke in the air, the last breaths of the city had ceased. Many of the buildings were down and were opened in the destruction.

With each step Rethyn took he heard echos as the sound would beat through the buildings and the area around him. He knew where he was as he saw the familiar street signs leading to the areas he wanted to hit before heading back to the extraction point.

First, the caved in home down the street of which he use to call home was his first priority. As he stepped forward he felt heavy. As he glanced to the right he saw children running, as they kicked around a soccer ball. With a shake of his head they were gone. Refusing to look back in that direction the young man approached the door.

Exhaling a long drawn out breath Rethyn reached for the door handle, it was locked however. With a firm twist of the handle however he could literally feel the weakened door and it's lock breaking under his grip. With a firm shove of the shoulder the wood of the door chipped and broke at the shove of his weight.

He was in. Standing in the darkness of his old home he begun moving around where he could. The damage to the home had blocked off so many rooms that he knew he wouldn't be able to access them. That including his own room as he passed by it. Shaking his head with slight frustration he moved to the main living room. There it was, the object of which he had came for.


Crack!

Rethyn's attire had changed. Now at the extraction point the young man was wearing what appeared to be a black Kevlar vest over his black tank top. Upon the vest it read "Police" upon it. Along with the vest he had seemed to have obtained a few metallic objects of which looked like cylinders.

Stepping off into the shadows, Rethyn masked his presence as begun taking as much weight as possible from his steps. Climbing over rubble and fallen signs Rethyn drew in closer.

Bamf!

Still within the shadows, Rethyn teleported a little ways up as he had spotted a hole in the target building. Standing at the edge of the open spot, Rethyn wrapped his left arm around a devastated piece of rebar of which was sticking out of the concrete.

Kneeling down he closed his eyes briefly as he could hear voices echoing off the walls from the floor down below him.

"That's one...two...and three..." Rethyn thought to himself as he remembered the number of gods of which were briefed to him. Below him he heard the three of them exchanging words. With that he knew he was in the right place.

Now all he needed was that distraction. With a quick glance to the flash grenades he had looted from the police station he at least had a back up plan if things went bad.


~~~~~~

"Please..." Soran moaned, crying again as Valyn was knelt next to him once more. He had lost track of time, had lost track of what day it was. It felt like months to him. "Don't... Sto-" his words ended in screams. The knife had cut into old wounds, making them deeper or larger. Soran was sweating profusely, bloody and breaking down. Valyn continued for a while longer before two of the Gods entered the room. The blonde Seer had completely forgotten about the other woman in the room, too lost in his own pain to notice much of anything now. The knife pulled away and he went limp, panting heavily and struggling to stay awake.

"Valyn," Oni's voice was sharp slightly irritated as well. Something was wrong.

The red eyed God stood up slowly, "What is it?"

"The energy. It's not doing much, is it."

Valyn was silent for some time before the golden knife faded away and he crossed his arms, "It was only a test, Oni. It gave some energy, more than we've gotten before."

"Yes, but now it's fading again."

"Probably because he's dying," Criea snapped, tilting her head as she regarded them both.

"No, that shouldn't have an affect. His energy is still connected to his magic system and it's slow."

"Greed will get you no where, Oni."

The God possessed Seer smiled at Valyn, "Perhaps. Still, the power flow should have increased, but it did not. Change tactics. Do something about it Valyn. If we are to take power from these idiotic mortals than it should be proficient."

"What, squimesh from the blood, Oni?" Criea asked as she moved and inspected the half conscious boy hanging from the single peice of golden twine holding him against the wall.

"Hardly, but it is messy, don't you think? My concern is getting the power we need quickly. This... this isn't quick." Oni motioned his hand towards Soran a frown on the girls lips.

"No, but it's been the only thing so far that works," Valyn countered, "If I tried that again it will kill him."

"He wouldn't even survive a single touch from it now," Criea huffed, rolling her shoulders as she moved away from Soran.

"You have that one," Oni said looking to the other Seer still tied up in the golden twine across the room. Valyn glanced to her briefly and shrugged.

"I will have to perfect it."

"You bitch.." Sina said angrily from the other side of the room. Within her eyes burned a hatred of the goddess. She didn't understand, why didn't she just kill them? Most other gods by now would have either taken over them or killed them. Why wouldn't she just pick one already?

Oni looked over to the other Seer, "Interesting. I think you have the wrong term there Seer. I may be in a woman's body, but I am definitely not one," the voice grated.

Valyn turned slowly to Sina and narrowed his red eyes. His fingers stretched out and started to curl in, but Oni waved his hand, getting the other Gods attention. With a shake of his head, long black hair flipping across the shoulders, he clicked his tongue a bit as he moved the Seer's body towards Sina. Kneeling down, he reached out and took hold of the girls chin.

"I suggest taking into account where you are at, little Seer. You are now our source of power, as is the boy. With both of you, we can gather as much of it as we want. It's those magic systems you have. The systems are connected via energy to the user and also electrically. Your society is pulsing with electricity. Everything is connected. As a God, we cannot touch the connection, but in this state," he glanced down to the Seer's body he was occupying, "We can collect it very easily. Granted it's taken us a little while to figure out how your systems work, but now that we have," he grinned at her, "Gathering the power we need from two very strong Seers makes our war a lot easier. You see, I'm not the only God that's trying to keep his station. I am trying to gain more power to control other Gods. In order to do that, I need you, and him, and the other Seers. Of course, other Gods keep getting in the way as they are much too stupid to think things through as I have."

Tilting Sina's head a bit, Oni regarded her for a moment, "Just think, you are now our eternal source for power. Well... that is if you don't die from exertion. But I'll be sure to have Valyn be careful about that. After all, his touch is definitely more violent than that blade of his, wouldn't you agree?" Oni grinned as he released her and walked back to the other two. With a flick of his hand he motioned for them to follow him.

"Come, we have things to do and energy to disperse to the others. What little of it we have," he growled in annoyance, "Get rid of that ridiculous spell, Valyn. It's not working anyway."

The red eyed God turned to face both of them and snapped his fingers. The golden twine around Soran's wrist faded with Valyn's departure. With that one, the twine around Sina was gone as well. Turning around, Valyn followed after the other two and walked towards the opposite wall before disappearing.

Sina said nothing as she glared furiously at the god. Sure, there were many insults she wanted to spew at him, but her attention had been drawn to Soran of whom she feared wasn't going to last much longer if they kept focusing on only him. She wanted to plead to them to go after her for a while. At least give him rest.

As they disappeared she looked to the boy and called to him. "Hey! Stay with me alright?!" She had started to look panicked as she feared he was becoming lost in all of the pain. Just looking at the horror of what they had done to him made her a little watery at the eye. The cuts had become so deep.

Stumbling over to the boy, Sina begun to rip the left arm of her shirt off as she drew closer to Soran. She needed to stop the bleeding as the wound was deep. She knew it wasn't going to help much, but she couldn't just let him bleed on the floor like those monsters.

Cuffing her hands into the armpits of Soran, Sina pulled the boy onto her lap as she started trying to tie the makeshift bandage around the re-opened wound of Soran. As she did her best to tie it tightly she knew it wasn't going to save him, but it was soemthing.

Sina tried to wave a hand in front of the boys face. "Say something, are you with me kid?"

Breathing was hard, everything burned and he wanted nothing more than to slip into a sweet dreamless sleep. He was about to when hands pulled at him, dragged him from the wall and he was suddenly lying down. He couldn't concentrate though, unsure of what was up and what was down. The voice of the girl from earlier pulled at his conscious but he only mumbled a little bit, head lulling from one side to the other. If anything was apparent it was a soft, whisper of a name, though he muttered other words as well but nothing as coherent.

Sina was not exactly sure which words the boy murmured but she could of sworn she heard him say "Tristan." With a close of her eyes she sighed as she feared this was near the end. She had a feeling if he took any more of this kind of abuse his mind would shatter.

Sina had begun to cry as she curled down and hugged the boy. She felt horrid for him, she didn't know what she could do for him. She felt helpless, she hated it, she hated the gods.

"Why..why." She sobbed "Damn it..."

Suddenly without even a chance to register a hand swiftly curled itself over her mouth. She felt for a moment her feet were no longer on solid ground as the familiar feeling of a drop on a roller coaster came upon her.

As the feeling of the drop left she realized she was longer in the location she once was. Twisting around she quickly caught glimps of a boy with solid blue eyes and no irises. In panic she tried pushing at him to get off her.

Rethyn didn't even budge as he placed down first her then Soran. Flicking his eye around the area he was unable to teleport both of them straight to where they needed to be. He was taking in deep breaths as he needed a moment before he could go again.

Sina's mouth hung open as she looked around their new scenery. They had left the dark warehouse to only go into another half collasped building. Twisting over to the new boy she siad. "What? The hell was that?!"

Panting a few more times, Rethyn held up his index finger to her then brought it to his mouth. After a short moment he lunged for both Soran on the ground and the highly confused Sina. "Wait, what the hell are you-"

"Doing". Sina looked around in confusion again as now Soran had been moved from the ground to now cradles in Rethyn's right arm. She tried speaking again, but Rethyn brought an index finger to her lips as he seemed to say to himself.

"Alauric, I've extracted them. Do not let Tristan see Soran. Soran needs medical attention now. I repeat, I've extracted them. Do not let Tristan see Soran and give Soran medical attention right now."

Sina glanced at Rethyn's armor for a moment as she read it she tilted her head at him. "What're you fucking magical police man?!"

Rethyn seemed to ignore Sina as he knelt down and begun to look over the injuries of Soran. Gritting his teeth for a moment he looked to Sina as he said "Hold him." Sina blinked in confusion as she moved in to take hold of the boy.

Stepping back, Rethyn reached for the sleevless tank top under his armor as he begun to tug at it. Eventually he ripped it as he too made yet another makeshift bandage for Soran. While watching him Sina just looked like a confused puppy. "Wrap it around some of his other injuries." Rethyn ordered as he walked over to a nearby wall and sat against it.

Giving up on asking the boy questions Sina obeyed as she neatly ripped apart Rethyn's old shirt and made several bandages for Soran. However after a long moment she felt she had to ask one thing. "What're we going to do now?"

"Wait." Rethyn replied.

Sighing, Sina nodded as she got to work add more bandages to Soran's wounded body. Around the deeper wounds she wrapped layers of bandages to stop the bleeding. "This isn't going to be enough!" She called to Rethyn.

"I know." Rethyn said calmly.

Finally the ear piece crackled, but only Rethyn could hear it, "Rethyn this is Alauric, we are on our way. Healer on board, be there in five minutes."

"Keep Tristan away." Rethyn repeated himself to Alauric.

Sighing Rethyn dropped his hand from his ear piece to his side as he stared absently into the distance. He was tired, ever since the party night that's all thought about in the back of his mind. "It's almost over." Rethyn thought to himself.

His eyes shot open as his gaze caught a suited man leering out at him through a half shattered window. Looking at Rethyn he merely made a gun with his hand and said into Rethyn's mind. "Bang! No it's not."

The man faded from view.

Sina in turn had taken a protective grasp over Soran as she held onto him tightly. She didn't know what was going on, but she had high hopes for the best as she whispered to Soran. "Hey, I told you I had your back."

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#, as written by Siryn




Seravie halted. His third eye had been trained on the room with the two Seers. As he stopped, so did Oni and Criea. The woman glanced over at him, lifting an eyebrow as Oni waited patiently. Slowly his gaze narrowed, "The Seers."

"What do you mean?" Oni asked with a bit of a sigh.

"Someone grabbed them."

"Who?!" Criea snapped, taking a step towards him in her anger.

The three eyed God slowly looked towards her, the eye in the middle of his forehead slowly blinked and focused on her which made her slink back slightly, "One of the Guardians. Which one teleports?"

"I don't know," she answered with clipped, but hushed tones. The feel of that third eye was driving her nuts and she turned her back to him.

Oni sighed heavily, "Where is Valyn?"

A moment of silence filled the space between them as Seravie concentrated, "North. Working as you asked him."

Nodding the Seer's head, the God of God's started walking again. Criea's face went pale as she watched him, "W-what... what are you doing? They just stole the two Seers from us. Where are we going to get our energy now?!" she screeched.

Oni turned his head towards her, lifting an eyebrow as he regarded the Goddess of illusion with the Seer's dark gaze, "Oh, well. What an excellent point you have, Criea. Why didn't I think of it myself," he turned away from her and continued. Waving a hand at Seravie the god grabbed Criea by her throat and lifted her upwards. Screeching out in shock, she kicked and flailed. Fear curdled her voice as she set her gaze on Seravie who watched her with a calm expression.

The eye upon his forehead grew wide, the dark blue color seemed to take up the entire area, then followed by the black pupil. His own, natural gaze slowly turned black as well, the pupils of both eyes taking over the entire eye. She shook and shuddered under his grip and let out a terrible scream. The Goddess' body cracked and peeled away until there was nothing left in Seravie's hand.

Returning to Oni's side, the three eyed God had all of his eyes closed now, though he walked perfectly besides Oni, "How was it?" Oni asked.

"More energy, but not as much as we can get from the Seers. Their connection to the system is so much more potent."

Oni sighed and nodded, "That's true. She was growing on my nerves anyway. Too flighty, and prone to anger. That's why I like you, Seravie."

"Really? That's odd."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because, I am always irritated."



Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus
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Kilia followed after Grayson and Alauric as they moved Soran to a different room. She was looking at her pad mostly as she tried to d to come up with a healing spell that would do most of the cuts all at once as to save time and hopefully give him a chance. Occasionally she wiped at her eyes that would become blurry with water and make it hard to see her spell. How she made it to the room without tripping on anything was a miracle in and of itself though. The little pink haired Seer wasn't the most graceful after all.

Once in the room, she knelt down next to Soran's body one hand reaching out to grip his wrist with her slender fingers, "Soran... come on, help me out okay," she muttered to him. Looking over to Victor and the other two, she shook her head a bit, "This is going to be very hard. Uncle Vic...." she let out a heavy sigh.

"Oh god.. Tristan! Where is he? He can't come in this room," she startled, looking up at Alauric in shock, "He can't. N-not until I finish... Maybe not even after that... I don't know... Oh... What are we going to do," she shook her hand hovering over her spell as if she wasn't sure she wanted to drag it off and put it over the blonde's body.

Victor shook his head, "This is going to be long process, Miss Kilia, but I don't want to put you in danger, tell me when you have had enough." Alauric moved off to the side and watched the both of them, he didn't need either one of them collasping. He knew that Tristan didn't need to see this, and was sort of glad that the boy had not arrived yet. There was some small hope it would still be awhile until he did.

Kilia nodded, "Yes... okay," she straightened as she had been slouching a bit earlier. Taking a few deep breathes, she seemed to get a hold of herself and dragged off the spell. The room erupted in golden light as the spell was different from her normal ones. Soran's eyebrow twitched slightly as the wounds started to close. The smaller cuts went faster than the larger ones. As that one started to fade out, she worked on another one, preparing it as quickly as possible, "I still need water and cloths, please," she said over her shoulder as she got ready to drop the next spell over him.

"Mine." Rethyn claimed to himself as he plopped down on one of the beds in the other room. As soon as he hit the bed he quickly removed the vest and his cargo pants as he tucked himself under the covers and passed out. Two nights sleeplessness and the man had had enough of it. In his right hand he brought the framed picture of his family to his chest as he dozed off into darkness.

Grayson nodded and moved to get the things that Kilia requested. While passing the others, "I did bring some chicken with me, so if anyone is hungry, sorry I didn't get a chance to say that eariler."

Inside the room, Victor pulled a blue spell from his pad, it seemed to pentrate Soran's wounds on a deeper level, he couldn't leave the boy with so many scars. He was just hoping it wasn't painful. The next spell, would only add to Kilia's, however it would make it so she didn't spend as much energy and it would take less time.

Once Kilia finished, she drew the spell over Soran's frame and released it. The room glowed again and she noticed that it went faster. Glancing up to Victor with wide eyes, she didn't ask the question that was apparent in her gaze. Instead she turned back to Soran and watched as he flinched slightly and gave a soft moan. The wounds were closing faster, and many of them weren't leaving a mark on his pale skin like they normally would have. She was almost lost in awe at Victor's display of skill and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"I was so worried... With so many cuts... I wasn't going to be able to heal them without scars remaining," she said and looked over to Victor again. Her spell faded out as she reached over and took the ex-Seer's hand in hers, "Thank you."

Victor smiled at her, "Some scars can not be healed, but the physical ones we can at least do something about, you will learn."

Victor sort of stood there, "It seems that maybe I need to take a break, I am getting too old for some things."

Kilia nodded as she turned back to her pad, "Alright. I can handle this. I will keep going," she said and concentrated on another spell to go for the deeper, longer cuts that laced his body. Those ones she was going to have to do one at at time with careful attention to the muscle and blood flow. If she didn't do it right, he would most likely be unable to move. Her eyes narrowed as she worked carefully. She started from his chest, the worst of them there and few really bad ones on both legs. This will be all night... probably into the morning too... she thought to herself.

The room, from then on would suddenly flash in a bright golden color as Kilia worked.

Alauric watched silently, tired but he needed to make sure Kilia wasn't going to push herself. Grayson came back in with the materials she needed and left silently afterwards.




Grayson walked back out in the living room, "If you guys aren't doing anything, we still have things to get organized. Peter, you can go and find Soran's things and Rethyn's things and bring them up." He walked into the kitchen and found the new seer. He observed very carefully for a second, judging her aura. She seemed to be strong, but it seemed to have three levels almost. He realized he was staring, He cleared his thoart and found the tea that Kilia was working on before the others entered.

He concluded that it must have been for Jonathan and put it back in the microwave to heat it up again.

Peter only nodded as he got up and got to work with putting the aforementioned things in rooms. That still didn't stop him from being glum.

In the meantime Jonathan was asleep, dreaming good yet also dreamed bad dreams. In one dream he felt haunted by the ghosts of Yve and his best friend, he felt their stare as of they were disappointed in him. That use of the Silver Knight made both him and Kilia vulnerable. He shook in his sleep, before finally bolting upright. "I'm Sorry!" he yelled out before panting and finally looking at his surroundings. "Where...the fel???"

He looked around in worry. "KilIa??" He called out, hoping nothing bad had happened, he didn't know where he even was. He began to be afriad.


After the teasing of Peter, Sina had quickly slipped off to the homes kitchen as she was terribly hungry after being locked away for those nights. As she slurped down the last of her noodles her eyes caught the eyes of the staring Grayson. A sly smile played upon her eyes as she broke eye contact from Grayson for a moment. "Meow." She purred under her breath.

Her eyes were gleaming as she went to place the bowl at the sink. In the back of her mind she was dancing as she felt like she had just ended up in the plot of one of her favorite rather girly comics.

Grayson didn't look at Sina again, he however heard the shout of the other and walked out of the kitchen without a word. He knocked on the door of Jonathan's room, "Jonathan, its just me Grayson, Kilia is busy but I brought you some tea."

Jonathan looked at the door carefully. "When will she get back to me? And where are we?" He looked around again trying to figure out where he was.

"We are at Alauric's mountain retreat," Grayson answered, "do you mind if I come in, so I don't have to shout through the door."

"Enter." he said.

Grayson entered the door, and placed the tea on the table, "How are you feeling," he asked.

"Feel slightly recharged. If not fully rested. I hate using that spell." He said with a sigh. "But I had no choice. Everyone was in danger. I'm only regretting the fact I exposed myself and endangered my sanity."

Grayson listened to Jonathan, "I have expanded my energy during battle, I understand that sometimes it is necessary, sometimes we don't have a choice in the matter, don't let it make you second guess yourself. You did what you thought was right."

Jonathan only nodded. "May I have that Tea now please?" He asked. He thought about getting up but decided against it.

Grayson nodded and handed the tea to Jonathan, "Kilia will return, she is healing Soran at the moment. She has help so she won't be expanding all her energy. Just rest."

Nodding Jonathan downed the cup before lying down. He was unsure if he will sleep again. He hoped he would.

Grayson left the guardian to rest and closed the door.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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#, as written by Siryn

Stretching her arms out and giving a little shrug, Sina chose to let them have their little moment as she decided now would be a great opportunity to explore around the home. In the back of her mind she knew she'd have to come back shortly to make up for the lost meals, but for now she was curious as to what or whom she'd find around the home.

Smiling to herself she set off to explore the cabin home.

As Sina explored, she would find pictures hanging about the house, some of which showed more innocent child-like moments of the kids growing up. She would also run into Leila, who had the door open to the room she was going to share with Julianna. There was actually a set of bunk-beds in there. The girl was sketching on electronic pad, as the layers of the drawing were added the more realistic the picture became. The other girl in question was reading a book (probably one of those girly comics), sitting on the top bunk.

With a small smile, Sina walked to the entrance of the room and gave the two girls a small wave. "Hello there. Quite the place huh?" With a little tilt of her head and the closing of her eyes, Sina then added in "Oh, my name is Sina by the way, pleased to meet you two~!"

Julianna glanced up at the girl who appeared at the door. She was slightly confused, as she didn't know who the girl was in the least. She looked down at Leila who had turned at the sound of the girls voice. "Yes, its quite a place, nice to meet you too, I am Julianna, and this is my sister Leila." The other girl waved, and smiled.

Julianna hopped from the bed which really wasn't that high off the ground. "Did you come in with my father," Julianna was kinda curious."

"Well, blue eyes or whatever his name was kinda transported me and that Soran boy to your father...if that makes any sense at all? So yes! Yes I did come in with your father!" Sina yawned for a moment before stretching out her hand for the two to shake. "Heh, it's nice to see that I'm not the only girl in this house." She already knew she saw another girl before them, but it just seemed easier this way.

Julianna nodded, "Well there were more of us, but my other two sisters are elsewhere," there was a poking on her shoulder and she turned and saw Lelia standing there signing to her, "oh she wants to know if you found a room yet. There is a pretty good one next door, if you haven't. We share the same bathroom, so if you don't mind that, it might be fun."

Sina smiled at Lelia before glancing back to Julianna. "That would be lovely. You also gotta tell me about all the characters I've met at this house so far." For a moment Sina paused as she winked her eye. "It must be nice."

Julianna giggled, "It certainly has its moments...well blue eyes is Rethyn...he is my brother's guardian, you haven't met Tristan yet have you."

"I heard his name, but no I have not met the guy yet." Sina replied warmly. "Is he older or younger?"

"He is older, just turned 20, he is our families new seer," she said it like she was proud of the fact. Of course Sina might have guessed that already. "Um...there is Soran who is the blonde and his guardian Peter. Kilia, she has pink hair and her guardian Jonathan...and Grayson he is my father's guardian...and I unless there is another surprise I think that is it."

"You seem really proud of him." Sina said with a grin. At the talk of the other seer's and their guardians SIna played a rather good poker face as she remembered her guardian. Some of the names were familiar while the others such as Kilia were not so much. However, at the mention of Peter Sina laughed lightly. "Peter, he's the cute guy with an accent right?"

Julianna paused slightly, "Yeah, I guess you could say his is cute, but his accent is a little annoying." She giggled, because she was actually teasing the poor guy without him knowing. "I tripped over him once, and his first response was "Top o'the morning," she was trying to imitate him as best she could.

Between the giggles of her response to Julianna's impersonation a sly smile appeared on Sina's face as she felt like she caught something from the girl. As if it were her teasing stance, Sina folded her arms behind her back as she whispered with a giggle in the direction of Julianna "So do you guess he's cute or do you think he's cute."

This had Julianna blushing, as she was still confused about what had happened at the party. Her feelings were still caught in a whirlwind of other things, "Um..." she couldn't answer the girl.

"Meow, that's a happily ever after I'd like to see." Teased Sina as she bounced playful from foot to foot in front of Julianna. "Keep me updated now." she finished as she gave the girl a sly look.

Julianna blushed a deeper red, could only try to smile slightly. She was getting a shaking head behind her from her sister, who found her to be intolerably silly at the moment. Leila got up and moved past Julianna, gave a smile to Sina, and walked toward the kitchen. Finally Julianna found her voice, "So would you like a tour of the place. Or did you eat anything yet."

"Both would be killer!" Sina laughed as she adjusted her damaged clothing and tried to fix her hair a little. "So, do you wanna go after you stop blushing or do you think you're okay?"

Julianna broke down into a fit of laughter, "I am okay...oh maybe we should find something for you to change into...you know we might be the same size. You can raid my closet and see if anything fits. I can wait if you want to get cleaned up too."

For half a moment it seemed Sina's cat like sly smile returned before she quickly masked it. "Heh, only if you want to...You know you don't have to."

Julianna just nodded, not really getting what Sina really meant, "I will just be in here reading, bathroom is right there, towels are already in there."

Sina merely smiled as she said to Julianna "Thank you. I think this is the birth of a lovely friendship don't you?". With that she started heading towards the indicated bathroom as she said to herself "With benefits."

Setting

2 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus
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It was rather late in the evening perhaps even past midnight before the engine of the motorcycle could be heard. Tristan turned it off outside because it would have been rather loud inside the garage and he was trying to wake as few people possible as it was. He stretched and yawned and looked up to the house. He was really dreaded this moment, really wishing he knew what to expect. He knew the rescue went well, his father had let him know that at least, but left any other details vague. He walked his bike into the garage and put next to the van. He step it seemed like his heart beat faster, he actually wondered if he would find anyone awake.

The elevator ride to the kitchen had him slightly on the jumpy side. Yet he heard his stomach growl rather loudly before he exited. He had to eat something or he was really going just to pass out. He raided the fridge and sat down at the kitchen counter to eat.

Solid blue eyes carried light throughout the room as Rethyn arose from his bed. By the side of his bed someone had moved his vest and his old cargo pants. Suddenly Rethyn's eyes went wide as he swatted his hand around looking for his family picture. However to his relief he spotted it on top of a shelf in the room. Smiling to himself Rethyn said quietly.

"Thank you."

After a few moments of changing Rethyn now wore a black v-neck and a pair of jeans. Just as he was about to leave the room however his eyes caught something. Shaking his head he threw it from his mind as he went to the door.

With a growling stomach Rethyn entered the kitchen a few moments later as he chose to walk there instead of teleporting for once. To his surprise he heard another stomach growl back. Looking up, Rethyn saw his seer.

"Tristan." Rethyn murmured at his Seer.

Tristan looked up at his name, "Rethyn," he said in return, "its good to see you in one piece." He continued eating avoiding the bigger questions in his head.

Rethyn seemed to feel the aura as he merely said to Tristan. "The same to you." Turning on his heel, Rethyn begun to do his own fridge raid as he found an several fruits and some leftovers from the previous home. "Did you just get in?" Rethyn asked evenly.

"Yes," came the short reply, Tristan wasn't even looking up at the other. He was now just pushing around the chips on his plate. He thought he wanted them, but now found them to be a bother for some reason.

Rethyn wasn't facing Tristan as he ate his own food. As he brought a hard boiled egg to his mouth he waited for a moment to chew before asking his seer. "Would you care to stay up with me? I'm not going to sleep this night."

Tristan slightly smiled, "I think I am going to crash in the living room. If you want to find a place to sit in there, I would be ok with that." He had to find a couple hours of sleep, and it would probably help if the other was nearby. He was still avoiding the questions, he felt bad the first thing out of his mouth wasn't how is Soran...he just couldn't get the words to come to his mouth.

"If you're going to sleep, why not just go and take my bed." Rethyn said countering the idea of crashing in the living room. "I'm not going to be needing it this night."

Tristan shook his head, "I don't think I really want to sleep in a bed just yet, I rather have the couch." He didn't know the exact reasoning behind his statement, but it was just how he felt.

Rethyn wanted the bite the words from his mind that were trying to escape. He knew they would anyways as they pushed at his lips. He didn't want to hurt Tristan, but he knew that nobody else would step up and say what needed to be said. "Don't go and see him tonight." Rethyn said to Tristan sternly.

Tristan looked up at the other, he was having trouble forming a sentence to really even begin saying what he wanted to say. "I can barely even ask about him..." Tristan started and realized that his eyes started to tear up. "I can't sleep, I am only eating so I won't faint, I can't even think clearly, Rethyn seeing him would be like ripping my insides out right now. I knew it was going to be bad. I've imagined it in the worst possible ways. All I want to know he is in this house and he is safe."

"He is, I got him out of there." Rethyn said quietly. "He's here, and he's receiving the best support we can give. He will make it. However, I will not sugarcoat this. He suffered." Through the dark, Rethyn's eyes never broke contact as their glow remained on Tristan.

Tristan sighed, he knew the other suffered, he could feel it in those hours after the attack. His mind played out the worst of scenarios and all he could hear was the other screaming. Tristan still had nightmares from that time with Criea, but this had made it worse. "Thank you," was what Tristan said finally, "I knew at least you would be honest with me, and frankly I don't need sugarcoated, I need to know how to help him best and telling me what I didn't need to know won't help. Right now, I just need to lay down, try not to think for a minute or two."

Rethyn slowly nodded at Tristan as he said cryptically to his Seer. "There's no need to thank me Tristan, I am here to protect you and I shall always do what I believe is best for you. However, a day will come where I won't be here to protect you. And when that day comes I hope you will have the strength." Turning on his heels to start his rounds of the house Rethyn finished with. "You already know how to help him best, it saved me from myself. It can save him." As Rethyn reached just outside of the living room he looked back to his seer as he finished with. "I will be wondering these halls if you can't sleep. Feel free to join me if you'd wish."

Tristan nodded at the other by didn't say anything. He put the dishes into he sink. And found the couch, he took off his shoes and grabbed the blanket that was on the arm of the couch. He curled up there facing the windows that looked out to the front. He eyes finally did close at one point, but who knows if he truly ever fell into a deep sleep.


The cabin house was unlike the previous house in many ways to Rethyn, however, the most noticeable so far was every step made a creak in the house. In the longer of the hallways the creaks would echo making each step feel like two. It became hard to tell if it was just him in the hall or there were more.

Within the darkness of the hall Rethyn stopped in his tracks. There it was again, movement. It was the same feeling he felt when he had awoken. With a quick glance to his right he found his eyes locked upon and old family picture of the Belvedere's out in the front of their cabin home. However, it wasn't exactly the focus of the picture of which caught Rethyn's attention as he watched a figure in the backround of the picture rock on an old style rocking chair.

It stood out as everyone else in the picture remained motionless. As Rethyn peered closer he begun to shake. A suited man stood from the rocking chair as he smiled and waved at Rethyn silently. It was unsettling in the least as the man continued to wave for what seemed like the longest moment.

"Hi Rethyn."

Rethyn furrowed his eyebrows, at the suited man. It wasn't him, it couldn't be him.

"Rethyn.. It’s almost time!"

From the painting each of the family members begun to drizzle blood from their eyes. Stepping back, Rethyn watched with an open mouth as the blood went from the painting to the floor.

He began to feel trapped within the hallway as he inched further down it away from the bloodying picture. However, again he froze he heard something against the glass of the window. It sounded like a overly soaked wet rag wiping against the window. Freezing his eyes upon the location he couldn't process what he saw.

A large black eyeless dog stood up against the glass as it merely licked the window over and over again. Blood droplets leaked from its sockets as the dog merely looked in Rethyn's direction.

The painting called to Rethyn "Ready to come home yet?"

Turning away from the dog and marching back the way he came, Rethyn refused to look at the painting as he passed by it. Or any of the paintings in general as he passed by each. With each step away the painting's calls became louder and louder until they hit the level of screams.

Ducking into a nearby bathroom, Rethyn stepped into the shower fully clothed and pulled the curtains back over as he sat shaking alone.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle
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#, as written by Siryn

Following Morning

The sounds of birds was different. The sheets over him were different. The pillow... the bed... the feel was different. Soran wasn't sure what woke him, but whatever it was had him taking in a sharp breath and looking around frantically. It took him quite a while, but he finally settled, his heart pounding hard in his chest as he lay there. Focusing on his breathing, he managed to get it to a normal level and the looked around the room again, this time taking it in. The walls were different, not the same room he had been in before at the Belvedere house. The smell was different too... almost... woodsy. Soran shifted a bit, his body feeling far too weak. As he got up to his elbow, he was grimacing not from pain but from fatigue.

In fact, all of the pain was gone. All that was left was one hell of a headache, his partched throat and an intense feeling of weakness. Every limb shook and he felt as if he couldn't even support his own weight. Gripping the bed tightly he glanced down at his body. His cloths were ruined... well his pants anyway. His shirt was nothing at all and barely even hung on his frame. Sitting up completely he removed what was left of it and eyed his pale skin. Slight shock, and relief flooded him. He knew he had bore more injuries than what remained. The scars that laced him were new, but they weren't many.

"Kilia..." he muttered softly, though he was frowning intently as he stared at his own skin.

The door opened and he jumped, his back slammed into the wall as he moved rapidly, his heart lurching to his throat. Kilia stood there, a tray in hand and her eyes wide as she locked on him and his sudden movement, "Soran!" she said, startled. Setting down the tray she moved to him quickly. As she knelt down, the room changed and instead of her beautiful face, Valyn's was in front of him. A sharp cry escaped his lips and he lashed out. Kilia stumbled backwards, landing on the floor with a heavy thump.

It took him a moment, but he realized what had happened and he gingerly leaned forward, "Kilia... I... I'm s-sorry," he muttered.

The girls pink hair bounced around as she shook her head a bit and got back up, "No, it's okay. I... wasn't thinking. Sorry, I won't do that again," she replied though it was clear that there was hurt in her gaze. Soran bit his lip and looked down at the floor.

"Kilia..."

"Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling down slowly this time and careful not to come too close, "I brought some tea... do you want it? You should try to eat and drink."

"Um..." he flicked his gaze around the room again, "Where are we? How... how do I know this isn't just... some sick twist...."

Kilia's eyes widened, "Its not.... We're in a different house. This belongs to Alauric. We had to leave the other house because the Gods kept finding us. We came here because it's safer. It's alright, we're all here. We're all real, I promise," she reached out and touched him to which he jerked away.

Grabbing his own arm, he held it close to his chest, "S-sorry.. I just... please.. don't do that.. for a while," he managed, "This house..." he changed subjects trying not to be too cold to her. Her touch had shocked him, it burned, though he knew that wasn't quite right either.

Kilia nodded, "It's Alauric's. Do you want to see him? He's here. Everyone is here."

"Tristan..."

The young Seer took a deep breath, "He's here too," she answered though a bit slower than before.

"Where?"

"The living room. He's been there all night, at least... I think he has..."

"I...I think... Can I...?"

"See him? I can let him know. Soran. It's okay. You're alright. I promise you. Nothing is going to happen to you anymore, okay?"

He turned to look at her and was startled to see that she had started crying. For the first time since her walking into the room, he looked at her. Really looked at her. She looked tired, as if she'd been crying before, there were bags under her puffy eyes and her skin was paler than usual. As much as he wanted to reach out and hug her, he found that he couldn't bring himself to do it, "Kilia... did you... heal me? All of that? How?"

"It wasn't just me," she hiccuped lightly, "It was Uncle Vic too. He helped a lot," she wiped at her eyes as she spoke.

"How...?"

"It took all night. I just finished this morning."

Soran glanced around, it was still light in the room but it looked more of a dark orange than the light of day, his heart skipped a beat, "When? What... time is it now?"

Kilia, still wiping at her eyes, shook her head a bit, "About nine am this morning. It's 4:30 now," her eyes watched him with grief, she was very upset, "I'm so sorry, Soran. I couldn't have done it on my own... Without Uncle Vic... I don't know..." She stood up before he could say anything else. Leaving the room, he stared at the door blankly. It took him a moment, but he realized he was alone again and he immediately hated the feeling. She had been right in front of him, something solid, something easy to believe. The moment she was gone, his frame seemed to sieze up and he couldn't breathe right.

Bringing his legs up, he wrapped his arms around them and closed his eyes tightly, bowing his head into his knees, "Tristan..."

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: [NPC] Bartender Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle
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#, as written by girlwt
In the meantime Peter was working on a small sandwich to munch on to try and take his mind off his Injured and possibly traumatized Seer. In fact, Jonathan suggested it. Sure, that guardian seemed to know how to handle stress. He bonded with Kilia!! But Peter sighed. Soran wouldn't want to see him. He'd want Tristan.

"Everybody has someone but me! Me Pa is dead, my family thinks I killed his killer and now my seer is banged up and probably will not wanna see me right away! I suck." Peter sighed after his self rant and took a bite of his sandwich.

"You know you are full of shit," a certain red-haired seer was standing behind Peter. Tristan didn't necessarily look unhappy but he sort of looked disappointed.

Peter swallowed quickly in surprise. "Dunno if you're trying to be nice or hamper down me self esteem further." Peter said, glumly taking another bite of his sandwich.

Tristan sort of narrowed his eyes, he understood what the guardian was feeling, "Peter...you know what fuck you, why are you feeling sorry for youself, do you have an right to feel sorry for yourself. You aren't thinking of your seer...cause if you were you put aside your own feelings and think of his. He needs you too, get that through your idiotic head. You aren't to blame, I'm not to blame...no one here is to blame. If you continue to be so grumpy, then stay the hell away from Soran, he doesn't need your self-loathing too." Tristan grabbed a bottle of water and left the kitchen.

Peter just groaned. "Me against the bloody world.." he muttered to himself. He had to restrain himself from snapping and showing Tristan how to argue the Irish way. With his fists. But he knew he would get into worse trouble and so ignored his angry side for now as he just sat and Prayed nothing else would occur.

[Kilia and Tristan]

She came down the stairs, wiping at her eyes gently with one hand while the other trailed along the railing. The fresh smell of woods, dirt and other things that came with living out in the woods had penetrated the entire house. Kilia enjoyed such smells and it seemed to help to keep her calm just a little bit. The enormous windows were beautiful still and she found her gaze locked on them as she looked out into the trees. Once she hit the landing of the first floor she went off in search of Tristan, to let him know that the blonde Seer was awake. She wondered briefly if she should tell Peter and Alauric as well. Kilia hesitated though as she wasn't sure crowding that room would be a good idea.

"Tristan?" she called out, trying to pinpoint where he was in the house.

After jumping down Peter's throat for apparently no good reason, Tristan just needed to let off some steam. He found himself in the training room, making a mess of a boxing bag. In his anger he forgot to put gloves on, and his knuckles were starting to turn red, when if finally got to much, he returned to go to his room and run some cold water over his hands. He heard his name as soon as he hit the kitchen. Hiding his hands behind his back he found Kilia in the living room, "Kilia, what is it."

Following his voice, she moved into the kitchen, "Ah... hey," she started slowly and then leaned against the doorway, "It's... Soran. He's awake. He wants to see you," she said, crossing her arms over her chest as her voice trembled slightly, "But... before you go... Tristan, just..." she looked up at him for a while before she could say anything, "Just be careful with him. Don't... freak out, okay?"

"Kilia..." he started, "I won't freak out, that is the one thing I think I can promise." God knows he was going to surly try not to anyways, he looked at her for a second, maybe she could give him some advice. "Kilia...I don't know what to say to him, I can't think of anything that doesn't sound uncaring, or maybe even stupid."

She smiled lightly, despite the stray tears, "Sometimes... You don't need to say anything at all," tilting her head she turned a bit to offer him room to leave, "If you really want to say something, tell him you love him. I think what he needs most now is something... solid. He doesn't think he's really here. He doesn't think that he's safe. But you can give that to him. We just have to ease him back into it," she finished.

He returned her smile, "Thanks...you know you have grown up, I mean I have been impressed with how you are dealing with everything."

Kilia blushed, her eyes growing wide as she looked at the refrigerator next to them, "I-... I don't know what you mean... Just... go see him, jeez," she closed her eyes and grabbed his arm to pull him out of the kitchen. As she was starting to push him from his back, her head rested against it, right between his shoulder blades and she heaved a heavy sigh, "I'm trying... but I don't think I'm handling this as well as you give me credit for," she muttered, "Go on, I'm going to go see Jonathan."

He wanted to chuckle, but he would let it go. "Right," he said as he started toward where Soran's room was.

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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#, as written by Siryn
A few days later

Soran had fallen into the habit of staying close to Tristan. It was slowly getting better, at least now the red head could touch him without scaring him, but he did appreciate the heads up every now and then. Others, though, were a different story. He shied away from being touched by just anyone and to sneak up on him was a terrible idea. He hated being alone and thus was constantly at Tristan's side. There were a few times at night that he would wake up screaming, but it never lasted long. Currently, he could walk around the house with Tristan next to him and there weren't any problems. The noises were getting better as well because he didn't startle quite as easily. Loud and sudden noises, though, would set him off.

He was still learning what about what made him nervous, anxious and skittish as well as what calmed him and kept him in a happy state. Though he wasn't quite the same as he used to be, he was starting to get a little bit better. One thing was noticable. He'd stopped smiling as much as he used to, and his laugh was much quieter than before. Another noticable change, was slight sparks of anger. Soran had never been prone to anger before, but it was starting to become apparent. Though he never did turn that anger to Tristan, it flashed in his eyes every now and then. Perhaps it was memory that was triggering it. Whatever it was though, it was a cold, dark look that he would get.

As per usual, he was following after Tristan, not but a few feet behind him. He had wanted breakfast, hungry again and still trying to get used to eating full meals without getting sick to his stomach. A soft sound came from his left and he looked just in time to see Kilia turn the corner and bump into him. Soran, startled, gave a shout and crashed into Tristan as he shoved the poor girl away from him without even meaning too. Stumbling Kilia hit the wall and then looked over to Soran in shock.

Tristan caught Soran, but at the same tried to make a grab for Kilia before she hit the wall. He winched.."Kilia," he said but couldn't move to help her with Soran clinging to him.

"Soran! Oh... god, I'm so sorry... I didn't... Soran, are you okay?" she cried out in fear and moved towards him. Soran flipped behind Tristan, using him as a shield between himself and Kilia.

With Soran behind and Kilia trying to see if he was ok, Tristan blushed slightly. He was getting use to the other using him as a shield if it helped him. But he didn't know what to say to anyone else.

His breathing was short and rapid as he eyed her from between Tristan's arm and side. It took him a while, but he calmed down and then felt bad as he burned red across his cheeks, "Kilia... sorry..." he muttered, pressing his head into Tristan and glowering at the floor of the kitchen.

She moved slightly, a smile on her lips as she tried to be careful in getting close, "It's okay... It was my fault I wasn't paying attention. I'm clumsy after all you know," she said with a slight laugh. Straightening she looked down the hall as if someone was supposed to be with her, "Man, where's Robin..." she muttered.

While she was doing this, Soran stretched one hand out from between Tristan's arm and side and his fingers entanged in her long pink hair. Startled she looked at him slowly, "Soran?"

Tristan was trying to hide his grin at this, he always thought Kilia's hair was one of her best attributes, why do you think he used it as the basis for her nickname. She was clumsy, but calling her that wasn't as funny for some reason.

"Sorry..." he repeated. He found her hair to be soft and calming, just like he found the spot over Tristan's heart to be the same way. He held onto the lock of hair for a while as Kilia blushed a bit, "Are you okay?" he asked after a while.

"Fine," she nodded, "Can I touch you?"

When he gave her a slight nod in response, she put both hands over his and squeezed just a bit, "I'll be more careful, okay?"

Soran released her hair and she turned to go down the hall to find Jonathan again. The blonde Seer drew his hand back and stared at his fingers. Looking up to Tristan, he said, "It didn't burn."

"It shouldn't burn, Kilia is your friend too," he said to Soran. He took the other's fingers into his hand and squeezed a little also. "Are you ok though, you still want breakfast."

"Mm," he hummed in response, "Yeah. I'm still really hungry," he turned slightly to look into the kitchen to try to pinpoint what he wanted, "I still feel bad. I didn't mean to push her like that.... I guess I'm lucky Jonathan wasn't right there," he bit his lip as his eyes settled on some bagles. He pointed at them, "Those."

Tristan nodded, "Toasted and cream cheese," he asked

Soran nodded, offering a small smile in return, "Yes. What are we doing today, Tristan?" the young Seer wondered as he released his hold on the red head and went to seat himself upon the tall stools up at the counter.

He made breakfast and thought about the others question. "How would you feel about a trip outside." He surely needed the fresh air, but didn't mention that to Soran, he had made use of the balcony a few times, but only when he was sure that he could get up and not disturb the other. Tristan was going a little stir crazy, but he wasn't going to blame that on Soran.

Soran looked towards the windows in the house. The forest looked inviting enough. He sat there for a while, contemplating the idea. Well... he'd gotten used to the house. Perhaps the woods would be a good cure. Wasn't there a saying of some sort that advised people to enjoy nature when feeling depressed or worried or anything like that? Soran wasn't sure his condition was along those lines, but... what could it hurt? Besides, Tristan would be with him, "Sure. Let's go."

Tristan smiled, "Great," he said, hoping he didn't sound to dorky. "I think you will really like it," he was being hopeful at least. He actually had a destination in mind but one he was going to surprise the other. "While we are in the kitchen, why don't I make us lunch, then we could have a picnic while we are out."

Soran nodded, leaning his elbows onto the island and putting his chin in his hands, "Yeah, that sounds nice," he offered in return. Once the food was finished he took it and ate it slowly, enjoying the taste immensely. He glanced outside again, wondering where they would go and if it was going to be as relaxing as he hoped it to be.




Jonathan was working on finishing a set of crunches, whilst shirtless, as he was up to nearly his hundreth and fitieth crunch. "One hundred forty eight, one hundred forty nine, one hundred and fifty!" He finally lay on the floor. "What a warm up."

"Robin!" Kilia called as she moved down the hall, trying to find where he was at. It was about time they started their own training as per Grayson's orders. She was still nervous about it, but after recent events... She was definitely feeling a different sort of drive to do things other than heal.

"Coming..." Jonathan said as he got up and stretched. He walked out to the hall where she could see him.

"Robin! Oh there you are-" she faulted in mid step, her eyes immediately drawn to the fact that her Guardian was without his shirt. She swallowed dryly a bit, "Uh... Um..." her mind went blank. There was a thin sheat of sweat across his built frame and she couldn't help but think that she wanted to touch. Her face erupted in a brilliant red color that covered all of her cheeks, nose and a little bit of her neck... "Uh.... R-Robin... it's... time... to go do that. I mean! Train... yes, touching... Training! God... Training...." she fumbled with her words.

Jonathan nodded as he pulled on a black shirt. "Lead the way Kilia."

"Mmm..." she realized she had been staring again and was slightly saddened by the fact that he'd covered himself with a shirt. This of course made her fumble around again and she turned on her heel far to quickly. Stumbling, the pink haired Seer just barely caught herself from falling face first onto the floor, "Uh... yes. Training... this way..." she started down the hall. Then realized that she was going the wrong way. Turning abruptly she brushed past Jonathan in an aweful attempt to hide her mistake.

"Crap... that way... yes. That way," she said and hurried down the hall where the sounds of someone, or a pair of someones, were already going at it with the training equipment.

Sending an array of punches and kicks one after the other to a punching bag in the corner of the room, Sina gently hummed to herself as she trained. Every now and then she'd lose her tempo and slow down for a while before speeding up her strikes again.

After what seemed like quite the set of strikes, Sina jumped up a little as she sent her left leg into the air and preformed and axe kick. However, in doing so she for a moment lost balance and almost fell. "Well, heh, that was sloppy." She said quietly to herself as she kicked out her leg for a moment to remove the tingling sensation she had gained from her mistake.

Peter watched Sina carefully. He wanted to Still get her back for all the wordplay nonsense she gave him every encounter. When he saw her stumble he began to laugh. To him this was the payback he had been wanting. "Well Miss Sina has a weakness in combat."

Sina raised a brow at Peter as she knew where he was trying to go. Extending both of her hands to the punching bag as if she was revealing it to him, Sina spoke in her most native voice gone english as she said. "Peter-Sempi, could you please show me what I can do to be better?"

Peter raised an eyebrow. "Next time, don't land on the tips of your toes. Your heel is a better way to maintain balance." He stated trying hard not to get sucked in to any wordplay. He crossed his arms slightly amused at her accent. "And dont call me Senpai."

Sina smiled at him as she felt she had settled something. "Thank you Peter." She said as she went back over to the bag to practice kicks again. Her voice had sounded sweet and without resentment.

"That asshole!" Sina thought in the back of her mind. "How dare he try critic me!". She was little hurt, but she feared to show it for she knew it would give the boy ammo against her. A little grin played at the corner of her lips as she begun to kick again. She knew just how she was going to get him back.

Peter eyed Sina carefully as he turned to resume his own training. He started punching upon a practice dummy. He proceeded to punch at it with Brutal force. In the meantime the Door to the training room opened.

"After you Hon." Jonathan said calmly and almost sweetly to Kilia.

"Look who decided to Show. Hey Jon." Peter said as he kept punching. He missed a punch however and swore under his breath.

Kilia smiled at Jonathan as she moved into the room first. Her gaze went to Peter who greeted Jonathan as he was punching at a bag hanging from the ceiling. She giggled a bit as he missed because of the distraction. Putting her hands on her hips, she shifted her weight to one leg, "Alright! So, Grayson's orders... practice combinations. I...." she reached up and absently ran her fingers through her hair as she blushed a bit, "Honestly... have no clue what that means. But I guess we'll find out. I hope he comes down soon though because I'm really not good at this."

Kilia reached down and opened her magic system. She gazed at it for a long while, trying to figure out what to do with it. All she knew were healing spells. She did have one spell that summoned up a staff, but she was no good with the weapon at all and honestly had never used it before. She thought about her mothers fire briefly. She didn't know the basic set up for an elemental spell at all and so was at a loss on how to create it from there. Looking up, she frowned, one finger tapping her lip gently, "Uh... anyone know how to start a fire spell?"

Peter choked back a laugh. "Anyone know how to? Am I invisible to the naked eye?" Peter said in between chuckles. "I can make one easy. With my eyes closed." Jonathan rolled his eyes as Peter showed Kilia the Basic formula of a fireball on his pad.

"Showoff." Jonathan muttered.

Kilia watched carefully, her fingers tracing out the same basic formula that Peter did. With that in place, she did a few more things to it to try to make it like the tornado that her mother had created. With a deep breathe, she pulled it off the pad and released it. She was aiming at one of the training dummies -one that wasn't made of wood or anything flamable otherwise Grayson would probably kill her- and watched. And waited. And waited. The spell flickered in her hand, twisted around and did nothing. Turning her hand over, she frowned. Then gasped as the flickering red light shifted into a tiny little dragon that puffed up it's cheeks and blew black smoke at her face.

Kilia squeaked in shock.

"My goodness." Peter said. "Thats a wee one."

Jonathan whistled. "Wow, that's a cute little Drake. Tried to make a full sized Silver one once upon a time. Still have the spell for the medium in which i was able to control it. But it backfired...severely." Jonathan said in embarassment. "I think i called it Michael or Mikhail, one of the two."

Kilia squeaked again, "I-I... that's not what I wanted! And... w-why did it poof at me!" her voice was unnaturally high as she was slightly freaking out what she'd managed to create. The poor pink haired Seer wasn't even sure of what she had made. Her gaze flicked between Jonathan and Peter rapidly. "Jonathan!?" she hollered as he went on a tanget, "That doesn't help me at all! What did I just make!?"

"Long story short, you made a Dragon Hatchling." Jonathan said. "And the puff of smoke blown means he likes you. Either because it thinks you're his mother or maybe that you are a nice person."

"Or you scared him" Jonathan shot a glare at Damian who was watching. Damian shrugged harmlessly.

Kilia, still utterly confused, watched the little glowing dragon in her palm as it stared at her with wide glowing red eyes. Stretching her finger out towards it with her free hand, she slowly got close to it. As her finger touched it's nose, it opened it's mouth and promptly locked onto her finger with a happy little sound. Kilia, on the other hand, gave a shout and flung her hand around. The magic faded away and redid itself on her palm. It tilted its head at her. Opened its mouth again and sat there as if waiting.

"How.... do I make it go away... this is illusion magic isn't it? I wish Soran were here... he could tell me... while he laughed at me," she pouted as she stared at the little glowing creature which closed it's mouth, blinked at her and then opened its mouth again. She whimpered, "Why does it want to eat my finger??!"

Somehow Jonathan tried hard not to laugh. "It's a Child. Nothing for you to do but wait till it wears off but right now," he said pointing at the small Dragon. "He wants to play." he finally let out a small giggle.

"Play?!" Kilia squeaked again. Her gaze shot to her Guardian in shock, "Play!? Seriously! He wants to eat my finger! How is that playing?" she was probably overreacting, but she couldn't help it. What had she summoned! She didn't even use illusion magic... at least, she didn't think she did. Sure, a lot of people could use more than one style of magic on the spell system, but most just stuck to one thing as they were good at it. Then again... the Seer's were different. Combinations were something they were good at. Or so she'd been told as of late.

The little dragon bounced around in her hand, bored that she hadn't offered her finger to it and instead settled for chasing it's flaming tail. For a brief moment, Kilia blushed as she found that oddly adorable, "Aww... he's so cute.... Wait! This isn't cute! Damn it!" she cursed herself for letting her 'girliness' kick in when ever something awefully adorable happened. Kneeling down, she gave a huff and finally settled in to a crouched position with one hand holding her head up as she watched the tiny dragon make a playground out of the palm of her other hand. She couldn't feel his fire at all, though his bouncing made small impressions across her skin that she felt. He didn't weigh anything really and he was.... cute.

"Dino." she said unconsciously. The little dragon stopped and looked at her, cocking his head off to the side. Her eyes widened. "Gah! I named it without thinking!"

Jonathan started to laugh with a laugh filled with heart. "Slowly but surely little things like naming creatures, will take you by surprise with Dragons." He said sincerely. "When i had mine though, he was very temperamental. He chased me into a lake one time."

"Thats nothing! He almost ATE me!" Damian stated. He frowned at Jonathan. "And that thing was Named Michael! You gave that thing an Ego!!"

Kilia looked up at her lover and then laughed. She was imagining a giant dragon like lizard chasing the poor man with it's mouth wide opened until he ran into a lake. All the while in her head, little speech bubbles popped up for her, the dragon saying 'Play!' and Jonathan screaming 'No!!!' She couldn't help it and was soon rolling with laughter so hard she was crying. Damian's little addition didn't help either and she was once again off in a fit of giggles and struggling to breathe through it all. Her little dragon hopped off her hand as she rolled on the mat and bounced around her arms and shoulder, yipping excitedly.

Jonathan sighed. "Okay, enough laughing. I need to figure out a combination spell of my own." Jonathan mutters whilst Peter went back to beat up the dummy. Jonathan tried to think as he looked around the training room.

Kilia giggled again, covering her mouth, "S-sorry," she grinned beneath her hand, "I'll try to keep it to myself," she managed to say without cracking up. Sitting up, she crossed her legs and opened her spell system again. The little dragon perched itself on her head and gave a slight huff, then puffed out black smoke again. A few minutes later and it faded away. Though Kilia was a bit happy that it had disappeared, she was also sad that her little Dino had left her. With a frown, she opened up the spell that she had just created and eyed it. She didn't want to change it, add to it or do anything with it. It was a simple spell, and so keeping it stored on the magic system was easy enough.

Opening a blank pad, she began working on the basic fireball spell again, this time, trying to just imitate Peter's so that she didn't summon anything weird again.

The voices of Alauric, Grayson and Victor seemed to be coming from the hallway, something rather funny must of had happened the three adults laughing.

Kilia looked up from her pad as she heard the voices. She blushed briefly as she thought that maybe whomever was laughing had seen her little misshap with the dragon moments ago. Getting up, she went to the door and opened it to look out and see the three adults coming down the hall. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen Alauric laugh or smile, but Grayson definitely threw her for a loop. It was a rare occurance, at least for herself, to see him laugh. Smile and perhaps smirk a few times and give a bit of a chuckle, sure. But full on laughter, that was something she hadn't seen just yet. Or maybe she hadn't been paying attention.

"Hi," she grinned as she poked her head out of the training room. For now she would keep her summoned dragon to herself.

As the door opened and Alauric looked up first, "Hi Kilia," They made their way to the door she was standing at and stopped. "So are you all training hard," he asked.

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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#, as written by Siryn

Kilia sighed as she entered the kitchen having finished helping Victor with all the healing. Opening the refrigerator, she got a bottle of water and seated herself as she opened it and took a long drink. Tired was definitely an understatement for the young Seer. She twisted the bottle in her hands as she tried to get rid of the headache by relaxing. Finally, she pulled up the icy water and put the plastic against her forehead with a heave of air leaving her chest.

"Here," Rivers voice came from behind her as the woman also entered the kitchen. Dropped upon the table was two little orange pills. Kilia looked at them for a moment, unsure as to what they were. River, seating herself across from the pink haired girl, smiled, "Pain killers. It'll help, a little anyway."

"Thanks," she said and took them into her mouth. With a deep gulp of water, she winced slightly as she got a bit of a brain freeze from the icy water.

"How's Grayson?"

"Should be fine, Victor healed him. I healed the other two," Kilia answered as she leaned back, closed the bottle and put it on her forehead again. So much healing in the last few hours... it was really taking a toll again.

"Kilia," River's voice was soft.

The girl shifted and looked over to the woman with long blonde hair, "Yeah?"

"You... did you heal my son too?"

Kilia closed her eyes tightly, "Yes. But... Victor did the most for him. I'm still learning."

River smiled, "That's enough to know," she said as if she had been worried of the answer. After a while, the woman tapped her finger on the table, "I'm going to drag that man in here by the ears, I swear."

"Who?"

"Alauric."

Kilia giggled at that.

"You aren't my mother, River," Alauric's voice came from behind her. He looked tired as well, but his day was far from over. He still wanted to go down to the town and look at the damage...and if there were survivors. They would need some help. Ray's body had been moved out of the middle of the front yard, Alauric had the idea to actually bury next to Ray's wife, that was in the cematary down the mountain. He hoped he could get his son to help him out. Maybe while River and Soran finally got their reunion, and maybe Rethyn would like to join the on the excursion as well.

"What is it," he asked her, as he sat at the table also.

River bent back so that she could look at Alauric upsidedown as she tilted her head backwards. She flashed him a small grin, "Seems like I'm the only adult when it comes to you," she shot back lightly. However, she noticed his weariness and gave a bit of a frown as he sat down next to them. Leaning forward, River put her head in one hand as she took a breath.

"We didn't get a chance to talk properly last night and I was in a bit of a rush at the time. Simply put, they," her head moved in the direction of Kilia to tell Alauric of whom she was talking of, "Need to start learning faster. With Eveylyn showing up... it's only a matter of time before more Gods follow suit and this whole place is turned into ruins. I have no doubts that other places are beginning to look like a few of our own towns recently. Five small area's have been burned down since you left with Soran. Three of them recently, and their growing closer together."

River shook her head, "Oni is strong, but I think that Eveylyn may just be a bit stronger than he is. Could you imagine the destruction that would happen if those two ever faced each other? You know it will happen. Our job is to keep that sort of thing from happening. I don't know exactly what's going on that's making them move so quickly or so violently... but's definitely something and I don't think it's going to bode well for us at all."

Alauric listened to her, he had the same thoughts. "It would help to know the why's but all we can do is teach them faster, it doesn't really help that we can attacked every time we start to get serious." He looked at Kilia, "but they have great potential, and have survived things they probably shouldn't have." He looked away focusing on the pattern on the table for a second, "and its just my guess...but I think they are competing with each other, who can get the most energy." The thought made him shudder for a second, if that meant them harvesting it the way they did Soran. Alauric felt his stomach turn and he swallowed trying to get rid of the feeling

River glowered at the table, her jaw set tightly as the fingers of her free hand curled in tightly. Kilia had looked away as well, feeling a bit unsettled as she sat there. Silence followed after for a while before River finally spoke again. It looked as if she were trying not to cry as her green eyes had gone red slightly. Looking up to Alauric she gave him a short nod.

"You're right. We'll do all we can to help them. It's the least we can do," she said softly, looking back to Kilia for a moment, "You probably want to go into town? Would you be alright if I stayed here at the house?" she asked, directing her question to him rather than the younger Seer.

"That would be a good idea," he said to her, "I was thinking of asking Tristan to go with me," he said, there were many thoughts running through his head as a way to continue his statement. "He might not like the idea much, but he didn't get injury and I need someone that doesn't need to rest. I would like to get this done as soon as possible." Of course he realized that his statement was sort of strange in as he needed rest like the others. He also wasn't going to mention to River that his guardian wasn't very happy with him at the moment.

He was looking for a means to escape for just a little while, before having to come back and face that man.

Kilia took a deep breath, eyes widening just a bit as she watched Alauric. He was going to go into town? With Tristan? Would that be alright? She didn't say anything though. Maybe with River there it would be okay, and it wasn't like they were going to be gone for days or anything. She felt a skip in her chest as she fingered the cold water bottle. If anything, she supposed she could always ask Victor to put Soran to sleep until Tristan returned. Kilia bit her lip gently... but... would that make him upset with them? She didn't know.

"Alright, besides, I want to see Soran. I know he's been with Tristan for a long time, but I need some time with him too."

"Um..." Kilia's voice was very soft.

"What is it?" River asked shifting her gaze to the younger Seer.

"It's... just... Well," she looked over to Alauric as she tired to form her words, "H-he's..." Kilia fumbled, unable to really say anything. She looked down to the table instead, her lips pulling into a frown.

River sighed, "It's fine. He's my son. I'll be alright with him," she looked over to Alauric, "You better hurry if you want to make it back before it's too dark."

Alauric watched Kilia, he understood, Soran was different. He just hoped that River would really be ok with him. Yet he couldn't help but think that maybe having her here would be good for Soran. "Alright, I will be gone shortly."




As the battle raged outside that morning, Tristan's first concern had been for Soran. He had also been anxious for any news and if anyone had been hurt...which he was given a very brief report by his eldest sister. She had left out stuff he figured, but mostly it was that everyone was ok. It trying to figure out a way to distract Soran from the noises, he had let him listen to music, music in which he really liked. He could tell that maybe it helped, but he also had to wonder if the other was a bit anxious in not knowing what was going on.

He heard voices outside Soran's doorway and he looked over at the other, who still had his headphones on. He still had to wonder if the blonde seer was going to be mad at him for not telling his mother was here. He just didn't know how to say it. This morning didn't present itself as a oppuritunity. He looked at the door as someone knocked on it.

He gave a smile to Soran as he got up and walked over to it to open it up. He opened it a little and saw his father standing there. "Dad?," he said and then he saw River standing next to the other.

When the loud noises began Soran had just about freaked out. As it was he had started to hyperventalate as he pressed his back into the wall and curled into a ball as best he could, fingers clutching his ears as he tried to get rid of the noise. Tristan was quick though and soon he had music in his ears, a thankful respite to the sharp, painful noises outside. It took him a while, but he finally relaxed, his body loosening again and he was lying on the bed as he had been before the attack. The music had nearly put him back to sleep.

Then Tristan moved and his gaze opened with the loss of someone sitting beside him. The boy smiled and Soran returned it, watching as the red head opened the door. He couldn't hear the words as the music was still playing. He was pretty sure Tristan had put it on a loop of some sort because some of the songs he recalled having already listened to. The little blonde didn't mind though, he liked this kind of music. Giving a stretch and a soft sound as he did so, he sat up slowly and yawned, running his fingers through his hair.

River gave a soft smile to Tristan, "Tristan. Is Soran in here?" she knew it was a rather redundant question, but still felt the need to ask anyway. She certainly didn't want to be pushy.

Tristan returned her smile, "Yes he is," he answered, "I know you want to see him, you guys seemed to have survived whatever that was outside." Alauric shook his head in reply, "Tristan, I do need your help, it seems the god attacked the town first...I would like you to come with me."

Tristan looked at his father and frowned, "He attacked the town...crap." It was a rather toned down response from Tristan, but he was trying not to get angry at the moment. He looked back at Soran for a second, debating really on how to do this. Should he prepare the other first, or just let River come in, she was his mother...Tristan scratched his head for a second trying to get his thoughts together. This was sort of awkward and he didn't want to make River angry with him. "Do you mind if I have a second alone with him first?"

River lifted an eyebrow and glanced over to Alauric briefly. It only took her a moment and she shrugged, "Sure, I guess."

Tristan gave her a grin, and closed the door but not all the way. He left it open a crack, cause he didn't want to be totally rude...anyways he didn't want her to think he was hiding something.

He walked back over to Soran and motioned for him to take his headphones off.

With a curious look, Soran took out the earplugs and rubbed at his ears briefly before glancing around. The loud noises had stopped, "What's up? Something wrong? What about those... noises?" he asked, his voice growing softer at the last question and his lips pulling into a frown. Curiosity won over on that end, but he was pretty sure he didn't really want to know what had happened a while ago.

"Its over now," was all Tristan said to his last question, "and everyone is ok, Soran there is someone who wants to see you outside, and person that I think you will be happy in seeing." Tristan chuckled, he wasn't doing a good job at this, "oh and my Dad is out there too, he needs help my help with something." He sighed slightly getting flustered with himself, "so yeah."

Soran's eyes narrowed a bit, "Who is it?" he asked, voice shaking just slightly. He didn't like strangers. He was only just getting used to Sina being around. Another new person? Who was this person? Were they... safe? His fingers plucked at the sheets nervously. When Tristan said his father needed his help, Soran took a deep breath to try to steady himself.

"You're... going? You'll be back, right?" he asked, a slight tremble through his limbs starting to invade his control.

In the hall, River, who could hear the two boys, took a sharp breath and lifted her hand to her mouth to keep quiet. Her eyes grew soft as they watered and her face flushed a bit as she fought to stay composed. The boy's words... sounded nothing like how Soran usually was.

"Soran," Tristan said, "you know I will be back...and you already know this person, she is going to stay with you." As much as he just wanted to wrap Soran in his arms, he couldn't actually perform the task for various reasons. He decided that he couldn't hold back on this anymore. He walked back and opened the door so it was wide enough for the other to see who it was.

River, shocked at the sudden opening of the door, quickly cleared her throat and rubbed at her eyes. Soran sat on the bed, his own gaze following after Tristan. His green eyes were sharp at first, worry filled at who it might be standing on the other side of the door. But then he took in a loud gasp as he looked upon his mother. River moved slowly, stepping into the room as her son sat there, his eyes wide in shock.

"M-mom..." he breathed.

"Hey baby," she tilted her head a bit as she walked in, a smile on her lips.

Soran's fingers clenched the sheets and he let out a sort of strange breath of air as he started crying, "Momma," he repeated.

River nodded. Looking over her shoulder to Tristan and Alauric she only gave a slight nod to them, "Thank you," she mouthed and walked over to Soran. Kneeling down in front of him she slowly reached out to him. Soran flinched slightly, making her pause. River looked up at her son, startled that he would move away from her like that.

"S-sorry," he responded and reached out to her with trembling hands. River waited, her heart in her throat. Nothing could have prepared her for this. His hands briefly touched her cheeks, pulled away and then wrapped around her neck as he fell on her. He trembled and she wrapped her arms around him, unable to say anything as he cried hard into her shoulder. It took her a moment, but she finally rocked slightly, running her fingers through his hair.

"I'm here, baby. Relax, relax," she cooed softly.

Tristan stood there for a second, happy and sad at the same time, he walked silently over to the door and closed it behind him softly as he looked at his father. "Let's do this quickly," he said, "so what really happened outside."

"Ah the usual, oversized egostical god...," Alauric answered, "I think your guardian may be well enough, go see if he can come with us. I think he may want to help bury Ray."

"Ray...," Tristan stopped for a second, "that shit head of a god killed Ray, man...I liked that guy, he taught me, of all people, how to fish."

Alauric sort of chuckled, "Not very successfully," Tristan rolled his eyes, "well no, but he still tried. I will go see if I can find Rethyn and ask him to help."

Bamf!

Rethyn did little to cover the sound of his teleport as he appeared at the door. Within his right hand he was sliding his sword back into its sheath and with his left he loosely held Ray's old knife.

The young mans eyes looked hollow again as he glanced over to Tristan from a distance. His moral had seemlying dropped yet again as the thought of Ray's death bothered him. Even though Rethyn had brought people death and seen it, Ray's went under the armor of Rethyn's mental defense. The words of the God of Death had seeked into his mind. He knew he wasn't even close to Ray as a person, but he was the first to die so soon after hearing those words.

Tristan heard the sound of Rethyn's teleport, and looked at him from down the hallway. As he moved closer, his worry got a little bigger, he hated that expression on Rethyn's face. "How are you feeling, we are going down there, put to rest the guy whose hunting knife you are holding, would you like to help."

Glancing over the hunting knife briefly Rethyn tried to not make too much eye contact as he knew his Seer was reading into him fairly well. They may not have been the most talkative Guardian Seer combo, but Rethyn knew that they had an understanding of each other.

After quite the long pause Rethyn said. "Yeah, I'm ready whenever."
(Post end here)



The town:

Alauric surveyed the destruction the god had done to the town at the bottom of the mountain. “I can’t believe this fucking shit,” he had known these people. The house had been in his family for generations, and he had spent many summers up here, as well as his kids. The house and these people became his second family almost, when he lost most of his own. Some of the town had survived though, some of it was still standing, "We need to see if there are any survivors. Just be on your guard."

Tristan nodded and looked at one particular messy looking house. Was it to much to hope for any survivors here, he looked back down the street, he decided it was as good a way to go then any. He had to hold onto the little hope he felt anyways. He looked at his guardian again, glad he was there in a way, "Rethyn," he started, "I am sorry I haven't been around much...I just wanted you to know that."

Rethyn had been quietly scanning the area with quick glances as he heard Tristan. The hallowed eye boy in response to Tristan's words shook his head slowly. "You had responsibilities..I understand you needed to do what you've done. That's all there is to it."

Gripped in Rethyn's left hand was the knife of Ray. Unsure of what to do with it, Rethyn chose to keep it near for the scan of the town. With the assumption of Ray loving his town, Rethyn assumed the man would want his knife to be used for the good of the town.

Tristan nodded, but found he still felt something was off, he had to wonder if he asked that one question if he get a honest answer. He thought he would give it a try, yet before he did he kneeled picking up a silver pad and brushing off the debris. He looked around as if trying to find something else. "This fucking sucks," he said under his breath, "why do humans have to suffer in this war as well." He sort of knew the answer to that, but still the words slipped from his mouth.

He looked at the pad and held it there for a second before getting back up and continue walking as he listened for anything that sounded like people. The silence in this moment, made him more aware of the other walking next to him. "Rethyn, so how has everything been going with you."

Tristan glanced at a smoldering fire nearby as he thought he saw something, but then he realized it was a bird...a crow to be more exact. The bird cawed at him, sending a shiver down his spine, he always hated crows for some reason.

"More importantly how're you my Seer?" Rethyn responded as he seemed to avoid the question. Glancing at the crow, Rethyn starred at it absently for a moment as he stopped moving. Through the young man's eyes he saw countless being staring at him through the windows. No expressions, they were like the shades in the afterlife as they were just blank slates.

With a shake of his head they vanished. Looking back to Tristan, Rethyn was not surprised the boy hadn't shown any signs. As he watched Tristan shudder at the crow, he wondered briefly how his Seer had been holding up. A little stab of emotion hit Rethyn as he realized how absent he had been to his Seer.

Tristan looked at Rethyn, knowng he was avoiding the question. "I am...," he looked down, he didn't really know how to answer that question. Or more precise he actually hadn't been thinking about himself lately. He would do what he needed to daily to actually get by. He slightly shook his head, "I am ok," he said finally.

As the both of them turned another street corner, Rethyn mentally grabbed hold of the fact it took Tristan a little while to answer the question. In the hopes of keeping the subject off of himself, Rethyn decided to take the offensive in the questions.

"No honest person who is okay takes that long to say it."

Looking to his Seer with slightly raised eyebrows, Rethyn felt selfish as he knew he did care for his Seer, but at the same time he knew that this was for himself. He felt a small weight at the bottom of his throat as he knew he was scared to talk about himself.

Tristan chuckled, "no...no honest person is, but no honest person also avoids actually talking about himself too." He looked farther down the street to see what was ahead, "I think the doctor's house is up there, maybe there is someone there."

Rethyn sighed lightly "Caught me there." After speaking he tried to force a light chuckle, but his eyes gave off his inner feelings more than he'd like to share. After the finish of the poorly played chuckle, Rethyn looked down as he said. "Doubt it, he would of left the moment he could."

Tristan glanced at Rethyn, just to catch enough emotion to make him worry anymore. "Perhaps," was all he answered. Of course he knew small town people he thought, the doctor would have stuck around to help anyone he could, if he wasn't killed in the first place.

"We will go see, it's a good place to start."

Rethyn nodded as he followed along his Seer. He did his best to not hold his gaze anywhere for too long as he'd see the same blank slates of people staring at him. Without even noticing he begun to cling at the knife a bit tighter as his hand shook.

When they got down the street, the doctor's house wasn't as damaged as some of the other's. "Probably should go inside, just to see what we can find," he said as he walked to the front door. He found it ajar, and it creaked open as he pushed on it. "Hello," he called, "anyone here," the call echoed through the house.

He walked into the hallway and looked at the rooms there. The breakfast table still had food on it, someone had made pancakes that morning. "You know...I always kinda wondered what it would feel like...if there was something like an end of days or something like that." It was a strange comment, but finding the house like that made him feel strange.

"If things keep going this way, I wouldn't be surprised if that idea became a reality." Rethyn spoke as he looked to Tristan. The room still had the aroma of the smell of breakfast, none of them could have seen it coming. The monster of a God of which could of done a lot worse than Ray.

Glancing away from Tristan, Rethyn looked to one of the chairs where he thought he saw someoe for a minute before they fadded away. Narrowing his eyes a little at the leather chair he asked Tristan. "When you go places does it ever feel like a pressence has been there for so long that it never fades even when gone?"

It was his turn to ask an odd question it seemed as he glanced back to his Seer.

"Sometimes," he said honestly, but it was more like memories flashing before his eyes then anything. He decided he needed to go farther inside the house to see if he could find any clues. He saw another door open and peaked into the room. "Hmm, now that is interesting," he stepped inside and found himself staring at a map of the area. Maps weren't really used anymore, so he studied it to figure out what the symbols meant. His fingers found the town, and followed the trail to the house. He went back to the town, "There seems to an old mine...not really sure what they use to mine here." It would however be a really good place to hide for awhile.

Following Tristan around the house, he took into notice this house had been one of the least damaged homes of the town. It had a neat look to it as if even though it were inhabitied everything was up for display. The home felt like a model home in a way.

As Tristan entered into a room and looked upon a map, Rethyn found himself gazing off into the area of which was the city they left. A part of him wondered if it only had gotten worse there or did the Gods move on? Troubling thoughts went through his mind as Death had found him so easily, how easy would it be for the other gods to find the Seers.

In response to Tristan, Rethyn nodded. "I agree, for those who could not use their homes that place would make the most sense. However, I don't think we should go poking our heads there. I have a bad feeling about it."

Tristan turned and looked at his guardian, words seemed to fail him in that moment. He didn't know how to respond to the other, he made sense in a way, about maybe it would be dangerous, but Tristan wondered if he could explain why he had a bad feeling. Did Rethyn know something he didn't...

"TRISTAN," he heard his father yelling from outside and he went back to the front door. It seemed Alauric had better luck than them, standing next to him was a couple and what appeared to be their two sons.

"Dad where did you find them," Tristan said as he walked back down the way toward his father, "They were hiding in their basement, didn't really know what had attacked."

Walking behind Tristan, Rethyn glanced at the boys for a moment. If fear was a liquid they'd be dripping in it as Rethyn saw one of them put his face into Alauric's leg as he trimbled against him.

Rethyn silently looked to Tristan.

Tristan saw the boy clinging to his father, and a memory flashed inside his head. He understood that kind of fear, when a god attacked and all you saw was the destruction afterwards. He looked away trying to hide his thoughts from his father mostly. "Anyone else," he finally asked.

Alauric shook his head, "I am going back up to the pharmacy to see if I can't get them some food or something and other supplies." Tristan wanted to ask what was going to happen to them after that, the way his father was moving there seemed to be a plan in his mind.

"I wonder what he's going to do with them." Rethyn asked bluntly. Rethyn did not speak it, but in the back of his mind he begun to worry about the children. Orphans were the last thing he wanted them to be in this world. With all of the Gods, and in-fighting going on right now it would be horrid. Not to mention if they were Seers...

Rethyn stopped himself as he didn't want to think about it.

Tristan looked at Rethyn, "I am sure he got something in mind, it seems like he always does." Tristan answered, he looked back at the doctor's house. "I guess we should be making our way back, we still got to do something with Ray, Dad mentioned burying him next to his wife in the cemetary." Ray's wife was the one of the reasons Ray knew about the gods, she had been a guardian at one point in her life. It was after her seer died that she moved away from the city into this small town that no one knew her. She fell in love with Ray. It was at this thought that Tristan sort of smiled, she got a second chance...but what if something ever happened to him. What would his own guardian do, he looked at Rethyn, he really needed to know for some reason. But how could he ask such a question.

Tristan had to hold off on that question when he heard a dog bark nearby. This one seemed to be stuck in one spot and barking in alarm. Tristan approached the young dog slowly...hoping that Rethyn wouldn't interfer, or suddenly pop out of the picture. "Hey, I am not going to hurt you," he said softly. The dog seemed to sniff his hands, then put his head underneath Tristan's hand. Tristan looked around, trying to spy why the dog was barking in alarm. Then he heard it, a coughing of sorts, and the dog started to bark again. He spied a downed tree limb...oh god. He started toward it but had trouble moving it. "Rethyn help me."

Rethyn had stayed a little back as Tristan had moved for the dog. After his encounter with the eyeless dog a little fear had grown. He dreaded that all dogs would be seen to him like that. After what seemed like a long moment, Rethyn moved out of the home and approached Tristan whom was petting the dog. Looking at it as calmly as possible, Rethyn let out a breath of relief as the dog looked normal.

Completely zoned out by the dog, Rethyn jumped as Tristan's words cut in "Rethyn help me"

Darting his eyes to his Seer, Rethyn moved his hand to the hilt of his blade. "I'm here Tristan!" He called to him.

Tristan looked up at his guardian, struggling with the tree limb, "with the branch you idiot...," ok that was Tristan's fault but for some reason he just felt like calling the other an idiot. He sort of grined so it would appear like a joke. "There a celler door here, holds the town's emergency food supply."

He had completely forgotten about it until then,

Narrowing his eyes a little at Tristan he wanted to smack the Seer upside the head. With the grin Rethyn raised a brow to Tristan as he moved towards the boy. "I don't know, maybe I don't know how to process the thought of helping you." He said sarcasticlly as he walked past Tristan towards the branch.

Bending down at the knees Rethyn tried to lift the branch. It was much heavier than expected. With a grunt and a bit of a struggle, Rethyn was able to get the branch moving as he dragged it to the right. With each step, Rethyn heard the leaves of the branch shake as he moved it.

After dropping the tree down and placing his hands together, Rethyn looked back to Tristan.

"There."

As the branch moved, Tristan helped the guardian until the door was free. It was still closed and before he could touch it, it came open on its own. "Now you out there, you friend or foe..."

Tristan smirked slighlty

"Are you sure you are alright Tristan?" Rethyn said quietly as he moved over to the door. He was not sure of what was going through his Seer's mind, but he had an idea as he knew the question was being moved closer and closer.

"I am fine Rethyn," he said to the guardian. An older gentleman stepped out of the celler, "Tristan...well its good to see you son." Tristan took the old man's hand and shook it slightly, "Rethyn, this is the doctor, whose house we sort of just raided, sorry about that we were hoping to find a clue as to where you went."

"Sorry...why are you sorry, you came to rescue us didn't you." Tristan smiled slightly and looked down inside the celler, "How many," was his question. "As many as I could before that stupid being decided to go up to the pharmacy...I know he took Ray." The doctor shook his head in silence for a second. "Yeah, my father is up at the pharmacy, he will be happy to know there are more alive."

"Rethyn, lets go, we need to go tell him."

Rethyn nodded in response to Tristan as he reached out to place his hand upon Tristan's shoulder. However after a moment he seemed to change his mind as he begun to turn away to walk back in the direction of the pharmacy.

Tristan nodded and followed his guardian. After reaching the pharmacy, and telling his dad, the older seer seemed to be relieved. The doctor soon followed with a good amount of the town folk, and it gave Tristan a bigger sense of hope. The discussion of where they would go was the only thing that many couldn't agree on. Maybe had lived in the mountain for their entire lives and didn't want to leave. So they decided to give it a couple of days and decide as a town.

They helped bury Ray in the cemetary next to his wife. Many of the survivors had something kind or funny to say, but one could tell that the pharmacy owner was loved, by the time it was starting to get dark and they got back to the vechical both father and son were tired. "Lets go home," Alauric said




Soran and River

Soran had clung to River for a very long time. He was lost in a wash of relief that his mother was there as well as sadness. He was afraid to tell her, to tell her anything at all and he couldn't help but cry like a small child. River held him close though, her soft voice whispering to him as she rocked gently much like she used to when he was smaller. It hadn't even occured to him that she'd moved. Now sitting up on the bed, he was laying on her, hiccuping slightly as she ran her fingers through his hair in a gentle, calming way that only a mother could.

"Hey baby, you okay now?"

He nodded slightly, sniffing and trying to calm his shuddering breathing. He couldn't quite speak yet, but he was getting there. Soran felt her nod and she continued her slight motion. Shifting a bit she moved with him so that it was comfortable. He sniffed, gave a slight cough and took a deep breath which seemed to calm his breathing even more.

"I'm sorry, Momma," he whispered slightly.

"Why?"

"B-because... I... cried on you..." he replied.

River laughed, "So? Don't worry about that, I don't care. I care about you and if you're alright. 'K?'

Soran nodded again, swallowing thickly. They were silent for a while longer, Soran breathing deeply as he drank in his mothers presence. He was trying to remember the last time that his mother had held him like this. His father had always tried to keep them separate because of his dislike for the fact that River always seemed to give Soran 'special' treatment. He frowned a bit. Those were memories he didn't want. However, upon thinking about that, he was now curious as to why she was there in the first place.

"Momma, why did you come here?" he asked, moving so he could look up at her but still use her shoulder as his pillow.

Her face took on a pained look and she shook her head a bit, "Later. I will tell you later. Just know that I am here right now and I plan to be here for a while longer. Is that alright?"

Soran watched her for a while before giving a slight nod, "Okay."

River seemed to be thankful that he didn't press the issue. Silence stretched again, but he didn't seem to care. River moved once more and released a sigh, "You're heavier now." she said, a bit of a laugh to her voice.

"I'm a lot bigger than I used to be."

River giggled at that, "Yes. You've grown, a lot. You're becoming an adult now. Sometimes I feel sad that I don't have my little baby running around like a wild animal anymore."

Soran blushed, "I wasn't... wild!"

River laughed again, "Oh yes you were. I had to chase you around the house plenty of times. Sometimes you weren't even wearing clothes. I called you my naked little runaway."

"M-mom!" Soran complained, eyes wide as his face grew bright red. He was so glad Tristan wasn't in the room still.

"There it is," she laughed as she brushed his blonde locks out of eyes, "That look. I was waiting for that. You are still here, just a little... buried. But that's alright baby. Don't worry, I will help you," she whispered as she leaned forward and kissed his forehead gently.

He frowned and after she kissed him, he buried his head into her shoulder again. He felt her head against his as she moved and hugged him closer. He didn't say anything, but he supposed he didn't have to as she began speaking again.

"It's alright. There's no need to say anything to me, okay? I love you, my sweet little baby. I always have and I always will. We will get through this, you and I both. Okay? I know you are strong. You always have been. It's going to take a little time, but you can do it. I know you can and I know you will," her voice was heavy with emotion, shaking slightly as she tried her best not to cry. Her voice was just barely on the edge of harsh, but they were powerful at the same time.

Soran nodded, feeling his throat closing again. He didn't speak, fearful that if he opened his mouth he would cry again. It felt like he did nothing but cry these days, and often. The worst part was that he couldn't help it. As much as he didn't want to and as much as he didn't want to put it upon Tristan to suffer through it, he couldn't help it.

"And there is someone else that will help you. Tell me about him, I want to know," she said softly. He could feel her smile though he couldn't see it.

Soran bit his lip as he lay on her, hiding his face from view, "T-Tristan?"

"Mhmm, Alauric's son. The handsome red head. I met him the other night. Of course, the last time I saw him was when he was a tiny little thing, just like you. It was quite a shock to see how he'd grown."

"U-um... h-he's... amazing," he managed to say.

River laughed, "Just that? Just amazing. I know you have more to say than that. It has been a while since we've talked about boyfriends, come on. Tell me," she said as she moved yet again. Her shoulder lifted, pushing Soran into a better position as she leaned against the wall and crossed her legs that were stretched out across the bed.

"M-mom..." he moaned and then heaved a sigh. She wasn't going to let it go. Besides... maybe it was good to talk a little bit about him, especially when he wasn't there. It would be less embarassing, "Fine. He's... really amazing. We like the same music, games and he always has something interesting to show me. His magic system is really cool, I never know what he's going to pull off that pad," he smiled a little bit, "Though I can totally kick his ass at hacking."

River laughed and Soran continued, "He can get pretty creative when he needs to. He say's he's not good at thinking on his feet, but I think he is. Sometime's... no... all the time, he's faster than I am. I love listening to him. He has a nice voice and it's really funny when he stumbles. Especially when he blushes, it's cute."

"Shh, I won't tell him you said he's cute," River said as she laughed a bit, raising one finger to her lips as she winked down at her son.

Soran smiled a bit more, "Yeah. He would probably get embarrassed. It's really hard to do that though. He can embarass me really easily though. It's not fair. But that's okay, because I like it. Momma... I... I am really in love with him. Like... I can't even describe it. I don't know what I would do without him. He doesn't know. He doesn't realize how much he anchors me. Especially now."

River sighed lightly, her fingers starting their trail through his hair again, "I know baby. I know what you mean. I'm glad he is someone so close to you. I know he's going to take care of you. He treasures you, I can tell." Moving, Soran's mother twisted around a bit and looked at the clock next to the bed. She hummed softly, "They should be back very soon now. Are you hungry baby? I will make something for you, one of your favorites."

"Really?"

"Of course. Are you ready? Good to come with me?"

Soran lay for a moment, thinking. It was a bit different as he was always with Tristan whenever he moved about the house. Yet, his mothers warmth was soothing in a way. He looked up at her, "Yeah. Thanks Momma. I love you."

"I love you too, now lets go see if there's spagehtti for you," she said with a smile.

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After returning from town, the two seers decided to take a shower before filling in the others in what they found, neither one of them knowing what had a occurred before they left. Grayson had been resting still and Victor was in his own room.

Tristan was on his way back out to the kitchen when a strange sight of Kilia running around met his eyes. What the heck is she doing he thought to himself.

Kilia moved from one room to the other, opening doors rapidly. She had finished healing the two boys hours ago and had gone to do some things of her own, mainly rest and get rid of her pounding headache that was threatening to make her sleep. She hated the weariness that came afterwards, the headaches, the feeling that she was going to passout. Then again, Kilia had a tendency to overdo things. She wasn't quite refined enough yet with her magic skills like Uncle Vic was to make the most of her energies. So, she had gone to get water, ate, even took a short nap and then showered.

Now, she couldn't find either Jonathan or Peter and she was starting to worry. Had someone snatched them? Had something happened to them but no one heard it? She couldn't figure it out. So as she went, she was suddenly opening doors very quickly and they were banging on the walls, which she didn't notice until about the fifth time and she realized that she was probably scaring a certain blonde haired Seer. Quickly she stopped this and quickly went to where she had heard River and Soran a bit ago in the kitchen.

"J-Jonathan and Peter... they're gone!" She said quickly, trying to keep the panic from her voice, but failing miserably. What happened?

"Yeah. Kilia, they left after the battle." Rethyn said as he had sat down upon one of the many comfortable chairs of which were in the living room. With his head turned he was looking at Kilia from where she stood in the kitchen. His expression remained blank as he looked to her.

Extending a hand out, he moved it to signal Kilia to move to a nearby seat. The room wasn't well light and outside it had grown dark. From within the darkness only the hollow eyes seemed to luminate through towards Kilia.

"L-left..." she breathed, "They... left? Just... up and gone? Why?" Kilia asked, her voice shaking just a bit. Why would they leave? They were Guardian's, they... they couldn't just... leave. Her heart lurched as she stood there, staring at Rethyn in return. His eyes seemed to glow as it was starting to get dark and the lights in the kitchen hadn't grown strong enough yet to block out the dim gloom.

Through the shadows Rethyn slowly nodded at Kilia. "Jonathan grew frustrated from the battle and was convinced we were all that was holding him back from "true power". Like a stray, Peter followed him in turn."

Lifting a glass of water to his mouth, Rethyn sipped it slowly as he was quite not sure what to do. Kilia would not of taken the news well either way, and nobody else seemed to want to break it. It may as well be him.

"W-what..." once again her words were nothing more than air slightly formed to make a sound. Her heart skipped a beat and then a sharp pain followed. Her fingers reached up and curled over the spot as she swayed slightly. Reaching out she took hold of the doorway, her eyes closing shut tightly as she felt a burn. Maybe she would take that seat now. Moving slowly she was making her way to the place that Rethyn had offered for her when Soran's voice slowly made it to her.

"Left... left... he left. Why? Why?" What started off as soft, slowly turned louder and his tone darkened. Kilia, completely caught off guard turned to the little blonde that was at the other end of the table. His food completely forgotten, he was glaring at the table with a look of such rage that it made her blood run cold.

"The fuck would he leave for!? I thought he was here to help me, to protect me when those Gods come calling! Who the hell does he think he is to just up and leave like this!? And he never even said a word to me, I haven't seen my Guardian in days! The hell is wrong with him!" Soran's voice was near screaming now as his fist hit the table, making the wood tremble and the silverware along it jump, "He left me again! Where the hell was he when Valyn was there? Why wasn't he there!?"

Running feet could be heard coming from the hallway, Tristan had been making his way to the kitchen anyways to talk to River and Soran and he heard Soran's yelling. He had never heard Soran like that before, not even when he was mad at Tristan before. He stopped at the enterance of the kitchen, trying to figure out what was going on, "Soran," yet his voice was only a whisper compared to the to the others. He turned to Rethyn, his head tilted in question, what had happened.

"Soran!" River called and moved around the kitchen to get to her son. Kilia stood with both hands over her lips as she was in utter shock. Never once had Soran blamed anyone for what had happened, or if things went wrong, he never blamed anyone. Where was this anger coming from?

"Why!" He screamed, "What is he planning?! To leave me at the mercy of those fucking Gods?!"

"Soran!" Kilia yelled finally along with River's voice that was trying to calm him. He hit the table again, a kind of raging growl at the back of his throat filling the air. Everything trembled, and Kilia could have sworn she felt a spike of energy course through the room as well.

The truth of which went through Rethyn's lips started out cold, but upon Soran's reaction he said. "That's exactly what he was planning Soran. He didn't care about you, he cared about power. " Rethyn paused for moment as he saw the vibrations of the room climb through his water. "I can't promise you the return of your guardian, but I can tell you that as long as you stay here I will do my best to carry the weight they left behind."

Hollow eyes locked onto Soran as Rethyn stood up. Rethyn then spoke quietly to Soran as if he was both trying to warn the boy and make him realize he was in the room.

"Soran."

Just like the few times before, his rage had spiked, but this time he had acted out on it. He shook, shuddered violently even as his fists clenched tightly on the table. His gaze shifted to Kilia who had yelled at him and she paused in mid step to go to him, River hadn't even dared to approach her own son as she was far too shocked at the display. He turned to Rethyn then, grinding his teeth as the other boy stood up. His words hadn't made it any better, if only to fuel the fire that was still raging. He couldn't quite understand why exactly he was so utterly pissed off, but he knew he was taking it out on someone that probably shouldn've have been taken out on.

Still, he couldn't help the feeling of betrayal. The sense of loss, back-stabbed. The word echoed and he clenched his teeth harder, breathing faster as he sat there, his fists shaking as he tried desperately to control himself. Rethyn continued though, his words cutting through the air to reach him. Soran gave a slight moan as he sat there, closing his eyes tightly. He started to lean forward, his breaths heaving in and out of his chest as he slowly shifted forwards.

Tristan was really confused, if he had figured right two guardians had left. He could understand that feeling, he almost thought he was going to face it in the past. He glanced at Rethyn...his words seemed really harsh for some reason. Was he trying to help or do something else? "Soran please, just calm down," he was almost at the point of begging. The anger in the other was hurting him, he took the step forward that no one else even dared. He didn't care if Soran hurt him, he just wanted the anger to end.

Finally, he let out an enraged scream, his fist hitting the table a third time, harder than the first and Kilia was sure he'd broken it, or at least bruised it very badly. She gasped at the sound of the table rocking from the hit and his scream. Looking to the people in the room she tried to plead with them via her gaze, help him... she was at a loss of what to do at that moment and could only stand in frozen fear.

Rethyn raised a hand to Kilia as suddenly-

Wap!

Rethyn suddenly appeared behind Soran as he roughly grabbed him again. With the quick words "Be right back." to Kilia and River there was another loud crackle as both the boys vanished. In their wake a little black smoke seemed to be left behind signaling Rethyn's emotions towards the situation.

From behind Soran the cabin looked much smaller as they both fell from two miles up in the air. However, from positioning Rethyn had what would seem like a death lock grip on the back of Soran's head as kept Soran in front of him during the fall. The wind howled as they picked up speed with every second they spent in the air. As the rocketed closer the howling of wind almost became deafening as they drew closer.

Tristan looked completely shocked at the disappearance of his guardian and Soran. What the fucking hell was that anyways, what was the guardian thinking if he was actually thinking at all. So where the hell had the other taken him...Tristan only thought was to run out the back door.

The feel of the boys hands on him made him jump. He hadn't been expecting to be touched and he would have fought back violently except he found that in the next instant, he was no longer in that room. Immediately his heart lurched and he was sent back to that abandoned warehouse, the golden knife, the face of the God and his horrid screams filled with agony.

He did feel, though, the arms of the boy wrapped around him tightly, holding him in place and right after, the feel of air cutting past them. It roared in his ears, making him cringe in terror. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think, and couldn’t do anything. Finally he found his voice and let out a strangled cry. His fingers dug into Rethyn, clinging to him, "Stop... stop... stop!" he cried, closing his eyes tightly as he buried his face in the boys chest, trying to breath properly even though he wanted nothing more than to scream.

As if it were a bad dream everything stopped just before the two of them were to splatter on the roof of the cabin. With a carefully placed teleportation, Rethyn had put Soran's life before his eyes, and placed them on top of the roof of the cabin.

Latching onto the front of Soran's shirt, Rethyn pulled the boy away from him as he begun to preach to the boy. "Dying is easy Soran. Every breath you take someone breaths there last. Within your eyes I see you. I feel like I see everyone these days." Shaking Soran slightly Rethyn continued. "And it's not by this flesh I see you, I see the you under the skin."

There was a pause, Rethyn's breaths drew in longer and more forced before he started again. "I was the one who pulled you out of there Soran. And I saw myself in your eyes. Not even a year ago I was just like you. And you know where I was a year ago? Dead Soran. Dying is easy, but the afterlife isn't. I was there for fifteen years of the kind of torture of which changes you. To survive I've done horrid things in that asylum they call the "afterlife"."

Pausing again, Rethyn looked over Soran with the darkest of looks. Leaning in to whisper to Soran's ear Rethyn said "I lived in a world where the warden would build your own perfect life and then smash it just when you were most happy. Then he'd start over and watch you smash another life he created for you because you couldn't trust anyone."

"I know you've been through hell, but you have family and people left who would die again for you. I would die in an instant so you could tell the God of Death that he'd have to wait."

Throwing Soran away from him, Rethyn pointed to the woods as he spoke loudly to the boy. "You don't see them, I do! When you're brought back the God simply does not wait for you to come back! He's made plans..."

Placing a hand over his face, Rethyn did his best to try to control himself as he begun to deepen his breaths. "Do you see?!" He finished with. In his own mind he felt he made sense, but he feared he just spoke madness to Soran.

Glancing back at the boy, he awaited him.

Panting, Soran hadn't opened his eye as he thought for sure he was going to die. Then he felt fingers latch into the front of his shirt and drag him off of Rethyn's chest that he'd been clinging too desperately. He opened his eyes now, fear clouding his mind as Rethyn started talking to him. Shaking, tears were streaming down his face as he stared at the other boy, white as a sheet. No color graced his features as he sat there. The words took a while to sink in.

He was shaken slightly and he blinked, his mouth opening as his lips trembled slightly, a soft sound trying to escape him as all he could do was huddle there. Rethyn's words about dragging him out of the concrete building made his gaze widen. He hadn't known that. Of course, he hadn't been conscious either. The next words hit him hard as well. Rethyn had died? But... then... how was he, sitting right there? He couldn't get the words out of his throat as he stared in fear at Rethyn, still trembling from the fall.

The boy leaned forward and whispered to him then. He felt tears falling even more as he listened. He had certainly felt that the life he had woken up to after such an ordeal was nothing but an illusion, however he soon realized that hadn't been the case. His heart slammed in his chest as he knelt there. He didn't know what to think, or what to say. It was hard to even breathe still. He managed only one word after Rethyn had told him that the people around him would die for him, and that even the dark haired Guardian would do so too.

Looking at the boy, his breath hardly whispered out Rethyn's name.

Then Rethyn threw him backwards, shocking him even more. Catching himself just barely by both hands, he was leaned backwards, his eyes wide as he watched Rethyn. Confusion was clear on his face as he sat there. What did this all mean? Why had Rethyn dropped him in mid air and then settled them on the roof? Was this... mean to make him feel better? Or meant to make him see something? Because if it was the former, it certainly hadn't worked. If anything, Soran was now afraid of heights of all things.

"S-see... what... Rethyn..." he managed between short gasps, "The God of Death? Waiting for what? What do you mean? Why the hell did you drop me!?" he countered, a flash of anger before he quickly contained it.

"Look around you Soran! What do you see?!" Rethyn barked. "In that instance if you had died everything you loved would be gone! In the afterlife all of this would never be seen the same. I see the same fear I had within my eyes through yours. The world beyond this one is tougher, more horrid! If you don't put your fear behind you it will kill you and those you love."

Rethyn paused for a moment as he coughed slightly. "The God of Death is someone you never want to see. You'll know when you see him. I see him everywhere...I'll do whatever it takes so none of you will have to meet him."

Rethyn felt the same solution he had come to before race throgh his mind. He then heard Kilia's words in turn. Bringing his hands to the side of his head, Rethyn looked crazed as he stared off into the woods. Faceless beings watched him, they were whispering.

"Your eyes are like mine, I can see you see your fears everywhere you go Soran...Everywhere..."

Sitting down Rethyn went silent as he stared off into the distance. It was as if he went into overdrive and shut down. Every so often he would only merely blink between the now almost silent rises and falls of his chest.

Even though it took him a moment to figure out where the heck they were, his heart stopped when he saw them on the roof. It was probably good for Rethyn that he didn't see the entire display of...stupidness.

"Rethyn..." Soran breathed slowly. Fear... he sees fear. Of course it's fear... he thought, trying to keep up with the boy though his heart was pounding and he felt frozen to the spot. He wasn't sure what Rethyn was talking about, his voice sounded off though. But the one thing that did stick was the mention of fear.

Fear had frozen the blonde.

Fear had crept into his very soul, dragging him down into dark depths that he'd never been to before.

Fear was hurting those around him.

He clenched his teeth as he squeezed his eyes shut. The shock of the fall still stuck with him, but he was feeling something else now too. It wasn't anger, it wasn't quite fear, but... realization? Maybe. He wasn't sure just yet. When Rethyn stopped moving and just stared off into the darkness, he worried. Leaning forward slowly, careful of his own actions, he breifly touched Rethyn. The touch didn't burn. It shouldn't burn... Tristan would tell me that I'm sure he figured as he tried to get the boys attention.

"Rethyn... a-are you okay?"

There was no answer. Shit. Now he was stuck up on the roof. With no way down. His heart hammered in his chest. He swallowed dryly as he felt that familiar tug of fear trying to freeze him. Shaking slightly he sat there staring at Rethyn for a while. The boy wasn't going to move, and thus Soran was stuck, with only himself to get out of the situation. He glanced around quickly and spotted Tristan.

"Tristan!" he called, leaning forward and slipping slightly. He gasped a bit and quickly caught himself, his legs stretching out to stop from going farther on the roof top. His boots had enough grip to catch on the shingles. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly and returned his gaze to the boy on the ground, "Tristan... Uh... yeah," he wasn't sure what to say or how to relay to the boy that his guardian had just gone into robot mode and 'turned off'. He glanced over to Rethyn again, "He's um.... broken..." he said and then sort of chuckled as he was referring to the boy as a mechanical object that had stopped working.

It was only slightly funny. Slightly.

He's broken is that what the other just said, Tristan actually thought it fit better than it should have. "Rethyn," he called, "what in the hell are you doing." Ok maybe that wasn't the best response. Tristan was just going to have to come up with something, yet it seemed like his mind just ran out of ideas.

Rope...ladder...but the freaking roof was to high for that, he looked at the windows, damn the other couldn't have landed near one of those. He glanced at his magic pad, did he have anything useful...oh wait.

He hurried as fast as he could as he needed to actually modify what he wanted. A slingshot appeared in his hand, and he aimed it toward his guardian, "Ok maybe this will wake him up," The first object to launch from the slingshot was a water balloon, but as it went toward the other, it just got bigger and bigger. As it hit him it would explode into shower of water.

Soran's gaze grew wide as he watched Tristan design something on his pad and then in his hands appeared a sling shot. He shot something that the blonde Seer couldn't quite see until it got closer. It was a large balloon of sorts and Soran lifted an eyebrow. He wasn't sure but... was that supposed to do something? He hoped so because he wasn't getting down without Rethyn, or maybe some well crafted spell of sorts. He bit his lip as he looked down to Tristan.

"I hope that works!" he called, cringing slightly as the balloon got larger. Whatever was in it was sure to go everywhere and Soran was definitely in range of it as well, though it probably hit Rethyn with more than Soran.

As the balloon smacked Rethyn on the side of the head. Rethyn closed his left eye and blinked twice with his right. The blackness had gone away and like a reboot, Rethyn stood up soaked. Below him was a little circle of a wet spot of which the rest of the water had gone.

Before glancing over to Soran, Rethyn shook his head as he offered the boy a hand. "Come on, let's go."

Slowly, Soran watched as Rethyn seemed to completely snap out of his trance when the water sprayed across him. Some of it exploded onto him too, but not nearly as bad as the other boy. It had completely drenched him. Reaching out his hand, Rethyn called to him. Standing up gingerly, Soran took hold of the boys hand with a nod, "Okay."

Crack!

With another quick teleport, the two of them had landed next to Tristan. In silence Rethyn then released the hand for Soran before turning to slink away. With tired eyes and a lowered head, the young man started to step off into the house. In his wake there were drops of water from his clothing.

The sky looked lovely that night as each of the stars were visible without the lights of the city to hide them. The moon this night was larger as it loomed over the cabin brightly. It even revealed many of the shadowy spots of the night of which on most nights one could not see.

Soran blanched slightly, wincing at the teleport. That was going to take some time to get used to again. He stood there silently though, watching as Rethyn walked slowly back into the house. Looking to Tristan after the boy disappeared into the house, he reached out and took the red haired Seer's hand gingerly, "Tristan... h-hey..." he could only manage before he moved and wrapped his arms around the other's waist, putting his face in Tristan's chest. He breathed deeply.

Tristan watched his guardian come to life again and finally decide to teleport off the roof. As the two landed he sighed in relief, he watched his guardian move into the house, and decided he save the conversation for later as to what the other was doing up there. He looked at Soran as the other took his hand and wrapped his arms around him. "Hey yourself," he said with a smile and held the other. "You ok," was all he could ask, he knew that it wasn't the best question, but it was the first one that came to mind.

It took him a moment, but Soran finally answered, his head nodding slowly, "Y-yeah.... strangely enough. I mean... he terrified me at first but... I-I don't know. I guess... he sort of helped... Kind of. I'm still slightly confused but. I think I know what he was trying to do," Soran said, trying to explain how he was feeling and knowing that it wasn't happening. The most important part was that he was actually okay. Shaking, sure, but... okay.

Tristan smiled, "I am glad to hear that," or at least he thought he was. He was still sort of scared though, wondering what that anger was from before, was it completely gone. "Good, now I am hungry, I swore I smelled spaghetti in there."

~~~Rethyn, Sina, and Kilia~~~

Shooting around the house, Rethyn made his way back to the chair he had sat in before. He was trembling a little as he sat in the darkness. At first he thought he was alone as he merely went back to his glass of water, but with the sound of Sina's light voice Rethyn turned a little to see her in the corner of the room within her own seat.

"Sup weirdo."

Closing his eyes, Rethyn didn't want to deal with her as he finished his glass of water. Doing his best to remove the thoughts swirling through him and the idea of Sina's teasing he didn't respond to her.

"You goin' to respond or am I just going to have to go mess with your stuff? Weirdo."

There was no avoiding her. With a open of his eyes, Rethyn looked hollowly as he said in response.

"Hello. Useless."

With a clinch of her teeth, Sina barked back to Rethyn,

"Excuse me?!"

"You heard me. If you're going to call me weird I can at least call you what you are. And you have been utterly useless. "

Sina scoffed at Rethyn as she stood and folded her arms at him. "I was protecting Tristan's sisters weirdo."

"As I was too useless." Rethyn replied.

Like a child, Sina responded with. "Ugh! Everyone else around this house is so great then there's you!" Stomping off out of the room Sina's last words were. "Not only are you a weirdo, but you're also a jerk!"

Thanking the air of her departure, Rethyn merely glanced down to the floor as he felt sick. Why had he lost control? Was it Soran's anger which triggered it? Was it just his eyes, or was it just himself.

Burying his face into his hands, Rethyn rubbed at his eyes a little before removing them from his face as laying back into the chair. He did his best to not look at the pictures on the wall as he feared they'd move again. He didn't want to focus on anything for too long for the fear of it had set in.

Kilia, having been curious as to what happened between Rethyn and Soran, had paced the house until she heard someone coming into the house again. Dinner had moved to the table, River having finished making the spagehtti. The young pink haired Seer didn't feel like eating though, too nervous and distracted by thought to settle herself.

Moving in the direction of the noise she'd heard, she by passed Sina who looked irritated. Lifting an eyebrow, she watched the other girl storm down the hall. Entering the kitchen, Kilia spotted Rethyn seated there and gingerly made her way over to him. Drawing out a chair, she sat across from him and was silent for a while as she tried to figure out what she wanted to say.

"R-Rethyn... is... everything okay?" she asked slowly.

Speaking steadliy, Rethyn looked forward as he said to Kilia. "Are you alright, you seem nervous." He was dodging again, upon his response he tried to flip the conversation away from him and onto Kilia. He couldn't help but fear he'd said too much to Soran. He had let himself out and now someone in the world knew almost everything about him. He felt even worse knowing it wasn't even his own Seer who knew of him that way, but his Seer's lover instead.

"Are you hungry?" Rethyn asked as he stood from his seat. Maybe around the table in company she wouldn't have the curage to figure him out. Hopefully neither would Soran as he wouldn't bring it up around his mother or Tristan.

Hopefully.

Kilia stood with him, followed him to where the pot was full of the decadent italian food, "I'm fine," she told him and stood right next to him with her back to the table, "I'm... not very hungry right now... But... I'm worried about you. You suddenly disappeared with Soran. You're both alright... right? You can... at least tell me that. You trust me, right? At least let me know that you're okay," she said softly. She wasn't trying to push, but she was gently prodding to get him to say something.

"I could be better Kilia." Rethyn said quietly as he tried to keep his voice from the others ears. "I would never seriously hurt Soren. I only told him what I felt was needed." Rethyn finished as he went to pull his noodles from the pot. "And why do you keep asking if I trust you? I told you before I'd rather myself die than any of you so you wouldn't..." Rethyn trailed off as he looked to his noodles.

Kilia frowned, "Don't say that," she whispered softly, fingers reaching out to wrap around his arm, "I get cold when you say that. Because I know that you mean it, and you would let it happen. Don't you remember what I told you the other night? You are strong. But you are stronger with us standing at your side. I know you want to protect us, but... we want to protect you to. I know you wouldn't hurt him either. You wouldn't hurt any of us," Kilia said softly. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder lightly, "I just want you both to be okay."

"Would you like to patrol with me tonight?" Rethyn asked quietly as he looked down to the hand of Kilia. Her hand felt warm to him as he was still rather damp from his Seer's water balloon attack on him from before.

She then placed her forehead upon his shoulder. For the first time he had come back he felt the warmth of a blush on his face as his eyes moved to her quickly before darting back to the noodles.

"Patrol?" she repeated the word and removed her head from his shoulder. She wasn't sure what that meant, but since he was asking... Maybe she would find out more about him if she was allowed to do so. She smiled sweetly at him, "Sure. It sounds interesting."

"Thank you Kilia." The blush upon his face had not died yet and because of it he didn't make eye contact as he did his best to hide it. He had begun to shiver from his clothing and he begun to silently tell himself that he would have to change after he ate.

Later that Night

With folded arms over his sheath, Rethyn stood in the living room with closed eyes. This was where they had planned to meet for that night. At first he thought he heard someone’s steps, but refused to open his eyes just incase it was something like that one night. The eyeless dog licking the glass of the window was more than enough to flood the memories of a bad night. He held back a shudder to the best of his ability as he remembered the crimson leaving the socket of the dogs eyes.

Kilia moved through the darkness, slightly out of place as she couldn't see very well and then found herself in the living room finally. Spotting the form of Rethyn she walked over to him and with one hand behind her back, a smile on her face, reached out and tapped his shoulder as he seemed to be sleeping.

"Rethyn," she called softly, keeping her voice low in the house.

Rethyn slightly jolted from the tap, but quickly regained himself once he heard the voice of Kilia. Turning to her slowly he opened his eyes as he saw her through the darkness. This night he had chosen not to wear shoes as he merely wore a sleeveless shirt covered over by a soft black jacket with a little bit of what seemed to be fur on the hood. And a pair of simple cargo shorts of which already had gained a small hole at the end of the left leg.

"Kilia." Rethyn said quietly in return.

Beaming at him, she straightened, "I always wondered what it was you did at night," she said with a small giggle, "I feel.. kinda special being allowed to follow you around," she said, one finger scraching at her cheek as she looked around the room. Kilia was certainly glad for the darkness, she could feel her cheeks going slightly red. Dressed in a black shirt that opened at the shoulders with long sleeves down to her wrists, a short skirt with shorts underneath and shoes to match, she rocked back and forth as she waited, "So! Where to first?" she asked, all sorts of energy bubbling through her, which was unusual seeing as she wasn't a night owl to begin with.

"...Thank you for coming along." Rethyn said softly. He was thankful that she came along as even though he didn't exactly explain why he needed her she came along anyways. It brought a warmness within him of which he caught inside of himself. It confused him, but he tried his best not to question it. It was nice, it felt so much better than the other things of which jabbed at him throughout the day.

"I usually move to the training rooms first then just the general downstairs before I start going up. I then repeat."

Kilia nodded a bit, "Ah. Pretty simple," she said with a smile, "So... why do you do it alone, Rethyn? You've always done this, haven't you?"

"Well, I am not exactly fond of Kilia." Rethyn said as he begun to walk in the direction of the training rooms. "Ever since I joined up with you guys, it just became my thing."

Kilia followed him, matching his stride as best she could, "Oh. You never did it before then? So," she lifted an eyebrow as she looked up at him, her hands curling together in front of her as they walked, "So why do you do it now?"

Rethyn paused as he looked into the training room, from within he saw nothing. Speaking quietly he said in response to Kilia as he turned back to face her. "I do it now because I worry about you, and everyone else."

"You worry about us?" she asked, and then gave a small laugh, "See, I knew you did. You're always acting like you don't like us, and you do things alone so often. But I had a feeling there was more to it than just that," reaching out she wrapped her fingers around his forearm as they bypassed the training room, "People think that they're good at hiding things. I think that maybe I've gotten a little bit better and reading a few things. Or maybe you're just slipping," she teased a bit with a laugh, "In any case," her tone grew a bit more serious, "I'm glad to hear it."

"I do things alone because there are things out there I don't want you all to face." Rethyn said a little defensively as a light blush crawled up on his face in the darkness. He had not expected the sudden touch of Kilia and along with her touch felt a warmness crawl within him.

"I know I am slipping..." Rethyn said quietly as he knew Kilia was teasing, but he knew it was true.

Kilia walked with him, her fingers still wrapped around his forearm, "I think that you try to do too much on your own. I also think that you don't give us enough credit. Especially Tristan. Together, you and him could be extremely powerful. Who knows what you both could do if you both started working together." Kilia gave a bit of a shrug, "I've been wondering, too... do you have a magic system, Rethyn? I know... little strange to ask," she said as she glanced around the hall.

Glancing down the hall as well, Rethyn's blush had faded as he truly did think over the aspects of his connection with his Seer. She was right. He knew that he needed to stop trying to protect Tristan so much, but work with him instead. However, a bit of him growled at the idea as he struggled with it.

As they reached the stairs, Rethyn finally answered the second question as he said weakly. "No, I do not have one."

Kilia looked up to him briefly, her content features fading for a moment as she grew a bit worried, "Well, that's okay. I sort of didn't think so, after all you teleport around so much and I've never seen you open the system. Sorry to ask such a strange question," she said, "I just thought that... if you did you and Tristan would be a deadly pair. Not that you wouldn't be still... but... uh..." she fumbled around for words and finally decided on an awkward silence for a while.

"Do you like being a Guardian, Rethyn?"

"Don't worry about it Kilia, I know what you mean." Rethyn then paused as he listened to Kilia's voice. He did not believe she knew, but he could clearly see her in the dark and with his solid sky blue eyes he would watch her closely as she would speak. After what seemed like an even longer moment, Rethyn finally answered her question.

"For a duty I never expected I do like it...It gives me a purpose. Without it, I wouldn't know what to do. I don't believe there is anyone left who cares for a guy who died fifteen years ago."

Reaching the end of the stairs, Rethyn stopped as he looked to her silently. His eyes had held that hollow look of which bore into KIlia as he himself showed little to none other signs of body language.

Kilia frowned, "Oh Rethyn. Then what does that make us? You know we care, don't you? You're special to us, you always have been," she said softly. She never removed her gaze from his eyes as they stopped at the end of the stairs. His beautiful eyes... she always found them so captivating. She smiled, "We care. I care too. Doesn't that mean something for you?"

Rethyn felt a smile pull at his lips. "Sorry, it's just in the past I felt I was merely the expendable one of the group.." He paused for a moment as he closed his eyes and breathed lighly once before opening his eyes again. "It does Kilia...I..thank you." Other words wanted to pull their way out, but for now he had lowered his gaze a tad bit more.

A light blush started pushing its way upon his face as he couldn't help it. He wanted to say more, but words weren't exactly working for him in the moment. He froze.

Kilia hummed a bit as she tilted her head, "What is it, Rethyn?" she had a feeling he wanted to say something to her.

"Thank you for being so accepting of me...I know I come off as a bit off...and." Rethyn felt himself begin to ramble a little to the girl as he tried to find his footing. She had managed to slip past his defenses and break him down with just her mere smile and gaze. In the past he always knew she was cute, but never this cute.

A long moment of silence seemed to pass as Rethyn found himself locked in place. The smile he had let out earlier had been replaced by a little of uncertainity. Without even realizing it he had leaned in closer to Kilia. As a blush crawled up his face so did the warmness resonating within him.

Inches from her face he found his eyes gazing into her sky blue ones through the darkness. For a moment he paused as he felt the uncertainty of his actions. With his hands at his sides he from yet again.

Kilia shook her head a bit as he said he was a bit 'off'. She didn't think he was off at all. He was just fine the way he was, sweet and kind in his own way even if he tried to come off cold and uncaring. Kilia giggled a bit to herself. As they stood there, she suddenly found him getting rather close and she watched him curiously. He got close to her, close enough for her to feel the gentle caress of his breath against her face.

Kilia was mesmerized by his gaze. She had always thought those eyes of his were rather good looking, attractive even. If she hadn't been infatuated with Jonathan for a while, she probably would have fallen for him first. As it was though, she had a feeling that she'd had a stronger connection to him. When Rethyn saved Soran from the concrete during the earthquake, having taken a blow to his head and breaking his mask... she was worried, scared even for him. It was also the first time that she'd seen his eyes. Kilia remembered having commented on it, telling him that he was cute, or adorable like that.

Following after that, she'd spoken to him in the kitchen of the new house, worried yet again. Kilia remembered how he felt when she held him, though he didn't hold her in return, she could feel his strong heart, warm body and with a kiss to his cheek... maybe that had been the spark. Or maybe it had been a bit sooner. Love was wierd like that.

So, when he came close to her, gazing at her, she couldn't help the little breath of startlement, her cheeks growing red as well, though it was hard to tell in the dark. Her heart thrummed a little harder and she trembled slightly. It was only a few more inches... a few more inches and she find out what it was like to kiss him. She bit her lip, hesitant to try. With a small intake of breath, she leaned forward and gently gave him a kiss. Nothing hard, or passionate or anything like that. A soft touch, like testing the water. She hoped to god that was what he wanted...

A small smile played upon Rethyn's lips as he smiled against hers during this kiss. Slowly his hands moved to her sides before one gently slid to her back. The blush upon his face seemed to partially fade as he returned the kiss to Kilia. With it he understood the warm from within of which she gave.

Closing his eyes, Rethyn finished the kiss as he wrapped his arms around her gently. Leaning his forehead against hers he could feel her heart pounding between breaths. With a tiny smile it was okay as his heart too was beating strongly against his chest. His blush had completely faded off from his face as he could feel the light tickling of Kilia's breath as it contacted him.

After a long moment Rethyn lowered his arms and stepped back as he opened his eyes to gaze at Kilia. With a gentle smile he remember how she had spoken to him the first time he removed his mask. The kindness she had supplied him was enough to escape himself and begin his first steps into his new life. He wanted to give her something more, but in his mind he did not know what. Then like a slap the thought hit him roughly as he murmured.

"Answers."

The embrace was gentle and warm. She wrapped her own arms around his waist, though she really wasn't all that big and could only get her fingers to curl around her wrists where-as his arms had nearly engulfed her small size. It was nice to just stand there, letting him hold her and no words needed. She breathed deeply. He smelled nice. With a soft hum to herself she was about to nestle closer to him when he pulled away a bit. There it was again, that small smile. She gave a soft laugh and smiled in return, unable to help it.

Of course, his next words had her utterly confused. Tilting her head a bit, she said, "Eh?" softly, arching an eyebrow as she stared at him, her smile still in place. If at all possible, little question marks might have popped up around her head as well...

"Uh..." In that moment Rethyn realized how odd he sounded. With a quick regain of his footing, Rethyn asked Kilia quietly.

"I know you still have questions...If there are any left I am willing to answer."

"Oh... Um," she blushed a bit as she reached up and tucked a strand of long pink hair behind her ear, "Uh... your... magic system. How come you don't have it? I mean, you were revived, right? Shouldn't you have it?"

"I..uh never had one..." Rethyn replied as he looked down briefly before meeting his gaze with hers again. "The power is a part of me..I am not sure how to explain..uh.." Rethyn shook his head as he awaited the next question. If it was the one he expected...he was going to have to answer everything.

"Oh, that's interesting. Makes you more mysterious," she said with a giggle and a wiggle of her fingers for added affect, with a smile she stood with one hand on her hip as she thought to herself. She had recalled having a thousand question's before, but... at the moment it was actually rather hard to ask any of them. The reason for that was because simply.. She’d forgotten. It was the kiss... Yes, totally blaming it on that.

"Um... This... thing with the God of Death... why is he after you? Is he just mad that you... were revived somehow?"

"...After?...Sweetie that's a interesting choice of words." The voice hissed to Kilia from down the hall. Through the moonlight a suited man could be seen in the light as he sat upon the window frame. With his right hand he adjusted his solid red tie while with his left hand he seemed to pet something within the darkness.

Rethyn's eyes went wide as he kept himself from turning his head. Within his mind he told himself over and over again that he wasn't there. It was another trick and trap to get under his skin. He begun to shake as he grasped at Kila to pull her towards him. With quiet whispers he said.

"Don't look."

Kilia sucked in a sharp breath. Words tossed across the hall in an acidic tone from a voice that she'd never heard before. Her gaze grew wide and as she was about to turn around, Rethyn suddenly grabbed her and held her tightly against him, prohibiting her from turning as her face was buried against his chest and shoulder. Her breathing was short.

"Rethyn..." she said, a bit of a higher pitch to her tone than usual as he told her not to look, "Rethyn... what is that?" her voice was shaky, but as she felt him trembling, she worried. What was going on? Kilia's fingers curled into his shirt tightly as she was crushed against him, "Are you okay?"

"Rethyn...oh come on let me meet her. You know? It's kind of like when you show the girlfriend to your parents for the first time. Well not exactly, but I am the closest thing to a dad in this new life eh?" Death then chuckled at Rethyn's silent trembling before he continued on with. "After? No, I'm just giving him some tough love. I can't have him be soft now...Why kill what you helped bring back?"

"Helped... bring back..." Kilia whispered softly. She couldn't turn, but she did raise her voice a bit, a sharp snap to it that usually wasn't there, "Leave him alone," she said as she reached behind Rethyn and her hand swiped at the air. The soft glow of her magic system came up and her fingers touched the pad, but she couldn't see what she was drawing out. She was trying to make some sort of shield, a protective barrier that she was going to throw on Rethyn. She could only hope that it would work. All the while her voice whispered to Rethyn, "Don't listen, ignore it. He doesn't know anything. You're just fine, trust me."

"But girl, I am speaking to you now not him. What you seek to know is why Rethyn has no magic system? Because the power he processes is the gift I bestowed upon him when I helped bring him back...That foolish girl tried to revive him, but like every other bastard and whore in the past would of failed. I gave just a push of help and look what happened." Chuckling slightly at the barrier he had no intent of attacking Death turned away as he finished with.

"He's even in my image when I was but a mortal..Kazar may of had black hair like he does now, but when he was in my world he was a blonde...Well heh just go look at the picture he has under his pillow...He's not who he was at all in life. Rethyn wasn't even his original name."

Reaching his hand into one of the dogs opened eye sockets, Death begun to write something upon the window with the crimson of blood. It looked to be an array of numbers of which could be entered into a magic system. "This is my number...contact me when you're done with games...Ta ta."

Wamp!

As if it were the same power of Rethyn, Death vanished in a puff of smoke. The sound was similar to Rethyn's but distinctly different in sound as through all of Rethyn's teleport there wasn't a sound quite like that. The sound was quite loud this time too as it carried throughout the house.

Upon the window the blood dripped a little, but still the numbers were visible. As Death had left, Rethyn released Kilia as he looked down in silence. Death had broken out the information not in the way Rethyn wanted to give it. It was the truth and it stung the blue eyed boy as he begun to turn away from Kilia. She would see him as a monster now, and as the fear settled in he started to believe it.

"Rethyn!" Kilia called, her voice nearing a shout, but not one of anger, out of fear. Her fingers were still curled on her magic system. Her other hand reached out, snatching his hand and dragging him back as best she could. She moved too, stepping up next to him and pressed the power against his chest. It was probably a little late, but she also wanted to see what it would do. Golden light streamed across his frame, like little tendrils that pulsed and curled together in intricate designs. He glowed like that for a bit. Kilia tilted her head as she watched it, slightly mesmerized by how it twisted along his body.

"Hmm... not sure what that is really, but I think it's a protection spell. Looks cool," she said with a shrug. Then looking up at him, she frowned, "Why did you try to walk away? I don't care what he said. It doesn't matter to me, it won't matter to anyone else. So what, you had blonde hair once. You look better with black. I don't care what your name was before. You're Rethyn to me and I like you just the way you are now. There's nothing wrong with you, and there's nothing wrong with any of that past stuff. I'm sure something happened. I won't ask, it's not my place. But... the important thing now, you're here. Don't lose face simply because of a few words."

She said, and as she spoke, her fingers curled in his hand that she'd grabbed and her other hand reached up to brush across his face.

As the golden light faded from him, Rethyn quickly begun to look around him as he saw many of the the shadows lose that extra layer of darkness, he saw the picture at the end of the hall stop dancing, and lastly he felt a warmness within his head. With a momentary close of his eyes he felt soothed.

Opening his eyes he stared at Kilia as she spoke to him. She may not of known what she just had done with that spell of hers, but she had just driven from his minds the hallucinations of which had plagued him since his return to the living. With no response, Rethyn lunged forward as he pulled Kilia into a tight embrace. Turning his head he then kissed her twice on the cheek. He felt the warmness of her hands upon his face and smiled to her as he said.

"Thank you..."

Kilia was startled as he lunged at her, pulling her up tight. Her breath was lost to her as he bear hugged her. Then she felt his lips against her cheek and she blushed furiously. Still, she smiled warmly as he whispered words towards her, his thanks made her giggle a bit, "I didn't do anything," she said softly. Shifting her hand from his face, her fingers went through his hair and then wrapped up neatly along his neck as she pulled herself into his hug, happy for the warmth.

"I'll always be here to help you, okay? Me, and everyone else. I promise you. You're not alone," she said softly. The darkness of the hall stayed just like that, with only the silver light of the moon to illuminate them just barely. Kilia enjoyed the embrace. Maybe she could hold him again like that soon, the thought made her smile even more as she released a soft sigh of contentment.




Following Morning

"Found her," Cryio's voice was soft as he moved forward through the trees. It had been a long trip, and it had taken a lot of time and extra power that he didn't think he possessed, but it finally payed off. Deriea sighed, she stretched up, pulling at her limbs as her fingers interlaced and rose up over her head, her back curling backwards a bit.

"Finally," she muttered, "Shall we greet the mortals?"

Cryio turned to her slightly, "You shouldn't call them mortals."

"Why not? That's what they are."

"They won't like it," he said bluntly.

Deriea rolled her eyes, "You're certainly loads of fun," she retorted, "Fine what should I call them? Humans? Lesser-beings? Skeletons with skin draped on them?"

"Deriea."

"Fine, fine, I won't do any of that. What's the girls name?"

"Kilia."

"And?"

Cryio shrugged, "Just, 'Kilia'. It's this house," he said, coming to an abrupt halt and Deriea almost running into him. Cursing to herself, she moved to the side of him and stared at the beautiful looking cabin. She gave a soft scoff.

"Seriously, what's with mortals and building such ridiculous things that will never last?"

"I find it pleasing."

"That's because you're strange. And an idiot," she returned, "Well, call her. We really don't have all day."

Cryio turned to her and for a moment she thought he may have smiled, but that might have just been her own weariness dragging on her. She lifted an eyebrow as he stepped forward, walking right through the barrier. Deriea followed and both God's halted right outside the house, waiting.

Deriea sighed heavily, "Idiot," she muttered. Her hand outstretched over the dirt at her feet. The small rocks and dust started to move little by little. Her hand lifted up slowly and the fingers curled in. The ground shifted, a slight roll bucked under her feet and then she directed it towards the house. It rumbled as it went and hit the front door, just short of knocking it off it's hinges. With a bit of a grin, she released the power and crossed her arms with a sort of proud look on her face.

Inside the house if anything a collective moan went up...again, this was happening again. Alauric was in the living room when something hit the front door...well that was a little odd. He scratched his head and decided to go see what was out front. He stared out the windows, and found two gods out there...but they were just standing there as if they were waiting. "I kinda wonder if I go away they will disappear," he mumbled to himself.

Sina watched from a window as she saw the two gods move closer to the home. She had heard the alarm and was on edge, but at the same time nobody seemed to be doing anything so she found herself hesitating to do anything. "If they wanted a fight they would have already right?" Sina asked herself quietly.

Deriea looked to Cryio, "I don't think that worked. Should I try again?"

He shook his head at her, "You will only anger them."

She quirked an eyebrow at him, "What? I just knocked. A simple greeting. A 'hello' if you will."

Cryio sighed.

The rumble that rocked the house just a bit and had drawn everyones attention, had Kilia rushing for the door, heart pounding, "What's happened? What's going on?" She asked quickly, coming up next to Alauric. She had yet to look directly outside yet though.

Following her, was Soran. A slight bit timid, but definitely not huddled in a corner, he peeked around the corner, biting his lower lip, "Alauric?" he called, and took a tentative step into the main hallway.

Alauric was about to answer Kilia, when he heard Soran's voice also, he got a smile on his face with that sound of his name. "Just two gods out there...but they aren't attacking,,,and something hit the door...like a rather loud knock or something." He couldn't figure it out.

"Oh well, if they aren't attacking, I say let’s go back to bed..." he turned from the windows and started in that direction. He saw something that made him more scared than the two gods, "I am just kidding...geeze don't look at me like that."

Grayson was standing there, his expression was extremely stony when he looked at his seer.

"N-not attacking?" Soran repeated, clearly confused.

Kilia, on the other hand whirled around and threw opened the door. Soran gave a sharp cry as she did that. The pink haired Seer laid eyes upon the two Gods now and though she didn't know the woman, she knew she could never forget the face of the one that she had befriened those many years ago. Her lips broke into a wide smile as she drew in a breath and raced out the door, down the steps and across the yard.

Soran moved into the hall, rushing to the door where he stopped, "Kilia!" he yelled, fear in his voice.

Alauric turned as Kilia opened the door, now that was unexpected, he too then went to the open door. "Why do I get the feeling..." he stopped, and tilted his head, he wasn't really sure what to think.

Tristan now stood in the living room, as he looked at the pink-haired girl running down the steps toward the two gods, he squinted his eyes and looked again. "You know maybe I am crazy or something...but I think she knows one of those gods."

"Cryio!!" Kilia called as she sprinted across the yard. Though she threw her arms around the God's neck, the tall God did not return the hug, but did allow her to hang on him. He even bent down a bit for the short girl to do so.

"Kilia. You've grown."

"Yes. It's been a really long time. I was... worried about you," she replied. Then gasped slightly. Quickly releasing Cryio, she took a step back, realizing that everyone in that house had just witnessed her hugging a God. Glancing over her shoulder, she tried to find the words to explain, but faltered as she stood there.

Cryio reached out and patted the top of her head gently, "It is alright. We can explain just fine. I am happy to see you."

"Sure he is," Deriea added with a roll of her eyes, " 'Happy face'.... 'Sad face'.... 'Angry face'," all the while she kept her own facial features exactly the same as she imitated Cryio, "I swear, if it wasn't as clear as day what emotion you were feeling I would have never guessed," her voice was sarcastic.

Alauric had finally walked out the front door and was sitting on the top step, Tristan eyed his father as he now stood next to Soran, "oh what a great and fearless leader he is," he said in his own sarcastic tone. He watched the interaction between the god and Kilia, ok so he wasn't crazy, but what did it mean exactly for them. Was this just a visit, or were they here to actually help?

"I... I can't.... is this... really happening?" Soran stuttered as he leaned against the door, one hand reaching out to tangle with Tristans. He watched in confusion, not sure how to respond.

Kilia smiled, "Uh... yeah. Cryio, I'm sure you know everyone here, so no need for that, but uh... who is this?"

"Deriea."

"Oh. Hello."

"Hi morta- I mean, Kilia."

Kilia arched an eyebrow, then laughed a bit, "I know this may sound odd, but um... why exactly are you here?"

Deriea grinned at Kilia then and waved her hand from one side to the other, "Well you know. Strolling about is just one of those things that us Gods enjoy doing. Not to mention getting into fights with other God's, deciding to help out a group of mortals along the way," with a faked smile she looked at Kilia and then to Cryio, "Of course all of that was this idiots idea," her smile faded as she jabbed at Cryio.

Tristan looked at Soran, "Well you know Kilia...is an oddball," he grinned slightly, "she attracts the strangest friends. but yes its happening...but did she just say they were here to help us?" Alauric had heard the same thing, it was all getting a little to weird for him and he sighed.

"Wait... help? What are you talking about..." Kilia repeated, utterly confused.

Deriea rolled her eyes yet again and sighed as she put both hands on her hips, "You heard right, mortal. Cryio managed to convince me that you needed some help. Not to mention he's been worried for quite some time. Not that you could ever tell of course..." she gave the other God a horrid glare before she looked back to Kilia and smiled sweetly, "So here we are. Besides, don't you think you might need a bit of a... hand? Nothing like having a God back you up in a fight. Makes a statement don't you think? Especially me, I can make one hell of a statement."

"Deriea."

"What?! Jeez, you really are a buzz kill, Cryio. What the hell are you a god of again? Because it certainly isn't emotion," she glowered back at him, "Learn to feel the mood you idiot."

Kilia looked between the two, confused at first but then she started laughing. The woman named Deriea had a fiery temper, and one sharp tongue to add to it, but she was comical in her own way. This could be fun the young pink haired Seer thought to herself as she giggled, "Well, since you're here, why not come inside?"

"Uh..." Deriea looked at the house wearily, "That.. might be a bad idea in my case, girly. If you like that house, I think I'll stay outside."

"She'll destroy it," Cryio answered smoothly and in a matter of factly sort of tone.

Deriea turned her narrowed eyes to Cryio, "It's not like I would do it on purpose!"

Cryio shrugged lightly as he watched Kilia who had taken to laughing again, "O-oh... Okay... I get it," she said between giggles, "Then, we'll stay outside. You can come closer though, I don't want to shout across the yard," she said and turned to start back to where the others lingered on the porch of the home. Cryio followed her without a word while Deriea looked on hesitantly. Finally with a soft growl and string of mumbled curses to herself, the other god followed after. Stopping just short of the house, Kilia smiled at the group.

"Uh... So... this is Cryio. I... um, met him when I was very little. He's.... a good god," she said, not sure how well this was going to go over.

Alauric watched the three approach, and listened to Kilia, "Good god," he repeated, though it sort of sounded like he was saying it differently. "Kilia...um...," he didn't know where to start. Tristan stepped out of the doorway, "What he is trying to say is do you trust them Kilia," he remember her telling stories of her 'pretend friend' when she was little. He sounded like a cool person back then, to a kid, but to really put a actually face to the friend...and the fact that he was a god. Tristan had to ask the question that first came to his mind. He was also worried about the blond seer behind him. He rather thought he reaction would be different.

"A 'good god'?" Soran repeated, his voice turning slightly acidic, his green eyes narrowing dangerously.

Kilia quickly raised up her hands, "It's fine! It's fine, it's okay! He's not going to do anything, I promise you. And she won't either. If she's with Cryio, then it's alright."

"What's wrong with the mortal?" Deriea asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow as she regarded Soran's standoffish attitude to the situation.

Kilia turned to look at the goddess, "He's... that's a long story. He just doesn't trust Gods. For a good reason. But I can promise you, I trust these ones. Do you trust me, Soran? Tristan?"

Tristan looked back, he understood why Soran reacted like that. "It’s not that we don't trust you Kilia, you know that, it’s just going to take some getting used to, but I am all for them helping, we certainity could use it." Alauric looked at his son, maybe it was the right thing to do to stay out of this decision, they needed to start making some on their own anyways.

"And well," Tristan continued, "think of the circumstances now, how some of us are less protected, don't forgot about that Kilia. Maybe we could get them to make a oath or something," he slightly smiled at the thought, it was a rather funny notion to get a god to promise anything.

"I will protect her," Cryio said, his gaze watching Kilia steadily.

Kilia turned to look at him, "Cryio..."

"I recall giving you a promise many years ago. I'm sorry that I left you without fulfilling that. But I can now, and I will."

Kilia nibbled at her lip. She remembered that promise. He'd told her that he would protect her from other gods, no matter what. Then a few years after that, he'd disappeared. She had a thousand questions about that, but figured they could talk later. Looking to Deriea she tilted her head. Tristan had a very good point, and in the case of Soran, something should be said to try to settle him on this idea. Kilia was also happy that the blonde Seer hadn't flown off the handle. Though his anger was definitely something new to deal with, it seemed that most times he knew it was there and did what he could to subdue it. Hell, she was even surprised to see him at the front door, facing two Gods. It made her wonder what Rethyn did specifically to get him out of that shell of his.

Deriea nodded, "I won't harm you either. If it makes anything any better, he's the God of Life, and I'm the Goddess of Earth. I can't exist without this place, and since he's the god of Life, he has a sort of... what do you say. Soft spot for mortals. I suppose I do too," she said the last bit softly and looked off into the trees.

Tristan slighty tilted his head, what exactly does a god of life do,

"So what are your powers," he said looking at the tall male god. Seriously the guy was taller then he was, would have made a good basketball player if he was mortal, he offhandly wanted to ask him if he knew how to play. What the heck...Tristan had moved past the acceptance stage and had in mind to ask the guy to play a game of 1 on 1 or something like that.

Cryio looked up to the red haired Seer. He looked back to Kilia, almost as if he didn't understand what Tristan was asking. Kilia only smiled and waited. It took the God a moment, but he finally seemed to figure it out, "Life. Creating it. Keeping it."

Kilia giggled, turning she looked at Tristan, "Basically he means healing. He's... a great healer. Without anything living, more specifically humans, Cryio doesn't exist. Anything that has to do with healing, medicines, healing plant life... all that kinds of stuff, he creates it and keeps it going. He has all sorts of knowledge on that. Which, through him, we learn. Healers like myself and Victor become capable of doing those things, because he creates it." Kilia was beaming as she explained, hopefully her explanation was understood, because she honestly didn't know any other way of saying it. Also, she was saying it this way because when she had asked Cryio when she was small, this was the answer he taught her.

"Life..." Soran repeated. He moved a bit closer to Tristan, though his acidic tone had long since left him, "I've never heard of that before."

"A lot of god's aren't heard of, mortal," Deriea said, shrugging her shoulders a bit, "And a lot of gods are forgotten over time. A lot who shouldn't be forgotten."

Tristan glanced at Deriea, he had to agree with her on that point. Yet how long has it been like this, their world this way. Every generation had different seers, "I've never heard of it either, and you are right many gods aren't heard of, unfortunely we only get to know the ones who want to hurt us. It shouldn't be that way either."

Tristan was countering her point with one of his own, one that he thought was valid.

Deriea lifted an eyebrow as she regarded Tristan, "Smart mortal. Yes, it does seem that you unfortunately only meet the ones that wish to harm. Those of us that are left that you consider 'good' are few and far between. A lot of us aren't powerful enough to stand up to the others and many times end up being devoured by other Gods because of their impeccable appetite for 'more power'," she hissed the last words, "And so the lesser gods are taken care of first. Which in turn, makes them fighters in a war they never wanted to be in anyway, but in order to survive, they're forced to after human's who have the purest of energy.

"Which slowly builds up in turn and now... here you have your war and it all leads up to where you're standing right now. All because a couple of Gods many many millenia ago started fighting over a simple 'title'. The 'God of Gods'. Whoever holds that title, holds the most power, and controls the other Gods, and essentially controls everything else in the living universe. Quite the powerful seat, don't you think?"

Tristan smirked, but her statement led to more questions, some of which he didn't want to ask in front of some of the others standing there. Humans have the purest energy...that didn't make any sense to him, in comparing a human with a god shouldn't it be the other way.

He looked confused and decided he would let it go for now. He looked at the pink-haired seer, "Well they are your guests Kilia, even though where they are going to stay is a mystery."

Deriea laughed, loudly, "Silly mortal! Unlike you, we don't need a place to stay, or a place to sleep or anything like that. I prefer the outside anyway, and Cryio... is just Cryio. He's strange... he'll probably just stand over there through the night when you strange mortals need to sleep," she said waving her hand over to some random corner of the property, "Besides. It would be easier for us to catch any stray gods that may be around looking for a quick shot at killing any of you."

Soran's fingers tightened around Tristans, a slight shaking vibrating his limbs as he listened to her. The blonde Seer managed to keep most of his fear at bay, but he still couldn't quite help reaching out to the taller boy for a sense of comfort. Clearing his throat, he looked up at Tristan, "Are we sure about this?" he whispered.

Tristan turned and smiled at Soran, "We will talk about inside, let Kilia catch up with her friend." He didn't really know how to actually answer that question nor was he hundred sure about it in the first place."Dad," he said to the guy who was still sitting on the steps. "Hmm, what," Tristan rolled his eyes, had the man actually been napping while sitting there. "Oh, so we inviting the gods to stay...well why the hell not." Alauric mumbled mostly to himself. The older seer was having a hard time with the idea, but like he thought before, he wasn't going to be a part of the situation.

Alauric went back into the house, only to come outside again a second later, "I forgot I had something to do," he went past the gods and Kilia. Tristan had to wonder if the guy was becoming senile...not that he should be old enough for that. "We will talk later," Tristan said to the others out there.

Kilia lifted an eyebrow as Alauric went inside and then immediately came right back out and walked past them. She watched him go, curious as to what was going on, but then shrugged as she turned back to Cryio. She smiled at him, "It's been so long. Shall we walk and talk?"

The god nodded his head and turned to start towards the edge of the property and walk through the trees with Kilia at his side. The pink haired Seer started rambling and it seemed the God didn't mind in the least as he listened to her. Deriea sighed heavily before glancing up to Tristan and Soran, "Uh... yeah. I'll just... be over there. I suppose letting them catch up is fine... but really, we should be getting you all ready," she huffed a bit then turned and went to where she'd indicated.

Soran, still very confused watched it all happen before he reached up and rubbed at his head, "This is... awkward... And what's up with your dad? Maybe you should go talk to him?" Soran asked as he looked up at Tristan. He frowned a bit as he rested his hand against Tristan's chest for a moment. Stretching up, he wrapped his arms around the boys shoulders and pulled himself up so that he could kiss the other quickly on his lips, "I'm hungry. I'm going to go eat. What are you gonna do?"

"Eating sounds good," he said as he held the other close, he was about to go for a tease when he heard a clearing of a throat behind him. He looked back and saw Grayson standing there, "Sorry to interrupt, where is your father," Tristan almost lost it right there as he realized now why his father was in such a hurry to leave, "He went that way...like something spooked him." Grayson nodded, "So we have guests, well at least maybe now we can get down to actually training with them around."

Grayson turned back into the house, and Tristan chuckled, "My dad is running away from his guardian," he whispered to Soran, "he is afraid of being berated for his behavior during the last battle."

Soran nodded, "I would be afraid too... Grayson scares me for sure...." he replied just as softly hoping that the older Guardian wouldn't hear him.

Tristan shook his head, "I suppose we should go tell the others about what is going on, even though I am curious about what everyone's thoughts are going to be." Tristan had to think they were doing the right thing, but still why was he doubting the decision now.

Soran nodded a bit, "Yeah. You're right. I wonder how well this is going to go over. I know that Kilia seems to trust him.. but... but what of that other Goddess... I-I don't know Tristan." Soran closed his eyes tightly and took in a deep breath to try to settle himself. With a soft sound against his lips, he heaved a sigh, "Ugh, I don't know. Let’s eat first. Then we'll talk. Figure things out with everyone over breakfast."

The morning Rethyn had remained hidden in the shadows as he watched over the turn of events. The night eye was always tired early in the morning as he had usually stayed up the previous night walking about the house patrolling while the other Guardians and Seers took their rest.

This morning, Rethyn was confused. He didn't know what was stranger, helpful gods or the fact that Kilia could still function with the same lack of hours of sleep as himself. With a gentle sigh, Rethyn teleported with a soft poof from his outdoor perch to his favorite chair within the living room. With a light yawn the man held his sheathed sword against his body as he begun to doze off in the chair.

Passing by Rethyn, Sina was half tempted to try to snatch the sword Rethyn had been cuddling with in his sleep. With a roll of her eyes she brought upon a smile as she moved into the kitchen. She was very curious to hear about what had gone down while she glanced through the window at her team.

"Good morning all~!" Sina said as she stretched her arms out with a higher pitched yawn.

Tristan was coming back inside with the blond seer to grab something to eat, and to discuss what had just happened with the others. He glanced over at his guardian and shook his head slightly. He looked up as he saw Sina and smiled, "Good morning," he said as he went into the kitchen and raided the fridge. He really thought he would love some bacon at the moment, but it seems they ate the last of it at some point. "French toast anyone," he said. As he started to get out the incrediates, he had to make a mental note as to ask what they were going to do about food if the towns people moved on

"Hell yeah!" Sina said with a raise of her hand. "However, let me make it for you two. You're both too cute." Sina said commandingly as she pointed at the both of them. Within her mind she begun to picture herself as their waitress upon their morning date. The thought brought a little blush under her eyes as she brought her hands to the side of her face. With closed eyes the swooning girl seemed to lose focus as she daydreamed.

"Um..." Soran paused as he stood next to Tristan, "I think we lost her," he said and then rolled his eyes, "I'm so glad your sisters aren't like this," he commented and moved into the kitchen, "While she's too busy... daydreaming" he said and then blushed a bit he joined the taller boy, "I'll help you make breakfast. French toast sounds amazing," he said with a smile. It would also be a great distraction. He didn't want to know what was currently tumbling through Sina's mind at that moment. Yup... he was definitely sure he was much better off not knowing.

Tristan turned and was about to comment, but just watching the girl made him turn back around and blush a little himself. He really hoped it disappeared when Soran came and stood beside him, "Yeah, definitely need a distraction from crazy girl over there," he took out the eggs and the bread and handed it to Soran. "And who’s to say my sisters aren't like that, they just aren't like that in front of people."

Snapping back into attention Sina lifted up a hand as she said in a saddened voice. "W-wait...ohhh you guys are so mean." Dropping her head in defeat she marched over to the table and laid her chin on her folded hands as she sulked quietly to herself.

"So, they're closet fan girls?" Soran asked with a short laugh as he broke open the eggs into a small pan and used a fork to break the yolk. As he whisked that with the fork, he shook his head, "I don't want to find any weird like stories or something from any of them, especially her," he said moving his head in the direction of Sina.

"Weird stories?" River's voice broke into the room and Soran felt his face grow brilliantly red.

"M-momma!" he stuttered in surprise.

River grinned, "I have some really awesome stories that I could share. How about it? Want to hear some, Tristan?"

"Mom! Mom, no... no that's bad, that's bad, don't!" he moved, dropping the fork and tried to put his hand over her mouth while she laughed and fought him back, getting his hands down at his sides and hugging him to keep him there.

"Hmm... which one should I start with."

Tristan started to comment on the fan girl thing, but started cracking up when River came into the kitchen. Oh man Soran's face was priceless and Tristan laughed some more when she offered to tell her own stories, he couldn't offer up a suggestion because he was laughing so hard. Soran was going to kill him later, he was sure of it.

River stumbled a bit as she struggled with her son, laughing slightly, "Oh! I have the perfect one."

"Mom!" he screeched and then yelled at Tristan, "And why are you laughing!!?"

"Oh hush, it's not that bad. So," she turned her attention to Tristan, "He must have been about nine or ten, I don't remember exactly, but he was in trouble. I told him to stay in his room until he had calmed down or something. Anyway, it was about this time he was practicing with his magic system. He wasn't very good at it, but he definitely tried. I'm not sure where it went wrong, but I was sitting in the living room and I heard this horrid scream. So I went running up the stairs. When I opened the door, he had summoned a giant teddy bear into the room. I wasn't sure what the teddy bear was for, but it had him upside down by one leg and was shaking him like a little jar.

"He was crying, terrified of the darn thing. When I asked him later after I got rid of it, why the bear was there, he told me that he'd wanted to try to have the bear give me a hug in apology for whatever it was. But it turned into an evil bear and, his words exactly, "Tried to eat me." I don't think it was trying to eat him, I think it was trying to figure out how to hug him but he was too small at the time."

"Mom...." Soran moaned. Okay, maybe that one wasn't too bad, but then River chuckled and he knew that laugh. Which made him struggle even more.

"Which of course isn't as bad as his running away from me when it was bath time. I swear this child was an escape artist. I'd get him stripped down from his clothes, turn to start the water, and when I turned back not a second later, he was gone. Full blown naked, running around the house like a wild monkey."

"Mom!!!"

Tristan stood there and listened, ok the bear story was slightly funny, but Tristan found it cute. As soon as River said bath time, Tristan couldn't hold it in and started laughing again. He couldn't help it...oh man he was certainly glad his dad wasn't in the room. Alauric would be sure as to try to top that story. That thought calmed the laughter slightly, and he tried to calm himself down. Yet he knew if he said anything, he was going to be in big trouble, so Tristan decided to be smart and let someone else do it for him

On the other hand Sina had dropped to the floor as she giggled relentlessly at the story. "T-that's adorable!" She cried out as little tears escaped her eyes. Kicking her legs with her giggles she looked like a turtle of which had been put on its back.

"Mom!" Soran shrilled, his face a brilliant red color that he knew wasn't going to go away for some time. Laughing she released him and he put on a pout as he turned back to the food, "Traitor," he shot to Tristan, then stuck out his tongue to his boyfriend. River giggled even more.

Tristan gave the blond a look, kinda like don't stick your tongue out at me for no good reason. "Yeah, yeah...," he turned and went back to breakfast too, "It seems we have some guests out there, one Kilia knows well. Two gods so to speak." Ok there is was out in the open for everyone to here


"Who you calling a traitor? He's supposed to agree to listen to stories. I have more!"

"No! Nope! We're good! No more! All good, Momma, we're going to eat breakfast civily, and without interruption. Or I'm going to drag Tristan and myself to the room and we will eat there where you can't tell him any more stories!" Soran said, trying to overpower his mothers voice. He shot a deadly look to Tristan and reached out and poked the boy in his ribs, "You're gonna get it later."

River smiled, "Two gods?" she asked. If nobody was doing anything drastic like fighting... she was obviously curious and confused to say the least.

Sina shot up as she darted her eyes to Soran. "Seriously little guy, why are there two gods outside?" She cocked her head at Soran as she looked to the boy in sheer confusion. Back in Japan every god was a killer, it was strange to see two not willing to strike them down the moment they were found.

Soran turned red again, "L-little! I'm... I'm not little," he said with a pout on his face, a slight puffing of his cheeks and then turned back to the food, "As for the gods... well, I think one of them knows Kilia. They seem to be... kinda close. Or something. The other one... says she's with Cryio. I don't know. It's strange. I still haven't... quite wrapped my head around it," he heaved a sigh, "I don't know."

Tristan looked at Soran, "They offered to help is what's more, help us in this fight we find ourselves in." He turned back to River, "I know that I haved formed opinions about gods based on my experiences with them, but I've never had two gods come up and say they wanted to help in any way. Kilia asked us to trust her, so whatever happens after this, I will take responiblity for."

"Just cause you're little doesn't mean you're not cute Soran-san~!" Sina chimed in before looking back to Tristan with a shrug. " I trust you guys on this. It's kept me alive so far." With a stretch and a rise to her feet she returned to her seat. With a glance over to Rethyn in the living room she called to him.

"Yo! Blue eyes lazy ass, get up!"

"C-cute!?" Soran stuttered... this Japanese woman was really throwing him off, she was strange. He wasn't sure he could keep up with her. The only one who'd ever called him cute aside from his own mother was Tristan. Honestly, Tristan was the only one allowed to call him cute. He blushed furiously as the food was beginning to finish up. It was almost ready to be put on the table. River was busying herself with the plates as well. Soran gave a sigh.

"I think I give up..."

Tristan chuckled slightly and whisper to the boy, "Hey don't give up, anyways she isn't wrong, you are cute." Tristan moved rather quickly away from the other, not really wanted to get hit or anything. The poke in the ribs had been enough. "Yo...didn't I ask you to leave my guardian alone, he sleeps during the day, protects you at night."

A light blush grew under Sina's eyes as her mind started to wonder again. Dazing off to her daydreaming yet again Sina begun to picture Rethyn as something he clearly wasn't. Literal stars in her eyes weren't far from the truth as she gazed over to Rethyn. "He's totally a vampire knight..." She said quietly under her breath.

"Are the Japanese all like this?" Soran asked, he watched her with a lifted eyebrow. Shaking his head a bit, he deftly maneuvered around the star struck girl and brought the plate of hot food to the table and seated himself.

"Just the uber-silly fan girls," Tristan mumbled, "will you stop with the daydreaming and sit down and eat."

"I don't know will you spoon feed me Tristan-kun~" Sina said in return with a stick out of her tongue at him with a wink. "Heh, alright let's eat a good breakfast."

Spoon feed Tristan thought, now he was the one daydreaming of dumping a whole pot of oatmeal on top of the girls head. Maybe he would make oatmeal tomorow....at least it would give him a good laugh.

"Aww...don't give me that look. I'm just teasing you a little Tristan." Sina said with a gentle smile to the boy.

"H-hey..." Soran tried, but then rolled his eyes and grabbed some of the food. He put some on Tristan's plate and set it next to him before grabbing some of his own, "There. Now... I think after breakfast we should... seriously talk to those... um... Gods," he said, trying to turn the conversation to be a bit more serious and definitely a lot less about him and Tristan and Sina's daydreaming.

River seated herself as well, "I want to meet them myself. I'm interested to see a 'good god'. Never heard of that one before."

"Me either," Soran muttered under his breath, his green gaze narrowing at his food briefly. Taking up his fork he stabbed at the food and then proceeded to eat more gently after the vicious attack on the french toast.

Tristan sat down and picked up the syrup and poured a little on the french toast, "Sounds good to me," he agreed. He wondered if his father would have returned by then, he had to come back anyways. He had to wonder was there something he was missing in that whole thing. Grayson didn't just seem to be mad, he shrugged his shoulders and took a bite to eat also.

"So...Tristan." Sina said before pausing to chomp down on a piece of toast. "How did you sister you know...meet gods?"

Tristan choked a little on the bite he was eating, "Kilia isn't my sister," he said and tried to chew the rest of the food before answering the rest of the question, "And she said she knew Cryio when she was a little girl." She must have been really little, yet he had to wonder, how did she get away with being his friend with a mom like hers.

Tristan looked a little guilty, he shouldn't have thought that thought, but he still wondered.

"Tristan-kun, you really should learn to chew on your food. Or I am going to have to teach you~!" Sina said with a little giggle before glancing over to Soran. "Or Soran...maybe you should show him how..." She said with a little wink as she placed her chin over her laced hands with a small smile. She had no shame as River was not too far off from her as she flirted with next to no filter in her words.

"O-oye... Th-that's... I-I'm... Not going to do that... W-why..." Soran muttered, stuttering as he was absolutely embarrassed by Sina's actions. This breakfast plan wasn't going as he had planned it... He took a bite of food and tried to focus on eating rather than what she was saying. That girl... she really had no 'off' switch, did she? An idea popped into his head then... Maybe he could make an off switch... wouldn't that be awesome! He giggled a bit.

Tristan looked at his plate for a second, really trying not to blush at Sina's words. He sighed, she was really annoying, even though he knew she was just joking around with them. Yet he had lost his appetite for some reason. "I guess I should go check on Kilia," he said quietly. He got up and put his plate in the sink. Before he walked out of the kitchen, he grabbed some water from the fridge. "Excuse me guys," he said even though he has already moved away from the table.

Shrugging at Tristan's actions, Sina glanced over to Soran as she asked him. "So..what's going on in this neck of the woods? What's making you giggle so much?" Closing her eyes she sat back in her seat a little as she added in. "That was an amazing breakfast by the way~"

Soran watched, almost with a horrified look, as Tristan left him alone with Sina. Well, not really alone, but his mother wasn't all that great of help either. The one and only person who could have saved him from further embarrassment had just walked right out the door. He looked back between Sina and River. His mother was seemingly ignoring what was going on, lost in her own world, but with a sly little smile on her face. Soran swallowed... hard.

"Uh... I-I... don't know what you mean..." he said quickly and took another bite of food so he wouldn't have to talk to her and further encourage her antics. All the while he was thinking up ways of repaying Tristan for 1) laughing at him in the kitchen while cooking breakfast, and 2) leaving him alone with the creepy fan-girl from Japan who was apparently obsessed with... with... Soran blushed furiously as he couldn't quite finish that thought.

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After returning from town, the two seers decided to take a shower before filling in the others in what they found, neither one of them knowing what had a occurred before they left. Grayson had been resting still and Victor was in his own room.

Tristan was on his way back out to the kitchen when a strange sight of Kilia running around met his eyes. What the heck is she doing he thought to himself.

Kilia moved from one room to the other, opening doors rapidly. She had finished healing the two boys hours ago and had gone to do some things of her own, mainly rest and get rid of her pounding headache that was threatening to make her sleep. She hated the weariness that came afterwards, the headaches, the feeling that she was going to passout. Then again, Kilia had a tendency to overdo things. She wasn't quite refined enough yet with her magic skills like Uncle Vic was to make the most of her energies. So, she had gone to get water, ate, even took a short nap and then showered.

Now, she couldn't find either Jonathan or Peter and she was starting to worry. Had someone snatched them? Had something happened to them but no one heard it? She couldn't figure it out. So as she went, she was suddenly opening doors very quickly and they were banging on the walls, which she didn't notice until about the fifth time and she realized that she was probably scaring a certain blonde haired Seer. Quickly she stopped this and quickly went to where she had heard River and Soran a bit ago in the kitchen.

"J-Jonathan and Peter... they're gone!" She said quickly, trying to keep the panic from her voice, but failing miserably. What happened?

"Yeah. Kilia, they left after the battle." Rethyn said as he had sat down upon one of the many comfortable chairs of which were in the living room. With his head turned he was looking at Kilia from where she stood in the kitchen. His expression remained blank as he looked to her.

Extending a hand out, he moved it to signal Kilia to move to a nearby seat. The room wasn't well light and outside it had grown dark. From within the darkness only the hollow eyes seemed to luminate through towards Kilia.

"L-left..." she breathed, "They... left? Just... up and gone? Why?" Kilia asked, her voice shaking just a bit. Why would they leave? They were Guardian's, they... they couldn't just... leave. Her heart lurched as she stood there, staring at Rethyn in return. His eyes seemed to glow as it was starting to get dark and the lights in the kitchen hadn't grown strong enough yet to block out the dim gloom.

Through the shadows Rethyn slowly nodded at Kilia. "Jonathan grew frustrated from the battle and was convinced we were all that was holding him back from "true power". Like a stray, Peter followed him in turn."

Lifting a glass of water to his mouth, Rethyn sipped it slowly as he was quite not sure what to do. Kilia would not of taken the news well either way, and nobody else seemed to want to break it. It may as well be him.

"W-what..." once again her words were nothing more than air slightly formed to make a sound. Her heart skipped a beat and then a sharp pain followed. Her fingers reached up and curled over the spot as she swayed slightly. Reaching out she took hold of the doorway, her eyes closing shut tightly as she felt a burn. Maybe she would take that seat now. Moving slowly she was making her way to the place that Rethyn had offered for her when Soran's voice slowly made it to her.

"Left... left... he left. Why? Why?" What started off as soft, slowly turned louder and his tone darkened. Kilia, completely caught off guard turned to the little blonde that was at the other end of the table. His food completely forgotten, he was glaring at the table with a look of such rage that it made her blood run cold.

"The fuck would he leave for!? I thought he was here to help me, to protect me when those Gods come calling! Who the hell does he think he is to just up and leave like this!? And he never even said a word to me, I haven't seen my Guardian in days! The hell is wrong with him!" Soran's voice was near screaming now as his fist hit the table, making the wood tremble and the silverware along it jump, "He left me again! Where the hell was he when Valyn was there? Why wasn't he there!?"

Running feet could be heard coming from the hallway, Tristan had been making his way to the kitchen anyways to talk to River and Soran and he heard Soran's yelling. He had never heard Soran like that before, not even when he was mad at Tristan before. He stopped at the enterance of the kitchen, trying to figure out what was going on, "Soran," yet his voice was only a whisper compared to the to the others. He turned to Rethyn, his head tilted in question, what had happened.

"Soran!" River called and moved around the kitchen to get to her son. Kilia stood with both hands over her lips as she was in utter shock. Never once had Soran blamed anyone for what had happened, or if things went wrong, he never blamed anyone. Where was this anger coming from?

"Why!" He screamed, "What is he planning?! To leave me at the mercy of those fucking Gods?!"

"Soran!" Kilia yelled finally along with River's voice that was trying to calm him. He hit the table again, a kind of raging growl at the back of his throat filling the air. Everything trembled, and Kilia could have sworn she felt a spike of energy course through the room as well.

The truth of which went through Rethyn's lips started out cold, but upon Soran's reaction he said. "That's exactly what he was planning Soran. He didn't care about you, he cared about power. " Rethyn paused for moment as he saw the vibrations of the room climb through his water. "I can't promise you the return of your guardian, but I can tell you that as long as you stay here I will do my best to carry the weight they left behind."

Hollow eyes locked onto Soran as Rethyn stood up. Rethyn then spoke quietly to Soran as if he was both trying to warn the boy and make him realize he was in the room.

"Soran."

Just like the few times before, his rage had spiked, but this time he had acted out on it. He shook, shuddered violently even as his fists clenched tightly on the table. His gaze shifted to Kilia who had yelled at him and she paused in mid step to go to him, River hadn't even dared to approach her own son as she was far too shocked at the display. He turned to Rethyn then, grinding his teeth as the other boy stood up. His words hadn't made it any better, if only to fuel the fire that was still raging. He couldn't quite understand why exactly he was so utterly pissed off, but he knew he was taking it out on someone that probably shouldn've have been taken out on.

Still, he couldn't help the feeling of betrayal. The sense of loss, back-stabbed. The word echoed and he clenched his teeth harder, breathing faster as he sat there, his fists shaking as he tried desperately to control himself. Rethyn continued though, his words cutting through the air to reach him. Soran gave a slight moan as he sat there, closing his eyes tightly. He started to lean forward, his breaths heaving in and out of his chest as he slowly shifted forwards.

Tristan was really confused, if he had figured right two guardians had left. He could understand that feeling, he almost thought he was going to face it in the past. He glanced at Rethyn...his words seemed really harsh for some reason. Was he trying to help or do something else? "Soran please, just calm down," he was almost at the point of begging. The anger in the other was hurting him, he took the step forward that no one else even dared. He didn't care if Soran hurt him, he just wanted the anger to end.

Finally, he let out an enraged scream, his fist hitting the table a third time, harder than the first and Kilia was sure he'd broken it, or at least bruised it very badly. She gasped at the sound of the table rocking from the hit and his scream. Looking to the people in the room she tried to plead with them via her gaze, help him... she was at a loss of what to do at that moment and could only stand in frozen fear.

Rethyn raised a hand to Kilia as suddenly-

Wap!

Rethyn suddenly appeared behind Soran as he roughly grabbed him again. With the quick words "Be right back." to Kilia and River there was another loud crackle as both the boys vanished. In their wake a little black smoke seemed to be left behind signaling Rethyn's emotions towards the situation.

From behind Soran the cabin looked much smaller as they both fell from two miles up in the air. However, from positioning Rethyn had what would seem like a death lock grip on the back of Soran's head as kept Soran in front of him during the fall. The wind howled as they picked up speed with every second they spent in the air. As the rocketed closer the howling of wind almost became deafening as they drew closer.

Tristan looked completely shocked at the disappearance of his guardian and Soran. What the fucking hell was that anyways, what was the guardian thinking if he was actually thinking at all. So where the hell had the other taken him...Tristan only thought was to run out the back door.

The feel of the boys hands on him made him jump. He hadn't been expecting to be touched and he would have fought back violently except he found that in the next instant, he was no longer in that room. Immediately his heart lurched and he was sent back to that abandoned warehouse, the golden knife, the face of the God and his horrid screams filled with agony.

He did feel, though, the arms of the boy wrapped around him tightly, holding him in place and right after, the feel of air cutting past them. It roared in his ears, making him cringe in terror. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think, and couldn’t do anything. Finally he found his voice and let out a strangled cry. His fingers dug into Rethyn, clinging to him, "Stop... stop... stop!" he cried, closing his eyes tightly as he buried his face in the boys chest, trying to breath properly even though he wanted nothing more than to scream.

As if it were a bad dream everything stopped just before the two of them were to splatter on the roof of the cabin. With a carefully placed teleportation, Rethyn had put Soran's life before his eyes, and placed them on top of the roof of the cabin.

Latching onto the front of Soran's shirt, Rethyn pulled the boy away from him as he begun to preach to the boy. "Dying is easy Soran. Every breath you take someone breaths there last. Within your eyes I see you. I feel like I see everyone these days." Shaking Soran slightly Rethyn continued. "And it's not by this flesh I see you, I see the you under the skin."

There was a pause, Rethyn's breaths drew in longer and more forced before he started again. "I was the one who pulled you out of there Soran. And I saw myself in your eyes. Not even a year ago I was just like you. And you know where I was a year ago? Dead Soran. Dying is easy, but the afterlife isn't. I was there for fifteen years of the kind of torture of which changes you. To survive I've done horrid things in that asylum they call the "afterlife"."

Pausing again, Rethyn looked over Soran with the darkest of looks. Leaning in to whisper to Soran's ear Rethyn said "I lived in a world where the warden would build your own perfect life and then smash it just when you were most happy. Then he'd start over and watch you smash another life he created for you because you couldn't trust anyone."

"I know you've been through hell, but you have family and people left who would die again for you. I would die in an instant so you could tell the God of Death that he'd have to wait."

Throwing Soran away from him, Rethyn pointed to the woods as he spoke loudly to the boy. "You don't see them, I do! When you're brought back the God simply does not wait for you to come back! He's made plans..."

Placing a hand over his face, Rethyn did his best to try to control himself as he begun to deepen his breaths. "Do you see?!" He finished with. In his own mind he felt he made sense, but he feared he just spoke madness to Soran.

Glancing back at the boy, he awaited him.

Panting, Soran hadn't opened his eye as he thought for sure he was going to die. Then he felt fingers latch into the front of his shirt and drag him off of Rethyn's chest that he'd been clinging too desperately. He opened his eyes now, fear clouding his mind as Rethyn started talking to him. Shaking, tears were streaming down his face as he stared at the other boy, white as a sheet. No color graced his features as he sat there. The words took a while to sink in.

He was shaken slightly and he blinked, his mouth opening as his lips trembled slightly, a soft sound trying to escape him as all he could do was huddle there. Rethyn's words about dragging him out of the concrete building made his gaze widen. He hadn't known that. Of course, he hadn't been conscious either. The next words hit him hard as well. Rethyn had died? But... then... how was he, sitting right there? He couldn't get the words out of his throat as he stared in fear at Rethyn, still trembling from the fall.

The boy leaned forward and whispered to him then. He felt tears falling even more as he listened. He had certainly felt that the life he had woken up to after such an ordeal was nothing but an illusion, however he soon realized that hadn't been the case. His heart slammed in his chest as he knelt there. He didn't know what to think, or what to say. It was hard to even breathe still. He managed only one word after Rethyn had told him that the people around him would die for him, and that even the dark haired Guardian would do so too.

Looking at the boy, his breath hardly whispered out Rethyn's name.

Then Rethyn threw him backwards, shocking him even more. Catching himself just barely by both hands, he was leaned backwards, his eyes wide as he watched Rethyn. Confusion was clear on his face as he sat there. What did this all mean? Why had Rethyn dropped him in mid air and then settled them on the roof? Was this... mean to make him feel better? Or meant to make him see something? Because if it was the former, it certainly hadn't worked. If anything, Soran was now afraid of heights of all things.

"S-see... what... Rethyn..." he managed between short gasps, "The God of Death? Waiting for what? What do you mean? Why the hell did you drop me!?" he countered, a flash of anger before he quickly contained it.

"Look around you Soran! What do you see?!" Rethyn barked. "In that instance if you had died everything you loved would be gone! In the afterlife all of this would never be seen the same. I see the same fear I had within my eyes through yours. The world beyond this one is tougher, more horrid! If you don't put your fear behind you it will kill you and those you love."

Rethyn paused for a moment as he coughed slightly. "The God of Death is someone you never want to see. You'll know when you see him. I see him everywhere...I'll do whatever it takes so none of you will have to meet him."

Rethyn felt the same solution he had come to before race throgh his mind. He then heard Kilia's words in turn. Bringing his hands to the side of his head, Rethyn looked crazed as he stared off into the woods. Faceless beings watched him, they were whispering.

"Your eyes are like mine, I can see you see your fears everywhere you go Soran...Everywhere..."

Sitting down Rethyn went silent as he stared off into the distance. It was as if he went into overdrive and shut down. Every so often he would only merely blink between the now almost silent rises and falls of his chest.

Even though it took him a moment to figure out where the heck they were, his heart stopped when he saw them on the roof. It was probably good for Rethyn that he didn't see the entire display of...stupidness.

"Rethyn..." Soran breathed slowly. Fear... he sees fear. Of course it's fear... he thought, trying to keep up with the boy though his heart was pounding and he felt frozen to the spot. He wasn't sure what Rethyn was talking about, his voice sounded off though. But the one thing that did stick was the mention of fear.

Fear had frozen the blonde.

Fear had crept into his very soul, dragging him down into dark depths that he'd never been to before.

Fear was hurting those around him.

He clenched his teeth as he squeezed his eyes shut. The shock of the fall still stuck with him, but he was feeling something else now too. It wasn't anger, it wasn't quite fear, but... realization? Maybe. He wasn't sure just yet. When Rethyn stopped moving and just stared off into the darkness, he worried. Leaning forward slowly, careful of his own actions, he breifly touched Rethyn. The touch didn't burn. It shouldn't burn... Tristan would tell me that I'm sure he figured as he tried to get the boys attention.

"Rethyn... a-are you okay?"

There was no answer. Shit. Now he was stuck up on the roof. With no way down. His heart hammered in his chest. He swallowed dryly as he felt that familiar tug of fear trying to freeze him. Shaking slightly he sat there staring at Rethyn for a while. The boy wasn't going to move, and thus Soran was stuck, with only himself to get out of the situation. He glanced around quickly and spotted Tristan.

"Tristan!" he called, leaning forward and slipping slightly. He gasped a bit and quickly caught himself, his legs stretching out to stop from going farther on the roof top. His boots had enough grip to catch on the shingles. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly and returned his gaze to the boy on the ground, "Tristan... Uh... yeah," he wasn't sure what to say or how to relay to the boy that his guardian had just gone into robot mode and 'turned off'. He glanced over to Rethyn again, "He's um.... broken..." he said and then sort of chuckled as he was referring to the boy as a mechanical object that had stopped working.

It was only slightly funny. Slightly.

He's broken is that what the other just said, Tristan actually thought it fit better than it should have. "Rethyn," he called, "what in the hell are you doing." Ok maybe that wasn't the best response. Tristan was just going to have to come up with something, yet it seemed like his mind just ran out of ideas.

Rope...ladder...but the freaking roof was to high for that, he looked at the windows, damn the other couldn't have landed near one of those. He glanced at his magic pad, did he have anything useful...oh wait.

He hurried as fast as he could as he needed to actually modify what he wanted. A slingshot appeared in his hand, and he aimed it toward his guardian, "Ok maybe this will wake him up," The first object to launch from the slingshot was a water balloon, but as it went toward the other, it just got bigger and bigger. As it hit him it would explode into shower of water.

Soran's gaze grew wide as he watched Tristan design something on his pad and then in his hands appeared a sling shot. He shot something that the blonde Seer couldn't quite see until it got closer. It was a large balloon of sorts and Soran lifted an eyebrow. He wasn't sure but... was that supposed to do something? He hoped so because he wasn't getting down without Rethyn, or maybe some well crafted spell of sorts. He bit his lip as he looked down to Tristan.

"I hope that works!" he called, cringing slightly as the balloon got larger. Whatever was in it was sure to go everywhere and Soran was definitely in range of it as well, though it probably hit Rethyn with more than Soran.

As the balloon smacked Rethyn on the side of the head. Rethyn closed his left eye and blinked twice with his right. The blackness had gone away and like a reboot, Rethyn stood up soaked. Below him was a little circle of a wet spot of which the rest of the water had gone.

Before glancing over to Soran, Rethyn shook his head as he offered the boy a hand. "Come on, let's go."

Slowly, Soran watched as Rethyn seemed to completely snap out of his trance when the water sprayed across him. Some of it exploded onto him too, but not nearly as bad as the other boy. It had completely drenched him. Reaching out his hand, Rethyn called to him. Standing up gingerly, Soran took hold of the boys hand with a nod, "Okay."

Crack!

With another quick teleport, the two of them had landed next to Tristan. In silence Rethyn then released the hand for Soran before turning to slink away. With tired eyes and a lowered head, the young man started to step off into the house. In his wake there were drops of water from his clothing.

The sky looked lovely that night as each of the stars were visible without the lights of the city to hide them. The moon this night was larger as it loomed over the cabin brightly. It even revealed many of the shadowy spots of the night of which on most nights one could not see.

Soran blanched slightly, wincing at the teleport. That was going to take some time to get used to again. He stood there silently though, watching as Rethyn walked slowly back into the house. Looking to Tristan after the boy disappeared into the house, he reached out and took the red haired Seer's hand gingerly, "Tristan... h-hey..." he could only manage before he moved and wrapped his arms around the other's waist, putting his face in Tristan's chest. He breathed deeply.

Tristan watched his guardian come to life again and finally decide to teleport off the roof. As the two landed he sighed in relief, he watched his guardian move into the house, and decided he save the conversation for later as to what the other was doing up there. He looked at Soran as the other took his hand and wrapped his arms around him. "Hey yourself," he said with a smile and held the other. "You ok," was all he could ask, he knew that it wasn't the best question, but it was the first one that came to mind.

It took him a moment, but Soran finally answered, his head nodding slowly, "Y-yeah.... strangely enough. I mean... he terrified me at first but... I-I don't know. I guess... he sort of helped... Kind of. I'm still slightly confused but. I think I know what he was trying to do," Soran said, trying to explain how he was feeling and knowing that it wasn't happening. The most important part was that he was actually okay. Shaking, sure, but... okay.

Tristan smiled, "I am glad to hear that," or at least he thought he was. He was still sort of scared though, wondering what that anger was from before, was it completely gone. "Good, now I am hungry, I swore I smelled spaghetti in there."

~~~Rethyn, Sina, and Kilia~~~

Shooting around the house, Rethyn made his way back to the chair he had sat in before. He was trembling a little as he sat in the darkness. At first he thought he was alone as he merely went back to his glass of water, but with the sound of Sina's light voice Rethyn turned a little to see her in the corner of the room within her own seat.

"Sup weirdo."

Closing his eyes, Rethyn didn't want to deal with her as he finished his glass of water. Doing his best to remove the thoughts swirling through him and the idea of Sina's teasing he didn't respond to her.

"You goin' to respond or am I just going to have to go mess with your stuff? Weirdo."

There was no avoiding her. With a open of his eyes, Rethyn looked hollowly as he said in response.

"Hello. Useless."

With a clinch of her teeth, Sina barked back to Rethyn,

"Excuse me?!"

"You heard me. If you're going to call me weird I can at least call you what you are. And you have been utterly useless. "

Sina scoffed at Rethyn as she stood and folded her arms at him. "I was protecting Tristan's sisters weirdo."

"As I was too useless." Rethyn replied.

Like a child, Sina responded with. "Ugh! Everyone else around this house is so great then there's you!" Stomping off out of the room Sina's last words were. "Not only are you a weirdo, but you're also a jerk!"

Thanking the air of her departure, Rethyn merely glanced down to the floor as he felt sick. Why had he lost control? Was it Soran's anger which triggered it? Was it just his eyes, or was it just himself.

Burying his face into his hands, Rethyn rubbed at his eyes a little before removing them from his face as laying back into the chair. He did his best to not look at the pictures on the wall as he feared they'd move again. He didn't want to focus on anything for too long for the fear of it had set in.

Kilia, having been curious as to what happened between Rethyn and Soran, had paced the house until she heard someone coming into the house again. Dinner had moved to the table, River having finished making the spagehtti. The young pink haired Seer didn't feel like eating though, too nervous and distracted by thought to settle herself.

Moving in the direction of the noise she'd heard, she by passed Sina who looked irritated. Lifting an eyebrow, she watched the other girl storm down the hall. Entering the kitchen, Kilia spotted Rethyn seated there and gingerly made her way over to him. Drawing out a chair, she sat across from him and was silent for a while as she tried to figure out what she wanted to say.

"R-Rethyn... is... everything okay?" she asked slowly.

Speaking steadliy, Rethyn looked forward as he said to Kilia. "Are you alright, you seem nervous." He was dodging again, upon his response he tried to flip the conversation away from him and onto Kilia. He couldn't help but fear he'd said too much to Soran. He had let himself out and now someone in the world knew almost everything about him. He felt even worse knowing it wasn't even his own Seer who knew of him that way, but his Seer's lover instead.

"Are you hungry?" Rethyn asked as he stood from his seat. Maybe around the table in company she wouldn't have the curage to figure him out. Hopefully neither would Soran as he wouldn't bring it up around his mother or Tristan.

Hopefully.

Kilia stood with him, followed him to where the pot was full of the decadent italian food, "I'm fine," she told him and stood right next to him with her back to the table, "I'm... not very hungry right now... But... I'm worried about you. You suddenly disappeared with Soran. You're both alright... right? You can... at least tell me that. You trust me, right? At least let me know that you're okay," she said softly. She wasn't trying to push, but she was gently prodding to get him to say something.

"I could be better Kilia." Rethyn said quietly as he tried to keep his voice from the others ears. "I would never seriously hurt Soren. I only told him what I felt was needed." Rethyn finished as he went to pull his noodles from the pot. "And why do you keep asking if I trust you? I told you before I'd rather myself die than any of you so you wouldn't..." Rethyn trailed off as he looked to his noodles.

Kilia frowned, "Don't say that," she whispered softly, fingers reaching out to wrap around his arm, "I get cold when you say that. Because I know that you mean it, and you would let it happen. Don't you remember what I told you the other night? You are strong. But you are stronger with us standing at your side. I know you want to protect us, but... we want to protect you to. I know you wouldn't hurt him either. You wouldn't hurt any of us," Kilia said softly. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder lightly, "I just want you both to be okay."

"Would you like to patrol with me tonight?" Rethyn asked quietly as he looked down to the hand of Kilia. Her hand felt warm to him as he was still rather damp from his Seer's water balloon attack on him from before.

She then placed her forehead upon his shoulder. For the first time he had come back he felt the warmth of a blush on his face as his eyes moved to her quickly before darting back to the noodles.

"Patrol?" she repeated the word and removed her head from his shoulder. She wasn't sure what that meant, but since he was asking... Maybe she would find out more about him if she was allowed to do so. She smiled sweetly at him, "Sure. It sounds interesting."

"Thank you Kilia." The blush upon his face had not died yet and because of it he didn't make eye contact as he did his best to hide it. He had begun to shiver from his clothing and he begun to silently tell himself that he would have to change after he ate.

Later that Night

With folded arms over his sheath, Rethyn stood in the living room with closed eyes. This was where they had planned to meet for that night. At first he thought he heard someone’s steps, but refused to open his eyes just incase it was something like that one night. The eyeless dog licking the glass of the window was more than enough to flood the memories of a bad night. He held back a shudder to the best of his ability as he remembered the crimson leaving the socket of the dogs eyes.

Kilia moved through the darkness, slightly out of place as she couldn't see very well and then found herself in the living room finally. Spotting the form of Rethyn she walked over to him and with one hand behind her back, a smile on her face, reached out and tapped his shoulder as he seemed to be sleeping.

"Rethyn," she called softly, keeping her voice low in the house.

Rethyn slightly jolted from the tap, but quickly regained himself once he heard the voice of Kilia. Turning to her slowly he opened his eyes as he saw her through the darkness. This night he had chosen not to wear shoes as he merely wore a sleeveless shirt covered over by a soft black jacket with a little bit of what seemed to be fur on the hood. And a pair of simple cargo shorts of which already had gained a small hole at the end of the left leg.

"Kilia." Rethyn said quietly in return.

Beaming at him, she straightened, "I always wondered what it was you did at night," she said with a small giggle, "I feel.. kinda special being allowed to follow you around," she said, one finger scraching at her cheek as she looked around the room. Kilia was certainly glad for the darkness, she could feel her cheeks going slightly red. Dressed in a black shirt that opened at the shoulders with long sleeves down to her wrists, a short skirt with shorts underneath and shoes to match, she rocked back and forth as she waited, "So! Where to first?" she asked, all sorts of energy bubbling through her, which was unusual seeing as she wasn't a night owl to begin with.

"...Thank you for coming along." Rethyn said softly. He was thankful that she came along as even though he didn't exactly explain why he needed her she came along anyways. It brought a warmness within him of which he caught inside of himself. It confused him, but he tried his best not to question it. It was nice, it felt so much better than the other things of which jabbed at him throughout the day.

"I usually move to the training rooms first then just the general downstairs before I start going up. I then repeat."

Kilia nodded a bit, "Ah. Pretty simple," she said with a smile, "So... why do you do it alone, Rethyn? You've always done this, haven't you?"

"Well, I am not exactly fond of Kilia." Rethyn said as he begun to walk in the direction of the training rooms. "Ever since I joined up with you guys, it just became my thing."

Kilia followed him, matching his stride as best she could, "Oh. You never did it before then? So," she lifted an eyebrow as she looked up at him, her hands curling together in front of her as they walked, "So why do you do it now?"

Rethyn paused as he looked into the training room, from within he saw nothing. Speaking quietly he said in response to Kilia as he turned back to face her. "I do it now because I worry about you, and everyone else."

"You worry about us?" she asked, and then gave a small laugh, "See, I knew you did. You're always acting like you don't like us, and you do things alone so often. But I had a feeling there was more to it than just that," reaching out she wrapped her fingers around his forearm as they bypassed the training room, "People think that they're good at hiding things. I think that maybe I've gotten a little bit better and reading a few things. Or maybe you're just slipping," she teased a bit with a laugh, "In any case," her tone grew a bit more serious, "I'm glad to hear it."

"I do things alone because there are things out there I don't want you all to face." Rethyn said a little defensively as a light blush crawled up on his face in the darkness. He had not expected the sudden touch of Kilia and along with her touch felt a warmness crawl within him.

"I know I am slipping..." Rethyn said quietly as he knew Kilia was teasing, but he knew it was true.

Kilia walked with him, her fingers still wrapped around his forearm, "I think that you try to do too much on your own. I also think that you don't give us enough credit. Especially Tristan. Together, you and him could be extremely powerful. Who knows what you both could do if you both started working together." Kilia gave a bit of a shrug, "I've been wondering, too... do you have a magic system, Rethyn? I know... little strange to ask," she said as she glanced around the hall.

Glancing down the hall as well, Rethyn's blush had faded as he truly did think over the aspects of his connection with his Seer. She was right. He knew that he needed to stop trying to protect Tristan so much, but work with him instead. However, a bit of him growled at the idea as he struggled with it.

As they reached the stairs, Rethyn finally answered the second question as he said weakly. "No, I do not have one."

Kilia looked up to him briefly, her content features fading for a moment as she grew a bit worried, "Well, that's okay. I sort of didn't think so, after all you teleport around so much and I've never seen you open the system. Sorry to ask such a strange question," she said, "I just thought that... if you did you and Tristan would be a deadly pair. Not that you wouldn't be still... but... uh..." she fumbled around for words and finally decided on an awkward silence for a while.

"Do you like being a Guardian, Rethyn?"

"Don't worry about it Kilia, I know what you mean." Rethyn then paused as he listened to Kilia's voice. He did not believe she knew, but he could clearly see her in the dark and with his solid sky blue eyes he would watch her closely as she would speak. After what seemed like an even longer moment, Rethyn finally answered her question.

"For a duty I never expected I do like it...It gives me a purpose. Without it, I wouldn't know what to do. I don't believe there is anyone left who cares for a guy who died fifteen years ago."

Reaching the end of the stairs, Rethyn stopped as he looked to her silently. His eyes had held that hollow look of which bore into KIlia as he himself showed little to none other signs of body language.

Kilia frowned, "Oh Rethyn. Then what does that make us? You know we care, don't you? You're special to us, you always have been," she said softly. She never removed her gaze from his eyes as they stopped at the end of the stairs. His beautiful eyes... she always found them so captivating. She smiled, "We care. I care too. Doesn't that mean something for you?"

Rethyn felt a smile pull at his lips. "Sorry, it's just in the past I felt I was merely the expendable one of the group.." He paused for a moment as he closed his eyes and breathed lighly once before opening his eyes again. "It does Kilia...I..thank you." Other words wanted to pull their way out, but for now he had lowered his gaze a tad bit more.

A light blush started pushing its way upon his face as he couldn't help it. He wanted to say more, but words weren't exactly working for him in the moment. He froze.

Kilia hummed a bit as she tilted her head, "What is it, Rethyn?" she had a feeling he wanted to say something to her.

"Thank you for being so accepting of me...I know I come off as a bit off...and." Rethyn felt himself begin to ramble a little to the girl as he tried to find his footing. She had managed to slip past his defenses and break him down with just her mere smile and gaze. In the past he always knew she was cute, but never this cute.

A long moment of silence seemed to pass as Rethyn found himself locked in place. The smile he had let out earlier had been replaced by a little of uncertainity. Without even realizing it he had leaned in closer to Kilia. As a blush crawled up his face so did the warmness resonating within him.

Inches from her face he found his eyes gazing into her sky blue ones through the darkness. For a moment he paused as he felt the uncertainty of his actions. With his hands at his sides he from yet again.

Kilia shook her head a bit as he said he was a bit 'off'. She didn't think he was off at all. He was just fine the way he was, sweet and kind in his own way even if he tried to come off cold and uncaring. Kilia giggled a bit to herself. As they stood there, she suddenly found him getting rather close and she watched him curiously. He got close to her, close enough for her to feel the gentle caress of his breath against her face.

Kilia was mesmerized by his gaze. She had always thought those eyes of his were rather good looking, attractive even. If she hadn't been infatuated with Jonathan for a while, she probably would have fallen for him first. As it was though, she had a feeling that she'd had a stronger connection to him. When Rethyn saved Soran from the concrete during the earthquake, having taken a blow to his head and breaking his mask... she was worried, scared even for him. It was also the first time that she'd seen his eyes. Kilia remembered having commented on it, telling him that he was cute, or adorable like that.

Following after that, she'd spoken to him in the kitchen of the new house, worried yet again. Kilia remembered how he felt when she held him, though he didn't hold her in return, she could feel his strong heart, warm body and with a kiss to his cheek... maybe that had been the spark. Or maybe it had been a bit sooner. Love was wierd like that.

So, when he came close to her, gazing at her, she couldn't help the little breath of startlement, her cheeks growing red as well, though it was hard to tell in the dark. Her heart thrummed a little harder and she trembled slightly. It was only a few more inches... a few more inches and she find out what it was like to kiss him. She bit her lip, hesitant to try. With a small intake of breath, she leaned forward and gently gave him a kiss. Nothing hard, or passionate or anything like that. A soft touch, like testing the water. She hoped to god that was what he wanted...

A small smile played upon Rethyn's lips as he smiled against hers during this kiss. Slowly his hands moved to her sides before one gently slid to her back. The blush upon his face seemed to partially fade as he returned the kiss to Kilia. With it he understood the warm from within of which she gave.

Closing his eyes, Rethyn finished the kiss as he wrapped his arms around her gently. Leaning his forehead against hers he could feel her heart pounding between breaths. With a tiny smile it was okay as his heart too was beating strongly against his chest. His blush had completely faded off from his face as he could feel the light tickling of Kilia's breath as it contacted him.

After a long moment Rethyn lowered his arms and stepped back as he opened his eyes to gaze at Kilia. With a gentle smile he remember how she had spoken to him the first time he removed his mask. The kindness she had supplied him was enough to escape himself and begin his first steps into his new life. He wanted to give her something more, but in his mind he did not know what. Then like a slap the thought hit him roughly as he murmured.

"Answers."

The embrace was gentle and warm. She wrapped her own arms around his waist, though she really wasn't all that big and could only get her fingers to curl around her wrists where-as his arms had nearly engulfed her small size. It was nice to just stand there, letting him hold her and no words needed. She breathed deeply. He smelled nice. With a soft hum to herself she was about to nestle closer to him when he pulled away a bit. There it was again, that small smile. She gave a soft laugh and smiled in return, unable to help it.

Of course, his next words had her utterly confused. Tilting her head a bit, she said, "Eh?" softly, arching an eyebrow as she stared at him, her smile still in place. If at all possible, little question marks might have popped up around her head as well...

"Uh..." In that moment Rethyn realized how odd he sounded. With a quick regain of his footing, Rethyn asked Kilia quietly.

"I know you still have questions...If there are any left I am willing to answer."

"Oh... Um," she blushed a bit as she reached up and tucked a strand of long pink hair behind her ear, "Uh... your... magic system. How come you don't have it? I mean, you were revived, right? Shouldn't you have it?"

"I..uh never had one..." Rethyn replied as he looked down briefly before meeting his gaze with hers again. "The power is a part of me..I am not sure how to explain..uh.." Rethyn shook his head as he awaited the next question. If it was the one he expected...he was going to have to answer everything.

"Oh, that's interesting. Makes you more mysterious," she said with a giggle and a wiggle of her fingers for added affect, with a smile she stood with one hand on her hip as she thought to herself. She had recalled having a thousand question's before, but... at the moment it was actually rather hard to ask any of them. The reason for that was because simply.. She’d forgotten. It was the kiss... Yes, totally blaming it on that.

"Um... This... thing with the God of Death... why is he after you? Is he just mad that you... were revived somehow?"

"...After?...Sweetie that's a interesting choice of words." The voice hissed to Kilia from down the hall. Through the moonlight a suited man could be seen in the light as he sat upon the window frame. With his right hand he adjusted his solid red tie while with his left hand he seemed to pet something within the darkness.

Rethyn's eyes went wide as he kept himself from turning his head. Within his mind he told himself over and over again that he wasn't there. It was another trick and trap to get under his skin. He begun to shake as he grasped at Kila to pull her towards him. With quiet whispers he said.

"Don't look."

Kilia sucked in a sharp breath. Words tossed across the hall in an acidic tone from a voice that she'd never heard before. Her gaze grew wide and as she was about to turn around, Rethyn suddenly grabbed her and held her tightly against him, prohibiting her from turning as her face was buried against his chest and shoulder. Her breathing was short.

"Rethyn..." she said, a bit of a higher pitch to her tone than usual as he told her not to look, "Rethyn... what is that?" her voice was shaky, but as she felt him trembling, she worried. What was going on? Kilia's fingers curled into his shirt tightly as she was crushed against him, "Are you okay?"

"Rethyn...oh come on let me meet her. You know? It's kind of like when you show the girlfriend to your parents for the first time. Well not exactly, but I am the closest thing to a dad in this new life eh?" Death then chuckled at Rethyn's silent trembling before he continued on with. "After? No, I'm just giving him some tough love. I can't have him be soft now...Why kill what you helped bring back?"

"Helped... bring back..." Kilia whispered softly. She couldn't turn, but she did raise her voice a bit, a sharp snap to it that usually wasn't there, "Leave him alone," she said as she reached behind Rethyn and her hand swiped at the air. The soft glow of her magic system came up and her fingers touched the pad, but she couldn't see what she was drawing out. She was trying to make some sort of shield, a protective barrier that she was going to throw on Rethyn. She could only hope that it would work. All the while her voice whispered to Rethyn, "Don't listen, ignore it. He doesn't know anything. You're just fine, trust me."

"But girl, I am speaking to you now not him. What you seek to know is why Rethyn has no magic system? Because the power he processes is the gift I bestowed upon him when I helped bring him back...That foolish girl tried to revive him, but like every other bastard and whore in the past would of failed. I gave just a push of help and look what happened." Chuckling slightly at the barrier he had no intent of attacking Death turned away as he finished with.

"He's even in my image when I was but a mortal..Kazar may of had black hair like he does now, but when he was in my world he was a blonde...Well heh just go look at the picture he has under his pillow...He's not who he was at all in life. Rethyn wasn't even his original name."

Reaching his hand into one of the dogs opened eye sockets, Death begun to write something upon the window with the crimson of blood. It looked to be an array of numbers of which could be entered into a magic system. "This is my number...contact me when you're done with games...Ta ta."

Wamp!

As if it were the same power of Rethyn, Death vanished in a puff of smoke. The sound was similar to Rethyn's but distinctly different in sound as through all of Rethyn's teleport there wasn't a sound quite like that. The sound was quite loud this time too as it carried throughout the house.

Upon the window the blood dripped a little, but still the numbers were visible. As Death had left, Rethyn released Kilia as he looked down in silence. Death had broken out the information not in the way Rethyn wanted to give it. It was the truth and it stung the blue eyed boy as he begun to turn away from Kilia. She would see him as a monster now, and as the fear settled in he started to believe it.

"Rethyn!" Kilia called, her voice nearing a shout, but not one of anger, out of fear. Her fingers were still curled on her magic system. Her other hand reached out, snatching his hand and dragging him back as best she could. She moved too, stepping up next to him and pressed the power against his chest. It was probably a little late, but she also wanted to see what it would do. Golden light streamed across his frame, like little tendrils that pulsed and curled together in intricate designs. He glowed like that for a bit. Kilia tilted her head as she watched it, slightly mesmerized by how it twisted along his body.

"Hmm... not sure what that is really, but I think it's a protection spell. Looks cool," she said with a shrug. Then looking up at him, she frowned, "Why did you try to walk away? I don't care what he said. It doesn't matter to me, it won't matter to anyone else. So what, you had blonde hair once. You look better with black. I don't care what your name was before. You're Rethyn to me and I like you just the way you are now. There's nothing wrong with you, and there's nothing wrong with any of that past stuff. I'm sure something happened. I won't ask, it's not my place. But... the important thing now, you're here. Don't lose face simply because of a few words."

She said, and as she spoke, her fingers curled in his hand that she'd grabbed and her other hand reached up to brush across his face.

As the golden light faded from him, Rethyn quickly begun to look around him as he saw many of the the shadows lose that extra layer of darkness, he saw the picture at the end of the hall stop dancing, and lastly he felt a warmness within his head. With a momentary close of his eyes he felt soothed.

Opening his eyes he stared at Kilia as she spoke to him. She may not of known what she just had done with that spell of hers, but she had just driven from his minds the hallucinations of which had plagued him since his return to the living. With no response, Rethyn lunged forward as he pulled Kilia into a tight embrace. Turning his head he then kissed her twice on the cheek. He felt the warmness of her hands upon his face and smiled to her as he said.

"Thank you..."

Kilia was startled as he lunged at her, pulling her up tight. Her breath was lost to her as he bear hugged her. Then she felt his lips against her cheek and she blushed furiously. Still, she smiled warmly as he whispered words towards her, his thanks made her giggle a bit, "I didn't do anything," she said softly. Shifting her hand from his face, her fingers went through his hair and then wrapped up neatly along his neck as she pulled herself into his hug, happy for the warmth.

"I'll always be here to help you, okay? Me, and everyone else. I promise you. You're not alone," she said softly. The darkness of the hall stayed just like that, with only the silver light of the moon to illuminate them just barely. Kilia enjoyed the embrace. Maybe she could hold him again like that soon, the thought made her smile even more as she released a soft sigh of contentment.




Following Morning

"Found her," Cryio's voice was soft as he moved forward through the trees. It had been a long trip, and it had taken a lot of time and extra power that he didn't think he possessed, but it finally payed off. Deriea sighed, she stretched up, pulling at her limbs as her fingers interlaced and rose up over her head, her back curling backwards a bit.

"Finally," she muttered, "Shall we greet the mortals?"

Cryio turned to her slightly, "You shouldn't call them mortals."

"Why not? That's what they are."

"They won't like it," he said bluntly.

Deriea rolled her eyes, "You're certainly loads of fun," she retorted, "Fine what should I call them? Humans? Lesser-beings? Skeletons with skin draped on them?"

"Deriea."

"Fine, fine, I won't do any of that. What's the girls name?"

"Kilia."

"And?"

Cryio shrugged, "Just, 'Kilia'. It's this house," he said, coming to an abrupt halt and Deriea almost running into him. Cursing to herself, she moved to the side of him and stared at the beautiful looking cabin. She gave a soft scoff.

"Seriously, what's with mortals and building such ridiculous things that will never last?"

"I find it pleasing."

"That's because you're strange. And an idiot," she returned, "Well, call her. We really don't have all day."

Cryio turned to her and for a moment she thought he may have smiled, but that might have just been her own weariness dragging on her. She lifted an eyebrow as he stepped forward, walking right through the barrier. Deriea followed and both God's halted right outside the house, waiting.

Deriea sighed heavily, "Idiot," she muttered. Her hand outstretched over the dirt at her feet. The small rocks and dust started to move little by little. Her hand lifted up slowly and the fingers curled in. The ground shifted, a slight roll bucked under her feet and then she directed it towards the house. It rumbled as it went and hit the front door, just short of knocking it off it's hinges. With a bit of a grin, she released the power and crossed her arms with a sort of proud look on her face.

Inside the house if anything a collective moan went up...again, this was happening again. Alauric was in the living room when something hit the front door...well that was a little odd. He scratched his head and decided to go see what was out front. He stared out the windows, and found two gods out there...but they were just standing there as if they were waiting. "I kinda wonder if I go away they will disappear," he mumbled to himself.

Sina watched from a window as she saw the two gods move closer to the home. She had heard the alarm and was on edge, but at the same time nobody seemed to be doing anything so she found herself hesitating to do anything. "If they wanted a fight they would have already right?" Sina asked herself quietly.

Deriea looked to Cryio, "I don't think that worked. Should I try again?"

He shook his head at her, "You will only anger them."

She quirked an eyebrow at him, "What? I just knocked. A simple greeting. A 'hello' if you will."

Cryio sighed.

The rumble that rocked the house just a bit and had drawn everyones attention, had Kilia rushing for the door, heart pounding, "What's happened? What's going on?" She asked quickly, coming up next to Alauric. She had yet to look directly outside yet though.

Following her, was Soran. A slight bit timid, but definitely not huddled in a corner, he peeked around the corner, biting his lower lip, "Alauric?" he called, and took a tentative step into the main hallway.

Alauric was about to answer Kilia, when he heard Soran's voice also, he got a smile on his face with that sound of his name. "Just two gods out there...but they aren't attacking,,,and something hit the door...like a rather loud knock or something." He couldn't figure it out.

"Oh well, if they aren't attacking, I say let’s go back to bed..." he turned from the windows and started in that direction. He saw something that made him more scared than the two gods, "I am just kidding...geeze don't look at me like that."

Grayson was standing there, his expression was extremely stony when he looked at his seer.

"N-not attacking?" Soran repeated, clearly confused.

Kilia, on the other hand whirled around and threw opened the door. Soran gave a sharp cry as she did that. The pink haired Seer laid eyes upon the two Gods now and though she didn't know the woman, she knew she could never forget the face of the one that she had befriened those many years ago. Her lips broke into a wide smile as she drew in a breath and raced out the door, down the steps and across the yard.

Soran moved into the hall, rushing to the door where he stopped, "Kilia!" he yelled, fear in his voice.

Alauric turned as Kilia opened the door, now that was unexpected, he too then went to the open door. "Why do I get the feeling..." he stopped, and tilted his head, he wasn't really sure what to think.

Tristan now stood in the living room, as he looked at the pink-haired girl running down the steps toward the two gods, he squinted his eyes and looked again. "You know maybe I am crazy or something...but I think she knows one of those gods."

"Cryio!!" Kilia called as she sprinted across the yard. Though she threw her arms around the God's neck, the tall God did not return the hug, but did allow her to hang on him. He even bent down a bit for the short girl to do so.

"Kilia. You've grown."

"Yes. It's been a really long time. I was... worried about you," she replied. Then gasped slightly. Quickly releasing Cryio, she took a step back, realizing that everyone in that house had just witnessed her hugging a God. Glancing over her shoulder, she tried to find the words to explain, but faltered as she stood there.

Cryio reached out and patted the top of her head gently, "It is alright. We can explain just fine. I am happy to see you."

"Sure he is," Deriea added with a roll of her eyes, " 'Happy face'.... 'Sad face'.... 'Angry face'," all the while she kept her own facial features exactly the same as she imitated Cryio, "I swear, if it wasn't as clear as day what emotion you were feeling I would have never guessed," her voice was sarcastic.

Alauric had finally walked out the front door and was sitting on the top step, Tristan eyed his father as he now stood next to Soran, "oh what a great and fearless leader he is," he said in his own sarcastic tone. He watched the interaction between the god and Kilia, ok so he wasn't crazy, but what did it mean exactly for them. Was this just a visit, or were they here to actually help?

"I... I can't.... is this... really happening?" Soran stuttered as he leaned against the door, one hand reaching out to tangle with Tristans. He watched in confusion, not sure how to respond.

Kilia smiled, "Uh... yeah. Cryio, I'm sure you know everyone here, so no need for that, but uh... who is this?"

"Deriea."

"Oh. Hello."

"Hi morta- I mean, Kilia."

Kilia arched an eyebrow, then laughed a bit, "I know this may sound odd, but um... why exactly are you here?"

Deriea grinned at Kilia then and waved her hand from one side to the other, "Well you know. Strolling about is just one of those things that us Gods enjoy doing. Not to mention getting into fights with other God's, deciding to help out a group of mortals along the way," with a faked smile she looked at Kilia and then to Cryio, "Of course all of that was this idiots idea," her smile faded as she jabbed at Cryio.

Tristan looked at Soran, "Well you know Kilia...is an oddball," he grinned slightly, "she attracts the strangest friends. but yes its happening...but did she just say they were here to help us?" Alauric had heard the same thing, it was all getting a little to weird for him and he sighed.

"Wait... help? What are you talking about..." Kilia repeated, utterly confused.

Deriea rolled her eyes yet again and sighed as she put both hands on her hips, "You heard right, mortal. Cryio managed to convince me that you needed some help. Not to mention he's been worried for quite some time. Not that you could ever tell of course..." she gave the other God a horrid glare before she looked back to Kilia and smiled sweetly, "So here we are. Besides, don't you think you might need a bit of a... hand? Nothing like having a God back you up in a fight. Makes a statement don't you think? Especially me, I can make one hell of a statement."

"Deriea."

"What?! Jeez, you really are a buzz kill, Cryio. What the hell are you a god of again? Because it certainly isn't emotion," she glowered back at him, "Learn to feel the mood you idiot."

Kilia looked between the two, confused at first but then she started laughing. The woman named Deriea had a fiery temper, and one sharp tongue to add to it, but she was comical in her own way. This could be fun the young pink haired Seer thought to herself as she giggled, "Well, since you're here, why not come inside?"

"Uh..." Deriea looked at the house wearily, "That.. might be a bad idea in my case, girly. If you like that house, I think I'll stay outside."

"She'll destroy it," Cryio answered smoothly and in a matter of factly sort of tone.

Deriea turned her narrowed eyes to Cryio, "It's not like I would do it on purpose!"

Cryio shrugged lightly as he watched Kilia who had taken to laughing again, "O-oh... Okay... I get it," she said between giggles, "Then, we'll stay outside. You can come closer though, I don't want to shout across the yard," she said and turned to start back to where the others lingered on the porch of the home. Cryio followed her without a word while Deriea looked on hesitantly. Finally with a soft growl and string of mumbled curses to herself, the other god followed after. Stopping just short of the house, Kilia smiled at the group.

"Uh... So... this is Cryio. I... um, met him when I was very little. He's.... a good god," she said, not sure how well this was going to go over.

Alauric watched the three approach, and listened to Kilia, "Good god," he repeated, though it sort of sounded like he was saying it differently. "Kilia...um...," he didn't know where to start. Tristan stepped out of the doorway, "What he is trying to say is do you trust them Kilia," he remember her telling stories of her 'pretend friend' when she was little. He sounded like a cool person back then, to a kid, but to really put a actually face to the friend...and the fact that he was a god. Tristan had to ask the question that first came to his mind. He was also worried about the blond seer behind him. He rather thought he reaction would be different.

"A 'good god'?" Soran repeated, his voice turning slightly acidic, his green eyes narrowing dangerously.

Kilia quickly raised up her hands, "It's fine! It's fine, it's okay! He's not going to do anything, I promise you. And she won't either. If she's with Cryio, then it's alright."

"What's wrong with the mortal?" Deriea asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow as she regarded Soran's standoffish attitude to the situation.

Kilia turned to look at the goddess, "He's... that's a long story. He just doesn't trust Gods. For a good reason. But I can promise you, I trust these ones. Do you trust me, Soran? Tristan?"

Tristan looked back, he understood why Soran reacted like that. "It’s not that we don't trust you Kilia, you know that, it’s just going to take some getting used to, but I am all for them helping, we certainity could use it." Alauric looked at his son, maybe it was the right thing to do to stay out of this decision, they needed to start making some on their own anyways.

"And well," Tristan continued, "think of the circumstances now, how some of us are less protected, don't forgot about that Kilia. Maybe we could get them to make a oath or something," he slightly smiled at the thought, it was a rather funny notion to get a god to promise anything.

"I will protect her," Cryio said, his gaze watching Kilia steadily.

Kilia turned to look at him, "Cryio..."

"I recall giving you a promise many years ago. I'm sorry that I left you without fulfilling that. But I can now, and I will."

Kilia nibbled at her lip. She remembered that promise. He'd told her that he would protect her from other gods, no matter what. Then a few years after that, he'd disappeared. She had a thousand questions about that, but figured they could talk later. Looking to Deriea she tilted her head. Tristan had a very good point, and in the case of Soran, something should be said to try to settle him on this idea. Kilia was also happy that the blonde Seer hadn't flown off the handle. Though his anger was definitely something new to deal with, it seemed that most times he knew it was there and did what he could to subdue it. Hell, she was even surprised to see him at the front door, facing two Gods. It made her wonder what Rethyn did specifically to get him out of that shell of his.

Deriea nodded, "I won't harm you either. If it makes anything any better, he's the God of Life, and I'm the Goddess of Earth. I can't exist without this place, and since he's the god of Life, he has a sort of... what do you say. Soft spot for mortals. I suppose I do too," she said the last bit softly and looked off into the trees.

Tristan slighty tilted his head, what exactly does a god of life do,

"So what are your powers," he said looking at the tall male god. Seriously the guy was taller then he was, would have made a good basketball player if he was mortal, he offhandly wanted to ask him if he knew how to play. What the heck...Tristan had moved past the acceptance stage and had in mind to ask the guy to play a game of 1 on 1 or something like that.

Cryio looked up to the red haired Seer. He looked back to Kilia, almost as if he didn't understand what Tristan was asking. Kilia only smiled and waited. It took the God a moment, but he finally seemed to figure it out, "Life. Creating it. Keeping it."

Kilia giggled, turning she looked at Tristan, "Basically he means healing. He's... a great healer. Without anything living, more specifically humans, Cryio doesn't exist. Anything that has to do with healing, medicines, healing plant life... all that kinds of stuff, he creates it and keeps it going. He has all sorts of knowledge on that. Which, through him, we learn. Healers like myself and Victor become capable of doing those things, because he creates it." Kilia was beaming as she explained, hopefully her explanation was understood, because she honestly didn't know any other way of saying it. Also, she was saying it this way because when she had asked Cryio when she was small, this was the answer he taught her.

"Life..." Soran repeated. He moved a bit closer to Tristan, though his acidic tone had long since left him, "I've never heard of that before."

"A lot of god's aren't heard of, mortal," Deriea said, shrugging her shoulders a bit, "And a lot of gods are forgotten over time. A lot who shouldn't be forgotten."

Tristan glanced at Deriea, he had to agree with her on that point. Yet how long has it been like this, their world this way. Every generation had different seers, "I've never heard of it either, and you are right many gods aren't heard of, unfortunely we only get to know the ones who want to hurt us. It shouldn't be that way either."

Tristan was countering her point with one of his own, one that he thought was valid.

Deriea lifted an eyebrow as she regarded Tristan, "Smart mortal. Yes, it does seem that you unfortunately only meet the ones that wish to harm. Those of us that are left that you consider 'good' are few and far between. A lot of us aren't powerful enough to stand up to the others and many times end up being devoured by other Gods because of their impeccable appetite for 'more power'," she hissed the last words, "And so the lesser gods are taken care of first. Which in turn, makes them fighters in a war they never wanted to be in anyway, but in order to survive, they're forced to after human's who have the purest of energy.

"Which slowly builds up in turn and now... here you have your war and it all leads up to where you're standing right now. All because a couple of Gods many many millenia ago started fighting over a simple 'title'. The 'God of Gods'. Whoever holds that title, holds the most power, and controls the other Gods, and essentially controls everything else in the living universe. Quite the powerful seat, don't you think?"

Tristan smirked, but her statement led to more questions, some of which he didn't want to ask in front of some of the others standing there. Humans have the purest energy...that didn't make any sense to him, in comparing a human with a god shouldn't it be the other way.

He looked confused and decided he would let it go for now. He looked at the pink-haired seer, "Well they are your guests Kilia, even though where they are going to stay is a mystery."

Deriea laughed, loudly, "Silly mortal! Unlike you, we don't need a place to stay, or a place to sleep or anything like that. I prefer the outside anyway, and Cryio... is just Cryio. He's strange... he'll probably just stand over there through the night when you strange mortals need to sleep," she said waving her hand over to some random corner of the property, "Besides. It would be easier for us to catch any stray gods that may be around looking for a quick shot at killing any of you."

Soran's fingers tightened around Tristans, a slight shaking vibrating his limbs as he listened to her. The blonde Seer managed to keep most of his fear at bay, but he still couldn't quite help reaching out to the taller boy for a sense of comfort. Clearing his throat, he looked up at Tristan, "Are we sure about this?" he whispered.

Tristan turned and smiled at Soran, "We will talk about inside, let Kilia catch up with her friend." He didn't really know how to actually answer that question nor was he hundred sure about it in the first place."Dad," he said to the guy who was still sitting on the steps. "Hmm, what," Tristan rolled his eyes, had the man actually been napping while sitting there. "Oh, so we inviting the gods to stay...well why the hell not." Alauric mumbled mostly to himself. The older seer was having a hard time with the idea, but like he thought before, he wasn't going to be a part of the situation.

Alauric went back into the house, only to come outside again a second later, "I forgot I had something to do," he went past the gods and Kilia. Tristan had to wonder if the guy was becoming senile...not that he should be old enough for that. "We will talk later," Tristan said to the others out there.

Kilia lifted an eyebrow as Alauric went inside and then immediately came right back out and walked past them. She watched him go, curious as to what was going on, but then shrugged as she turned back to Cryio. She smiled at him, "It's been so long. Shall we walk and talk?"

The god nodded his head and turned to start towards the edge of the property and walk through the trees with Kilia at his side. The pink haired Seer started rambling and it seemed the God didn't mind in the least as he listened to her. Deriea sighed heavily before glancing up to Tristan and Soran, "Uh... yeah. I'll just... be over there. I suppose letting them catch up is fine... but really, we should be getting you all ready," she huffed a bit then turned and went to where she'd indicated.

Soran, still very confused watched it all happen before he reached up and rubbed at his head, "This is... awkward... And what's up with your dad? Maybe you should go talk to him?" Soran asked as he looked up at Tristan. He frowned a bit as he rested his hand against Tristan's chest for a moment. Stretching up, he wrapped his arms around the boys shoulders and pulled himself up so that he could kiss the other quickly on his lips, "I'm hungry. I'm going to go eat. What are you gonna do?"

"Eating sounds good," he said as he held the other close, he was about to go for a tease when he heard a clearing of a throat behind him. He looked back and saw Grayson standing there, "Sorry to interrupt, where is your father," Tristan almost lost it right there as he realized now why his father was in such a hurry to leave, "He went that way...like something spooked him." Grayson nodded, "So we have guests, well at least maybe now we can get down to actually training with them around."

Grayson turned back into the house, and Tristan chuckled, "My dad is running away from his guardian," he whispered to Soran, "he is afraid of being berated for his behavior during the last battle."

Soran nodded, "I would be afraid too... Grayson scares me for sure...." he replied just as softly hoping that the older Guardian wouldn't hear him.

Tristan shook his head, "I suppose we should go tell the others about what is going on, even though I am curious about what everyone's thoughts are going to be." Tristan had to think they were doing the right thing, but still why was he doubting the decision now.

Soran nodded a bit, "Yeah. You're right. I wonder how well this is going to go over. I know that Kilia seems to trust him.. but... but what of that other Goddess... I-I don't know Tristan." Soran closed his eyes tightly and took in a deep breath to try to settle himself. With a soft sound against his lips, he heaved a sigh, "Ugh, I don't know. Let’s eat first. Then we'll talk. Figure things out with everyone over breakfast."

The morning Rethyn had remained hidden in the shadows as he watched over the turn of events. The night eye was always tired early in the morning as he had usually stayed up the previous night walking about the house patrolling while the other Guardians and Seers took their rest.

This morning, Rethyn was confused. He didn't know what was stranger, helpful gods or the fact that Kilia could still function with the same lack of hours of sleep as himself. With a gentle sigh, Rethyn teleported with a soft poof from his outdoor perch to his favorite chair within the living room. With a light yawn the man held his sheathed sword against his body as he begun to doze off in the chair.

Passing by Rethyn, Sina was half tempted to try to snatch the sword Rethyn had been cuddling with in his sleep. With a roll of her eyes she brought upon a smile as she moved into the kitchen. She was very curious to hear about what had gone down while she glanced through the window at her team.

"Good morning all~!" Sina said as she stretched her arms out with a higher pitched yawn.

Tristan was coming back inside with the blond seer to grab something to eat, and to discuss what had just happened with the others. He glanced over at his guardian and shook his head slightly. He looked up as he saw Sina and smiled, "Good morning," he said as he went into the kitchen and raided the fridge. He really thought he would love some bacon at the moment, but it seems they ate the last of it at some point. "French toast anyone," he said. As he started to get out the incrediates, he had to make a mental note as to ask what they were going to do about food if the towns people moved on

"Hell yeah!" Sina said with a raise of her hand. "However, let me make it for you two. You're both too cute." Sina said commandingly as she pointed at the both of them. Within her mind she begun to picture herself as their waitress upon their morning date. The thought brought a little blush under her eyes as she brought her hands to the side of her face. With closed eyes the swooning girl seemed to lose focus as she daydreamed.

"Um..." Soran paused as he stood next to Tristan, "I think we lost her," he said and then rolled his eyes, "I'm so glad your sisters aren't like this," he commented and moved into the kitchen, "While she's too busy... daydreaming" he said and then blushed a bit he joined the taller boy, "I'll help you make breakfast. French toast sounds amazing," he said with a smile. It would also be a great distraction. He didn't want to know what was currently tumbling through Sina's mind at that moment. Yup... he was definitely sure he was much better off not knowing.

Tristan turned and was about to comment, but just watching the girl made him turn back around and blush a little himself. He really hoped it disappeared when Soran came and stood beside him, "Yeah, definitely need a distraction from crazy girl over there," he took out the eggs and the bread and handed it to Soran. "And who’s to say my sisters aren't like that, they just aren't like that in front of people."

Snapping back into attention Sina lifted up a hand as she said in a saddened voice. "W-wait...ohhh you guys are so mean." Dropping her head in defeat she marched over to the table and laid her chin on her folded hands as she sulked quietly to herself.

"So, they're closet fan girls?" Soran asked with a short laugh as he broke open the eggs into a small pan and used a fork to break the yolk. As he whisked that with the fork, he shook his head, "I don't want to find any weird like stories or something from any of them, especially her," he said moving his head in the direction of Sina.

"Weird stories?" River's voice broke into the room and Soran felt his face grow brilliantly red.

"M-momma!" he stuttered in surprise.

River grinned, "I have some really awesome stories that I could share. How about it? Want to hear some, Tristan?"

"Mom! Mom, no... no that's bad, that's bad, don't!" he moved, dropping the fork and tried to put his hand over her mouth while she laughed and fought him back, getting his hands down at his sides and hugging him to keep him there.

"Hmm... which one should I start with."

Tristan started to comment on the fan girl thing, but started cracking up when River came into the kitchen. Oh man Soran's face was priceless and Tristan laughed some more when she offered to tell her own stories, he couldn't offer up a suggestion because he was laughing so hard. Soran was going to kill him later, he was sure of it.

River stumbled a bit as she struggled with her son, laughing slightly, "Oh! I have the perfect one."

"Mom!" he screeched and then yelled at Tristan, "And why are you laughing!!?"

"Oh hush, it's not that bad. So," she turned her attention to Tristan, "He must have been about nine or ten, I don't remember exactly, but he was in trouble. I told him to stay in his room until he had calmed down or something. Anyway, it was about this time he was practicing with his magic system. He wasn't very good at it, but he definitely tried. I'm not sure where it went wrong, but I was sitting in the living room and I heard this horrid scream. So I went running up the stairs. When I opened the door, he had summoned a giant teddy bear into the room. I wasn't sure what the teddy bear was for, but it had him upside down by one leg and was shaking him like a little jar.

"He was crying, terrified of the darn thing. When I asked him later after I got rid of it, why the bear was there, he told me that he'd wanted to try to have the bear give me a hug in apology for whatever it was. But it turned into an evil bear and, his words exactly, "Tried to eat me." I don't think it was trying to eat him, I think it was trying to figure out how to hug him but he was too small at the time."

"Mom...." Soran moaned. Okay, maybe that one wasn't too bad, but then River chuckled and he knew that laugh. Which made him struggle even more.

"Which of course isn't as bad as his running away from me when it was bath time. I swear this child was an escape artist. I'd get him stripped down from his clothes, turn to start the water, and when I turned back not a second later, he was gone. Full blown naked, running around the house like a wild monkey."

"Mom!!!"

Tristan stood there and listened, ok the bear story was slightly funny, but Tristan found it cute. As soon as River said bath time, Tristan couldn't hold it in and started laughing again. He couldn't help it...oh man he was certainly glad his dad wasn't in the room. Alauric would be sure as to try to top that story. That thought calmed the laughter slightly, and he tried to calm himself down. Yet he knew if he said anything, he was going to be in big trouble, so Tristan decided to be smart and let someone else do it for him

On the other hand Sina had dropped to the floor as she giggled relentlessly at the story. "T-that's adorable!" She cried out as little tears escaped her eyes. Kicking her legs with her giggles she looked like a turtle of which had been put on its back.

"Mom!" Soran shrilled, his face a brilliant red color that he knew wasn't going to go away for some time. Laughing she released him and he put on a pout as he turned back to the food, "Traitor," he shot to Tristan, then stuck out his tongue to his boyfriend. River giggled even more.

Tristan gave the blond a look, kinda like don't stick your tongue out at me for no good reason. "Yeah, yeah...," he turned and went back to breakfast too, "It seems we have some guests out there, one Kilia knows well. Two gods so to speak." Ok there is was out in the open for everyone to here


"Who you calling a traitor? He's supposed to agree to listen to stories. I have more!"

"No! Nope! We're good! No more! All good, Momma, we're going to eat breakfast civily, and without interruption. Or I'm going to drag Tristan and myself to the room and we will eat there where you can't tell him any more stories!" Soran said, trying to overpower his mothers voice. He shot a deadly look to Tristan and reached out and poked the boy in his ribs, "You're gonna get it later."

River smiled, "Two gods?" she asked. If nobody was doing anything drastic like fighting... she was obviously curious and confused to say the least.

Sina shot up as she darted her eyes to Soran. "Seriously little guy, why are there two gods outside?" She cocked her head at Soran as she looked to the boy in sheer confusion. Back in Japan every god was a killer, it was strange to see two not willing to strike them down the moment they were found.

Soran turned red again, "L-little! I'm... I'm not little," he said with a pout on his face, a slight puffing of his cheeks and then turned back to the food, "As for the gods... well, I think one of them knows Kilia. They seem to be... kinda close. Or something. The other one... says she's with Cryio. I don't know. It's strange. I still haven't... quite wrapped my head around it," he heaved a sigh, "I don't know."

Tristan looked at Soran, "They offered to help is what's more, help us in this fight we find ourselves in." He turned back to River, "I know that I haved formed opinions about gods based on my experiences with them, but I've never had two gods come up and say they wanted to help in any way. Kilia asked us to trust her, so whatever happens after this, I will take responiblity for."

"Just cause you're little doesn't mean you're not cute Soran-san~!" Sina chimed in before looking back to Tristan with a shrug. " I trust you guys on this. It's kept me alive so far." With a stretch and a rise to her feet she returned to her seat. With a glance over to Rethyn in the living room she called to him.

"Yo! Blue eyes lazy ass, get up!"

"C-cute!?" Soran stuttered... this Japanese woman was really throwing him off, she was strange. He wasn't sure he could keep up with her. The only one who'd ever called him cute aside from his own mother was Tristan. Honestly, Tristan was the only one allowed to call him cute. He blushed furiously as the food was beginning to finish up. It was almost ready to be put on the table. River was busying herself with the plates as well. Soran gave a sigh.

"I think I give up..."

Tristan chuckled slightly and whisper to the boy, "Hey don't give up, anyways she isn't wrong, you are cute." Tristan moved rather quickly away from the other, not really wanted to get hit or anything. The poke in the ribs had been enough. "Yo...didn't I ask you to leave my guardian alone, he sleeps during the day, protects you at night."

A light blush grew under Sina's eyes as her mind started to wonder again. Dazing off to her daydreaming yet again Sina begun to picture Rethyn as something he clearly wasn't. Literal stars in her eyes weren't far from the truth as she gazed over to Rethyn. "He's totally a vampire knight..." She said quietly under her breath.

"Are the Japanese all like this?" Soran asked, he watched her with a lifted eyebrow. Shaking his head a bit, he deftly maneuvered around the star struck girl and brought the plate of hot food to the table and seated himself.

"Just the uber-silly fan girls," Tristan mumbled, "will you stop with the daydreaming and sit down and eat."

"I don't know will you spoon feed me Tristan-kun~" Sina said in return with a stick out of her tongue at him with a wink. "Heh, alright let's eat a good breakfast."

Spoon feed Tristan thought, now he was the one daydreaming of dumping a whole pot of oatmeal on top of the girls head. Maybe he would make oatmeal tomorow....at least it would give him a good laugh.

"Aww...don't give me that look. I'm just teasing you a little Tristan." Sina said with a gentle smile to the boy.

"H-hey..." Soran tried, but then rolled his eyes and grabbed some of the food. He put some on Tristan's plate and set it next to him before grabbing some of his own, "There. Now... I think after breakfast we should... seriously talk to those... um... Gods," he said, trying to turn the conversation to be a bit more serious and definitely a lot less about him and Tristan and Sina's daydreaming.

River seated herself as well, "I want to meet them myself. I'm interested to see a 'good god'. Never heard of that one before."

"Me either," Soran muttered under his breath, his green gaze narrowing at his food briefly. Taking up his fork he stabbed at the food and then proceeded to eat more gently after the vicious attack on the french toast.

Tristan sat down and picked up the syrup and poured a little on the french toast, "Sounds good to me," he agreed. He wondered if his father would have returned by then, he had to come back anyways. He had to wonder was there something he was missing in that whole thing. Grayson didn't just seem to be mad, he shrugged his shoulders and took a bite to eat also.

"So...Tristan." Sina said before pausing to chomp down on a piece of toast. "How did you sister you know...meet gods?"

Tristan choked a little on the bite he was eating, "Kilia isn't my sister," he said and tried to chew the rest of the food before answering the rest of the question, "And she said she knew Cryio when she was a little girl." She must have been really little, yet he had to wonder, how did she get away with being his friend with a mom like hers.

Tristan looked a little guilty, he shouldn't have thought that thought, but he still wondered.

"Tristan-kun, you really should learn to chew on your food. Or I am going to have to teach you~!" Sina said with a little giggle before glancing over to Soran. "Or Soran...maybe you should show him how..." She said with a little wink as she placed her chin over her laced hands with a small smile. She had no shame as River was not too far off from her as she flirted with next to no filter in her words.

"O-oye... Th-that's... I-I'm... Not going to do that... W-why..." Soran muttered, stuttering as he was absolutely embarrassed by Sina's actions. This breakfast plan wasn't going as he had planned it... He took a bite of food and tried to focus on eating rather than what she was saying. That girl... she really had no 'off' switch, did she? An idea popped into his head then... Maybe he could make an off switch... wouldn't that be awesome! He giggled a bit.

Tristan looked at his plate for a second, really trying not to blush at Sina's words. He sighed, she was really annoying, even though he knew she was just joking around with them. Yet he had lost his appetite for some reason. "I guess I should go check on Kilia," he said quietly. He got up and put his plate in the sink. Before he walked out of the kitchen, he grabbed some water from the fridge. "Excuse me guys," he said even though he has already moved away from the table.

Shrugging at Tristan's actions, Sina glanced over to Soran as she asked him. "So..what's going on in this neck of the woods? What's making you giggle so much?" Closing her eyes she sat back in her seat a little as she added in. "That was an amazing breakfast by the way~"

Soran watched, almost with a horrified look, as Tristan left him alone with Sina. Well, not really alone, but his mother wasn't all that great of help either. The one and only person who could have saved him from further embarrassment had just walked right out the door. He looked back between Sina and River. His mother was seemingly ignoring what was going on, lost in her own world, but with a sly little smile on her face. Soran swallowed... hard.

"Uh... I-I... don't know what you mean..." he said quickly and took another bite of food so he wouldn't have to talk to her and further encourage her antics. All the while he was thinking up ways of repaying Tristan for 1) laughing at him in the kitchen while cooking breakfast, and 2) leaving him alone with the creepy fan-girl from Japan who was apparently obsessed with... with... Soran blushed furiously as he couldn't quite finish that thought.

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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After returning from town, the two seers decided to take a shower before filling in the others in what they found, neither one of them knowing what had a occurred before they left. Grayson had been resting still and Victor was in his own room.

Tristan was on his way back out to the kitchen when a strange sight of Kilia running around met his eyes. What the heck is she doing he thought to himself.

Kilia moved from one room to the other, opening doors rapidly. She had finished healing the two boys hours ago and had gone to do some things of her own, mainly rest and get rid of her pounding headache that was threatening to make her sleep. She hated the weariness that came afterwards, the headaches, the feeling that she was going to passout. Then again, Kilia had a tendency to overdo things. She wasn't quite refined enough yet with her magic skills like Uncle Vic was to make the most of her energies. So, she had gone to get water, ate, even took a short nap and then showered.

Now, she couldn't find either Jonathan or Peter and she was starting to worry. Had someone snatched them? Had something happened to them but no one heard it? She couldn't figure it out. So as she went, she was suddenly opening doors very quickly and they were banging on the walls, which she didn't notice until about the fifth time and she realized that she was probably scaring a certain blonde haired Seer. Quickly she stopped this and quickly went to where she had heard River and Soran a bit ago in the kitchen.

"J-Jonathan and Peter... they're gone!" She said quickly, trying to keep the panic from her voice, but failing miserably. What happened?

"Yeah. Kilia, they left after the battle." Rethyn said as he had sat down upon one of the many comfortable chairs of which were in the living room. With his head turned he was looking at Kilia from where she stood in the kitchen. His expression remained blank as he looked to her.

Extending a hand out, he moved it to signal Kilia to move to a nearby seat. The room wasn't well light and outside it had grown dark. From within the darkness only the hollow eyes seemed to luminate through towards Kilia.

"L-left..." she breathed, "They... left? Just... up and gone? Why?" Kilia asked, her voice shaking just a bit. Why would they leave? They were Guardian's, they... they couldn't just... leave. Her heart lurched as she stood there, staring at Rethyn in return. His eyes seemed to glow as it was starting to get dark and the lights in the kitchen hadn't grown strong enough yet to block out the dim gloom.

Through the shadows Rethyn slowly nodded at Kilia. "Jonathan grew frustrated from the battle and was convinced we were all that was holding him back from "true power". Like a stray, Peter followed him in turn."

Lifting a glass of water to his mouth, Rethyn sipped it slowly as he was quite not sure what to do. Kilia would not of taken the news well either way, and nobody else seemed to want to break it. It may as well be him.

"W-what..." once again her words were nothing more than air slightly formed to make a sound. Her heart skipped a beat and then a sharp pain followed. Her fingers reached up and curled over the spot as she swayed slightly. Reaching out she took hold of the doorway, her eyes closing shut tightly as she felt a burn. Maybe she would take that seat now. Moving slowly she was making her way to the place that Rethyn had offered for her when Soran's voice slowly made it to her.

"Left... left... he left. Why? Why?" What started off as soft, slowly turned louder and his tone darkened. Kilia, completely caught off guard turned to the little blonde that was at the other end of the table. His food completely forgotten, he was glaring at the table with a look of such rage that it made her blood run cold.

"The fuck would he leave for!? I thought he was here to help me, to protect me when those Gods come calling! Who the hell does he think he is to just up and leave like this!? And he never even said a word to me, I haven't seen my Guardian in days! The hell is wrong with him!" Soran's voice was near screaming now as his fist hit the table, making the wood tremble and the silverware along it jump, "He left me again! Where the hell was he when Valyn was there? Why wasn't he there!?"

Running feet could be heard coming from the hallway, Tristan had been making his way to the kitchen anyways to talk to River and Soran and he heard Soran's yelling. He had never heard Soran like that before, not even when he was mad at Tristan before. He stopped at the enterance of the kitchen, trying to figure out what was going on, "Soran," yet his voice was only a whisper compared to the to the others. He turned to Rethyn, his head tilted in question, what had happened.

"Soran!" River called and moved around the kitchen to get to her son. Kilia stood with both hands over her lips as she was in utter shock. Never once had Soran blamed anyone for what had happened, or if things went wrong, he never blamed anyone. Where was this anger coming from?

"Why!" He screamed, "What is he planning?! To leave me at the mercy of those fucking Gods?!"

"Soran!" Kilia yelled finally along with River's voice that was trying to calm him. He hit the table again, a kind of raging growl at the back of his throat filling the air. Everything trembled, and Kilia could have sworn she felt a spike of energy course through the room as well.

The truth of which went through Rethyn's lips started out cold, but upon Soran's reaction he said. "That's exactly what he was planning Soran. He didn't care about you, he cared about power. " Rethyn paused for moment as he saw the vibrations of the room climb through his water. "I can't promise you the return of your guardian, but I can tell you that as long as you stay here I will do my best to carry the weight they left behind."

Hollow eyes locked onto Soran as Rethyn stood up. Rethyn then spoke quietly to Soran as if he was both trying to warn the boy and make him realize he was in the room.

"Soran."

Just like the few times before, his rage had spiked, but this time he had acted out on it. He shook, shuddered violently even as his fists clenched tightly on the table. His gaze shifted to Kilia who had yelled at him and she paused in mid step to go to him, River hadn't even dared to approach her own son as she was far too shocked at the display. He turned to Rethyn then, grinding his teeth as the other boy stood up. His words hadn't made it any better, if only to fuel the fire that was still raging. He couldn't quite understand why exactly he was so utterly pissed off, but he knew he was taking it out on someone that probably shouldn've have been taken out on.

Still, he couldn't help the feeling of betrayal. The sense of loss, back-stabbed. The word echoed and he clenched his teeth harder, breathing faster as he sat there, his fists shaking as he tried desperately to control himself. Rethyn continued though, his words cutting through the air to reach him. Soran gave a slight moan as he sat there, closing his eyes tightly. He started to lean forward, his breaths heaving in and out of his chest as he slowly shifted forwards.

Tristan was really confused, if he had figured right two guardians had left. He could understand that feeling, he almost thought he was going to face it in the past. He glanced at Rethyn...his words seemed really harsh for some reason. Was he trying to help or do something else? "Soran please, just calm down," he was almost at the point of begging. The anger in the other was hurting him, he took the step forward that no one else even dared. He didn't care if Soran hurt him, he just wanted the anger to end.

Finally, he let out an enraged scream, his fist hitting the table a third time, harder than the first and Kilia was sure he'd broken it, or at least bruised it very badly. She gasped at the sound of the table rocking from the hit and his scream. Looking to the people in the room she tried to plead with them via her gaze, help him... she was at a loss of what to do at that moment and could only stand in frozen fear.

Rethyn raised a hand to Kilia as suddenly-

Wap!

Rethyn suddenly appeared behind Soran as he roughly grabbed him again. With the quick words "Be right back." to Kilia and River there was another loud crackle as both the boys vanished. In their wake a little black smoke seemed to be left behind signaling Rethyn's emotions towards the situation.

From behind Soran the cabin looked much smaller as they both fell from two miles up in the air. However, from positioning Rethyn had what would seem like a death lock grip on the back of Soran's head as kept Soran in front of him during the fall. The wind howled as they picked up speed with every second they spent in the air. As the rocketed closer the howling of wind almost became deafening as they drew closer.

Tristan looked completely shocked at the disappearance of his guardian and Soran. What the fucking hell was that anyways, what was the guardian thinking if he was actually thinking at all. So where the hell had the other taken him...Tristan only thought was to run out the back door.

The feel of the boys hands on him made him jump. He hadn't been expecting to be touched and he would have fought back violently except he found that in the next instant, he was no longer in that room. Immediately his heart lurched and he was sent back to that abandoned warehouse, the golden knife, the face of the God and his horrid screams filled with agony.

He did feel, though, the arms of the boy wrapped around him tightly, holding him in place and right after, the feel of air cutting past them. It roared in his ears, making him cringe in terror. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think, and couldn’t do anything. Finally he found his voice and let out a strangled cry. His fingers dug into Rethyn, clinging to him, "Stop... stop... stop!" he cried, closing his eyes tightly as he buried his face in the boys chest, trying to breath properly even though he wanted nothing more than to scream.

As if it were a bad dream everything stopped just before the two of them were to splatter on the roof of the cabin. With a carefully placed teleportation, Rethyn had put Soran's life before his eyes, and placed them on top of the roof of the cabin.

Latching onto the front of Soran's shirt, Rethyn pulled the boy away from him as he begun to preach to the boy. "Dying is easy Soran. Every breath you take someone breaths there last. Within your eyes I see you. I feel like I see everyone these days." Shaking Soran slightly Rethyn continued. "And it's not by this flesh I see you, I see the you under the skin."

There was a pause, Rethyn's breaths drew in longer and more forced before he started again. "I was the one who pulled you out of there Soran. And I saw myself in your eyes. Not even a year ago I was just like you. And you know where I was a year ago? Dead Soran. Dying is easy, but the afterlife isn't. I was there for fifteen years of the kind of torture of which changes you. To survive I've done horrid things in that asylum they call the "afterlife"."

Pausing again, Rethyn looked over Soran with the darkest of looks. Leaning in to whisper to Soran's ear Rethyn said "I lived in a world where the warden would build your own perfect life and then smash it just when you were most happy. Then he'd start over and watch you smash another life he created for you because you couldn't trust anyone."

"I know you've been through hell, but you have family and people left who would die again for you. I would die in an instant so you could tell the God of Death that he'd have to wait."

Throwing Soran away from him, Rethyn pointed to the woods as he spoke loudly to the boy. "You don't see them, I do! When you're brought back the God simply does not wait for you to come back! He's made plans..."

Placing a hand over his face, Rethyn did his best to try to control himself as he begun to deepen his breaths. "Do you see?!" He finished with. In his own mind he felt he made sense, but he feared he just spoke madness to Soran.

Glancing back at the boy, he awaited him.

Panting, Soran hadn't opened his eye as he thought for sure he was going to die. Then he felt fingers latch into the front of his shirt and drag him off of Rethyn's chest that he'd been clinging too desperately. He opened his eyes now, fear clouding his mind as Rethyn started talking to him. Shaking, tears were streaming down his face as he stared at the other boy, white as a sheet. No color graced his features as he sat there. The words took a while to sink in.

He was shaken slightly and he blinked, his mouth opening as his lips trembled slightly, a soft sound trying to escape him as all he could do was huddle there. Rethyn's words about dragging him out of the concrete building made his gaze widen. He hadn't known that. Of course, he hadn't been conscious either. The next words hit him hard as well. Rethyn had died? But... then... how was he, sitting right there? He couldn't get the words out of his throat as he stared in fear at Rethyn, still trembling from the fall.

The boy leaned forward and whispered to him then. He felt tears falling even more as he listened. He had certainly felt that the life he had woken up to after such an ordeal was nothing but an illusion, however he soon realized that hadn't been the case. His heart slammed in his chest as he knelt there. He didn't know what to think, or what to say. It was hard to even breathe still. He managed only one word after Rethyn had told him that the people around him would die for him, and that even the dark haired Guardian would do so too.

Looking at the boy, his breath hardly whispered out Rethyn's name.

Then Rethyn threw him backwards, shocking him even more. Catching himself just barely by both hands, he was leaned backwards, his eyes wide as he watched Rethyn. Confusion was clear on his face as he sat there. What did this all mean? Why had Rethyn dropped him in mid air and then settled them on the roof? Was this... mean to make him feel better? Or meant to make him see something? Because if it was the former, it certainly hadn't worked. If anything, Soran was now afraid of heights of all things.

"S-see... what... Rethyn..." he managed between short gasps, "The God of Death? Waiting for what? What do you mean? Why the hell did you drop me!?" he countered, a flash of anger before he quickly contained it.

"Look around you Soran! What do you see?!" Rethyn barked. "In that instance if you had died everything you loved would be gone! In the afterlife all of this would never be seen the same. I see the same fear I had within my eyes through yours. The world beyond this one is tougher, more horrid! If you don't put your fear behind you it will kill you and those you love."

Rethyn paused for a moment as he coughed slightly. "The God of Death is someone you never want to see. You'll know when you see him. I see him everywhere...I'll do whatever it takes so none of you will have to meet him."

Rethyn felt the same solution he had come to before race throgh his mind. He then heard Kilia's words in turn. Bringing his hands to the side of his head, Rethyn looked crazed as he stared off into the woods. Faceless beings watched him, they were whispering.

"Your eyes are like mine, I can see you see your fears everywhere you go Soran...Everywhere..."

Sitting down Rethyn went silent as he stared off into the distance. It was as if he went into overdrive and shut down. Every so often he would only merely blink between the now almost silent rises and falls of his chest.

Even though it took him a moment to figure out where the heck they were, his heart stopped when he saw them on the roof. It was probably good for Rethyn that he didn't see the entire display of...stupidness.

"Rethyn..." Soran breathed slowly. Fear... he sees fear. Of course it's fear... he thought, trying to keep up with the boy though his heart was pounding and he felt frozen to the spot. He wasn't sure what Rethyn was talking about, his voice sounded off though. But the one thing that did stick was the mention of fear.

Fear had frozen the blonde.

Fear had crept into his very soul, dragging him down into dark depths that he'd never been to before.

Fear was hurting those around him.

He clenched his teeth as he squeezed his eyes shut. The shock of the fall still stuck with him, but he was feeling something else now too. It wasn't anger, it wasn't quite fear, but... realization? Maybe. He wasn't sure just yet. When Rethyn stopped moving and just stared off into the darkness, he worried. Leaning forward slowly, careful of his own actions, he breifly touched Rethyn. The touch didn't burn. It shouldn't burn... Tristan would tell me that I'm sure he figured as he tried to get the boys attention.

"Rethyn... a-are you okay?"

There was no answer. Shit. Now he was stuck up on the roof. With no way down. His heart hammered in his chest. He swallowed dryly as he felt that familiar tug of fear trying to freeze him. Shaking slightly he sat there staring at Rethyn for a while. The boy wasn't going to move, and thus Soran was stuck, with only himself to get out of the situation. He glanced around quickly and spotted Tristan.

"Tristan!" he called, leaning forward and slipping slightly. He gasped a bit and quickly caught himself, his legs stretching out to stop from going farther on the roof top. His boots had enough grip to catch on the shingles. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly and returned his gaze to the boy on the ground, "Tristan... Uh... yeah," he wasn't sure what to say or how to relay to the boy that his guardian had just gone into robot mode and 'turned off'. He glanced over to Rethyn again, "He's um.... broken..." he said and then sort of chuckled as he was referring to the boy as a mechanical object that had stopped working.

It was only slightly funny. Slightly.

He's broken is that what the other just said, Tristan actually thought it fit better than it should have. "Rethyn," he called, "what in the hell are you doing." Ok maybe that wasn't the best response. Tristan was just going to have to come up with something, yet it seemed like his mind just ran out of ideas.

Rope...ladder...but the freaking roof was to high for that, he looked at the windows, damn the other couldn't have landed near one of those. He glanced at his magic pad, did he have anything useful...oh wait.

He hurried as fast as he could as he needed to actually modify what he wanted. A slingshot appeared in his hand, and he aimed it toward his guardian, "Ok maybe this will wake him up," The first object to launch from the slingshot was a water balloon, but as it went toward the other, it just got bigger and bigger. As it hit him it would explode into shower of water.

Soran's gaze grew wide as he watched Tristan design something on his pad and then in his hands appeared a sling shot. He shot something that the blonde Seer couldn't quite see until it got closer. It was a large balloon of sorts and Soran lifted an eyebrow. He wasn't sure but... was that supposed to do something? He hoped so because he wasn't getting down without Rethyn, or maybe some well crafted spell of sorts. He bit his lip as he looked down to Tristan.

"I hope that works!" he called, cringing slightly as the balloon got larger. Whatever was in it was sure to go everywhere and Soran was definitely in range of it as well, though it probably hit Rethyn with more than Soran.

As the balloon smacked Rethyn on the side of the head. Rethyn closed his left eye and blinked twice with his right. The blackness had gone away and like a reboot, Rethyn stood up soaked. Below him was a little circle of a wet spot of which the rest of the water had gone.

Before glancing over to Soran, Rethyn shook his head as he offered the boy a hand. "Come on, let's go."

Slowly, Soran watched as Rethyn seemed to completely snap out of his trance when the water sprayed across him. Some of it exploded onto him too, but not nearly as bad as the other boy. It had completely drenched him. Reaching out his hand, Rethyn called to him. Standing up gingerly, Soran took hold of the boys hand with a nod, "Okay."

Crack!

With another quick teleport, the two of them had landed next to Tristan. In silence Rethyn then released the hand for Soran before turning to slink away. With tired eyes and a lowered head, the young man started to step off into the house. In his wake there were drops of water from his clothing.

The sky looked lovely that night as each of the stars were visible without the lights of the city to hide them. The moon this night was larger as it loomed over the cabin brightly. It even revealed many of the shadowy spots of the night of which on most nights one could not see.

Soran blanched slightly, wincing at the teleport. That was going to take some time to get used to again. He stood there silently though, watching as Rethyn walked slowly back into the house. Looking to Tristan after the boy disappeared into the house, he reached out and took the red haired Seer's hand gingerly, "Tristan... h-hey..." he could only manage before he moved and wrapped his arms around the other's waist, putting his face in Tristan's chest. He breathed deeply.

Tristan watched his guardian come to life again and finally decide to teleport off the roof. As the two landed he sighed in relief, he watched his guardian move into the house, and decided he save the conversation for later as to what the other was doing up there. He looked at Soran as the other took his hand and wrapped his arms around him. "Hey yourself," he said with a smile and held the other. "You ok," was all he could ask, he knew that it wasn't the best question, but it was the first one that came to mind.

It took him a moment, but Soran finally answered, his head nodding slowly, "Y-yeah.... strangely enough. I mean... he terrified me at first but... I-I don't know. I guess... he sort of helped... Kind of. I'm still slightly confused but. I think I know what he was trying to do," Soran said, trying to explain how he was feeling and knowing that it wasn't happening. The most important part was that he was actually okay. Shaking, sure, but... okay.

Tristan smiled, "I am glad to hear that," or at least he thought he was. He was still sort of scared though, wondering what that anger was from before, was it completely gone. "Good, now I am hungry, I swore I smelled spaghetti in there."

~~~Rethyn, Sina, and Kilia~~~

Shooting around the house, Rethyn made his way back to the chair he had sat in before. He was trembling a little as he sat in the darkness. At first he thought he was alone as he merely went back to his glass of water, but with the sound of Sina's light voice Rethyn turned a little to see her in the corner of the room within her own seat.

"Sup weirdo."

Closing his eyes, Rethyn didn't want to deal with her as he finished his glass of water. Doing his best to remove the thoughts swirling through him and the idea of Sina's teasing he didn't respond to her.

"You goin' to respond or am I just going to have to go mess with your stuff? Weirdo."

There was no avoiding her. With a open of his eyes, Rethyn looked hollowly as he said in response.

"Hello. Useless."

With a clinch of her teeth, Sina barked back to Rethyn,

"Excuse me?!"

"You heard me. If you're going to call me weird I can at least call you what you are. And you have been utterly useless. "

Sina scoffed at Rethyn as she stood and folded her arms at him. "I was protecting Tristan's sisters weirdo."

"As I was too useless." Rethyn replied.

Like a child, Sina responded with. "Ugh! Everyone else around this house is so great then there's you!" Stomping off out of the room Sina's last words were. "Not only are you a weirdo, but you're also a jerk!"

Thanking the air of her departure, Rethyn merely glanced down to the floor as he felt sick. Why had he lost control? Was it Soran's anger which triggered it? Was it just his eyes, or was it just himself.

Burying his face into his hands, Rethyn rubbed at his eyes a little before removing them from his face as laying back into the chair. He did his best to not look at the pictures on the wall as he feared they'd move again. He didn't want to focus on anything for too long for the fear of it had set in.

Kilia, having been curious as to what happened between Rethyn and Soran, had paced the house until she heard someone coming into the house again. Dinner had moved to the table, River having finished making the spagehtti. The young pink haired Seer didn't feel like eating though, too nervous and distracted by thought to settle herself.

Moving in the direction of the noise she'd heard, she by passed Sina who looked irritated. Lifting an eyebrow, she watched the other girl storm down the hall. Entering the kitchen, Kilia spotted Rethyn seated there and gingerly made her way over to him. Drawing out a chair, she sat across from him and was silent for a while as she tried to figure out what she wanted to say.

"R-Rethyn... is... everything okay?" she asked slowly.

Speaking steadliy, Rethyn looked forward as he said to Kilia. "Are you alright, you seem nervous." He was dodging again, upon his response he tried to flip the conversation away from him and onto Kilia. He couldn't help but fear he'd said too much to Soran. He had let himself out and now someone in the world knew almost everything about him. He felt even worse knowing it wasn't even his own Seer who knew of him that way, but his Seer's lover instead.

"Are you hungry?" Rethyn asked as he stood from his seat. Maybe around the table in company she wouldn't have the curage to figure him out. Hopefully neither would Soran as he wouldn't bring it up around his mother or Tristan.

Hopefully.

Kilia stood with him, followed him to where the pot was full of the decadent italian food, "I'm fine," she told him and stood right next to him with her back to the table, "I'm... not very hungry right now... But... I'm worried about you. You suddenly disappeared with Soran. You're both alright... right? You can... at least tell me that. You trust me, right? At least let me know that you're okay," she said softly. She wasn't trying to push, but she was gently prodding to get him to say something.

"I could be better Kilia." Rethyn said quietly as he tried to keep his voice from the others ears. "I would never seriously hurt Soren. I only told him what I felt was needed." Rethyn finished as he went to pull his noodles from the pot. "And why do you keep asking if I trust you? I told you before I'd rather myself die than any of you so you wouldn't..." Rethyn trailed off as he looked to his noodles.

Kilia frowned, "Don't say that," she whispered softly, fingers reaching out to wrap around his arm, "I get cold when you say that. Because I know that you mean it, and you would let it happen. Don't you remember what I told you the other night? You are strong. But you are stronger with us standing at your side. I know you want to protect us, but... we want to protect you to. I know you wouldn't hurt him either. You wouldn't hurt any of us," Kilia said softly. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder lightly, "I just want you both to be okay."

"Would you like to patrol with me tonight?" Rethyn asked quietly as he looked down to the hand of Kilia. Her hand felt warm to him as he was still rather damp from his Seer's water balloon attack on him from before.

She then placed her forehead upon his shoulder. For the first time he had come back he felt the warmth of a blush on his face as his eyes moved to her quickly before darting back to the noodles.

"Patrol?" she repeated the word and removed her head from his shoulder. She wasn't sure what that meant, but since he was asking... Maybe she would find out more about him if she was allowed to do so. She smiled sweetly at him, "Sure. It sounds interesting."

"Thank you Kilia." The blush upon his face had not died yet and because of it he didn't make eye contact as he did his best to hide it. He had begun to shiver from his clothing and he begun to silently tell himself that he would have to change after he ate.

Later that Night

With folded arms over his sheath, Rethyn stood in the living room with closed eyes. This was where they had planned to meet for that night. At first he thought he heard someone’s steps, but refused to open his eyes just incase it was something like that one night. The eyeless dog licking the glass of the window was more than enough to flood the memories of a bad night. He held back a shudder to the best of his ability as he remembered the crimson leaving the socket of the dogs eyes.

Kilia moved through the darkness, slightly out of place as she couldn't see very well and then found herself in the living room finally. Spotting the form of Rethyn she walked over to him and with one hand behind her back, a smile on her face, reached out and tapped his shoulder as he seemed to be sleeping.

"Rethyn," she called softly, keeping her voice low in the house.

Rethyn slightly jolted from the tap, but quickly regained himself once he heard the voice of Kilia. Turning to her slowly he opened his eyes as he saw her through the darkness. This night he had chosen not to wear shoes as he merely wore a sleeveless shirt covered over by a soft black jacket with a little bit of what seemed to be fur on the hood. And a pair of simple cargo shorts of which already had gained a small hole at the end of the left leg.

"Kilia." Rethyn said quietly in return.

Beaming at him, she straightened, "I always wondered what it was you did at night," she said with a small giggle, "I feel.. kinda special being allowed to follow you around," she said, one finger scraching at her cheek as she looked around the room. Kilia was certainly glad for the darkness, she could feel her cheeks going slightly red. Dressed in a black shirt that opened at the shoulders with long sleeves down to her wrists, a short skirt with shorts underneath and shoes to match, she rocked back and forth as she waited, "So! Where to first?" she asked, all sorts of energy bubbling through her, which was unusual seeing as she wasn't a night owl to begin with.

"...Thank you for coming along." Rethyn said softly. He was thankful that she came along as even though he didn't exactly explain why he needed her she came along anyways. It brought a warmness within him of which he caught inside of himself. It confused him, but he tried his best not to question it. It was nice, it felt so much better than the other things of which jabbed at him throughout the day.

"I usually move to the training rooms first then just the general downstairs before I start going up. I then repeat."

Kilia nodded a bit, "Ah. Pretty simple," she said with a smile, "So... why do you do it alone, Rethyn? You've always done this, haven't you?"

"Well, I am not exactly fond of Kilia." Rethyn said as he begun to walk in the direction of the training rooms. "Ever since I joined up with you guys, it just became my thing."

Kilia followed him, matching his stride as best she could, "Oh. You never did it before then? So," she lifted an eyebrow as she looked up at him, her hands curling together in front of her as they walked, "So why do you do it now?"

Rethyn paused as he looked into the training room, from within he saw nothing. Speaking quietly he said in response to Kilia as he turned back to face her. "I do it now because I worry about you, and everyone else."

"You worry about us?" she asked, and then gave a small laugh, "See, I knew you did. You're always acting like you don't like us, and you do things alone so often. But I had a feeling there was more to it than just that," reaching out she wrapped her fingers around his forearm as they bypassed the training room, "People think that they're good at hiding things. I think that maybe I've gotten a little bit better and reading a few things. Or maybe you're just slipping," she teased a bit with a laugh, "In any case," her tone grew a bit more serious, "I'm glad to hear it."

"I do things alone because there are things out there I don't want you all to face." Rethyn said a little defensively as a light blush crawled up on his face in the darkness. He had not expected the sudden touch of Kilia and along with her touch felt a warmness crawl within him.

"I know I am slipping..." Rethyn said quietly as he knew Kilia was teasing, but he knew it was true.

Kilia walked with him, her fingers still wrapped around his forearm, "I think that you try to do too much on your own. I also think that you don't give us enough credit. Especially Tristan. Together, you and him could be extremely powerful. Who knows what you both could do if you both started working together." Kilia gave a bit of a shrug, "I've been wondering, too... do you have a magic system, Rethyn? I know... little strange to ask," she said as she glanced around the hall.

Glancing down the hall as well, Rethyn's blush had faded as he truly did think over the aspects of his connection with his Seer. She was right. He knew that he needed to stop trying to protect Tristan so much, but work with him instead. However, a bit of him growled at the idea as he struggled with it.

As they reached the stairs, Rethyn finally answered the second question as he said weakly. "No, I do not have one."

Kilia looked up to him briefly, her content features fading for a moment as she grew a bit worried, "Well, that's okay. I sort of didn't think so, after all you teleport around so much and I've never seen you open the system. Sorry to ask such a strange question," she said, "I just thought that... if you did you and Tristan would be a deadly pair. Not that you wouldn't be still... but... uh..." she fumbled around for words and finally decided on an awkward silence for a while.

"Do you like being a Guardian, Rethyn?"

"Don't worry about it Kilia, I know what you mean." Rethyn then paused as he listened to Kilia's voice. He did not believe she knew, but he could clearly see her in the dark and with his solid sky blue eyes he would watch her closely as she would speak. After what seemed like an even longer moment, Rethyn finally answered her question.

"For a duty I never expected I do like it...It gives me a purpose. Without it, I wouldn't know what to do. I don't believe there is anyone left who cares for a guy who died fifteen years ago."

Reaching the end of the stairs, Rethyn stopped as he looked to her silently. His eyes had held that hollow look of which bore into KIlia as he himself showed little to none other signs of body language.

Kilia frowned, "Oh Rethyn. Then what does that make us? You know we care, don't you? You're special to us, you always have been," she said softly. She never removed her gaze from his eyes as they stopped at the end of the stairs. His beautiful eyes... she always found them so captivating. She smiled, "We care. I care too. Doesn't that mean something for you?"

Rethyn felt a smile pull at his lips. "Sorry, it's just in the past I felt I was merely the expendable one of the group.." He paused for a moment as he closed his eyes and breathed lighly once before opening his eyes again. "It does Kilia...I..thank you." Other words wanted to pull their way out, but for now he had lowered his gaze a tad bit more.

A light blush started pushing its way upon his face as he couldn't help it. He wanted to say more, but words weren't exactly working for him in the moment. He froze.

Kilia hummed a bit as she tilted her head, "What is it, Rethyn?" she had a feeling he wanted to say something to her.

"Thank you for being so accepting of me...I know I come off as a bit off...and." Rethyn felt himself begin to ramble a little to the girl as he tried to find his footing. She had managed to slip past his defenses and break him down with just her mere smile and gaze. In the past he always knew she was cute, but never this cute.

A long moment of silence seemed to pass as Rethyn found himself locked in place. The smile he had let out earlier had been replaced by a little of uncertainity. Without even realizing it he had leaned in closer to Kilia. As a blush crawled up his face so did the warmness resonating within him.

Inches from her face he found his eyes gazing into her sky blue ones through the darkness. For a moment he paused as he felt the uncertainty of his actions. With his hands at his sides he from yet again.

Kilia shook her head a bit as he said he was a bit 'off'. She didn't think he was off at all. He was just fine the way he was, sweet and kind in his own way even if he tried to come off cold and uncaring. Kilia giggled a bit to herself. As they stood there, she suddenly found him getting rather close and she watched him curiously. He got close to her, close enough for her to feel the gentle caress of his breath against her face.

Kilia was mesmerized by his gaze. She had always thought those eyes of his were rather good looking, attractive even. If she hadn't been infatuated with Jonathan for a while, she probably would have fallen for him first. As it was though, she had a feeling that she'd had a stronger connection to him. When Rethyn saved Soran from the concrete during the earthquake, having taken a blow to his head and breaking his mask... she was worried, scared even for him. It was also the first time that she'd seen his eyes. Kilia remembered having commented on it, telling him that he was cute, or adorable like that.

Following after that, she'd spoken to him in the kitchen of the new house, worried yet again. Kilia remembered how he felt when she held him, though he didn't hold her in return, she could feel his strong heart, warm body and with a kiss to his cheek... maybe that had been the spark. Or maybe it had been a bit sooner. Love was wierd like that.

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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So, when he came close to her, gazing at her, she couldn't help the little breath of startlement, her cheeks growing red as well, though it was hard to tell in the dark. Her heart thrummed a little harder and she trembled slightly. It was only a few more inches... a few more inches and she find out what it was like to kiss him. She bit her lip, hesitant to try. With a small intake of breath, she leaned forward and gently gave him a kiss. Nothing hard, or passionate or anything like that. A soft touch, like testing the water. She hoped to god that was what he wanted...

A small smile played upon Rethyn's lips as he smiled against hers during this kiss. Slowly his hands moved to her sides before one gently slid to her back. The blush upon his face seemed to partially fade as he returned the kiss to Kilia. With it he understood the warm from within of which she gave.

Closing his eyes, Rethyn finished the kiss as he wrapped his arms around her gently. Leaning his forehead against hers he could feel her heart pounding between breaths. With a tiny smile it was okay as his heart too was beating strongly against his chest. His blush had completely faded off from his face as he could feel the light tickling of Kilia's breath as it contacted him.

After a long moment Rethyn lowered his arms and stepped back as he opened his eyes to gaze at Kilia. With a gentle smile he remember how she had spoken to him the first time he removed his mask. The kindness she had supplied him was enough to escape himself and begin his first steps into his new life. He wanted to give her something more, but in his mind he did not know what. Then like a slap the thought hit him roughly as he murmured.

"Answers."

The embrace was gentle and warm. She wrapped her own arms around his waist, though she really wasn't all that big and could only get her fingers to curl around her wrists where-as his arms had nearly engulfed her small size. It was nice to just stand there, letting him hold her and no words needed. She breathed deeply. He smelled nice. With a soft hum to herself she was about to nestle closer to him when he pulled away a bit. There it was again, that small smile. She gave a soft laugh and smiled in return, unable to help it.

Of course, his next words had her utterly confused. Tilting her head a bit, she said, "Eh?" softly, arching an eyebrow as she stared at him, her smile still in place. If at all possible, little question marks might have popped up around her head as well...

"Uh..." In that moment Rethyn realized how odd he sounded. With a quick regain of his footing, Rethyn asked Kilia quietly.

"I know you still have questions...If there are any left I am willing to answer."

"Oh... Um," she blushed a bit as she reached up and tucked a strand of long pink hair behind her ear, "Uh... your... magic system. How come you don't have it? I mean, you were revived, right? Shouldn't you have it?"

"I..uh never had one..." Rethyn replied as he looked down briefly before meeting his gaze with hers again. "The power is a part of me..I am not sure how to explain..uh.." Rethyn shook his head as he awaited the next question. If it was the one he expected...he was going to have to answer everything.

"Oh, that's interesting. Makes you more mysterious," she said with a giggle and a wiggle of her fingers for added affect, with a smile she stood with one hand on her hip as she thought to herself. She had recalled having a thousand question's before, but... at the moment it was actually rather hard to ask any of them. The reason for that was because simply.. She’d forgotten. It was the kiss... Yes, totally blaming it on that.

"Um... This... thing with the God of Death... why is he after you? Is he just mad that you... were revived somehow?"

"...After?...Sweetie that's a interesting choice of words." The voice hissed to Kilia from down the hall. Through the moonlight a suited man could be seen in the light as he sat upon the window frame. With his right hand he adjusted his solid red tie while with his left hand he seemed to pet something within the darkness.

Rethyn's eyes went wide as he kept himself from turning his head. Within his mind he told himself over and over again that he wasn't there. It was another trick and trap to get under his skin. He begun to shake as he grasped at Kila to pull her towards him. With quiet whispers he said.

"Don't look."

Kilia sucked in a sharp breath. Words tossed across the hall in an acidic tone from a voice that she'd never heard before. Her gaze grew wide and as she was about to turn around, Rethyn suddenly grabbed her and held her tightly against him, prohibiting her from turning as her face was buried against his chest and shoulder. Her breathing was short.

"Rethyn..." she said, a bit of a higher pitch to her tone than usual as he told her not to look, "Rethyn... what is that?" her voice was shaky, but as she felt him trembling, she worried. What was going on? Kilia's fingers curled into his shirt tightly as she was crushed against him, "Are you okay?"

"Rethyn...oh come on let me meet her. You know? It's kind of like when you show the girlfriend to your parents for the first time. Well not exactly, but I am the closest thing to a dad in this new life eh?" Death then chuckled at Rethyn's silent trembling before he continued on with. "After? No, I'm just giving him some tough love. I can't have him be soft now...Why kill what you helped bring back?"

"Helped... bring back..." Kilia whispered softly. She couldn't turn, but she did raise her voice a bit, a sharp snap to it that usually wasn't there, "Leave him alone," she said as she reached behind Rethyn and her hand swiped at the air. The soft glow of her magic system came up and her fingers touched the pad, but she couldn't see what she was drawing out. She was trying to make some sort of shield, a protective barrier that she was going to throw on Rethyn. She could only hope that it would work. All the while her voice whispered to Rethyn, "Don't listen, ignore it. He doesn't know anything. You're just fine, trust me."

"But girl, I am speaking to you now not him. What you seek to know is why Rethyn has no magic system? Because the power he processes is the gift I bestowed upon him when I helped bring him back...That foolish girl tried to revive him, but like every other bastard and whore in the past would of failed. I gave just a push of help and look what happened." Chuckling slightly at the barrier he had no intent of attacking Death turned away as he finished with.

"He's even in my image when I was but a mortal..Kazar may of had black hair like he does now, but when he was in my world he was a blonde...Well heh just go look at the picture he has under his pillow...He's not who he was at all in life. Rethyn wasn't even his original name."

Reaching his hand into one of the dogs opened eye sockets, Death begun to write something upon the window with the crimson of blood. It looked to be an array of numbers of which could be entered into a magic system. "This is my number...contact me when you're done with games...Ta ta."

Wamp!

As if it were the same power of Rethyn, Death vanished in a puff of smoke. The sound was similar to Rethyn's but distinctly different in sound as through all of Rethyn's teleport there wasn't a sound quite like that. The sound was quite loud this time too as it carried throughout the house.

Upon the window the blood dripped a little, but still the numbers were visible. As Death had left, Rethyn released Kilia as he looked down in silence. Death had broken out the information not in the way Rethyn wanted to give it. It was the truth and it stung the blue eyed boy as he begun to turn away from Kilia. She would see him as a monster now, and as the fear settled in he started to believe it.

"Rethyn!" Kilia called, her voice nearing a shout, but not one of anger, out of fear. Her fingers were still curled on her magic system. Her other hand reached out, snatching his hand and dragging him back as best she could. She moved too, stepping up next to him and pressed the power against his chest. It was probably a little late, but she also wanted to see what it would do. Golden light streamed across his frame, like little tendrils that pulsed and curled together in intricate designs. He glowed like that for a bit. Kilia tilted her head as she watched it, slightly mesmerized by how it twisted along his body.

"Hmm... not sure what that is really, but I think it's a protection spell. Looks cool," she said with a shrug. Then looking up at him, she frowned, "Why did you try to walk away? I don't care what he said. It doesn't matter to me, it won't matter to anyone else. So what, you had blonde hair once. You look better with black. I don't care what your name was before. You're Rethyn to me and I like you just the way you are now. There's nothing wrong with you, and there's nothing wrong with any of that past stuff. I'm sure something happened. I won't ask, it's not my place. But... the important thing now, you're here. Don't lose face simply because of a few words."

She said, and as she spoke, her fingers curled in his hand that she'd grabbed and her other hand reached up to brush across his face.

As the golden light faded from him, Rethyn quickly begun to look around him as he saw many of the the shadows lose that extra layer of darkness, he saw the picture at the end of the hall stop dancing, and lastly he felt a warmness within his head. With a momentary close of his eyes he felt soothed.

Opening his eyes he stared at Kilia as she spoke to him. She may not of known what she just had done with that spell of hers, but she had just driven from his minds the hallucinations of which had plagued him since his return to the living. With no response, Rethyn lunged forward as he pulled Kilia into a tight embrace. Turning his head he then kissed her twice on the cheek. He felt the warmness of her hands upon his face and smiled to her as he said.

"Thank you..."

Kilia was startled as he lunged at her, pulling her up tight. Her breath was lost to her as he bear hugged her. Then she felt his lips against her cheek and she blushed furiously. Still, she smiled warmly as he whispered words towards her, his thanks made her giggle a bit, "I didn't do anything," she said softly. Shifting her hand from his face, her fingers went through his hair and then wrapped up neatly along his neck as she pulled herself into his hug, happy for the warmth.

"I'll always be here to help you, okay? Me, and everyone else. I promise you. You're not alone," she said softly. The darkness of the hall stayed just like that, with only the silver light of the moon to illuminate them just barely. Kilia enjoyed the embrace. Maybe she could hold him again like that soon, the thought made her smile even more as she released a soft sigh of contentment.




Following Morning

"Found her," Cryio's voice was soft as he moved forward through the trees. It had been a long trip, and it had taken a lot of time and extra power that he didn't think he possessed, but it finally payed off. Deriea sighed, she stretched up, pulling at her limbs as her fingers interlaced and rose up over her head, her back curling backwards a bit.

"Finally," she muttered, "Shall we greet the mortals?"

Cryio turned to her slightly, "You shouldn't call them mortals."

"Why not? That's what they are."

"They won't like it," he said bluntly.

Deriea rolled her eyes, "You're certainly loads of fun," she retorted, "Fine what should I call them? Humans? Lesser-beings? Skeletons with skin draped on them?"

"Deriea."

"Fine, fine, I won't do any of that. What's the girls name?"

"Kilia."

"And?"

Cryio shrugged, "Just, 'Kilia'. It's this house," he said, coming to an abrupt halt and Deriea almost running into him. Cursing to herself, she moved to the side of him and stared at the beautiful looking cabin. She gave a soft scoff.

"Seriously, what's with mortals and building such ridiculous things that will never last?"

"I find it pleasing."

"That's because you're strange. And an idiot," she returned, "Well, call her. We really don't have all day."

Cryio turned to her and for a moment she thought he may have smiled, but that might have just been her own weariness dragging on her. She lifted an eyebrow as he stepped forward, walking right through the barrier. Deriea followed and both God's halted right outside the house, waiting.

Deriea sighed heavily, "Idiot," she muttered. Her hand outstretched over the dirt at her feet. The small rocks and dust started to move little by little. Her hand lifted up slowly and the fingers curled in. The ground shifted, a slight roll bucked under her feet and then she directed it towards the house. It rumbled as it went and hit the front door, just short of knocking it off it's hinges. With a bit of a grin, she released the power and crossed her arms with a sort of proud look on her face.

Inside the house if anything a collective moan went up...again, this was happening again. Alauric was in the living room when something hit the front door...well that was a little odd. He scratched his head and decided to go see what was out front. He stared out the windows, and found two gods out there...but they were just standing there as if they were waiting. "I kinda wonder if I go away they will disappear," he mumbled to himself.

Sina watched from a window as she saw the two gods move closer to the home. She had heard the alarm and was on edge, but at the same time nobody seemed to be doing anything so she found herself hesitating to do anything. "If they wanted a fight they would have already right?" Sina asked herself quietly.

Deriea looked to Cryio, "I don't think that worked. Should I try again?"

He shook his head at her, "You will only anger them."

She quirked an eyebrow at him, "What? I just knocked. A simple greeting. A 'hello' if you will."

Cryio sighed.

The rumble that rocked the house just a bit and had drawn everyones attention, had Kilia rushing for the door, heart pounding, "What's happened? What's going on?" She asked quickly, coming up next to Alauric. She had yet to look directly outside yet though.

Following her, was Soran. A slight bit timid, but definitely not huddled in a corner, he peeked around the corner, biting his lower lip, "Alauric?" he called, and took a tentative step into the main hallway.

Alauric was about to answer Kilia, when he heard Soran's voice also, he got a smile on his face with that sound of his name. "Just two gods out there...but they aren't attacking,,,and something hit the door...like a rather loud knock or something." He couldn't figure it out.

"Oh well, if they aren't attacking, I say let’s go back to bed..." he turned from the windows and started in that direction. He saw something that made him more scared than the two gods, "I am just kidding...geeze don't look at me like that."

Grayson was standing there, his expression was extremely stony when he looked at his seer.

"N-not attacking?" Soran repeated, clearly confused.

Kilia, on the other hand whirled around and threw opened the door. Soran gave a sharp cry as she did that. The pink haired Seer laid eyes upon the two Gods now and though she didn't know the woman, she knew she could never forget the face of the one that she had befriened those many years ago. Her lips broke into a wide smile as she drew in a breath and raced out the door, down the steps and across the yard.

Soran moved into the hall, rushing to the door where he stopped, "Kilia!" he yelled, fear in his voice.

Alauric turned as Kilia opened the door, now that was unexpected, he too then went to the open door. "Why do I get the feeling..." he stopped, and tilted his head, he wasn't really sure what to think.

Tristan now stood in the living room, as he looked at the pink-haired girl running down the steps toward the two gods, he squinted his eyes and looked again. "You know maybe I am crazy or something...but I think she knows one of those gods."

"Cryio!!" Kilia called as she sprinted across the yard. Though she threw her arms around the God's neck, the tall God did not return the hug, but did allow her to hang on him. He even bent down a bit for the short girl to do so.

"Kilia. You've grown."

"Yes. It's been a really long time. I was... worried about you," she replied. Then gasped slightly. Quickly releasing Cryio, she took a step back, realizing that everyone in that house had just witnessed her hugging a God. Glancing over her shoulder, she tried to find the words to explain, but faltered as she stood there.

Cryio reached out and patted the top of her head gently, "It is alright. We can explain just fine. I am happy to see you."

"Sure he is," Deriea added with a roll of her eyes, " 'Happy face'.... 'Sad face'.... 'Angry face'," all the while she kept her own facial features exactly the same as she imitated Cryio, "I swear, if it wasn't as clear as day what emotion you were feeling I would have never guessed," her voice was sarcastic.

Alauric had finally walked out the front door and was sitting on the top step, Tristan eyed his father as he now stood next to Soran, "oh what a great and fearless leader he is," he said in his own sarcastic tone. He watched the interaction between the god and Kilia, ok so he wasn't crazy, but what did it mean exactly for them. Was this just a visit, or were they here to actually help?

"I... I can't.... is this... really happening?" Soran stuttered as he leaned against the door, one hand reaching out to tangle with Tristans. He watched in confusion, not sure how to respond.

Kilia smiled, "Uh... yeah. Cryio, I'm sure you know everyone here, so no need for that, but uh... who is this?"

"Deriea."

"Oh. Hello."

"Hi morta- I mean, Kilia."

Kilia arched an eyebrow, then laughed a bit, "I know this may sound odd, but um... why exactly are you here?"

Deriea grinned at Kilia then and waved her hand from one side to the other, "Well you know. Strolling about is just one of those things that us Gods enjoy doing. Not to mention getting into fights with other God's, deciding to help out a group of mortals along the way," with a faked smile she looked at Kilia and then to Cryio, "Of course all of that was this idiots idea," her smile faded as she jabbed at Cryio.

Tristan looked at Soran, "Well you know Kilia...is an oddball," he grinned slightly, "she attracts the strangest friends. but yes its happening...but did she just say they were here to help us?" Alauric had heard the same thing, it was all getting a little to weird for him and he sighed.

"Wait... help? What are you talking about..." Kilia repeated, utterly confused.

Deriea rolled her eyes yet again and sighed as she put both hands on her hips, "You heard right, mortal. Cryio managed to convince me that you needed some help. Not to mention he's been worried for quite some time. Not that you could ever tell of course..." she gave the other God a horrid glare before she looked back to Kilia and smiled sweetly, "So here we are. Besides, don't you think you might need a bit of a... hand? Nothing like having a God back you up in a fight. Makes a statement don't you think? Especially me, I can make one hell of a statement."

"Deriea."

"What?! Jeez, you really are a buzz kill, Cryio. What the hell are you a god of again? Because it certainly isn't emotion," she glowered back at him, "Learn to feel the mood you idiot."

Kilia looked between the two, confused at first but then she started laughing. The woman named Deriea had a fiery temper, and one sharp tongue to add to it, but she was comical in her own way. This could be fun the young pink haired Seer thought to herself as she giggled, "Well, since you're here, why not come inside?"

"Uh..." Deriea looked at the house wearily, "That.. might be a bad idea in my case, girly. If you like that house, I think I'll stay outside."

"She'll destroy it," Cryio answered smoothly and in a matter of factly sort of tone.

Deriea turned her narrowed eyes to Cryio, "It's not like I would do it on purpose!"

Cryio shrugged lightly as he watched Kilia who had taken to laughing again, "O-oh... Okay... I get it," she said between giggles, "Then, we'll stay outside. You can come closer though, I don't want to shout across the yard," she said and turned to start back to where the others lingered on the porch of the home. Cryio followed her without a word while Deriea looked on hesitantly. Finally with a soft growl and string of mumbled curses to herself, the other god followed after. Stopping just short of the house, Kilia smiled at the group.

"Uh... So... this is Cryio. I... um, met him when I was very little. He's.... a good god," she said, not sure how well this was going to go over.

Alauric watched the three approach, and listened to Kilia, "Good god," he repeated, though it sort of sounded like he was saying it differently. "Kilia...um...," he didn't know where to start. Tristan stepped out of the doorway, "What he is trying to say is do you trust them Kilia," he remember her telling stories of her 'pretend friend' when she was little. He sounded like a cool person back then, to a kid, but to really put a actually face to the friend...and the fact that he was a god. Tristan had to ask the question that first came to his mind. He was also worried about the blond seer behind him. He rather thought he reaction would be different.

"A 'good god'?" Soran repeated, his voice turning slightly acidic, his green eyes narrowing dangerously.

Kilia quickly raised up her hands, "It's fine! It's fine, it's okay! He's not going to do anything, I promise you. And she won't either. If she's with Cryio, then it's alright."

"What's wrong with the mortal?" Deriea asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow as she regarded Soran's standoffish attitude to the situation.

Kilia turned to look at the goddess, "He's... that's a long story. He just doesn't trust Gods. For a good reason. But I can promise you, I trust these ones. Do you trust me, Soran? Tristan?"

Tristan looked back, he understood why Soran reacted like that. "It’s not that we don't trust you Kilia, you know that, it’s just going to take some getting used to, but I am all for them helping, we certainity could use it." Alauric looked at his son, maybe it was the right thing to do to stay out of this decision, they needed to start making some on their own anyways.

"And well," Tristan continued, "think of the circumstances now, how some of us are less protected, don't forgot about that Kilia. Maybe we could get them to make a oath or something," he slightly smiled at the thought, it was a rather funny notion to get a god to promise anything.

"I will protect her," Cryio said, his gaze watching Kilia steadily.

Kilia turned to look at him, "Cryio..."

"I recall giving you a promise many years ago. I'm sorry that I left you without fulfilling that. But I can now, and I will."

Kilia nibbled at her lip. She remembered that promise. He'd told her that he would protect her from other gods, no matter what. Then a few years after that, he'd disappeared. She had a thousand questions about that, but figured they could talk later. Looking to Deriea she tilted her head. Tristan had a very good point, and in the case of Soran, something should be said to try to settle him on this idea. Kilia was also happy that the blonde Seer hadn't flown off the handle. Though his anger was definitely something new to deal with, it seemed that most times he knew it was there and did what he could to subdue it. Hell, she was even surprised to see him at the front door, facing two Gods. It made her wonder what Rethyn did specifically to get him out of that shell of his.

Deriea nodded, "I won't harm you either. If it makes anything any better, he's the God of Life, and I'm the Goddess of Earth. I can't exist without this place, and since he's the god of Life, he has a sort of... what do you say. Soft spot for mortals. I suppose I do too," she said the last bit softly and looked off into the trees.

Tristan slighty tilted his head, what exactly does a god of life do,

"So what are your powers," he said looking at the tall male god. Seriously the guy was taller then he was, would have made a good basketball player if he was mortal, he offhandly wanted to ask him if he knew how to play. What the heck...Tristan had moved past the acceptance stage and had in mind to ask the guy to play a game of 1 on 1 or something like that.

Cryio looked up to the red haired Seer. He looked back to Kilia, almost as if he didn't understand what Tristan was asking. Kilia only smiled and waited. It took the God a moment, but he finally seemed to figure it out, "Life. Creating it. Keeping it."

Kilia giggled, turning she looked at Tristan, "Basically he means healing. He's... a great healer. Without anything living, more specifically humans, Cryio doesn't exist. Anything that has to do with healing, medicines, healing plant life... all that kinds of stuff, he creates it and keeps it going. He has all sorts of knowledge on that. Which, through him, we learn. Healers like myself and Victor become capable of doing those things, because he creates it." Kilia was beaming as she explained, hopefully her explanation was understood, because she honestly didn't know any other way of saying it. Also, she was saying it this way because when she had asked Cryio when she was small, this was the answer he taught her.

"Life..." Soran repeated. He moved a bit closer to Tristan, though his acidic tone had long since left him, "I've never heard of that before."

"A lot of god's aren't heard of, mortal," Deriea said, shrugging her shoulders a bit, "And a lot of gods are forgotten over time. A lot who shouldn't be forgotten."

Tristan glanced at Deriea, he had to agree with her on that point. Yet how long has it been like this, their world this way. Every generation had different seers, "I've never heard of it either, and you are right many gods aren't heard of, unfortunely we only get to know the ones who want to hurt us. It shouldn't be that way either."

Tristan was countering her point with one of his own, one that he thought was valid.

Deriea lifted an eyebrow as she regarded Tristan, "Smart mortal. Yes, it does seem that you unfortunately only meet the ones that wish to harm. Those of us that are left that you consider 'good' are few and far between. A lot of us aren't powerful enough to stand up to the others and many times end up being devoured by other Gods because of their impeccable appetite for 'more power'," she hissed the last words, "And so the lesser gods are taken care of first. Which in turn, makes them fighters in a war they never wanted to be in anyway, but in order to survive, they're forced to after human's who have the purest of energy.

"Which slowly builds up in turn and now... here you have your war and it all leads up to where you're standing right now. All because a couple of Gods many many millenia ago started fighting over a simple 'title'. The 'God of Gods'. Whoever holds that title, holds the most power, and controls the other Gods, and essentially controls everything else in the living universe. Quite the powerful seat, don't you think?"

Tristan smirked, but her statement led to more questions, some of which he didn't want to ask in front of some of the others standing there. Humans have the purest energy...that didn't make any sense to him, in comparing a human with a god shouldn't it be the other way.

He looked confused and decided he would let it go for now. He looked at the pink-haired seer, "Well they are your guests Kilia, even though where they are going to stay is a mystery."

Deriea laughed, loudly, "Silly mortal! Unlike you, we don't need a place to stay, or a place to sleep or anything like that. I prefer the outside anyway, and Cryio... is just Cryio. He's strange... he'll probably just stand over there through the night when you strange mortals need to sleep," she said waving her hand over to some random corner of the property, "Besides. It would be easier for us to catch any stray gods that may be around looking for a quick shot at killing any of you."

Soran's fingers tightened around Tristans, a slight shaking vibrating his limbs as he listened to her. The blonde Seer managed to keep most of his fear at bay, but he still couldn't quite help reaching out to the taller boy for a sense of comfort. Clearing his throat, he looked up at Tristan, "Are we sure about this?" he whispered.

Tristan turned and smiled at Soran, "We will talk about inside, let Kilia catch up with her friend." He didn't really know how to actually answer that question nor was he hundred sure about it in the first place."Dad," he said to the guy who was still sitting on the steps. "Hmm, what," Tristan rolled his eyes, had the man actually been napping while sitting there. "Oh, so we inviting the gods to stay...well why the hell not." Alauric mumbled mostly to himself. The older seer was having a hard time with the idea, but like he thought before, he wasn't going to be a part of the situation.

Alauric went back into the house, only to come outside again a second later, "I forgot I had something to do," he went past the gods and Kilia. Tristan had to wonder if the guy was becoming senile...not that he should be old enough for that. "We will talk later," Tristan said to the others out there.

Kilia lifted an eyebrow as Alauric went inside and then immediately came right back out and walked past them. She watched him go, curious as to what was going on, but then shrugged as she turned back to Cryio. She smiled at him, "It's been so long. Shall we walk and talk?"

The god nodded his head and turned to start towards the edge of the property and walk through the trees with Kilia at his side. The pink haired Seer started rambling and it seemed the God didn't mind in the least as he listened to her. Deriea sighed heavily before glancing up to Tristan and Soran, "Uh... yeah. I'll just... be over there. I suppose letting them catch up is fine... but really, we should be getting you all ready," she huffed a bit then turned and went to where she'd indicated.

Soran, still very confused watched it all happen before he reached up and rubbed at his head, "This is... awkward... And what's up with your dad? Maybe you should go talk to him?" Soran asked as he looked up at Tristan. He frowned a bit as he rested his hand against Tristan's chest for a moment. Stretching up, he wrapped his arms around the boys shoulders and pulled himself up so that he could kiss the other quickly on his lips, "I'm hungry. I'm going to go eat. What are you gonna do?"

"Eating sounds good," he said as he held the other close, he was about to go for a tease when he heard a clearing of a throat behind him. He looked back and saw Grayson standing there, "Sorry to interrupt, where is your father," Tristan almost lost it right there as he realized now why his father was in such a hurry to leave, "He went that way...like something spooked him." Grayson nodded, "So we have guests, well at least maybe now we can get down to actually training with them around."

Grayson turned back into the house, and Tristan chuckled, "My dad is running away from his guardian," he whispered to Soran, "he is afraid of being berated for his behavior during the last battle."

Soran nodded, "I would be afraid too... Grayson scares me for sure...." he replied just as softly hoping that the older Guardian wouldn't hear him.

Tristan shook his head, "I suppose we should go tell the others about what is going on, even though I am curious about what everyone's thoughts are going to be." Tristan had to think they were doing the right thing, but still why was he doubting the decision now.

Soran nodded a bit, "Yeah. You're right. I wonder how well this is going to go over. I know that Kilia seems to trust him.. but... but what of that other Goddess... I-I don't know Tristan." Soran closed his eyes tightly and took in a deep breath to try to settle himself. With a soft sound against his lips, he heaved a sigh, "Ugh, I don't know. Let’s eat first. Then we'll talk. Figure things out with everyone over breakfast."

The morning Rethyn had remained hidden in the shadows as he watched over the turn of events. The night eye was always tired early in the morning as he had usually stayed up the previous night walking about the house patrolling while the other Guardians and Seers took their rest.

This morning, Rethyn was confused. He didn't know what was stranger, helpful gods or the fact that Kilia could still function with the same lack of hours of sleep as himself. With a gentle sigh, Rethyn teleported with a soft poof from his outdoor perch to his favorite chair within the living room. With a light yawn the man held his sheathed sword against his body as he begun to doze off in the chair.

Passing by Rethyn, Sina was half tempted to try to snatch the sword Rethyn had been cuddling with in his sleep. With a roll of her eyes she brought upon a smile as she moved into the kitchen. She was very curious to hear about what had gone down while she glanced through the window at her team.

"Good morning all~!" Sina said as she stretched her arms out with a higher pitched yawn.

Tristan was coming back inside with the blond seer to grab something to eat, and to discuss what had just happened with the others. He glanced over at his guardian and shook his head slightly. He looked up as he saw Sina and smiled, "Good morning," he said as he went into the kitchen and raided the fridge. He really thought he would love some bacon at the moment, but it seems they ate the last of it at some point. "French toast anyone," he said. As he started to get out the incrediates, he had to make a mental note as to ask what they were going to do about food if the towns people moved on

"Hell yeah!" Sina said with a raise of her hand. "However, let me make it for you two. You're both too cute." Sina said commandingly as she pointed at the both of them. Within her mind she begun to picture herself as their waitress upon their morning date. The thought brought a little blush under her eyes as she brought her hands to the side of her face. With closed eyes the swooning girl seemed to lose focus as she daydreamed.

"Um..." Soran paused as he stood next to Tristan, "I think we lost her," he said and then rolled his eyes, "I'm so glad your sisters aren't like this," he commented and moved into the kitchen, "While she's too busy... daydreaming" he said and then blushed a bit he joined the taller boy, "I'll help you make breakfast. French toast sounds amazing," he said with a smile. It would also be a great distraction. He didn't want to know what was currently tumbling through Sina's mind at that moment. Yup... he was definitely sure he was much better off not knowing.

Tristan turned and was about to comment, but just watching the girl made him turn back around and blush a little himself. He really hoped it disappeared when Soran came and stood beside him, "Yeah, definitely need a distraction from crazy girl over there," he took out the eggs and the bread and handed it to Soran. "And who’s to say my sisters aren't like that, they just aren't like that in front of people."

Snapping back into attention Sina lifted up a hand as she said in a saddened voice. "W-wait...ohhh you guys are so mean." Dropping her head in defeat she marched over to the table and laid her chin on her folded hands as she sulked quietly to herself.

"So, they're closet fan girls?" Soran asked with a short laugh as he broke open the eggs into a small pan and used a fork to break the yolk. As he whisked that with the fork, he shook his head, "I don't want to find any weird like stories or something from any of them, especially her," he said moving his head in the direction of Sina.

"Weird stories?" River's voice broke into the room and Soran felt his face grow brilliantly red.

"M-momma!" he stuttered in surprise.

River grinned, "I have some really awesome stories that I could share. How about it? Want to hear some, Tristan?"

"Mom! Mom, no... no that's bad, that's bad, don't!" he moved, dropping the fork and tried to put his hand over her mouth while she laughed and fought him back, getting his hands down at his sides and hugging him to keep him there.

"Hmm... which one should I start with."

Tristan started to comment on the fan girl thing, but started cracking up when River came into the kitchen. Oh man Soran's face was priceless and Tristan laughed some more when she offered to tell her own stories, he couldn't offer up a suggestion because he was laughing so hard. Soran was going to kill him later, he was sure of it.

River stumbled a bit as she struggled with her son, laughing slightly, "Oh! I have the perfect one."

"Mom!" he screeched and then yelled at Tristan, "And why are you laughing!!?"

"Oh hush, it's not that bad. So," she turned her attention to Tristan, "He must have been about nine or ten, I don't remember exactly, but he was in trouble. I told him to stay in his room until he had calmed down or something. Anyway, it was about this time he was practicing with his magic system. He wasn't very good at it, but he definitely tried. I'm not sure where it went wrong, but I was sitting in the living room and I heard this horrid scream. So I went running up the stairs. When I opened the door, he had summoned a giant teddy bear into the room. I wasn't sure what the teddy bear was for, but it had him upside down by one leg and was shaking him like a little jar.

"He was crying, terrified of the darn thing. When I asked him later after I got rid of it, why the bear was there, he told me that he'd wanted to try to have the bear give me a hug in apology for whatever it was. But it turned into an evil bear and, his words exactly, "Tried to eat me." I don't think it was trying to eat him, I think it was trying to figure out how to hug him but he was too small at the time."

"Mom...." Soran moaned. Okay, maybe that one wasn't too bad, but then River chuckled and he knew that laugh. Which made him struggle even more.

"Which of course isn't as bad as his running away from me when it was bath time. I swear this child was an escape artist. I'd get him stripped down from his clothes, turn to start the water, and when I turned back not a second later, he was gone. Full blown naked, running around the house like a wild monkey."

"Mom!!!"

Tristan stood there and listened, ok the bear story was slightly funny, but Tristan found it cute. As soon as River said bath time, Tristan couldn't hold it in and started laughing again. He couldn't help it...oh man he was certainly glad his dad wasn't in the room. Alauric would be sure as to try to top that story. That thought calmed the laughter slightly, and he tried to calm himself down. Yet he knew if he said anything, he was going to be in big trouble, so Tristan decided to be smart and let someone else do it for him

On the other hand Sina had dropped to the floor as she giggled relentlessly at the story. "T-that's adorable!" She cried out as little tears escaped her eyes. Kicking her legs with her giggles she looked like a turtle of which had been put on its back.

"Mom!" Soran shrilled, his face a brilliant red color that he knew wasn't going to go away for some time. Laughing she released him and he put on a pout as he turned back to the food, "Traitor," he shot to Tristan, then stuck out his tongue to his boyfriend. River giggled even more.

Tristan gave the blond a look, kinda like don't stick your tongue out at me for no good reason. "Yeah, yeah...," he turned and went back to breakfast too, "It seems we have some guests out there, one Kilia knows well. Two gods so to speak." Ok there is was out in the open for everyone to here


"Who you calling a traitor? He's supposed to agree to listen to stories. I have more!"

"No! Nope! We're good! No more! All good, Momma, we're going to eat breakfast civily, and without interruption. Or I'm going to drag Tristan and myself to the room and we will eat there where you can't tell him any more stories!" Soran said, trying to overpower his mothers voice. He shot a deadly look to Tristan and reached out and poked the boy in his ribs, "You're gonna get it later."

River smiled, "Two gods?" she asked. If nobody was doing anything drastic like fighting... she was obviously curious and confused to say the least.

Sina shot up as she darted her eyes to Soran. "Seriously little guy, why are there two gods outside?" She cocked her head at Soran as she looked to the boy in sheer confusion. Back in Japan every god was a killer, it was strange to see two not willing to strike them down the moment they were found.

Soran turned red again, "L-little! I'm... I'm not little," he said with a pout on his face, a slight puffing of his cheeks and then turned back to the food, "As for the gods... well, I think one of them knows Kilia. They seem to be... kinda close. Or something. The other one... says she's with Cryio. I don't know. It's strange. I still haven't... quite wrapped my head around it," he heaved a sigh, "I don't know."

Tristan looked at Soran, "They offered to help is what's more, help us in this fight we find ourselves in." He turned back to River, "I know that I haved formed opinions about gods based on my experiences with them, but I've never had two gods come up and say they wanted to help in any way. Kilia asked us to trust her, so whatever happens after this, I will take responiblity for."

"Just cause you're little doesn't mean you're not cute Soran-san~!" Sina chimed in before looking back to Tristan with a shrug. " I trust you guys on this. It's kept me alive so far." With a stretch and a rise to her feet she returned to her seat. With a glance over to Rethyn in the living room she called to him.

"Yo! Blue eyes lazy ass, get up!"

"C-cute!?" Soran stuttered... this Japanese woman was really throwing him off, she was strange. He wasn't sure he could keep up with her. The only one who'd ever called him cute aside from his own mother was Tristan. Honestly, Tristan was the only one allowed to call him cute. He blushed furiously as the food was beginning to finish up. It was almost ready to be put on the table. River was busying herself with the plates as well. Soran gave a sigh.

"I think I give up..."

Tristan chuckled slightly and whisper to the boy, "Hey don't give up, anyways she isn't wrong, you are cute." Tristan moved rather quickly away from the other, not really wanted to get hit or anything. The poke in the ribs had been enough. "Yo...didn't I ask you to leave my guardian alone, he sleeps during the day, protects you at night."

A light blush grew under Sina's eyes as her mind started to wonder again. Dazing off to her daydreaming yet again Sina begun to picture Rethyn as something he clearly wasn't. Literal stars in her eyes weren't far from the truth as she gazed over to Rethyn. "He's totally a vampire knight..." She said quietly under her breath.

"Are the Japanese all like this?" Soran asked, he watched her with a lifted eyebrow. Shaking his head a bit, he deftly maneuvered around the star struck girl and brought the plate of hot food to the table and seated himself.

"Just the uber-silly fan girls," Tristan mumbled, "will you stop with the daydreaming and sit down and eat."

"I don't know will you spoon feed me Tristan-kun~" Sina said in return with a stick out of her tongue at him with a wink. "Heh, alright let's eat a good breakfast."

Spoon feed Tristan thought, now he was the one daydreaming of dumping a whole pot of oatmeal on top of the girls head. Maybe he would make oatmeal tomorow....at least it would give him a good laugh.

"Aww...don't give me that look. I'm just teasing you a little Tristan." Sina said with a gentle smile to the boy.

"H-hey..." Soran tried, but then rolled his eyes and grabbed some of the food. He put some on Tristan's plate and set it next to him before grabbing some of his own, "There. Now... I think after breakfast we should... seriously talk to those... um... Gods," he said, trying to turn the conversation to be a bit more serious and definitely a lot less about him and Tristan and Sina's daydreaming.

River seated herself as well, "I want to meet them myself. I'm interested to see a 'good god'. Never heard of that one before."

"Me either," Soran muttered under his breath, his green gaze narrowing at his food briefly. Taking up his fork he stabbed at the food and then proceeded to eat more gently after the vicious attack on the french toast.

Tristan sat down and picked up the syrup and poured a little on the french toast, "Sounds good to me," he agreed. He wondered if his father would have returned by then, he had to come back anyways. He had to wonder was there something he was missing in that whole thing. Grayson didn't just seem to be mad, he shrugged his shoulders and took a bite to eat also.

"So...Tristan." Sina said before pausing to chomp down on a piece of toast. "How did you sister you know...meet gods?"

Tristan choked a little on the bite he was eating, "Kilia isn't my sister," he said and tried to chew the rest of the food before answering the rest of the question, "And she said she knew Cryio when she was a little girl." She must have been really little, yet he had to wonder, how did she get away with being his friend with a mom like hers.

Tristan looked a little guilty, he shouldn't have thought that thought, but he still wondered.

"Tristan-kun, you really should learn to chew on your food. Or I am going to have to teach you~!" Sina said with a little giggle before glancing over to Soran. "Or Soran...maybe you should show him how..." She said with a little wink as she placed her chin over her laced hands with a small smile. She had no shame as River was not too far off from her as she flirted with next to no filter in her words.

"O-oye... Th-that's... I-I'm... Not going to do that... W-why..." Soran muttered, stuttering as he was absolutely embarrassed by Sina's actions. This breakfast plan wasn't going as he had planned it... He took a bite of food and tried to focus on eating rather than what she was saying. That girl... she really had no 'off' switch, did she? An idea popped into his head then... Maybe he could make an off switch... wouldn't that be awesome! He giggled a bit.

Tristan looked at his plate for a second, really trying not to blush at Sina's words. He sighed, she was really annoying, even though he knew she was just joking around with them. Yet he had lost his appetite for some reason. "I guess I should go check on Kilia," he said quietly. He got up and put his plate in the sink. Before he walked out of the kitchen, he grabbed some water from the fridge. "Excuse me guys," he said even though he has already moved away from the table.

Shrugging at Tristan's actions, Sina glanced over to Soran as she asked him. "So..what's going on in this neck of the woods? What's making you giggle so much?" Closing her eyes she sat back in her seat a little as she added in. "That was an amazing breakfast by the way~"

Soran watched, almost with a horrified look, as Tristan left him alone with Sina. Well, not really alone, but his mother wasn't all that great of help either. The one and only person who could have saved him from further embarrassment had just walked right out the door. He looked back between Sina and River. His mother was seemingly ignoring what was going on, lost in her own world, but with a sly little smile on her face. Soran swallowed... hard.

"Uh... I-I... don't know what you mean..." he said quickly and took another bite of food so he wouldn't have to talk to her and further encourage her antics. All the while he was thinking up ways of repaying Tristan for 1) laughing at him in the kitchen while cooking breakfast, and 2) leaving him alone with the creepy fan-girl from Japan who was apparently obsessed with... with... Soran blushed furiously as he couldn't quite finish that thought.

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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Outside, Kilia was happily babbling away to her friend, Cryio. Catching him up on everything that he'd missed since he'd mysteriously disappeared. It didn't take her long to finish, mostly because she skipped a lot of details that she didn't think were important. He walked beside her as they moved through the trees just on the edge of the property. Cryio walked with a refined sort of grace, hardly making a sound, while Kilia on the other hand crumpled leaves, broke twigs and brushed through the bushes without a care.

"And... well after that, we had to leave the other house and ended up here. Victor and I healed Soran, but it took a really long time and a lot of energy. He's been sort of... different after that but I think he's getting better. His smile is coming back, which is good. Oh, and Rethyn did something the other night, I don't know what happened, but I think Soran isn't... Um... afraid as much? I don't know. Rethyn won't tell me what he did," Kilia shrugged lightly.

"I'm sorry."

Looking up, Kilia eyed Cryio with a look of confusion, "Why? You didn't do anything wrong."

"I could have prevented it."

"How?"

"If I had not left you."

"Why did you leave, Cryio?" Kilia asked, genuinely curious at to the reason.

"You were threatened."

Kilia felt her heart freeze for a moment, "Threatened?"

"Yes."

She took a deep breath. Threatened... probably by another god. But why would they threaten me? she thought as she strode beside him. Cryio wasn't one for many words and he certainly didn't elaborate when he probably should. Maybe he thought it was obvious. Kilia sighed a bit, her gaze flicking around the flora as they walked and then back up to him. When she was smaller, she thought that he was a giant. He was still really tall. Taller than Tristan even, which she'd always thought was impossible.

He caught her staring at him, and offered her a very small smile in return. It was his look of contentment, a flash of 'human' happiness as he called it. He only showed it to her though. She returned it, brighter and more happy than she'd been in a while.

"I would like to see the boy."

She lifted an eyebrow, "Soran?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Cryio stopped and Kilia had to back track a few steps because of his sudden halt. He stared at the ground for a very long time, "His anger. It is unnatural."

Kilia's breathing seemed to increase, "U-unnatural... how?" she barely muttered the words.

"I want to see him."

Kilia nodded slowly, "A-alright... I will.... try to convince him and Tristan."

Cryio gave a small nod and turned to head back up towards the house where Deriea was. The goddess had stretched herself out across the yard, basking in a ray of sunlight that had filtered through the trees. As they approached the house, Kilia spotted Tristan exiting. Cryio went to stand near Deriea who opened one eye to look up at him before closing it again. If Kilia didn't know any better, she would have thought the goddess to be sleeping. Going up to Tristan she gave him a small smile.

Tristan returned her smile as he watched the god and goddess, it still felt a little strange having them here. "All caught up," he said to Kilia, knowing if she had anything important maybe she would share. Tristan watched the goddess laying on the grass, it seemed to be a very human like thing for her to be doing there.

Kilia nodded, "Yeah. He's... really easy to talk to," she laughed a bit, "Mostly because he doesn't say anything in return... Uh.. anyway. I wanted to ask you something. Cryio says he wants to see Soran. D-do... do you think that'll be alright?"

Tristan looked at her for a second, "Do you know why he wants to see him, or what he intends to do?" he asked with an uneasy tone. He concerns was for Soran of course, but he wanted to know what was going to happen.

Kilia blushed a bit, "I... don't know what he wants to do, but I can guarantee it's not going to be bad. He said that Soran's anger was... unnatural," her voice lowered just in case the blonde Seer had followed his boyfriend from the house. A quick glance around him told her that Soran was still inside. She shook her head, "To be honest, I think I agree with Cryio. You may have missed it but... when he was so angry the night before... something... happened. It’s hard to explain, but I felt this strange... energy from him. We should really let Cryio take a look, he could probably fix it."

Tristan glanced down, he had to agree with Kilia on her point, Soran's anger was unnatural. Tristan had been trying to convince himself that maybe it was just that Soran didn't think it was fair what he went through. Yet even in that Tristan had a hard time, Soran wasn't that selfish. "We will see what Soran says, that is the best answer I can give you." He wasn't going to be the one to decide this for the other, Soran had to make that choice for himself.

Kilia nodded, "Okay," she breathed. She hoped they could convince him. Looking back over to the two gods, she watched them for a moment before returning her gaze to Tristan, "What do you think? About them? I mean, I know you're putting your trust in me on this one, and I really appreciate that, but... what are your thoughts? Personally... I think we could use a God on our side. Hopefully that'll turn the tables."

"Any help is a plus," Tristan said, "but like I said it’s going to take some getting used to and I still would like to ask some questions," he had to find out if they could tell them anything about the war and what was going on. Yet he was ready for no answers to those questions, he still had to wonder how far these two gods were going to go in their betrayal.

Nodding, she saw his reasons, and his hesitation as well. All of which she could agree on. Even for Kilia, she was a bit startled at their sudden appearance. Though she knew Cryio and trusted him completely, she was uneasy about the woman. Kilia had always thought that there were good gods out there, had that optimism for a long while, but up until recently, her thoughts had been changing. Ever since the incident with Soran, she'd felt a sort of slight hatred, anger and aversion to the gods. Kilia could definitely say she didn't like them all that much.

"Well, why don't you go ask and I will go see about talking to Soran, or should I wait and let you ask him?"

Tristan thought about her question, "You ask him first, you know the god better, maybe you can convince him." Tristan didn't want the blonde to depend on him for any sort of answer. Kilia could probably calm his fears about what was going to happen a little better anyways. "Maybe you can save him from the fan-girl in the kitchen as well, she is relentless with her...silliness."

Tilting her head a bit, she stared at Tristan, "Fan-girl?" she repeated and then laughed a bit, "Okay. I'll do what I can. I shouldn't be too long. Go on, Cryio doesn't bite, I promise," she beamed and scurried off into the house.

Tristan quirked an eyebrow for a second, he had never meet a god who did bite, that would be weird. He chuckled knowing what she meant. He looked back into the house for a second, most likely thinking of the living room and his sleeping guardian. He sighed, he let the fellow keep sleeping, he had to trust Kilia on this.

He walked off the porch and onto the yard, slowly approaching the two there, now what there a proper greeting when trying to start a conversation with a god or goddess. Usually it had some curse words in it, and he shook his head, "Kilia said I might be able to ask you guys some questions, do you mind." Ok being polite...that worked.

Cryio turned to Tristan and though he didn't say anything, it looked as if he were waiting. Deriea on the other hand opened one eye again and sighed as she sat up. Turning around, she put her hands on her ankles as she sat there on the ground, "Well, she would be right. Though I doubt you'd get many answers out of him. But anyway. What's on your mind, mortal?"

Tristan had to figure out where he wanted to start, he centered on a thought, "You said that there was this battle for supreme ruler of the gods...what does that have to do with them wanting our energy."

As expected, Cryio didn't answer. Instead, Deriea took a deep breath and stood up. Brushing herself off she put her hands on her hips, "This might get confusing... and I really hate to have to explain this a few times, but what the heck. Here we go," she said, mostly to herself. For a moment she just stood there staring at Tristan. Reaching up, she tapped her lip, a thoughtful expression crossing her face as she looked to be trying to figure out something. Finally she started speaking.

"Alright, well, good a place as any I suppose," Reaching out she gently touched his chest, right over his heart, "Humans have something we do not. You call it a 'soul', we call it pure energy. God's do not possess a soul, we have no need for one. We live forever, and have power of our own. We exist through the creation of energy, which is through you, and through this planet. This world has a soul, it's created by you, and the living things around you," she removed her hand, "The seat of which I spoke of a little while ago is a title, 'God of Gods'. The gods have power over every aspect of life, some that you may not even realize exists.

"We get our power from the stray energy that overflows from this world. It is only enough to sustain us and keep us comfortable and allows us to do what we need to. For example, Cryio's ability to create life. Without the energy to do so, things would die. When they die, he loses power, and if everything dies, he ceases to exist. As it used to be, it's a constant cycle of loss and regaining. Much like how you run around during the day, and at night you sleep to replenish.

"Your souls are pure. All of that energy bundled up in a tiny body. Not excess... not scraps, not anything else. That is the strongest energy we could ever attain. It's done in a few ways. The most common is for a god to kill a human, and as the soul is released, the energy is absorbed by the god. Now, as you're society has grown and expanded technologically, that makes things more complicated. Your magic system is directly tied to your energy, which in turn is tied to your soul. Because of this, if a god simply kills a human, they do not recieve all of the potential energy because a lot of that energy is within your magic system. It's become so engrained into your lives that if you were to be taken away from your magic system, you would all die. Unless you've died before and were somehow brought back," Deriea glanced towards the house, "That's completely different and we won't go into that because then it's going to get really confusing. I don't want to lose you here.

"So, in order to get all of that precious energy that a god wants, they have to possess a Seer, the only beings whose bodies are strong enough to hold a god's power entirely without bursting into flames, or exploding or something along those lines. Dragging energy from a human they've killed is much easier as it comes directly to the magic system and into the God. From there, the god inhabiting the Seer and direct the energy they've gained to other Gods that are not possessing a Seer. Follow me so far?"

Tristan nodded, but didn't say anything, some of it like the last part he knew already, but to think that the magic system was tied to his soul, why did that frighten him. Also having a soul meant that one had free-will so to speak, to do good and bad with themselves as they saw fit. Tristan really didn't think there was such a thing as a pure soul, unless it was a child who was still innocent in the ways of the world. Maybe it was a good thing, seers went through their first possession at the age of 20.

"So they are trying to figure out new ways to collect the energy without possessing the seer." It was the gist of what he got from his father and the 'harvesting' method they were using on Soran. He hadn't missed the comment she made about dying and coming back to life and the fact that she glanced back up at the house. Tristan had a feeling he knew who she was talking about, even though he was really the only one who hadn't actually been told. He was going to have go about it in a round-about way he guessed, and maybe Kilia could help him out.

"You could say that. After all, there aren't many Seers to possess. Only a handful of you all around the world. Now. With that understanding of energy, we have to come back to the seat of 'God of Gods'. Currently Oni possesses that title. It means that he can do whatever he wants with the energy that is around him. He can destroy gods, he can destroy worlds, he can recreate the universe as he sees fit. Unfortunately for him, he's not the only one vying for that position. There are many others. Eveylyn is another one, a more powerful goddess that is someone you should be utterly terrified of," Deriea's eyes narrowed at him as her lips pulled into a frown, "You think Oni is bad... you haven't tasted power yet.

"But that's beside the point. The only reason he hasn't destroyed everything yet is because he's unable to. Odd I know, but it's true. He's just not strong enough to harness all of that power, so in a way I suppose we could be thankful that it's him holding that title and no one else. If Eveylyn were to kill him and take that title, then we are all dead, I guarantee it. I suppose now you're wondering how Oni got into that position in the first place. Some say one thing, others another, but the point of the matter is, he tricked his way into it. Whether he assassinated the previous God or not doesn't really matter. He got close one way or another, the God died, and now he has the seat of power. Which quite frankly has pissed off many Gods all over.

"Also, a fun fact for you mortal," she grinned as she leaned in, "You can't kill a god. Destroy, maim, send away... sure. But kill? Impossible. Only another god can do so. How many have you fought so far? Do you know their names?"

He stared at her, and while he would probably disagree with caring how Oni got the seat of power, he could help but be slightly scared with her fun fact. He really ought to explain to her that a fun fact was supposed to be fun in the first place.

"Only a few have given names, others have not," he said trying to figure out if her question had been serious. He looked at Cryrio...with being a god of life was he even capable of killing anything. Even another god, as much as he wanted to know, he wasn't going to ask, he really thought the question rude anyways.

"So what happened in those other countries, did the fighting get so bad that they completely destroyed everything."

Deriea crossed her arms, "Well, you probably won't be seeing those gods any time soon, but know that probably in a few years, once their energies have returned to a sufficient amount.. They’ll be back, and with a vengeance. It's kind of how all of this came to play. A couple of gods came down, tried to take some energy to overpower another God, and well, the Seers doing their jobs, and stepped in. Thinking they'd 'killed' those gods, they moved on. A few years later, those gods came knocking again, this time revenge in mind. There you go, a war on all sides, so to speak. Not to mention an overpowering drive to possess a Seer, especially in recent years with your technology the way it is." She gave a sigh.

"As to the other countries, well as I'm sure the one has told you," she directed her gaze to the house again, "Many places have fallen. Ruins, if you're lucky, completely razed to the ground. Leveled, nothing left. Remember, I said 'a handful of gods' are after that seat of power. Not just Eveylyn and Oni. A handful, mortal. The fighting is going to get extreme. You're in for one hell of a ride, Seer. Are you ready for it?"

Tristan glanced at her before looking away, he knew firsthand about the vengeance of a god. That god came knocking too early in Tristan's life. He sighed, "No," he said to be completely honest, "but we are willing to learn."

Deriea's face alighted, "You, mortal, are a very smart man. Good. I was going to be afraid if you told me that 'yes' you were ready. At least you're not ignorant, you'll live longer," she beamed at him. Crossing her arms, tilting her head up a bit, she still smiled at him, "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s get started!"

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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#, as written by Siryn
A few hours later

Soran fell back, arms outstretched across the grass as the sunlight was just hitting midsky. It was probably lunch time soon and he was extremely tired. Panting a bit he swallowed and closed his eyes, "I take it back..." he panted, "This isn't fun... anymore... you're the freakin' devil... the hell..." he complained, sweat coating his forehead.

Deriea appeared over him and knelt down to poke his head while she spoke, "If you can't handle this, then we have problems. We haven't even moved up to targets chasing you. They're just moving now. And all I've asked is for you all to create things faster, make faster decisions. The Gods' not going to wait for you to figure out how you want to break it. Come on, get up, two more, then I'll let you eat," she said with a wicked grin as she continued to poke his forehead.

"Aww..." he groaned and his hands flailed at her to get her to stop poking him.

Tristan had sat down on the steps of the porch, breathing just as hard, he had to wonder why anyone would think this was fun. His arms felt like jelly, and having not gotten very much sleep last night was really catching up to him. He sort of felt like he couldn't do one more thing. But he chuckled as he watched Deriea poke the blonde seer, of course he sort of hoped the other didn't see him.

Laying down in his own territory of grass, Rethyn had removed his soaked shirt as he begun to wonder if it had rained from the amount of sweat dripping from him. She had made him preform a horrid version of sprints with teleports and which one he had grown more and more tired until he begun to fail mid flash.

Panting, Rethyn rubbed his hand over his forehead to just feel his hand get covered in sweat. As if he had recived a full body workout the majoirty of the muscles groups upon him were screaming. Especially his core of which he felt if he tried to sit up would just fail him.

Sitting in her own patch of grass, Sina kept yelling to her magic system with star eyes. "Jayce....Jayce? Speak come on damn you!"

"Mad'am....I must say it's been a pleasure working with you..but it is my time."

"That's what you said the last twenty damned times I overheated you jackass! You know what I am going to replace you with Vladimir's A.I. He at least knows how to talk smoothly!"

Sitting up, Soran gave Deriea a sour look and then released a heavy sigh, "Fine, two more but then I'm done, no more until I eat and relax for a bit."

"Relax? Oh you mean go have fun with your lover right?"

"Deriea!!" Soran hollered as he turned bright red and flailed even more as he turned to her. Losing his balance a bit he fell onto his back a second time and Deriea stood up giggling as she went.

"Oh, just asking. Wasn't sure what you meant, but now I know. Anyhow, two more, get to it lover boy or I'll just have to keep him busy for a while longer, hows that?"

Soran huffed, glowered at her and rolled over onto his stomach. The magic system opened up and in about five or so minutes, he pulled from the pad another very large rifle. He was getting a slight bit faster, the weapons still just as powerful if not more so. Deriea lifted up her hand, swiping it through the air and the ground trembled again. The pile of rocks that were a good distance away from them, shuddered and then pulled back together into the two human like dummies that she'd been using to force him to practice on.

"Alright, you two know the drill by now, except now I want you to do it in... oh... thirty seconds," she said with an evil grin back to Tristan, "Don't take them both out and we'll just have to say no to lunch, " she shrugged.

"I hate you..." Soran mumbled.

Tristan groaned as he got up and looked at the distance of the dummies. God could he even get something that far....

"Don't worry, I'll hit it," Soran said, his voice confident as he lay there, leaned against his weapon.

Tristan decided to do a little cheating, cause he wanted to go eat lunch. He pulled a little gold bullet off his pad, "here try that." He looked at the pink-haired seer, "you want to try out that protection spell, on that dummy on the right." He wanted to make sure nothing was going to happen to it.

Kilia looked over to him and raised an eyebrow, "Uh... sure I guess. I don't know how well this going to go though," she said as she looked down at her pad and the spell she'd been working on the entire time. She'd gone through about five spells so far. This one had taken her the longest to create. With a frown, she pulled it off the pad and aimed it to the one that Tristan wanted. Golden light laced with a bit of blue curled around the rock dummy. With a shrug she tilted her head.

"Yeah, no idea what that is..."

Soran grinned, "So long as it does what it's supposed to I think we're good Kilia," he said and loaded the bullet given to him. It took him half a second to aim, and then he fired almost immediately after. The gun exploded the round, a bit of smoke curling from the barrel. Soran winced, "My shoulder is going to be so bruised... I swear Tristan. You're like making those things out of freakin titanium or something."

"I could use whatever that...comic book character was made out of," he smirked slightly. Ok so that showed his geeky side. The bullet slowed just as it got near the dummy on the left, suddenly the top popped open and a hugh hammer came out and smashed down on the dummy. Whatever Kilia's spell did even made the pieces of that dummy fly in the opposite direction. "Hey look at that...30 seconds to be exact."

"Well well... lover boy can come up with something both powerful and comical. I like it. Didn't expect you to protect the one dummy though... why did you do that? Preparation for something? In case that was... say an ally I suppose," Deriea shrugged. She stretched a bit, "Hmm... well. Very interesting. Go eat, come back a little later."

Soran turned to Tristan, a grin on his lips, "You make some really interesting things, baby," he held up his hand as he rolled to his back, wanting the other boy to help him up.

Tristan looked at Deriea, he actually hadn't thought of that, but now that she said it made him wonder. What if that was an ally...it somehow put things in perspective. He looked down at Soran, "Only for you," he said teasing slightly in return. He grabbed the others hand and pulled him up.

As Tristan pulled him up, Soran bounced forward on his feet and planted a quick kiss on the boys mouth before dancing away with his mischevious look and heading for the house. Turning, he walked backwards, smiling as he went before sticking his tongue out, "I'm hungry and that spagehtti is calling my name. None for you!" he said with a laugh and bolted for the door.

Kilia walked up to the house as well, looking back to Tristan, "Don't worry, I think he'll share... well, maybe," she said and then laughed a bit, "You should hurry if you want anything to eat," the pink-haired Seer said as she made her way over to Rethyn who was stretched out across the yard just like Soran had been a moment before. Leaning over him she smiled, "Come on, lets go eat."

Wrapping his hands around his raised left knee, Rethyn pulled himself up as he stumbled for a second. Grasping Kilia's shoulder, Rethyn regained balance before letting go and following her along to go and get some food. Behind him he had left behind his shirt as in his mind he was very focused on the concept of food.

"Oh... you okay?" She asked softly as he stumbled a bit and used her to steady himself, he looked rather tired and she nibbled at her lip, also trying to ignore the fact that he was without his shirt as he made his way towards the house. Walking behind him, she allowed herself to just stare without being caught, her cheeks growing slightly red as she followed him.

Tristan just shook his head at the blonde, and glanced at Deriea. "I blame you," he muttered underneath his breath. He watched the interaction between Kilia and Rethyn...did he miss something over the past few days. He stratched his head and shrugged his shoulders. He was to tired to anything but walk slowly to the house, just realishing the feel of the air-conditioning for a minute.

From behind, Sina sneaked up creepishly close to Kilia as she whispered into her ear. "And they say I am obvious." With a cackle she quickly skipped away from KIlia as she passed Rethyn. To him she threw a wink before looking back to Kilia with a cat like stare.

Just as she reached the door of the house she said to Rethyn. "Blue eyes-kun you gotta tell me how you turned her."

Red jolted through Rethyn as she had both winked at him with Kilia there and asked a very forward question. Even though he didn't have the same context as Sina, it was still a rather surprise of a question.

Losing his balance, Rethyn nearly face planted as he was able to narrowly put his hand in the way from the ground. Growling in annoyance to Sina he barked to her. "You seriously need to get a life!"

Still referencing her romance manga Sina said with a wink. "Could you bring me into the coven~?" With a little giggle and a half bow she jumped from her step into the house to dodge further tongue lashings from Rethyn.

Kilia came to crashing halt as she took the steps and watched Sina in absolute horror as the woman asked Rethyn how he'd 'turned' her. Kilia, froze for a good full minute and then she let out a slight squeak, first because she was embarrassed and her face was awfully red, then she squeaked again as Rethyn tumbled forward, just barely catching himself. Moving, she went to him immediately, "R-Rethyn... you... okay?"

At Sina's second question, Kilia was seriously confused, "Coven?" she repeated and then shook her head as she helped Rethyn into the house from the porch.

River smiled at Tristan as he slowly moved into the house, "Come eat, ice tea and some sandwiches for you all. Although... I think Soran has probably just keeled over," she said as she looked over her shoulder at her son. The boy was stretched out across the table, half sprawled in the seat as he sat there panting heavily.

"This... sucks..." he said slowly.

"You're own fault you ran in here, silly child of mine."

"What happened to the spagehtti?" he moaned.

"It's gone. You ate it already."

Tristan looked slightly worried at Soran, but then realized he was disappointed about the spagehtti. He grabbed a glass and got some water, and drank it slowly. "Sandwiches sound great...I need to wait for a couple a minutes though." He was more worried about eating anything and then having to go back out there with the training goddess from hell. He would have to eat something though, he didn't want to collapse on any of them.

"Take your time," River said with a smile. She had something her hands as she moved over to Soran who was still stretched out across the table, eyes half closed as if he were about to fall asleep. Running her fingers through his hair he seemed to relax even more until she dropped something across the back of his neck and down his shirt.

He gave a loud, high pitched cry and came forward, hitting the table rather hard with his chest and groaning at the same time but also still trying to get whatever she'd put down his back from under his shirt. River, with an evil grin, put one hand on his shoulder, and rubbed at his back. Making him flinch and try to get free.

"Momma!!!" he yelled.

"What's the matter baby, I thought you were really hot? Isn't this helping?" she said as she laughed.

"Cold!!! Really cold... really really cold... Momma stop!! It's cold!"

Tristan choked on the swallow of water he had he wasn't expecting that, he turned trying to hide his laughter from the other. In fact he wanted to laugh so hard that he decided to be on the safe side he would find someplace else to eat. He grabbed half of a sandwich and his glass, and headed to the living room, yet as he left one could hear his laughter getting bigger.

Soran finally managed to get free, but by then all of the ice his mother had dumped down his shirt had melted. He stuck his tongue out at her before he said to Tristan, "I heard that!! You traitor!!" He was about to say something else, when a somewhat evil idea came to mind. He giggled to himself as he got up and went to the kitchen. As queitly as he could, he put handful after handful of ice in a cup. For a moment he had a really evil thought but decided even that was a bit too cruel and so settled for his original idea.

He left the room, his lips pulled up into a wild grin as he tried his hardest to keep his giggling to himself. Sneaking up to Tristan as best he could, he reached out slowly. Taking hold of the shirt he pulled it back and dumped the entire contents of the cup down the back of Tristan's shirt, then laughed, hard as he grabbed a couple of peices and made sure to keep them right in the middle of his back.

Tristan's first reaction was to curse rather loudly..."Sorannn," he said as he tried to pull out of the other's grasp. "You little..." he was jumping up and down trying to get the ice out of his shirt. "Ok...sorry I laughed," he said as he finally got the last piece to drop to the floor.

"Aha! My new weapon against you," Soran declared with a look like he'd won. He held up the cup triumphantly as he grinned, laughing all the while. That was probably the most hilarious thing he'd ever seen Tristan do.

River, who was now leaning against the wall that led into the kitchen, shook her head as she smiled at them, "Nice. Now clean up the ice before it melts and Grayson finds out. He'll make you do worse than just pick up ice chunks with your bare hands..." she said with a grin.

Tristan nodded in River's direction and didn't have to be told twice when it came to Grayson. He picked up a few pieces and put them back in Soran's cup. He leaned in as he did and whispered to the other, "You know if you wanted to play with ice, you could have just told me."

Soran's gaze grew wide, his cheeks and across his nose turning red. He shook his head a bit, trying to rid his mind of... other thoughts, "You... wait... what would... how..." obviously it was failing. Now he was curious, that was bad. It took him a moment and then he leaned in to, a small grin on his face, "So... if I ate a peice, would you help? I mean... chewing on ice is bad right. So, we'd have to have it melt somehow," he teased with a laugh.

"Oh...it will melt." Tristan said as he leaned away. A look that spoke volumes aimed at the blond. It was like Tristan had something in mind to say the least.

Soran swallowed, his heart beat increasing as he watched Tristan. He knew that look, very well in fact. With a glance back over his shoulder, he noted that his mother had left the room and bent down to pickup the rest of the ice. As he stood up, he took a step closer to Tristan, "So... what were you planning? I mean... honestly if you wanted to play with ice too... I think it'd melt too quickly," he grinned, "You're too hot for it. Gonna need a lot of ice, baby," he laughed.

Tristan chuckled, "Well if that is what it takes." All in all he actually wondered if the blonde would let him. He looked at the other, his expression changing now, "I love you baby, you know that."

His laugh had turned nervous when Tristan responded to the part of having to have a lot of ice. But then, his laugh turned into a curious look on his face before he smiled. Setting the cup down, he moved and reached up. Both arms wrapped around his shoulders and neck as he leaned in on Tristan, "Yes. I know. I love you too. More than you will ever know," he said. Tilting his head a bit, he stretched up and hovered just out of reach of Tristan's lips, a small smile playing on his face.

Tristan watched and as the other wrapped his arms around his shoulders he wrapped his arms around the blonde's waist. He got a slight grin when the other just hovered out of reach of a kiss. He finished the distance on his own and took the other's lips in a gentle kiss.

Soran kissed him back, letting the other start it. He pulled away after a while and sighed, "I love kissing you..." he said. With a heavy sigh, he looked back at the kitchen, "I'm so hungry..." his stomach growled as if to exaggerate his words and he blushed a bit, "Well.. shall we eat? Then... I want to sleep. Before she kills us," he glowered at the door that led outside. With a groaning sigh, he fell against Tristan, letting the boy hold him up, "She's such a freakin' drill seargent..."

"Sounds like a plan, just don't eat to much, we don't know what her plans are just yet." He must of devoured the half of sandwich he took because he didn't see it anywhere. "ok lets get back to the kitchen."




Later that afternoon

"Alright, you all look like you've rested enough," Deriea said with a smirk, "Now we'll kick it up a notch," she continued as she crossed her arms, lifting her head up a bit.

Looking to Rethyn first she waved her hand and in the trees, the limbs reshaped themselves to look like some sort of target, "You, do your teleporting, and hit each one. They'll move too so you better be careful. Don't worry , they aren't going to attack you, they'll just move as you finish your teleport. Anticipate it, my strange little mortal."

Her gaze moved from him to Sina, "Enhanced strength, speed and endurance. Such an interesting set of magic skills," the goddess said as she regarded the woman, "Keep practicing what you were before, you're wearing out your system too fast. There are better ways, little mortal. Hone down those attacks of yours, make it smoother, faster, cleaner... these are yours, and like his," she motioned to Rethyn, "They'll move. Have fun," she said as a pile of destroyed rocks suddenly reshaped themselves a little bit to their right.

Looking at Kilia, she motioned for her to come next to her, the pink haired Seer did so, "You, are going to protect this rock right here," she said and pointed to a rather good sized boulder, "But not all of it. Just parts of it. I will be attacking it. I want you to protect the spots I attack, much like if you were to say... protect one of them?" she motioned out to the others. Kilia nibbled on her lip before she nodded a bit.

To Tristan she gave him a very big smile that could be nothing less than mischevious and sarcastic. Her eyebrow twitched just a bit as she gazed at him, "You, are going to enjoy pounding away at that rock wall," as she said this, a solid wall pulled up behind her with a wave of her fingers, "and no help from anyone else. Your goal is to break it in a handful of strikes."

"And you," finally she turned to Soran, "Lets see how good you are in close quarters," Surrounding Soran a handful of rock dummies popped up and began moving a bit. The blonde Seer eyed the rocks carefully as he swiped open his magic system and a pair of handguns were pulled off the pad, materalizing in his hands.

Deriea waved her hand at them all, "Ready... go!"

Tristan stared at the rock wall and then back at Deriea, she must have been punishing him for something. Okay pound at the wall a break it in a handful of strikes. He wondered if he had a jackhammer somewhere in his pad. Yet that would defeat the whole purpose now wouldn't it. He looked at the wall again, sort of like what he had done before. He looked at his pad and got a grin on his face. She did say pound, now didn't she.

He skipped over a couple of details in making his creation, they didn't really apply in this situation anyways. He got it done and looked at it...damn he messed up somewhere. He put it off to the side, and looked at his pad. Was he overly tired and just not paying attention anymore. "Damn, damn da..." Tristan decided that cursing wasn't helping him.

He sighed now his head was pounding, which was perfect, cause all he needed was a headache. He kinda wondered if he could give the rock wall a headache. He scrapped the orginal plan...he had to come back to it later on and figure out what he did wrong with it. He got an image in his head and thought for a second. A huge set of headphones came off his pad and he put it on the wall. This was going to get really loud...so he thought he would be nice and try and contain the noise a little. A clear barrier went up only surrounding the wall. He touched something on his pad...ok needed a bigger barrier can that was really loud. He hoped the vibrations would start working, cause this was making his headache worse. And plus...he really hoped he didn't cause a rockslide anywhere else on the mountain.

At the word "go!" Rethyn had zipped over to his intended first time. Coming into range, Rethyn failed to swipe at is as it managed to dodge his stike perfectly. Gritting his teeth, Rethyn did his best to ignore the soreness of which already plagued him as he put more effort into each teleport. First he tried speed, it didn't work as even though he woild preform his ability at a faster rate so did too the speed of their dodge.

With another flash, Rethyn soared above his targets as he went further up airborne. Rethinking he strategy he chose to focus on positioning. Teleporting in from the right flank he swung again to feel his blade merely cleave through the air. Growing frustrated he backed off as he panted in silence.

Standing next to him Sina had found similar results as she had only gained a bloody knuckle from her attempts. "They're fast eh Blue-eyes?"

"Y-yeah. They are." Rethyn responded as he seemed distracted in thought.

Kilia watched as Deriea waved her hand at the rock that she'd told Kilia to protect. Her heart was in her throat as she hovered her hand over the magic pad. little pebbles floated off the ground and then suddenly one shot off, and Kilia freaked out briefly. Her hand flashed off the pad, but the spell missed completely. A little golden circle laced with blue color opened up almost like a circle around one area of the rock, but not where the pepple had struck with rather hard force. Embedded in the rock now, Deriea let out a sigh. Bitting her lip, Kilia tried again.

The second one she missed. The third she missed, the fourth she just barely manged to get a corner of her protection spell to touch. Deriea, all the while frowning as she sent pepple after pebble at the rock, "Concentrate. Watch the rocks, look at where they are going. You are faster than those pebbles, little mortal. Watch those, don't look at your pad, you already know the spell, come on."

Kilia moaned a bit as she reluctantly tore her gaze from the pad and watched the rocks.

"Maximum speed, maximum strength my lady." Vladimir the A.I. spoke as Sina charged her targets at an over the top level of speed. With each stike of either kicks or punches the targets fell quickly to be replaced by more. She had not yielded the words of Deriea as she heard Vladimir's voice begin to give warning. "Woah, my lady you need to pace yourself...You shouldn't rush yourself especially with me in the picture."

Growing annoyied with Vladimir she did her best to tune him out as she continued to waste her power. She had absolutely no idea how to hit the targets otherwise because she could never hit them hard enough or catch them without both. The whole thing was stressing her anyways as she was having a hard time seeing the point.

On the other hand Rethyn had begun to go into the shadows before teleporting to the flanks of his targets. They might of seen the teleport coming, but they never guessed well in how to dodge attacks they could not sense. As he sliced through his last target he felt like was going to vomit. Teleporting while invisble was even more draining than the teleport sprints he had done earlier in that day.

Soran dropped to a more defensive position, both guns raised and he unleashed a flurry of shots that pelted the rock dummies. He ground his teeth as he moved. They were circling around him and though he twisted around fast enough, he always seemed to miss one. Soran had to get out of the circle and put them in front of him. Finally, he caught a pattern of movement. He paced himself, firing off several other shots at the rocks that only made tiny little holes. Soran rolled, pulling away from their circle and making them turn and come for him again. He gave a small grin and unloaded his weapons as he moved backwards as quickly as he could.

Somehow he ended up near where Tristan was, though he was a bit too busy with the rocks chasing him, he did offer the other boy a quick grin as well as a, "Hey baby.. how's it going?" a bit of a laugh on his lips. His left gun burned out and disappeared, making him curse and with his free hand, redraw the next handgun. His other weapon shot off round after round, each one a bit more precise than they had been when he'd been surrounded. Even so, the guns weren't doing as much damage as he wanted. Like everyone else, he was tired too, and his energy was running very low.

Which had probably made him a good target. As the new gun materialized into his hand, he felt a cold grip along his shoulders. He gave a slight gasp as Deriea stopped what she was doing next to Kilia and turned, trying to find something. Whatever had gripped him, pulled him down into the watery depths of his conscious, making everything look like he was under water once again. Shit! he thought frantically.

The god turned him and as his lips turned up into a cruel smile, he fired off three rounds at Tristan with the new weapon and stalked towards the red headed Seer. Soran screamed from his place in the back of his own mind, able to see, but unable to do anything.

"Hello, Seer. Kindly die for me," the god said as he lifted the weapon again and prepared to pull the trigger once more.

Tristan was watching the rock, feeling like he was at a rock concert and he was standing next to the speaker. He thought he saw something and he turned to look in Soran's direction...what the fuck.

The first bullet had gone by him and hit the wall, he saw the chuck fly off. The second one grazed his arm. It hurt slightly more then he cared to admit, and now blood was dripping down his arm. He moved trying to get out of the way of the third one and decided to use the wall as his protection. Yet inside his own barrier the noise was intorable...so he had to turn it down. Now his ears were ringing, and he looked at in the other's directions, "Soran," he yelled, or at least he think he did, he wasn't hearing to good at the moment.

Soran's shoulder raised up as he shook his head a bit, "Wrong," he called out and fired off a round at the wall where Tristan's voice had come from. The gun made a strange sound now, almost like a high pitched whistle before it struck the dirt. He moved as he continued to shoot at the other Seer, the closer he got the more destruction to the wall and within a few paces, the bullets were going through it in small holes.

All Tristan could actually do was duck and cover, he was getting hit by from above by the falling chucks of rock. "Ok...any help here guys would be greatly appriecated." Its not that he couldn't do anything, but looking at his pad, he had enough energy for one good trick, and this one he really didn't want to waste on something stupid. His mind was whirrling, and he started with something on his pad. The only thing was he didn't know what or who he was dealing with other then the fact that it was inside Soran. It was that fact...that also made him hesistat. How were they going to unpossess the seer, his guardian was gone. With a glance he peeked out from behind the wall, to see if he could see the others.

A hand within the shadows was placed upon Tristans shoulder from behind. "Shh." Rethyn said as he looked to his Seer. Whispering with lips close to Tristan's ear Rethyn said. "I believe we should relocate, plan something out, then comeback and strike. Up to you though." Backing up a little, Rethyn kept his hand placed upon Tristan's shoulder as he awaited his Seer's choice

The softer approach was not Sina's approach as the words "Maximum speed" were roared from her magic system. Charging Soran from behind his left shoulder by where the dummies were, Sina planned to nail the short Seer with a slap across the face. As she zoomed in closer she called out "Soran! The hell are you doin'?!"

Soran's frame turned as the woman's voice hollered out at him. He narrowed his eyes at her, "Aren't you making this a bit hard?" he growled softly and turned his weapon towards her. As he turned though, he found the woman to have crossed the distance between them rather quickly. Grinding his teeth, the possessed Seer tried to fire off a round, but she'd moved too close and the gun went off only to bypass her shoulder, taking a few strands of hair at most.

Throwing the slap with excessive force, Sina gritted her teeth as the boy managed to ruin her hair as she lost a few strands. "You asshole!" She yipped at Soran as without even knowing if she landed the other strike she tried to send a snap kick towards the groin of the Seer.

Her hand crossed his face, knocking his head to the side and he stumbled. Recovering just in time, he moved backwards, his arm coming down to block her kick while the other one lifted up the gun and fired off a round aimed for her shoulder. The gun made a loud, high pitched sound and then released the round at her.

Tristan jumped slightly as Rethyn put his hand on his shoulder. He turned...what the heck was his guardian saying. His ears were still ringing. He shook his head trying to get rid of that awful noise. Ok...lets try to talk in a quiet tone..."Over there...," god he hoped that wasn't loud, "over there by the others." He was pointing in the direction of the goddess and Kilia. Why weren't they reacting...was he missing something "wait," he said. "You got enough energy."

He needed to get from behind this wall to say the least. He had another idea, while the guardian was keeping the possessed seer busy for a second, Tristan gave a low whistle, something black slither in his direction. He picked the snake up and let it coil once around his arm. He stared straight into its reddish eyes and whispered one word, "feet".

He let the snake go and it slithered toward the seer and guardian, if it wasn't seen it would wrap itself around the feet of the seer. Tristan hoped that would help the guardian.

Crying out in pain Sina took a couple of steps back as brought her left hand over her left shoulder of which had been riddled by the bullet. Dropping down to one knee from the pain and now loss of control of her left shoulder she spoke quietly to her magic system.

"Maximum endurence, maximum speed."

The pain numbed as first Sina flashed green, then blue as she lunged forward at an alarming speed towards Soran. With only the use of one arm she through a jap in combination with a low kick of which was meant to be her to snap her heel to his shin. Biting her lip she couldn't help but to think about what she would do even if she were to beat him. A bit of fear jolted through her body as she didn't know what would come next.

Rethyn was taking a lot of short breaths as indeed he had the energy, but it wasn't exactly high for anything daring. After Tristan released the snake Rethyn gripped him a little too roughly upon the shoulder as he attempted to teleport them both next to Kilia and the goddess.

Landing next to the pair, Rethyn dropped down to one knee as he felt a little sick. As he tried to get his breaths under control he saw the effects of Tristan's snake as it stalked up to the possessed Seer and with a sudden loud hiss wrapped itself tightly around the boy's ankles.

Kilia dropped down next to Tristan with a gasp, "Are you okay!?" she asked as she looked at the blood on his shoulder. Moving the cloth of his shirt aside, she sighed heavily as she noted that it wasn't too deep. Kilia got to work with healing the small scratch and looked over to Rethyn as she pulled her lower lip between her teeth, "Hey... take it easy," she told him softly.

Deriea moved around them and waved her hand, a harsh flick of her wrist and the ground around Soran shot upwards, roots wrapped around his hands, dragging them down and behind his back to keep him from firing the gun again.

"Damnit... when the hell did a god get in here?" the woman cursed softly as she narrowed her eyes at Soran. Watching Sina, she lifted an eyebrow. Her boot hit his shin, making the boy curse and grit his teeth, her fist connected to his stomach and he coughed, doubled over slightly though the vines kept him from dropping.

"Remove it," Deriea yelled across the yard.

Sina felt something pulse as she took a step back after landing her strike upon Soran. It felt horrid as if she had done something against her very being. Striking him made her suddenly feel sick. As she heard the words "Remove it" carry through the air Sina glanced over at the goddess before looking back to Soran. She wanted her to remove it? But in the past was it not the previous boys job of Guardian? Biting her lip in worry she felt her lip cut from the pressure. "Ow." she muttered.

"I'm fine," Tristan said, knowing his wound wasn't that serious, he was concerned with Soran and Sina, he was also concerned with Rethyn. He should have just found cover under the wall for the duration.

He looked at Deriea, "You couldn't have done that sooner...like when he was shooting at me." He probably should have just been glad she helped out all but he was tired and frustered at the moment. Yet when he heard her words, he looked at her with a blank look. Could Sina really get rid of the god...she wasn't Soran's guardian.

"Whatever god that is, is either weak enough to where I cannot sense it, or it's very good a hiding it's presence. It's not a powerful one, but... we can't rule out that it's a complete weakling either," Deriea said in response, her lips pulling into a frown as she sent a sour look down to Tristan, "So, my apologies that I did not stop your little lover boy before he shot at you. I suppose you should be glad of your own quick abilities."

Soran twisted, pulled and struggled to get free, the god growling and hissing and sputtering the entire time as he tried to free the Seer's body from the snake and the vines. The gun in his hand shuddered as he clutched it tightly. A vine sprung up from under his hand and coiled around the weapon, dragging at it to free it from his grip. Soran's face twisted into that of utter rage and he turned back to Sina with a look of contempt.

Tristan sighed, "No I apologize for letting my own nerves get to me," not that he would mention the ringing still present in his ears. He could hear a little better, at least he was good at reading lips, when he was facing the person. Also he slightly cringed at her word abilities...all he really did was hide...well at least he didn't get hurt worst.

She then felt it. Brining her usable hand to her forehead she knew exactly what she needed to do. It had worked on Sereith back in the day and the same feeling was coming back down. She blushed bright red as she knew she'd reach a new level of awkwardness this would bring to the table. With a quick glance over to Tristan and the others she knew at least Tristan would hate her for this.

Walking towards Soran timidly, Sina wanted to ram her head into a nearby tree for how embarassing this was going to be. Closing in to Soran she breathed against his neck as she said quietly. "I'm so dead." And with that she nipped at Soran's neck for what seemed like a long moment. As she nipped and gently pressed her lips against his neck she left behind a mark before stepping back and raising up her fist in preperation for the god.

Soran's frame went rigid as she stepped up to him. Her lips pressed against his throat and her teeth bit into the skin lightly. There was a slight pull against the skin and with it the God seemed to loose his hold over Soran's body. The figure drew out of him, a milky white frame before it solidified into a rather irritated god with white hair and glowing green eyes. The god glowered at Sina, raised his hand and twisted his fingers around. Purple light flooded his hand and shot out at the girl.

Soran, having gotten his body back, let out a gasp of air. The vines unwound from his body as did the snake. He stumbled, shaking as he looked and spotted the god. He was angry for a moment, but tears were edging into his eyes as he searched for Tristan. His chest heaved with the fear that he may have hurt the other Seer severely.

"MAXIMUM ENDURENCE!" The A.I. broke in as Sina crossed her arms in defense. As the blast collided into her and past her bits a pieces of her jacket and clothing tore under the force of the attack.

"Dam it.." She murmered

Tristan watched narrowed his eyes slightly and then looked away. Now...that fuck... well there wasn't much he could do about it. He turned back in time to see the god released and Soran look around, "Soran," he yelled, ok maybe that wasn't the best idea in the world.

Ok so how to help the guardian, it didn't seem fair to leave her fighting the god alone. He remember the fun fact that Deriea gave him. "Hey you know, I don't want that thing coming back to haunt anyone..." yeah he knew that he just called the god a thing. It was a bit insulting but still he wasn't to happy at the moment.

Soran fliched, "T-Tristan..." he moved, going over towards the boy and dropping down next to him. He let out a shaking breath as he knelt there. He noted the blood staining the sleeve of the boy's shirt and he bit his lip, tears welled up and fell, streaking his face, "I... can't believe... I shot you..."

"Stay here," Deriea ground out, giving Tristan a meaningful look, "All I wanted was for her to remove it. I'll take care of it," she cursed and she moved with an insane speed. Grabbing Sina's shoulder, she dragged the girl backwards and then faced the god. With a sneer on her lips she reached out and snatched the god's throat in her hand, "What is a weakling like you doing around here. Thought that a weary Seer was good prey?"

"He was... for a moment," the God spat back.

Deriea tilted her head, "Too bad," she growled, "You picked the wrong ones," she hissed and her vines erupted all around his body. They squeezed tightly and cut through him, running him through all over and he thrashed. The Gods' shrill cry filled the yard until finally he began to crack. Then he flaked apart, like a slow disolve that was happening to him. When she finished, Deriea let go of her power and the vines flopped over onto the dirt. Turning she faced the group and heaved a sigh.

"That's it for today," she said with a bit of annoyance to her tone.

"Seriously?!" Sina yipped at the goddess as she was dragged. "I totally had his dumb ass!". As the dragging stopped she fell on her butt as she pouted to the goddess. "Oh come on, you're...ow." She then remembered her shoulder as she fixed her brastrap on her left shoulder before covering her hand over the wound. She had lost quite a bit of blood and begun to feel the lightheadedness.

"On second thought have fun you lovely person you!"

In response, Vladimir spoke to her sarcasticlly. "Really?"

"I'm going to replace both you and Jayce I swear!" She spat back in retort.

Tristan looked at Soran, "It was that god who shot at me, not you," ok he really hoped his voice had none of the annoyance he was feeling. Why was he annoyed in the first place, was it because of what Sina did, was it because he was to tired to deal with things at the moment. "I'm fine, it was just a scratch," he said but still not really looking at Soran. He was a idiot...a stupid idiot. "I think some cleaning up and rest will do us some good."

Soran winced and pulled away. Tristan was irritated about something. Hell, the red head wouldn't even look at him. When Deriea said that they were done for the day he stood up abruptly, "You're an ass," he muttered. A frustrated blush coursed across his face as he crossed his arms and walked away. He wasn't sure why Tristan was angry. Was it the way that Sina had removed the god? Maybe. But surely he knew that Guardian's had no control over how they removed a god. He supposed it would have still been slightly irritating if their roles had been reversed. Someone doing something like that to Tristan was sure to make him edgy too.

He opened the door to the house and soon found himself wandering to his room where he closed the door. He felt a bit bad for leaving Tristan like that. But he hadn't liked the sharp tone. Maybe Tristan was just tired. He leaned against the door and closed his eyes tightly.

With a raise of his brow Rethyn had caught his breath as he looked to his Seer. "Go after him, and you call me an idiot." Coming to the realization that the battle would be over shortly, Rethyn laid back upon the grass as he closed his eyes. Every muscle on his body was aching and he knew he was going to have to have an ice bath. With a small smile upon his gace he remember some old childhood training with his father. He remember leaving the training room with a similar feeling as the one he currently had.

He winced as he was called an ass...it kinda reminded him of a funny character he saw in a play once. Even though Soran's was anything but funny. He turned to his guardian, "You are an idiot...but that is beside the point, maybe someday soon, you and I can actually sit and talk to each other...fill in those important details everyone else seems to know." So much for going about that in a roundabout way.

He got up before he decided to go for broke and piss of Kilia too, he walked into the house and made his way to Soran's door. He started to knock, yet he could't get his hand to connect to the door. He was still tired, and still irriated. He sighed and slide down next to the door so now he was sitting on the floor. "Your right....I am an ass," he muttered.

Soran took in a deep breath, settling his racing heart and trying not to snap back at his boyfriend, "It's fine..." he muttered sourly. Well that wasn't very well thought out was it? Turning, he opened the door and looked out to the hall where Tristan was sitting. He reached up and brushed at both eyes, "Sorry. I don't know what you're upset about, but I'm sorry. I... I know it was the god that shot at you, but it doesn't erase the fact that it was me who hurt you. I should have been paying attention, but I wasn't. Hell, I didn't even have a protection spell on this time."

He sighed heavily as he turned and leaned against the doorway. He too slid down and sat, parallel to Tristan, "So what's got you so upset? Was it... Sina?"

"It wasn't just her, and with that...I am overacting..it just caught me offguard." Tristan stopped trying to collect his thoughts, "I was mad at myself, I couldn't do anything, and I was fucking afraid. I didn't even think she could do that, I was really afraid that I had lost you again." He was trying not hide the emotion in his voice. "I am tired also, someone wore me out last night," he couldn't help it, adding that at the end. He was trying to calm himself down, and relax a little more.

Opening his eyes, Rethyn shrugged off the comment Tristan had made at him. It was his first true day of not seeing nightmares around him all the time. It brought a smile upon his face as he looked into the clouds. However, his joy seemd to be at horrid timing as the event of which had unfolded was nothing to grin about. Wiping his smile from him he brought back the usual stoney expression he always tried and failed on Kilia as he said to her.

"We should go see Sina. She looks pretty beat up."

Kilia had been leaning over Rethyn as she fussed about his low energy. She had been taken off guard by Tristan's sharp tone to Soran and when the blonde left she felt a pain in her chest. She watched as Rethyn told his Seer to go after the boy and watched the red head do exactly that though he called Rethyn the stupid one. His last words were a bit odd though and when Rethyn called for her attention, her first response wasn't Sina, which she'd been thinking of, but instead were about what Tristan said.

"You haven't told him yet," she said simply, a tone of disappointment in her voice.

"No." Rethyn sighed once before looking directly up at Kilia with sadened emotions gleaming in his eyes. "Today was the first day since I've been revived that I have been able to live without the constant horrors. I feel like if I told him he would feel bad then in turn I'd feel bad. I don't know why, but whenever he is going through something I feel it. It's like a link..sad thing is I made him feel bad by not telling him anyways."

Rethyn tried to sit up and failed as his core had quit on him for the time being. Lifting up a shaky hand he took it to the back of his neck as he tried to massage himself a little. If it hurt now he could only imagen how bad it would be the next morning if he didn't prepare properly.

"I'm sorry, I know I promised to you I would. Maybe you deserve better than just the Undead idiot..."

Kilia frowned then. Reaching out she smacked his forehead. Not hard enough to seriously hurt him, but enough to show that she didn't appreciate his speaking about himself like that, "I'll agree to calling you an idiot only for that last part you just said. I also understand that you don't want to hurt him. He's had enough to deal with lately and has only recently gotten Soran back to the way he used to be. We are all tired today too. But you do need to tell him. Tomorrow, you will tell him," she said sternly. Her face lightened though and she leaned down and brushed her lips against his, "Now rest right there for a while or else. I'll have to think of a way to punish you," she said, then stuck out her tongue as her face grew slightly red and she stood up.

Rethyn smiled against Kilia's lips as he closed his eyes happily. WIth his lips still close to hers he said to Kilia with a small breath of a laugh. "I'm almost tempted to see what you have in mind for my "punishment"." Reopening his eyes to see her slightly red in the face before walking off brought his own redness as he merely smiled to her.

Walking over to Sina, she dropped down next to the girl and started on her healing spells. Swiping open her pad, she worked on the first spell that would show her the injuries, and then right after that, worked on the healing one. She was really tired herself, and as she finished the healing spell, she slouched forward with a slight groan, "Too much..." she muttered to Sina as she ended up resting her head on the girls shoulder for a moment.

For once it was Sina who flashed red in the face as she was leaned upon. As she tried to move her oposite shoulder, a few low cracks could be heard from it as it begun to work again. "H-hey..." She said quietly but quickly. With a light sigh of her own she murmered "Come on princess..." as she scooped a her forearm behind Kilia's knees and her other behind her back. Lifting her up she become to carry the girl over towards Rethyn.

Stopping just in front of the girl she said cockily to the blue eyed boy. "Guess you can't call me useless anymore eh?". In response Rethyn merely blinked at her as she laid Kilia next to him. Hopping over Rethyn she plopped down herself as she laid so that the top of her head touched his. With Kilia in Rethyn's arms and Sina stretched out she said. "Group nap." with a light laugh.

Kilia hardly noticed when Sina's arms lifted her up. Although she did have the thought that the girl was freakishly strong. It didn't click that perhaps the girls magic system was still going to help with that, but still. As she was laid down next to Rethyn, she didn't think, only moved. Immediately the little pink haired Seer was up on his chest, her head pillowed on his shoulder, one arm stretched out across his chest and one leg up curled over his own. She gave a little hum of contentment and promptly fell asleep.

~

"I-I..." Soran sputtered a bit. That last line really got him, "I don't know what you're talking about," he said in return and looked away as a blush curved around his face, "If I remember correctly, it was your fault. Why the hell you looked so damned hot last night was your fault. Not mine. Okay?" he said as he turned slightly and stuck his tongue out at the boy.

Tristan chuckled, he couldn't help it, "yeah everything is my fault." He sighed and he tried to move, "like the fact that I sat down, and now I can't move, that is really my fault." Yet it would be really bad to be found sprawled in the hallway but someone, especially a certain girl who might do weird things while they were asleep. "I think I can crawl...maybe...nothing seems to be working right now."

Soran laughed a bit as he listened to Tristan, "You... are really weird sometimes," Standing up with a groan, he reached down and grabbed Tristan's arm, "Alright... here we go," he said and then pulled. He made a soft sound as he did so, a comical one as he strained to get Tristan to move into the room. He panted a bit as he tried again, "You... are really... heavy! Jeez... can't you help... a bit?" he said as he doubled over and panted. Looking up to Tristan he stuck out his tongue yet again, "Don't make me start stripping to get you to start moving on your own, you know I will," he said with a tired grin.

Tristan was amused by the blond seer efforts. He did try to help though, "Hey...I am not that heavy," he said in his defense. He was going to try to move on his own again, but then Soran had to tease him, "oh really..." Tristan said with a sly look in his eyes. "ok, I am waiting, go ahead, every piece I will move just a little bit."

Damn he thought slowly to himself, stretching out the word just a bit. It always happened like this. All plans backfired. All the time. When was he going to learn? Soran blushed furiously as he backed into the room, "Well... guess it can't be helped," he said with a sigh and started with his shirt, "You better hurry up though, that bed is looking mighty comfy right now. I'm tired," he said with a small grin.

Tristan groaned mostly because he tried to move a little, "bed...can I just sleep on the floor, I don't think I can make it onto the bed." He finally got to his feet...and his first thought was of silently murdering Deriea....but then he have to face her again...someday.

His pace was slow and truthfully he wasn't even paying attention to Soran, "Should have taken a shower first," he mumbled.

Soran laughed a bit as the boy got up and made his way slowly to the bed as if he were a zombie. Tossing his shirt aside, he wrapped his arms around Tristan and helped him walk to the bed. The red haired Seer was probably going to just drop on the bed so Soran prepared for that and helped him lay down properly. After that, he climbed in the bed with him, and sprawled out across his boyfriends frame. He lay there for quite a while, not sleeping, but just resting. His fingers ran circles along Tristan's chest for a long while before they finally stopped and the little blonde had also fallen asleep.

Content with letting the other help him, Tristan tried to keep his eyes open, but he couldn't. He was comfortable and didn't want to move for anything.



Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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Cryio motioned for Grayson to put the boy up on the earthen bed that Deriea had constructed. She lay in the moonlight, too tired to do any teasing at all tonight. He eyed the guardian carefully and frowned, "This will take a while," he said softly.

Kilia nodded as she cupped her hands over her mouth, Rethyn's injury fully exposed for her to see now. So deep... she thought in fear. Tears were falling now as she couldn't stop them. She watched as Cryio blew at Rethyn's face, the silvery dust coating him. He did this several times before he even started the healing process. Cryio was doing what he could to lessen how much it may hurt to get healed. After all, he'd been unable to get the boy to eat any of those herbs that Soran had before.

His hand lifted then, and from it the silver strands of light slowly reached down and wrapped around Rethyn lightly before sinking into his skin and starting the process of healing the deep wound. The light wrapped him up much like it had Soran a while ago, and Cryio kept up the silver dust in Rethyn's face to help ease the process.

Shallow breaths came from Rethyn as he looked pale from the blood loss. With hair still dripping from the water of the mountains, the young man looked dirty from the bank of the lake. On his left cheek a bit of mud was peasant just below the ear. From him the smell of a pond was prominate as his damp clothing was only just one indication of where he'd been. Access to the wound had been made simple as his shirt had been flayed open from the slice of the gods attack. Every once in a while there would be a twitch of gripping closed eyes as a little pain would hit the unconscious boy. And lastly, his legs seemed to shake a little from cold mountain water of which aided him in his escape from the god.

Cryio worked smoothly, all the while Kilia made soft sounds of her own every time she saw a twitch of pain. Still, at least he wasn't screaming as Cryio had done an exceptional job at keeping it minimal. Her eyes watched as the wound slowly closed across his chest. The beauty of Cryio's healing was that no scar would be left behind and he was always thorough. In which healing other scars were usually what he did as well. Hence the reason for Soran's pale skin looking like it had long before his brother had marred it and the scars from that terrible night had added to him.

When he finished, the silver light faded and Rethyn's body was placed back upon the mound of dirt where he'd started at. Cryio leaned back, having finally stopped blowing that dust in his face and looking rather tired himself, "There," he said softly.

"Cryio..." she said softly, her voice trembling, "Thank you!" she rushed over and leaned over the mound to gaze at Rethyn as she waited for him to wake up.

After what seemed like a fifteen minute wait the young Guardian slowly blinked opened his eyes. Wherever he was for the moment he couldn't tell for his blurred vision needed to adjust. All he could tell he was comfortable but cold at the same time. Was he dead? His hollowed eyes begun to make shapes as he looked around from where he was. Despite the shape of the room he only managed to make out two humanoid shapes from his initial glance. With a few more blinks he begun to see the pink hair and the lovely eyes of Kilia looking down upon him. Near by he caught glance of one of the other friendly gods of which had recently joined them. He had a hard time telling from sight which one this one was. After a moment of peering eyes he quickly picked up that is was Cryio. Opening his mouth just a small bit the words quietly pressed out.

"K-Kilia?"

"Hey, Rethyn," she replied with a bright smile, "You scared me! Jeez," she said and though she wanted to smack him, she refrained from doing so, just happy to see that he was awake and alright, "You must be cold, come on, I'll help you inside," she said offering her hands to him.

As his vision restored itself from the blurs his hollow blue eyes seemed to turn soft as they gained focus on KIlia. Taking her hand he did not rise as he merely looked into her eyes for a long moment with a light blush growing upon his face. Pulling her hand to his lips he kissed it twice softly as his breath slid against her hand. "Kilia...You don't need to take me inside to warm me...come here." Shivering slightly from the cold, Rethyn extended his other hand out as he tried to reach for Kilia.

As her fingers were drawn to his lips, she felt her face heat considerably. His words came next and she was pretty sure that her entire head had turned bright pink color, with the darkest of reds coloring her cheeks and nose. Rethyn's other hand reached out for her and she let out a small breath. Her fingers tightened around his and she leaned over him to give him a quick kiss on the cheek, "H-hey... it's cold out here," she said, trying to make him see reason, "W-we should... go inside..." was she even managing to say the words in the first place? Her voice sounded far too soft and shaking to be comprehensible.

Sitting up, Rethyn didn't seem to respond as he slowly inched his face closer to her as he went in and nipped gently at her ear. With his other hand he gently brushed an index finger alongside her jawline on the opposite side. For a moment he didn't seem to move as he gently held on with his nip, however after the moments pass he let go as he leaned his cheek against hers as he spoke the words. "Wherever you would like my rose..." On the inside Rethyn was trying to come to terms with where he was and the situation. Was he still asleep? Should he get control over himself?

Stopping himself from speaking even more, Rethyn could not help but feel the yearning for Kilia as he felt his other hand slip down to her hip. Closing his eyes he nuzzled her a bit as he tried to come to terms a little.

Kilia let out a squeak as he nibbled at her ear, and then a gasping intake of air, her fingers reaching up to grip his shoulder tightly as the other was still held in his hands. She could feel his teeth on her ear and she was trying her best not to squirm, "R-Rethyn..." When he did move and speak she thought she was going to die. The way he was speaking to her... made her weak. Rethyn moved again, one hand holding her around her hip, his head tucked neatly against her neck and into the warmth of her long hair that spilled over. Kilia was struggling to regain normal breathing, as well as think straight. Neither of which were working out too well for her.

"R-Rethyn... U-uh... inside... warmer... and... easier...I-I mean! Better... Oh.. god, no... um... we should really... move to the... room... your room... wait..." she was flustered now and trying to make things come together in a way that wasn't... insinuating anything. Not that he was helping the situation, "Your room for you to sleep in... because it's better... for you.... yes..." she tugged at him, taking a step back to try to get him to follow her, "I-I'll help you go there... so that you can... sleep..."

Bringing his voice to a low whisper Rethyn said. "Will...will you stay with me?" He wanted to desperately to spill out the other reason why he wanted her to stay, but the back of his mind kept knocking at him as he felt something upon him. It was both natural and something he truly did want, but at the same time right now it felt like something had jinxed him into releasing himself upon her in such a manner.

Rising to his feet by her tug, Rethyn couldn't help his eyes as he weakly gazed her over. It was like the attraction was increased tenfold as he paused there for a moment against her tug as he merely looked at her with deep eyes. Eventually however he begun to follow her, but not without stepping in closer to her. He wanted to be just as close as he was to her before, and her walking ahead of him made his body crave the closing of the gap between them. As she walked him along several times he squeezed upon her hand as he would try to get closer again. For some reason or another it seemed like he wanted to nip her again in the same spot as several times he became sucessful.

Sina snickered as she watched the two walk past her. Speaking in a very flowery voice with a wink she drew a circle on the ground with her toe as she said to them both.

"Maybe if we all stick close...it'll be for the better...Let's slide some beds together."

She sort of was teasing and sort of wasn't as she too missed the comfort of laying with another, but at the same time was interested in "Princess" Kilia's reaction to her.

Kilia, though she wasn't unwanting of his touch, was trying to fend him off as best she could because they were not in the safety of a room just yet and he couldn't seem to control himself. She was almost at her limit as he kept nibbling at her ear and bringing her closer, "Rethyn..." her voice was hardly a whisper. One hand was up on his chest, trying to keep a little bit of distance as it was rather hard to walk with him, the other gripped tightly in his hand.

To make matters worse, a slight snicker filled the air and Kilia nearly went as still as a statue. As it was she gasped -loudly- and then whirled to see Sina was the culprit for that laugh. The woman then offered to join them, even pushing the beds together which made Kilia flustered even more and her face was probably so red it may as well looked like she turned into a freaking lobster. She stuttered, trying to get words out and failing each time.

Finally, she just settled for tugging at Rethyn who seemed completely oblivious to Sina's presence and reached the door of the room she'd been trying to get to. Shoving it open rather harshly, she pulled Rethyn inside and sent what was supposed to be a glare at Sina which was probably more like an unbelievable kind of look instead, "Do not come in here," she said sternly, finally finding her voice. She was even going to lock the door, which she did as she closed it... and then she realized she'd just locked herself in with Rethyn... Kilia's eyes were wide as she stared at the door in the darkness of the room. Crap... she thought to herself as her heart raced again.

"Hey..." Rethyn said softly to Kilia as his eyes glowed through the darkness onto the back of her head. The inner Rethyn was doing his best to pull the reins on the horse of which was his body as he seemed to hesitate just like Kilia. For a long moment he just seemed to stare at her before he took only a single step forward. As he did his flayed shirt from the fight seemed to get in the way as one entire side fell from him. Without much thinking, Rethyn ripped the last bit of which was holding the shirt together before he wadded up the shirt and threw it towards the corner of the room.

He shivered. It was rather cold. Seeing Kilia as a source of warm he slowly came up behind her as he slowly wrapped his left arm around her waist as he pulled her close and leaned into her a little. With his lips against the back of her neck he squeezed a little as he wrapped his other arm around her just at her lower ribs. He kissed her briefly before moving his head back a little as he spoke to her. His breath would tickle the back of her neck as he said to her.

"I'm sorry."

His skin was cold; she could feel it through the back of her shirt. No wonder he was shivering. As the only other 'warm' thing in the room he had gravitated towards her like she was a beacon or something. As his arms wrapped around her, she felt a chill down her spine and another heat wave across her face. His breath on her neck was about the end of her though, her eyes fluttering shut and from her lips a release of air that she hadn't known she'd been holding the entire time. Rethyn's words, though, had her eyes opened again. She turned in his hold, her hands settling against bare skin and she almost forgot what she was going to say.

"R-Rethyn..." both hands and eyes dropped a bit, a single deep breath pulling into her lungs. She shook her head a bit and recovered slightly, "W-why are you sorry? For... what?" He was really close... insanely close. Too close. Maybe she should ask questions later? Her hands trailed back up over his chest and shoulders and locked behind his neck. She stayed like that for a long while, gazing up at him, almost lost in a trance in his glowing eyes that she always found so fascinating.

Slowly breaking the frozen moment, Rethyn leaned forward as he begun to gently kiss at her face. Between each kiss he would gently say something " I'm so sorry that I made you go through that-" Another kiss, Rethyn slowly slid his embrace further up as he added in. "I was scared...I feared if I didn't do it they would of been possessed or diced up..." He begun to kiss her again, light tears laced his eyes as he had feared earlier in the night he would never get to do this again. With both the near death experience and whatever was flowing through him all he could think of with his very being was Kilia.

Reaching Kilia's lips he pressed against them with a deep kiss. It wasn't like the other times as they'd been mostly pecks and simple kisses. The one in this moment was something of a mix of passion, lust, and pure emotion at his near death experience. He squeezed her gently with his embrace yet again as he held this kiss for a long moment before breaking the kiss off.

Kilia was definitely swept up by the sudden kiss. She could hardly keep up with his words. Yup... definitely talk later... she decided. As he pulled away after giving her a very passionate kiss that left her dazed and out of breath, she swayed slightly, unsteady on her feet. For a moment, she stared at him, her eyes only barely opened. Finally after a while, she breathed his name right before pulling herself up closer against him, one hand stretching down across his broad back that made her feel so small, the other hand tangling up in his hair roughly, but not enough to hurt him. She kissed him back with just as much as she'd gotten from him.

Yup, he had lost control of the reigns, he knew that much as he suddenly begun to move his hand to a better location for what came next.

Lifting up Kilia he held the kiss she had started again as he turned the two of them away from his door and placed her down upon his bed. Casted over her he held the kiss as he felt the back of his hands pressed into the bed and the palms against her back. For a briefly moment he broke the kiss as he nipped at that lower lip he always caught her biting before pressing his lips back into hers with a small smile. Just her presence had numbed the thickened shadows and creepy twists of what had came back with the wearing of her protection spell upon him.

Sliding a hand out from under her back he passed it across her leg as he would rub it from her hip down to just above her knee before gliding it back up again.

With yet another break of the kiss, Rethyn merely moved back just enough so his eyes could look into hers in the darkness as their noses touched lightly. "I'm so lucky." He whispered through the darkness.

Just outside the door, Sina held her ear up to the door. She couldn't hear anything and with that she held a look of disappointment. Then as an evil smile grew upon her face she knocked three times lightly against the door as she said. "Kilia how's it going in there~"

Kilia startled just a bit as she was moved from the door to the bed. Her legs wrapped around Rethyn's waist as they went. Lost in the kissing, her fingers dug into his hair, holding him tightly. His touch was so warm, he was definitely not cold anymore. A soft hum fell from her lips as she moved to accommodate releasing his hand from under her back. When he pulled away to talk to her, she smiled up at him, her breathing lost to her in short pants.

Those pants took a sharp turn as she gasped at the noise at the door. For a moment she thought that maybe Rethyn was going to kill the girl, but it wasn't a normal night for him. He was... well.. Preoccupied. So, with a heavy sigh that ended up in a sort of irritated laugh, she reached back and threw the first thing that came into her possession. Whatever it was, it hit the door rather hard before it thunked to the floor, "Go away, Sina," she responded. She would have added an 'or else' to that but she feared what the other woman would do with that and instead directed Rethyn's lips back to hers. She was going to enjoy this night, free from distractions.

"Tag me in when you get worn out~" Sina giggled against the door before she turned and slipped down the hall.

Rethyn ignored Sina as he place his index finger and thumb on the tip of Kilia's chin as he tried to make her head turn back to face him. When Kilia turned and redirected his lips back to hers he smiled against them as he made a little noise like a mix between a hum and a playful growl. His hand had settled upon her hip as the other cuffed Kilia at the back of her head gently as he ran his fingers through her hair.

Breaking away from the kiss he peck kissed her several times before settling his lips back onto hers with a firmer kiss of which he found himself smiling into. Upon his face a light blush could be seen below the ocean of which were his eyes as he held them open for a moment to gaze over Kilia before he would gently close them again during the kiss.

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Kilia Yve Linovahle Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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#, as written by girlwt
Tristan and Soran

A door closed down the hall and Victor came out to the living room, he went into the kitchen and was raiding the refrigerator as he was telling Alauric how Tristan was, "He will be fine, you got a tough kid in there."

At the sound of the door closing, Soran looked up and watched as Victor moved down the hall and into the kitchen. Though he couldn't hear the words, his heart pounded hard in his chest as he was wondering about Tristan. Even so he couldn't get himself to move, fresh tears burning his eyes and falling a lot easier than they were before since he'd been crying this whole time to begin with. Shaking, he stood up slowly and went up behind Victor just a bit. His voice was very soft, hardly audible as he spoke.
"Can I... see him?" he cringed half expecting the answer to be no.

Victor looked up as he was chowing down on what looked like most of a chicken (it was cooked earlier). He stopped to swallow and looked at the boy's father. Alauric turned to Soran, "Go ahead, but make sure you get healed later, you are still hurt aren't you."

Soran flinched slightly, his hand just barely rising before he quickly stopped it from touching the area. He frowned down at the floor. He thought about lying, saying that he was fine, but the blood on his shirt was probably a good enough give away. So instead he settled for nodding his head though he really didn't think he had any intention of seeking out either Kilia or Victor. Soran took a step back and moved down the hall to Tristan's room, the room they had been sharing for a while. He hesitated for a long while before he opened the door and quietly stepped in. It was dark in the room and he could hardly make out anything for a moment.

When his sight adjusted, he looked at Tristan who was lying up on the bed sleeping as it seemed. Soran shook his head a bit as he bit his lip, hard, and tugged at his hair. He slid down the door and leaned against one raised leg as he cried softly.
Something must of disturbed him because Tristan opened his eyes a minute after Soran came into the door. Someone was crying, he could hear the soft sobs nearby. He recognize those even before he could see who it was across his room in the dark, "You know," his cleared his throat realizing that he sounded sort of gravely, "you aren't doing me much good over there, would you please come here."

The little blonde hiccuped on a gasp as he sat there. He lifted his head and looked over to where Tristan's voice had come to him. Even as the other Seer asked him to go over there, Soran didn't move. He bit his lip again and winced, his teeth had definitely broke the skin a moment ago, "I... wouldn't do much good... even if I went over there," he managed between soft gasps of air as he struggled to reign in his crying. It wasn't doing him any good except to give him a headache and probably make himself sick. Of course the little dip in the water earlier, the run through the cold night air, and then getting stabbed probably wasn't going to help in that department either, but whatever. He wasn't thinking about that anyway.

Tristan sighed, "screw it," he said as he sat up winching slightly. His head was throbbing from losing to much blood and to much energy. He wasn't really seeing straight but if he had to get out of bed and drag the other closer to him and stop his pity party then he would. He put his feet on the floor, "You really going make me get out of this bed, Soran."

"N-no!" Soran half cried out in fear as Tristan moved suddenly. Worry pulsed through him and he lurched forward just barely managing to keep his own feet. He moved, "Please... don't, do that," he said, "I'm sorry... I didn't... mean to. I just... why?" he was speaking as he moved slowly to the boy. He was starting to feel dizzy, really tired and unbearably hot, "Why aren't you mad... at me? Alauric... he hasn't said a word to me either. I... can't tell if he's mad or not," he hiccuped lightly, "I can't handle this. I shot you, I almost got us killed by a god, you're injured severely... Rethyn just about died! I can't... believe you're not mad at me..." he paused as he got to the bed, breathing heavily he just stood there.

"Oh...I am mad at you, I am mad that you are acting like a fool at the moment. I know why you shot me, and don't worry about my dad, I will tell him what happened. I mean we might be in trouble for sneaking out of the house...," yeah that really didn't have anything to do with what he was saying. "Rethyn, the idiot that he is, was doing his job and protecting us." Rethyn wasn't really an idiot, but Tristan sort of just got use to calling him that. "Soran...just come here and stop please. I can't handle it when you cry, but you are punishing yourself for no good reason." Tristan shook his head, he had acted like that too in the past, remembering how he was when Soran was brought back from his house.

Soran licked his lip, tasting coppery blood there and frowned. With a slight nod of his head, he moved and climbed up onto the bed. His fingers sought out Tristan, tugging at his arm to get him to lay back down as he swallowed down his apologizes and anything else that he may have thought to say at the moment. Tristan was worried enough, there was no need to make him worry more. All he wanted was to sleep, and be next to something warm. It was far too cold in the room. His body seemed to settle finally, though he still sniffled a bit as it took a slight bit longer to settle from the damned crying. He definitely hated that. Soran shivered a bit, shaking against Tristan.

"Cold..." he uttered, "Damn... remind me... we're never going swimming at night again..." he said with a partial grin as he snuggled against Tristan's side.

Tristan was better as the other came and crawled into bed. When he the tugged he laid back, probably a little slower then he should have been. As the other curled into him, he smiled finally, yet he could help his next question. "So...Rethyn is going to be ok," he asked the other. "Wait who healed him," he asked slightly curious.

Soran took a breath. He was trying to remember who healed the boy. In all honesty he'd been too lost in his own little world to have paid attention, though he'd heard voices. He sighed a bit, "I... don't know. I think Cryio maybe. It would make sense, Victor was... sort of busy with you," he uttered the last part very softly and shifted around to pull the covers up over his body better in an attempt to do something to keep his mind off that lingering pain.

"Cryio healed him," he repeated, and then it started, he got the chuckles from out of nowhere. He couldn't stop..., "Oh gosh...that means...oh poor Kilia." He had gotten the idea something was going on between those two, not that he had any kind of conformation on that.

A yawn pulled at him, sleep starting to take over. Sooo tired... was his last thoughts... well, last coherent thoughts anyway, "What are you laughing at..." the blonde mumbled sleepily. It was about then that he realized he was still fully dressed, partially wet and most likely getting blood on the bed. He didn't care though. He was too damned comfy. Stretching out one arm across the other boy, he tried to hug Tristan closer as if he were a giant freakin' teddy bear. He was so warm... "You're really warm..." he muttered, "I'll... fix the bed... tomorrow," he said slowly as he was beginning to drift off to sleep.

Tristan eyed the other, he didn't mind how close Soran was getting, "What do you mean, fix the bed tomorrow." He asked, his question though was soft, he then realized what a mess Soran was, again he'd get first prize for not noticing the blaring obvious. "Damnit," he cursed to himself, the other had probably not been healed yet, and Tristan guessed it was mostly Soran's fault in that.

"And I thought I was stubborn." He knew he wasn't really going to relax now, mostly because he was afraid of moving any and hurting the other. In fact now he was slightly tense, and it wasn't helping him in the least with his head or other aches.

Soran's fingers tapped him lightly, mumbling as he shifted and got comfortable again. He was sprawled out across the boy for sure now, "Sleep..." he uttered softly. Then he gave a slight hum of contentment. It was probably the last time he moved at all or said anything, cuddled up in the blankets and his lover. Finally warm, for the most part, and comfortable with no pain since everything was numb by now. He was out cold soon enough.




Next morning

He was sick. Knocked down by the freakin' flu of all things. Lying on the bed still clothed, it was rather early in the morning when he'd woken up to a pounding headache, an awful taste at the back ofhis mouth and feeling like hell has just worn over him. Everything ached. He was cold one moment, burning hot the next, and probably driving Tristan insane with his constant moving, though he desperately tried not to do so. Cuddled up in the covers yet again after having thrown them off not but five minutes ago, Soran closed his eyes tightly to try to sleep again, "Can survive gods attacking... Deriea's insane training... running for our lives... and the fucking flu puts me down like a light," he muttered to himself and coughed, groaning afterwards. Maybe he should tell Tristan to get up so that he didn't catch this too... unless of course it was already too late. He had slept with the boy all night which had been the initial start of the sickness. It was a little while after that when Soran fell asleep again. He was a bit fitful, tossing the covers on and off, but for the most part he didn't move as moving too much hurt like hell.

Tristan mumbled, having must have drifted off at one point, god he was hot, he understood the other had practically wrapped himself around him, but he was to hot. "Soran...what's wrong, are you burning up." Tristan asked wondering how he even had that coherent of a sentence coming from his mouth. He hadn't gotten much sleep at it was, but he wasn't going to mention that.

Soran didn't make to answer. He was sleeping. Well, if one could call it sleeping. He didn't move, aside from his eyebrows which twitched every now and then in response to an ache somewhere along his small frame. Should he have been awake he would have said that he hated being sick because he always felt like crap. But that would come later. For the moment, he just lay there as if he were nothing but a limp pile of a Seer. Swept up in a dreamless sleep, he didn't hear Tristan's question at all.

"Soran...," Tristan tried again, ok so he didn't mind the other being there, but if Soran was sick, he needed to mention it to someone. He sighed, he had other reasons why he needed to move, but he doubted the blonde was going to be happy with him if he did. "Why did you have to come to bed in wet clothes you noodle brain."

He unclasped the arms of the other from around him and gently pushed him away. He got up slowly, which wasn't at all in the least what he wanted to do. He had to steady himself for a second before he walked to the door and opened it.

He stopped at the bathroom first trying to wake himself up first. He walked out to the living room and turned his head when the sunlight came through the window. He went into the kitchen and found his father sitting there, "Why are you out of bed," Alauric asked him. "Something is wrong with Soran, he feels like he is burning up, maybe has a fever." Tristan walked to the fridge and opened it, but instead of going for something he just leaned in and stood there for a second. "Tristan, don't stand there with the door open." Tristan grabbed some juice from the fridge and closed the door. He also grabbed an apple from the a bowl in the middle of the counter. "Why didn't you make him get healed before he came to see me." Alauric looked at his son with a quirked eyebrow, "cause there wasn't anyone to heal him, cept for the god." Tristan looked at his father for a second before turning away and blushing really red, he knew what happened the last time Soran was healed by Cryio. He poured the juice in a glass and drank it pretty much all down before stopping for a second.

"Well someone needs to heal him, or at least take a look, Victor up." he said, and then he grinned slightly, "or Kilia." Alauric shook his head, "I haven't seen the girl since last night, and Victor is still in bed." Tristan sighed, "look what happened last night...don't be mad at him, he was only doing what he thought necessary. It was partly my fault as well..."

"Tristan I am not mad at him, and yes it is partly your fault," Alauric answered him. "And don't think for one second that you two are out of trouble, I should just let River handle this, she can be pretty creative in her punishments...but we both agreed that I would handle it."

"Punishments...really dad aren't we a bit old for punishments," Tristan said but decided against continuing when he saw the look in his father's eyes. Maybe they deserved something, but he wasn't going to think about it now.

"Oh ho," River's voice came from behind Tristan as she leaned against the door to the kitchen, arms crossed over her chest as she gave him a sour look, "So, now you're too old hu?" she asked with a frown on her lips, "You're both only a few weeks into being twenty years old, to me and your father you both are still kids. What the hell were you two thinking?" She said, her voice rising a bit, "Just because we're out here and hardly have had any contact with Gods, doesn't mean we're a hundred percent safe!" River moved so that she was in front of Tristan now, "I know how my son is, he's like me. He's insistent and he's stubborn. But if you're anything like your father, you'd be even more stubborn. Why did you let him convince you so easily?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

Not giving him a second to answer just yet, she continued a little more to drive her point a bit. She was upset, irritated and though she said she'd let Alauric deal with it, hearing Tristan's that moment had sort of set her off, "And what would you have done if one of you died last night? Think about it, Tristan. You almost died, Soran could have easily lost his life if he'd hit that wall any different than he did, and Rethyn! Oh my god, you're so damned lucky. He was the worst one out of all three of you! If we hadn't found him when we did last night, you wouldn't have a Guardian right now. So tell me now. Do you think you're too old for a punishment?"

Tristan paled when he heard River's voice, he couldn't say anything to her, she had every right to say what she was saying. "no ma'am," he said softly. He didn't say that to be rude, he couldn't even look at her, especially when she mentioned the what ifs. "I am sorry, I didn't mean any disrespect," he still couldn't look at her though. He thought about it, last night when Soran turned to him and begged him to go had he even been coherently thinking at the moment. He had been so tired from the training that day, so maybe he could blame the exhaustion and not wanting to fight with the other. He actually didn't think that sounded so good in his own head, and there was no way he was going to voice that out loud.

River frowned, her fingers tight on her arms, "Tristan," she said, her voice just a bit softer but still hard enough for him to know she was dead serious, "My son, is all I have left. He's yours to take care of. Remember that alright? For next time when he decides he wants to be stubborn," she rolled her eyes as she released a heavy sigh, "Tristan, look at me please, I'm not going to bite, I swear..."

Tristan looked up at her, his eyes guilty. She had sort of stabbed him in the heart with her words, but he only left a indication of that in his expression.

"I'm not mad that a God attacked you. I'm not mad that you all fought. What I'm angry about is that you left the house to begin with. You know where the barrier line ends. If you wanted to look out side so damned bad, do it in the front yard safely within the barrier. As for your punishment, we both agreed on one thing, though I had plenty of ideas for the two of you," she said as she lifted her head a bit, her fingers tapping her arm, "I'll leave it up to your father when it'll start, but you're both sleeping in separate rooms. Two weeks, both of you." she said, her stern glint returning to her eyes, "Clear?"

Tristan slightly cringed, but nodded his head in response, "Yes," he answered her, "um..," he was going to have to tell her that Soran wasn't feeling well, "I think he is sick," Tristan said softly. Now he felt even worse then he had earlier.

Tilting her head she eyed him, "He's... sick? Like... sick how?" She asked, worry filling her voice. Was something wrong? Terribly wrong? "Did he get his wounds healed last night like he was supposed to?!" she asked suddenly, fear driving her question as she looked over to Alauric, eyes wide slightly, "That little, sneaky.... He didn't, did he. He said he was going to," River was angry yet again as she made to storm out of the kitchen.

Alauric stood, "I am going to go wake Victor, before she throttles him." He left Tristan standing in the kitchen. He had gone pale again, "she is really scary when she is mad," he said to himself. He left to follow his father.

Peaking her head around the corner Sina bite her lip lightly as she overheard the conversation of which was taking place. Unlike last night she had placed upon herself a pair of jeans and a pink v-neck of which looked flowery on the arms and collar. Tilting her head she could tell the tone of the conversation wasn't good, but she hadn't heard much as she had just started listening in. A part of her wanted to stay while the other was to check on the others. Biting her lip she turned away as she instead chose to walk to there room where Rethyn and Kilia were.

Kicking her foot not too hard against the door three times she said.

"Hey!~"

Kilia startled at the sound. Wrapped up in Rethyn's embrace she had been so comfortable. More comfortable than she'd ever been before. With a slight gasp, she jumped at the noise. Only to find that it was Sina who was the culprit as her voice came through the door, "Sina!" she hissed, "I swear I'm going to stuff you!" she was trying not to wake the sleeping Guardian next to her.

Speaking to the door Sina hummed. "In all seriousness though you two should probably get up...However if you want to "stuff" me you'd better wake Rethyn up for assistance~! Anywho if you both wanna get up at some point today that's your choice! After training today I got a plan for us all~!"

With a light hum Sina moved away from the door as she begun to go for the stairs. She knew she was going to have to go and continue her planning for the day for a bit before it's presentation. With one last look to the room she shook her head and smiled before chuckling to herself.

Kilia's face had turned a brilliant red in color and she wasn't too sure what to respond with as Sina's snappy remark threw her off. Damn that girl! Kilia thought as she was flustered and all sorts of tongue tied. With a somewhat frustrated growl and sigh mixed together, she moved around a little bit. Wiggling to get into a better position, she cuddled up with Rethyn once again and decided that, for today anyway, she wasn't planning on getting up early or doing anything. She was tired, and she also knew Rethyn was tired too. After all, he'd lost so much blood last night. Her face heated at the memory of what happened after Cryio had healed him.

Kilia moved again a bit, this time to free her arm as she recalled something. Opening up her pad, she pulled up the original spell, worked in the last few details and then drew it from the pad. Pressing her hand against his chest, the golden light whirled around him, lacing his frame as she put the protection spell over him. She was only just barely reminded of it when she'd thought of how injured he'd been last night. She was going to work on that protection spell, make it stronger to hopefully help him better in the future. Once that was done, she reached up and ran her fingers gently through his hair.

After a long while Rethyn opened his eyes. He had gained quite a silly amount of bedhead on the left side of his head as it stuck up strangely. As he felt Kilia's hand running through his hair he leaned into a little. A bright blush was upon his face as the magic had ran it's course as was now gone from him. He felt a slight soreness from his chest and muscles, but they had become more bearable than before. The obvious signs the nightmares were relieved from him by Kilia brought a since of security through him as he no longer had to be back in that strange world in his mind.

Offering Kilia a small smile he said with a yawn. "Good morning cute girl..." He wasn't really sure if she'd like the little name he had come up for her on the spot there and debated dropping it. He couldn't help but think about how nice she felt against him where they lay. He really didn't want to get up though for if he moved his head he still felt the dizziness as his body needed time to regain the blood.

Lifting his head up a little he aimed a little light kiss on Kilia's lips before lowering his head back down. The thoughts of last night had begun to carry his attention away from the current moment as he thought about what he'd done. He was happy he'd done it, but in his mind he couldn't help but get the sinking feeling he might of moved a little too fast. However, at the same time she didn't seem upset or anything. After a moment he nuzzled against her as he wrapped his arms around her lightly to cuddle.

Quietly he asked the question of which he felt was poking at him to get out.

"How're you feeling?"

Kilia shifted, her gaze lifting up a bit to look up at him before she put her head against his shoulder and let out a sigh of contentment, "Fine," she giggled a bit, "Really, that's the first thing you're going to ask me?" her finger poked his side as she lay there, "And just so you know, you're in trouble."

To the first part of Kilia's words Rethyn answered a very simple "Yes." to her. However upon the poke a small smile seeped out as he raised a brow to her. "How so?" He responded with a light tone. He found himself curious as he laced his hands behind the back of his head as he continued to look at her with his smile.

Kilia frowned, "Because. You," she shifted so that she was leaning over him, hands crossed over his chest, "You decided you were going to go take on a god last night by yourself," her narrowed eyes were a good indication that she was not happy with him, "I should smack you," she said with a shake of her head and instead leaned forward to give him a small kiss before she pulled back and rested her head on her hands that were using him as a pillow.

Rethyn begun to open his mouth as he tried in the moment to come up with something quick to say back but failed. He knew she wasn't happy with him, but he didn't know how to explain the actions he had preformed the previous night. In his mind he felt like he was in the right for moving the god back far enough so the two others could get back towards the retreat. However, at the same time he had indeed put himself in a situation where he would of died. She was correct too, neither of them were wrong, but he didn't know how to say it.

"Save the smacking for training..." Rethyn within a yawn as he still felt tired and weak from both the training and blood-loss.

"Oh, I will smack you. You're going to get your butt handed to you in training," she said, her voice speaking of her promises as she settled against him. His yawn invoked her own yawn, "But... for now," she took a breath, "I'm tired. You wore me out."

"You talk as if you didn't tire me as well." Rethyn said with closed eyes and a small smile. "I must of been terrible with all that lack of blood."

Kilia's face reddened, "S-shut up... And... you weren't terrible," a bit of a giggle escaping her. One finger went to her mouth where she nibbled on the nail as she looked up at him, "It was..." she smiled as she leaned up to his ear and whispered a few things in his ear, when she finished she came back and was laughing as well as blushing furiously.

With his own chuckle and raise of brow, Rethyn listened to her as she whispered into his ear. As his own blush grew upon his face he looked to her and laughed lightly himself before finishing with. "I didn't know I had that in me."

~~

The door burst open and River moved into the room, a yell on her lips that quickly died out. Twenty years was enough time to know when a child was feigning sickness and when they weren't. Soran was sprawled out on the bed, the covers toss off of him as if he were thrashing a bit earlier. Both eyebrows curled downwards in a look of discomfort. There was sweat on his face, his mouth opened as he panted a bit. His shirt was wrinkled to all hell, stained with blood as well. The sheets were blood streaked too, and filled with dirt. Her son, who was usually pale skinned, was dirty as if he'd taken a mud bath. Blood streaked his face from several cuts.

She moved into the room as she called out into the hall, "Alauric! Get Victor!" her voice was loud through the house as she moved over to her son. Touching his head she hissed as she withdrew her hand. He was so hot. She needed a thermometer. 'Mother mode' kicked in as she adjusted her son on the bed to try to make him more comfortable. His hazy green eyes opened up just a bit as she moved him. Soran gazed up at her, his breathing heavy.

"Momma... this sucks."
"Yup, I know. Well, you're fault for running around last night baby."
"Of all things... the flu..."

Victor came through the door a minute later, "What's...oh," he didn't need to ask as he looked at Soran. Alauric was standing a little ways in the doorway, and Tristan was outside not coming in. "Ok no worries, even though a change of clothes would be a good idea at some point," Victor said to her. He pulled a spell from his pad, and it green at first but sort of hovered there only for a second before turning blue. "Ok this shouldn't take long," he said as he cast the spell over Soran. It quickly reduced the fever, and started to heal the wound, after he was done, Victor pulled the spell. "Probably just some rest, would be good, and some food...speaking of which what is for breakfast."

Alauric laughed at followed the other out of the room, leaving the door slightly open. Alauric noticed that his own son had slide to the floor again and had his head on his knees. He sort of wondered if the boy had fallen asleep, but didn't want to disturb him for some reason.

As his fever was calmed, Soran let out a sigh of relief, though he still felt horrible. Being sick was never fun and for him, he was often put down in bed for several days. He sighed as his mother ran a cloth across his face, seated next to him now, "You're going to have to get up."

He moaned, "I don't want to."
"Soran," her voice was clipped, motherly of course, but with no room for him to argue.
"Momma..."
"You're dirty, there's blood all over you, and I have to clean this bed that you ruined. So, get up and go bathe yourself."
"Momma..."
"No. No pity. This is your own damned fault. You two boys are in so much trouble."

Soran winced a bit as he lay there. He looked away, not really wanting to be reminded of that. He didn't say anything as his mother sat there, rubbing the dirt off his face. The little Seer wasn't sure what kind of trouble they were in, but he was sure he didn't really want to know. On the verge of tears again, he sat up slowly, "I'll go wash," he said softly to her and pulled himself off of the bed. Slowly edging his way out into the hallway he spotted Tristan and he bit his lip as he noted how he was sitting. That was a familiar posture, and he often did it himself too. Moving over to the red haired boy, he touched his shoulder.

"Hey..." he said softly, "You... okay?"
"Soran!" his mother's voice called from the room, "Bath, now."
"Okay! Alright... I'm going..." he called back, and tugged at Tristan's arm, "You too."

Tristan looked up slightly, he must have dozed off or something. "I am fine," his voice was soft. He slightly looked to the door that Soran came out of and cringed, "Um...go ahead, I don't want you to get in more trouble."

He hadn't actually looked at Soran, he really didn't want the other to see that maybe his eyes were slightly red, nor how tired he looked. He really had the thought of just crawling back into bed, but his bedsheets were being washed and well he didn't want River to think he was being lazy.

Soran nibbled on his lip and then slowly nodded his head. Releasing Tristan's arm, he went to the bathroom, shutting the door and was soon in a hot shower. River, who had stripped the bed completely came back out into the hall and set eyes upon Tristan. Man... this is why I hate punishing kids... they look so pitiful... she thought to herself as she gazed at him, the pile of dirty sheets in her arms. With a sigh, she shifted the bunch around and addressed him.

"Tristan, go sleep. I already said that your father is going to decide on when your punishment is going to take affect. You're not banned from seeing him, you know. You're just not going to be allowed to stay in the same room for a while," she sighed again, "I swear you both are acting like we've just chopped off an arm or something."

Tristan looked up at her, and couldn't find the words to say. "I...um. okay." He would go find somewhere else to sleep for the time being. He didn't feel like saying anything that would make her mad anyways. He got up and turned to go find someplace quiet.





Later that Day

After the shower, a longer nap, some food and medicine that River had to just about force down his throat, Soran was seated at the table with a cup of tea between his fingers. He was still feeling horrid, his nose was slightly red from tissues and had a slight cough that he was battling with the lemon tea. A long black sweater covered his frame, pants and his boots, but once they were done at the table he was straight off to bed with strict orders from his mother to have more medicine and drink more tea. He groaned inwardly, ducking his head down into the thick turtleneck of his sweater. Sucks... he thought to himself. Maybe it was karma... definitely karma. Catching the flu like that after getting them into trouble.

Sitting at the table with Soran were Tristan and his father, the two had already told the older seer all that had happened the night before. Alauric was sitting there quietly for a moment, taking all the details in, he noticed two things about these two. One was that both were trying to say it had been mostly their fault which, was rather amusing, and two he sort of didn't want to punish them after hearing the story. He shook his head finally, "Well, you are both to blame for leaving the house in the first place, and for that I do think some time apart would be the best solution. So two weeks, the sleeping arrangements will be different, I am not saying you can't see each other, because in this house that would be rather difficult not to do. But you are limited to training and eating and well group social interactions." So in others words, they weren't allowed to be alone together at all, Tristan had already known this was what the parents came up with as punishment, but something told him he might be getting a little extra on the side, especially for his earlier comment about being to old to get in trouble.

Soran looked up at Alauric with a bit of a small gasp, his eyes wide. Not... be with him... apart...but... he nibbled on his lip again. He was going to cry, so he bowed his head and shut his eyes tightly. He took a deep breath. These next two weeks were going to be very long. His fingers tightened around the cup, "I'm... sorry," he muttered. It wasn't going to change anything, but he felt it had to be said -again-. He felt like a teenager again, being grounded. Yes, this was definitely what it was. He gave a soft nod of his head in agreement, knowing that fighting was going to make it worse. He lifted his head just briefly to glance over to Tristan before he lowered his gaze again.

Tristan heard that small gasp but didn't look in the direction of its maker, two weeks seemed like a long time to him as well. "When will the punishment start," he asked. His father hadn't actually said that, Alauric looked at Tristan for a second, "Oh," the man actually looked over his shoulder for a second, "Its starts tomorrow." Tristan looked at his father weirdly, why did he whisper that last part.

"T-tomorrow..." Soran muttered softly, as if he hadn't heard right. He glanced up at Alauric, his fingers pulling from the tea cup to wipe at his face. It was a nice surprise, at least he'd get to sleep with Tristan for one more night before the dreaded two weeks of not being able to see him, or touch him, or kiss him, or... Soran quickly snuffed out that thought and looked down at the table.

"However I would still be careful," Alauric was again talking in a whisper, Tristan shook his head at the man. He got the gist of what Alauric was trying to do, but then he had to remind them that others might not even be happy with that...and the why, Tristan really wanted to know, but then again maybe he didn't. Alauric looked at Soran, "I would still do what your mother asked you to though, medicine and tea I believe it was." He stood up and gave the two a small smile. "But really try and get some sleep, you both look zombie like." He didn't leave the kitchen but only walked over to the fridge and pulled out a ice cream bar.

Soran watched Alauric with a confused look on his face. He glanced over to Tristan but then upon the words of having to do what his mother had said, he grew red again and he gave a sort of horrified look. Turning slowly he looked around the room almost as if he expected his mother to suddenly be standing right there with her scrutinizing gaze. He cringed, "But... the medicine tastes horrible," he gave a pitiful looking face as he pouted. Maybe Tristan would save him from the medicine. Right?

"Tristan..." he said softly, trying to test the water with the red haired boy.

Tristan caught the chuckle in his throat when he heard the other complain about the medicine, but then he heard his name. He sort of wanted to turn and make it looked like he hadn't heard him, yet for some reason his body went in the other direction and he was looking at the other with a curious look on his face.

He tried his best to win over the taller boy, "Tristan... that medicine is horrid..." he complained and leaned across the table, wrapping his fingers around the boys arm. His hands were almost all the way covered by the long sleeves of his sweater, the finger tips just barely peeking out from under the thick, soft cloth, "If I just drink the tea... and go to sleep, I'll be fine. I'll get over this stupid flu in no time."

Slinking into the room Sina held something behind her back as she begun to lightly hum. She was trying to catch the eye of either of the boys so she could spring upon them the idea she had held throughout the morning. She even help a small playful smile across her lips as she tried to give an innocent look of which was obviously a giant lie.

"Meow."

Tristan was going to remind the other what drinking tea the night before had accomplished, however he saw a certain dark-haired girl out of the corner of his eye. She looked like she was up to no good...or something. When she meowed though, he rolled his eyes. So he turned and looked at her, "Sina, is there something that you want."

"Is this a bad time? I can always leave and come back when you're more open Tristan~" Sina purred as she begun to turn to leave the two boys. Behind her back was a rolled up piece of paper of which something seemed to be written on the inside. However, on the outside it looked like part of marked map was there. In fact, it looked very similar to a folded up map that had always been in one of the offices through the house.

Tristan was going to go back to the conversation with Soran when he caught the sight of the rolled up piece of paper in Sina's had. "Hey where did you get that," was his first question, the why was going to be the second but for some reason he held off, asking her any why questions was a dangerous thing.

Without turning to look at Tristan she answered with a sweet tone as she hummed. " I found it in one of the old offices. And don't worry, I made sure it wasn't your father's main office or anything like that. I couldn't in good heart ruin something he'd been using." Her head was facing away from Tristan or he'd be able to see the catty grin growing.

Tristan listened to her again debating on just letting the whole matter go, "Sina...what do you want, and what do you have, just get it over with okay."

"Mmnn later." Sina softly spoke as she slowly walked out of the room and around the corner with a little swing to her hips with each step. She wasn't just going to give the information on command like that, she wanted him to from demanding out of frustration to pleading out of curiosity. Was she going to get that? In her mind she knew most likely not, but she had her hopes.

"Gosh, she is more irritating than all my sisters combined," Tristan mumbled and looked at the blond again, "Now back you just drinking tea, isn't that what you said you would never drink again before going to bed."

Soran blushed a bit. He was curious as to what Sina had, and though Tristan had handled her quite well... he was rather... curious. It was an awful trait of his. River was like that too. Curious and mischievous. A horrid combination and definitely something he inherited fully. Which was probably half of the reason why the two boys were in trouble as it was. He frowned then as he looked down to the tea cup, "Uh... mother's orders," he mumbled, "This tea isn't the good kind. No sugar, no nothing... it tastes horrible and it's really bitter, here see!?" He stood up, putting the cup under Tristan's nose, "Just smell it. It's awful!"

Tristan had to back away a little, "Thanks like I needed my nose full of tea smell," he said. Tristan was looking up at the other boy, "Soran...I am not going be your...get out of jail free card," he thought that was a lame example though. And he had already gotten it from River twice today...or was it three times. Not to mention his father, "and if you want to be mad, go ahead and be mad."

Soran's eyes grew wide and then narrowed, "Well that was rude," he muttered to himself, "You could have just said no," he pulled the cup away and set it none-to gently onto the table. Putting both hands up to his face he coughed and then made his way to the door, "Whatever, I'll just... go be mad then. And here I thought that you'd want to spend a little time together before I crash out," he continued as he left the kitchen and made his way back to the room where the awful medicine was waiting for him. One dose of that stuff and he was going to be asleep in a half an hour and out cold for several hours after that.

Tristan caught up with Soran in the hallway, attempted to grab his arm and push him up against the wall.

Soran let out a slight, startled gasp as he was literally whirled back around on the hell of his foot and he ended up with his back against the wall, "Tristan..!"

"You know what...I am fucking done with being in trouble today, I do want to spend time with you before I am not allowed. But I am not apologizing for what I just said." Tristan crowded into Soran's personal space and took the others lips in a kiss.

He trembled at the words that were said, and then even more when he was kissed so suddenly. It was slightly rough, but not without passion as their kisses always were. Soran stood there in shock for a moment. Then he put his arms up around the boys neck, holding him tightly and returning the kiss with as much passion as he could muster. When he pulled away, he was short on breath, both because he couldn't really breathe through his nose at the moment and from the kiss, "Hey... you know... you could get sick."

"I don't care," was all Tristan said in response, maybe if he did then at least he have something to occupy his time. Yet even that thought was a bit strange, "Lets go, and hope that your mother...isn't around anywhere."

He nodded quickly and started working his way towards the room, but his arms were locked around the boys shoulders, his lips constantly seeking Tristan's. For some strange reason he was eagerly wanting Tristan's touch. The thought of not being able to do so for the next two weeks was killing him. For a moment he laughed, "Can you imagine what we're going to do, after two weeks is over?" he breathed heavily as his fingers reached the door and opened it for them to pass through.

The door opened, well maybe that was a good sign that the woman wasn't in there. Tristan was feeling a little guilty that he felt like they were sneaking around again.

Closing the door, he tugged at Tristan's arm, "I think... I have to admit... this is a little bit more... exciting," he said with a small laugh and between his short breaths, he eyed the bed, the medicine right next to the bed, "Think we could get away with a little bit of... fun before I take that? It's gonna make me sleep in thirty minutes..." he grinned, "Unless you think you're good enough with just thirty minutes," he teased.

Tristan looked at the blonde for a second, "Oh...you little, I am not going to fall for that twice." He let the other pull him to the bed, "Fun...and then you are taking that, is that a promise." Tristan wasn't really thinking about the medicine though, he started to nip slightly at the others neck. "So back to your earlier question, what are we going to do after two weeks are over," he whispered this into Soran's ear.

Soran bit his lip, breathing heavily as the other nibbled at his neck, "I... promise," he panted in return. He could hardly concentrate as he lay underneath Tristan, the boys voice whispering to him, "Oh.. I have plans," he answered as he pulled Tristan down to him. His teeth found the red head's ear, then his throat, the collar bone next as his fingers fell down the boy's chest and to the edge of the shirt where he started pulling it up, "I'm going to tease you so badly, that you won't think straight," he said with a grin against Tristan's neck.

"I can't wait," he said after his shirt was thrown to the floor. "So maybe I should get my turn now." He leaned in and whisper in Soran's ear, exactly what he was going to do him. Maybe it was the sense of urgency that Tristan felt, but yes this was indeed more exciting.

"T-Tristan... you..." Soran's fingers sort of clawed at him, trying to bring him closer, "So mean," he uttered softly and turned his head to try to get a kiss. He was going to have to come up with some rather evil things to get back at Tristan with for the next two weeks.

~~
With several blinks, Rethyn opened his eyes as he looked slowly around the room. With Kilia still on him he didn't sit up, but he did hear the sound of his stomach as it growled at him to get something to eat. With a glance over to Kilia he made a face of uncertainty. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep and he didn't want to take that from her.

Slowly Rethyn begun to inch as he tried to move to not awake her. In his mind his plan was to make the pillows move to where he laid so she'd remain comfortable. With each inch he swore he was coming closer and closer to waking her as she had established her spot quite well and movement would be obvious. He felt a little pain nip at his abdominal as he tried to slide again. With a little wince this time he felt a little dizzy as he moved. A whole night and half a day by and his blood still hadn't refilled. With a look of confusion upon his face Rethyn thought to himself "Damn, how much blood did I lose?"

"Mmm," Kilia shifted, a soft sound spilling from her lips. Her 'pillow' was moving. She heaved a sigh and then her eyes opened up slowly. She looked up at Rethyn and yawned heavily, "Hey," she said with a smile, her fingers starting to trace circles, "How are you feeling?"

Rethyn begun to speak, but before the words could come out a growl came from his stomach. His face turned lightly red as he had both awaken her and had his stomach make a scene. With a little smile of his own playing at the corners of his lips he eyes her fingers for a moment as they traced circles on him. After what seemed like a long moment he spoke to her quietly as replied with his own awkward "Hey."

Running a hand down to her left hip, Rethyn enjoyed the softness of her skin as he sat up slightly to kiss her on the forehead before planting a gentle kiss upon her lips. With yet another angry growl from his stomach he broke the kiss as his face remained red. "Yeah..." He spoke after a long moment. "Maybe I should try getting up? If that's okay?"

"If you feel like you can," she answered back, "Food is probably a good idea for you. You lost a lot of blood," she frowned at him. After a moment, she pulled herself up and stretched, her lithe frame bending backwards a bit, "Let me dress and I'll help you," she said with a yawn and quickly began pulling on her clothes.

Rethyn couldn't help but give Kilia a look up and down as she stretched out. As he tried to get up himself he had to catch himself with his arm to the side of the bed as he felt light-headed. However, by the orders of Kilia he went no further as he didn't move from the spot as he sat up-right and just breathed. "You're the best." He said as he took some slow breaths. The thought of a gift traveled through his mind again as he tried to think about what he could do for her. Several ideas went through his mind, but none of them seemed all too amazing as he closed his eyes briefly for another deep breath.

She smiled at him, "Alright, come on," she said as she offered her arms out to him, "You'll need to drink a lot of water, probably some soup to start with first. Definitely something warm. Maybe I will ask Cryio how to share energy with you. I have plenty," she said with a laugh.

"Y-yeah, just need to get my clothing on first." Grasping at the side of his head he knew this was going to be a challenge. The thought of Kilia having to help him change brought a violet shade to his face as he begun to feel helpless. Taking her arm he looked down as he didn't want to ask for help in changing into a outfit for the day. "Can I make you dinner sometime?" There it was, the idea of which Rethyn spawned. He wanted to give something back to her , but out here at the retreat he didn't know what he could do besides something like cooking.

Rethyn's face had turned tomato like as it had become so red. In contrast to his blue eyes he looked kind of funny in the arms of Kilia as he stared to his dresser. The feeling of helplessness had engulfed him and even though he remained silent the redness gave away his feelings better than any words.

As Kilia helped him, she smiled warmly, not minding at all that he needed the help. In fact it made her feel needed and she sort of liked that. When he suddenly asked her if he could make her dinner, she paused in her work, which was to get a shirt for him now that he had pants on. She turned a slight bit red and then looked up at him with an almost childish excitement, "Yes," she said eagerly, "I would love that," she said and her thoughts wandered on what it was he would make her.

Once he was dressed, she led him to the door and out into the house. It was a bit slow going, but she didn't mind at all. The kitchen wasn't too far anyway and once he was seated safely, she left him to make something to eat and gave him a glass of water, "Drink it slowly," she said firmly, "But you have to drink it all."

Kilia's stern gaze was betrayed by her smile though.

Looking over to Kilia Rethyn merely stared at her as she begun to make him something. As he weakly raised an arm and scratched at his head he said "Thank you." to her as his face was still bright red. Looking to his glass of water he took it by hand as he opened his mouth again to ask Kilia. "How long do you think I'll be like this?"

Taking a sip of water his mouth went from dry to normal in seconds. However, without even really noticing he went against the word of Kilia as he drank the water down rather quickly. She hadn't even given him a meal yet and his glass was already empty. Taking note of this Rethyn tried to give off an innocent look as he bit his lip.

Turning back around, she noted the empty glass. A frown pulled on her lips, "Jeez... Well, it shouldn't be too long. If you eat and drink lots of liquids you'll probably start feeling a bit more normal by tomorrow. Nothing strenuous though," she said with a meaningful look. Taking his glass she refilled it and gave it back to him, "You soup will be done here soon, alright? Take it easy to day and tomorrow, maybe even the day after. And I mean that, Rethyn," her voice was leaving no room to argue as she stirred the food in the pan.

Looking to Kilia, Rethyn gave her a little smirk as he tried to respond to her but failed as she had left no room to argue.
After a short moment, Rethyn replied with. "Well, I guess you're going to have to be on me then cause I don't know if I can wait three days."

He gave her a little smile before looking back to his glass of which was now full. As he attempted to take another sip it turned into a gulp and before long the glass was empty again. Giving a little look at his glass he briefly looked annoyed at how fast he was drinking it. For some reason or another his mind and body weren't really working together and it bothered him he couldn't just slow down with the water.

With a small rub of his forehead he quickly tried to glance over to see his soup, but felt a bit of dizziness as he nearly fell out of chair. As a bit of redness crawled over his face he tried to play it off like it didn't happen as he steadied himself. Shaking his head he tried to forget about it as he eagerly awaited his soup.

His stomach rumbled again and caused Rethyn to sigh in embarrassment.

Pulling a bowl from the cupboards, she spooned the soup into it. Setting it in front of Rethyn, she put on hand on her hip as she picked up the empty glass, "Didn't I say 'slowly'?" she shook her head and refilled it yet again. This time, though she sat in front of him, "You better not make me be on your case for the next few days. You'll be in so much trouble," she teased and then leaned forward to run her hand through his hair. Pecking his cheek, she gave him a long look and then gestured to the bowl, "Alright you, eat up. Take it easy," she said with a warm smile. She actually was sort of looking forward to nursing him back to health for the next few days... But she would never say that to him. Her lips pulled up in a bigger smile as she watched him.

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Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus
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Rethyn and Tristan : near the end of the first week

Another sleepless night, and Tristan found himself in the training room, yet all he was really doing was working on his spell pad. After another week of training, pulling spells have gotten faster, yet having them perfected was another thing. It seemed Deriea liked to tease him about that jelly that he poured all over Valyn. He was sitting there just enjoying the quietness of the room he was in, yet he had a few things on his mind.

Rounding the corner, Rethyn quietly paced down the hall to the training room. Over the past week the young man had seemly begun to do better as he had started to regulate his sleeping much better. He would usually only do his late night routes for a few hours before going to sleep himself. With the thought of his training on his mind he nearly didn't see Tristan as he glanced into the room and found his Seer upon his magic pad. Raising his brow he spoke out through the darkness.

"Another night?"

He slightly chuckled at the sound of his guardian's voice, "Give me a break," he said but wasn't trying to be mean to the other. He wasn't at all going to voice why he couldn't get any sleep. Of course the whole thing was comman knowledge in the household. "Don't run off though, we do have some things to still discuss."

Rethyn had an idea of why his Seer wasn't sleeping, but he wasn't going to voice it as he knew that would only make Tristan dwell on it. However, the second thing took Rethyn by surprise as he stepped into the room and slowly took a seat against the oposite wall. He wasn't surprised by the fact that Tirstan wanted to discuss some things, but why he had waited the whole week. However, he took a guess the Seer had a lot on his mind during that week.

"What did you want to talk about?"

Tristan watched him come into the room and sit opposite him. "Well, ok, what was going on with you a couple of weeks ago." Yeah maybe Tristan waiting to long to talk to him about this, yet it just seemed like having a sit down talk with your own protector was a near to impossible task or something. He noticed the changes though, and well he actually was grateful for them. Something told him though it had to do with a certain pink-haired seer.

Rethyn found himself stifening up a little as he was asked the question. It wasn't something he exactly wanted to talk about, but he knew Tristan had the skill to tell when he was deflecting questions. Instead Rethyn seemed to try to drag out the response as he said quietly. "You will think I am insane."

Tristan quirked an eyebrow at Rethyn, he had trouble with thinking his guardian normal in the first place, so what could possible make Rethyn think that Tristan would think him insane. Tristan shook his head, trying to make sense of that thought. Tristan didn't want to be mean or anything so he tried a different tactic, "So you mean more insane then normal," he was teasing of course with a slight grin on his face.

"Yeah...more insane than normal." Rethyn took notice of Tristan's teasing, but at the same time he took a little offense as a part of him didn't believe it to be entirely teasing. He had never spent much time with his Seer unless his Seer was in need, he didn't blame Tristan however as he knew how he was when he first arrived to the group. It had not been a good time to meet people and give impressions. However as his eyes angryily bore into the mats of the training room he found himself tainted with a little spite as none of them had any idea of what the nightmares were like. Sleeping or awake they'd still get to you, even if you had been hardened in the afterlife they could break people. They'd almost broke him without the intervention of Kilia.

Tristan's grin went away, "I am sorry that wasn't nice," he said, he didn't know why but he got the feeling that went in an entirely different direction then the way he intended. "You know...it shouldn't be this hard to talk to you, you've saved my life, or protected it multiple times, and yet having a conversation is almost painful. Its not like that for you with other people, I guess I am jealous in a way."

Without breaking his eyes from the floor Rethyn said to Tristan "You're jealous, but I've been here the entire time. Everyone else has put the the time in while you haven't. I know more about you than you know about me...I know I didn't make it easy when we first met. I am sorry for that." Rubbing the side of his head he knew he might of not made much sense to the Seer, but that's what came from his mouth. He wished he could take the edge off his words as his eyes softened, but he couldn't. He didn't like to bring any sort of pain to his Seer.

Tristan cringed slightly, the guy was right, he hadn't made the time...nor the effort either. "You have no need to apologize, and really I have no excuses for not making the time." Well it wasn't entirely true, he had only one excuse, but at the moment even that seemed not good enough in a way. He could have made the time, somehow, if he really wanted to. He sighed, "I am making the time right now, so tell me."

Nodding, Rethyn held up an index finger to Tristan as he breifly flashed out of the room then back into the room. His new adopted expression looked hurt as he slid a square photo frame across the room to Tristan. "When Soran was kidnapped I went home and got this the hour before the rescue was to be done. It's an old family photo, I am sure you'll reconize Kazar, but I on the other hand..."

Rethyn paused as he watched Tristan quietly.

Tristan took the photo, he looked at the family in the picture and yes he did recogize the sister. Yet as he passed over the other's he had to look twice to figure out if the guy who he thought was his guardian was really his guardian, "Your blonde in this picture...and," what he was going to say was about the face. Yet Tristan had a hard time with finding the right words to voice that difference, so he left his 'and' hang in the air.

"I'm not who I was." Rethyn said through the darkness. "My life name isn't even Rethyn."

"Life name," Tristan repeated, he looked up through the darkness, "So...that means you died." Tristan really put that thought together going on context clues from others. He sort of wondered why he thought to put those clues and Rethyn together. Maybe it was like that from the beginning, Tristan could see something was different about this whole thing. Truthfully, he always had a hard time putting it all together. Yet, it was all a connection, or rather feeling connected to Rethyn that he was able to move on.

"Yeah, I died fifteen years ago. Your previous Guardian and my sister before her death tried to revive me. I recently found out it only partially worked. I never had a magic system in life nor even looked the way I do now." Rethyn looked at Tristan with steady eyes as he watched the boy try to put the bits and pieces together. It wouldn't take long, his Seer was quite bright.

Tristan looked at him and then turned away in deep thought, some things made sense even more now, yet there was other things still confusing him. "So...your powers they come from a god," it was the only explanation that made any sense. Even though he really couldn't comprenhend the whys just yet.

Rethyn nodded to his Seer. "That's right, I was mixed with a God's essence to help my revival," Rethyn stopped for a moment as he choked a little on admitting he was the horrid creation that he was. Breaking his gaze from Tristan he tried again to continue but stopped as he again felt sick. After what seemed to be a long moment of silence he said quietly. "I sometimes still wish I had my mask."

Tristan didn't ask the why to that comment, he already sort of knew. "May I ask a question," he stopped because he really didn't want to be insulting in this, "You said Kazar only tried...was it because of her death..that you came back." Of course he sort of thought he knew that answer...the way things happened between that morning and that night. His own reaction to Rethyn and thinking that he was a ghost or something probably was the best indication that they were connected.

"The way it was told to me was that even with her death it only brought me halfway there. The other half was because of-"

"Me." The voice pulsed through the room at a whisper. Rethyn's eyes went wide as his gaze darted from just off Tristan to the other wall of the training room to the left of the both of them.

Fixing his tie a little, the suited man leaned against the wall as his red eyes were upon Tristan. He face held the crocked smile of which would make skin crawl as he looked over the Seer. With a little whistle at Tristan he looked back to Rethyn as he said with a silther.

"So this is the guy you're always guardin'?"

The whisper that came into the room sent a shiver of fear through Tristan, he spun around with his fingers already near his pad. It was a knee-jerk sort of reaction, yet he hesisted with the others comment. Now with the appearence of this figure, this started to become clearer and Tristan wasn't going to bother with being polite, "So your the guy who makes it hard for him to sleep."

"Congrats...aren't you the perceptive one." Chimmed Death as he breifly looked over his nails.

Tristan narrowed his eyes, he wasn't really feeling up for anyone's crap at the moment...even Death's (which really was a guess who this guy was, of course a grim reaper costume would have been cooler). "No...not usually, and you interrupted us, so do you mind bothering someone else, maybe Elvis needs some company."

With a light chuckle Death spoke calmly and lightly as he replied with. "I'll remember to tell your pasted away relatives that one while I dig my fingers through their eye sockets and make them think about your demise when I am done up here." Regaining himself, Death politely coughed with a hand over his mouth before speaking to Tristan with high energy. "Now now, I am not here to interrupt, I am here to clarify for my little wraith here."

Rethyn had frozen up as his gaze to Death was that of fear. Tristan did not know what he was doing, Rethyn chuckled at Valyn even when he knew he wasn't going to stand a chance against the god. He would never in either his life or afterlife though make such comments to this God. In silence, Rethyn's eyes darted back and forth between the two. He wished he had his blade, but it was still out of the barrier where he had lost it during the last battle.

Tristan had gone slightly pale at the mention of his passed away relatives, none of which, save for maybe his grandmother, he really cared for, they were probably already thinking of his demise in the first place. Of course that probably had to do with the fact that he was only four at the time, and the fairness of them dying over him. "Clarify," he repeated and questioned and sort of commanded at the same time. What else was there to clarify, he glanced in the direction of his guardian, and noticed the fear in the others eyes.

And hell, that make him even angrier, yet he was trying so hard right now to control it.

"Hey! Careful now, you look as if your hair was about to catch fire. Oh! I know...low shot your hair is red. However, I won't make the joke your kind doesn't have a soul. Because it's true you do have one and like everyone else in this house I have plans for you...But I digress. My little wraith here was talking about what the extra soul in your body tried to do. To make it simple for you she sucked at it, and as amusing as it was to watch her fail at reviving the dead I chose to help. However, I got what I wanted too! She got her brother back, I got a child in a way. It's like a double win, except she's dead and trapped inside of you." Death shrugged his shoulders as he mockingly said "Ops."

Tristan took a deep breath, and moved his hand away from his pad, "You know...now I really don't want to die, especially if I got to listen to your bad jokes all day. You got plans, fine, we all got to go someday anyways. Right now though if all you are going to do is try to piss me off, you've got another thing coming. I don't care, well not about your part anyways, the other thing in this room I do care about is him."

Chuckling at Tristan, Death replied with mockingly. "I may tell bad jokes, but you my friend tell horrid lies. The fact my son believe you really care for him as a being is a joke. I've taken interest in the place, I've watched all of you. And I know that's a lie." Shaking his head and chuckling quietly he pointed at Tristan as he said. "You say you care about him, but I was the one to tell him you think of him as a pet. Think about it. You never talk to him unless you need something. A couple weeks back you hardly talked to him until your lover was in danger. That was when he became someone...just a tool for you to rescue someone you actually care about."

Tristan glared...yet he didn't say anything, he actually could not deny anything the other was saying. Well he didn't think Rethyn a pet, but arguing about that one point wasn't worth losing the whole argument over. He did care though, it was that he didn't show it so openly with the guardian. He felt extemely guilty about that though, he had it settled that he would try harder. Finally he looked away from the suited man standing there and down toward the floor.

Cackling, Death's eyes bore into Tristan as he let the words slid across the room to Tristan. "So, anymore questions? If you don't have any I'll just tell you how much I loved watching your boyfriend cry from his nightmares and how those gods carved up his face...Though it wasn't very professional. My guys could of done it better..."

Without warning, Tristan had his spell pad up, his fingers quickly finding something to hit this god with, "you know what...fuck you," Tristan pulled a glass ball, he knew actually what it did and threw it at the god standing there, if it actually hit him it would turn into liquid form and surround the god in water.

Wap!

As if it were Rethyn, Death laughed as he teleported away to avoid the glass ball. As the ball struck the wall where death once was it surrounded the area in trapping water with nobody inside. As the paralizying fear left Rethyn's eyes he rose to his feet and begun to leave the room in silence. With quick and short breaths he planned on heading straight for his room. Even with Kilia's protection spell he couldn't escape Death's grasp. That scared him more than anything, even with the visions gone he still had someone pulling the string and causing true nightmares.

Tristan should have known that he wasn't going to hit anything, "Rethyn," he said, "your just going to walk away." Damn...Tristan might of not really understood the whole thing, but he didn't think Rethyn was a coward.

Pausing at the doorway, Rethyn merely said the words "What." to Tristan. In his eyes there was nothing left to say. He had a feeling Tristan wanted more, but the Seer just didn't get it. Getting control of his breath he let out a small sigh.

Tristan really wanted to be a little selfish, perhaps a little mean, especially after all he got was a what. "I don't get it, I understand that much, I don't get this whole thing, but god I have a hard time watching you walk away from it."

Leaning a hand against the wall, Rethyn felt his stomach lurch as he held down a bit of vomit. It took him a long moment to speak as he tried to regain himself. "You want me to stand there and wait for him to come back? T-Tristian...If there's one thing about him you'd best figure out it's that he'll only come to you when he knows he can get away with it."

Tristan shook his head, and walked toward the guardian, "you misunderstand, I don't like the fact that now it feels like you are running. I know you feel like he has all the control." Tristan didn't know what else to add, if anything now he really felt as if everything he would say to the other was going to be perceived as as lie.

He really wanted to ask that question...does Rethyn believe Death and what he said about Tristan.

"So what if I am running." Rethyn said with a growl. "You catch a glimsp of what I delt with for fifteen years and you're telling me I am running away. You weren't there, you don't know a thing about it."

"No, I wasn't there, and no I don't know a thing about it...so when is it going to be enough for you." Tristan said. "Or is it better that he just comes along and pisses people off, and drives them to the edge." Tristan was losing his point though.

Snapping Rethyn turned around as he made fists at his sides. "I don't know!" He roared. "I've been driven to the edge so many times I am numb!" Breathing heavily he looked to Tristan with emotion shaking at the corner of his eyes.

Tristan let the other yell at him, now at least he understood that emotion. "Then come up with a way to fight off the fear, because the one thing none of us can afford to do right now is to be afraid. I mean come on, when he starts being serious in his plans are you going to run away then too. Are you going to let him hurt the people around you. Despite what he says, and whether you believe it or not, I do at least have your back, I am not going to let you do this alone...because when you did that the other night, you totally freaked me out, I thought I lost you, and not you as a guardian, but you as a person. I never at one point thought about us...the only thing I couldn't get out of my head was what happened to you."

Tristan stopped for a second, "I am sorry for the last months, I haven't been there, and I should have. I should have tried harder and made you feel more important to me. I messed up there ok, and if anything would like to start over with you. If we can't communicate, then being any sort of team is going to be rather hard."

Rethyn had heard this kind of speech before and at first seemed to shut down as he begun to shy away from Tristan. He had turned his back to him and moved further down the hall until with the last bit of Tristan's words he stopped. Bringing in a deep breath he let it out before looking away from the ground and turning back towards his Seer. "I understand Tristan, I really do. I just need time to work on this alright? Undoing fifteen years isn't something I can just throw away..." He caught himself as he was about to ramble and closed his mouth as he replayed everything through his mind one last time before he spoke the words.

"Thank you."

Tristan didn't say anymore, he just nodded at Rethyn. He didn't think there was anything else to say at that moment. "You don't have to thank me."

Walking down the hallway over his shoulder, Rethyn replied. "I do."

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Tristan Belvedere Character Portrait: Soran Feliy Reigailia Character Portrait: Rethyn Jadgarus Character Portrait: Sina Virye
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Near the end of the Second Week

Soran was excited. Just one more day. One more day and he could see Tristan again... well... normally anyway. He had the entire two weeks to plan how he was going to spend that day. With so many ideas roaming around in his head, little fantasies of what he was going to do with the red haired boy when the following day came... He was in a daze as he sat there in the front yard, staring off into the trees. He didn't hear a word Deriea said as she was talking to them. No, he was hearing... other things in his own mind. His cheeks were a faint dusting of red as he sat there, cross legged and in his own little world.

That was until Deriea bent down in front of him and flicked his forehead rather hard. Soran fell backwards, his hands shooting up to his burning head as he winced and hollered out an 'ow' very loudly, "Deriea!!" he moaned in pain.

"Get your head out of the clouds, little mortal. This is important!" the Goddess snapped, clearly very angry with him.

He rubbed his head as he slowly sat up, pouting at her, "Sorry..." he mumbled.

Rolling her eyes she huffed as she straightened and crossed her arms, "If I didn't know any better I would think you'd been deprived of something. What is this to you? A freaking ferry ride? Pay attention and stop drooling. Humans are so weird. If you're going to day dream about your lover this entire time, then why don't you two go get a room and satisfy that urge of yours."

Soran's face turned a brilliant red as he sat there, his green gaze opening very wide and his mouth almost literally hitting the ground in his shock. Deriea certainly had no problems with announcing anything to the entire world. His heart seemed to stop and he found that it was quite hard to breathe. Shaking his head furiously he said, "No! No! I'm okay! I'll pay attention, I'm sorry!" the little blonde Seer didn't even want to look over at Tristan.

Both Rethyn and Sina turned to Soran but didn't speak as they weren't suppose to interupt Deriea. However, as Rethyn turned back to face the goddess and listen to her words Sina did not. Giving Soran a little pat on the shoulder she felt the stress coming from Soran as she caught him several times staring at Tristan. In her mind it was adorable that the two of them were missing eachother so much. With a little smile playing her lips she couldn't wait until they were together again to drop her plan upon them. She knew they'd be the perfect two to go along with it.

Kilia clasped her hands over her mouth as she tried her best not to laugh. She did feel sorry for the pair though. Being separated for so long... It must have been really hard. Honestly, she couldn't really imagine. As she watched Soran rub at his head, the pouting look on his face, she could only think one thing. He was adorable. No wonder Tristan was in love with him. She giggled and with that earned a rather chilling look from Deriea. Quickly covering her laughter, she looked away and settled herself with a quick glance up to the Goddess.

"I swear," Deriea said softly. She was obviously a slight bit irritated, "Pay attention. Eveylyn and Oni have moved, or rather... they're on the move and it's not going to be pretty. For these past two weeks I have put you all through rigorous training. I've done all that I can to get you into a somewhat decent fighting group. The rest is up to you all. You're to learn how to work with each other as you go along, but now that your skills have improved, some more than others," she said with a grin, "I think you can handle taking on the responsibilities that comes with being a Seer and Guardian."

Kneeling down, Deriea looked between all of them, "What your parents did before you is what you're going to start doing tomorrow night. Intervene in the war between the Gods. You're going to start putting them down. And since I've already explained that you cannot kill a God no matter how hard you may try, I will be with you. Cryio cannot kill another God because he's the God of.. well.. Life. You can't kill if you create life, it taints your hands, so you only have me. But that'll make him more useful to you, Kilia," Deriea's gaze settled on the pink haired Seer, "His protection spells are second to none. We can't risk having you possessed, but if it does happen, he can most definitely fix that for you... not that it'll be pleasant, mind you. But in any case, for the most part, no God is going to nab you with Cryio around."

Looking away from her, she set her gaze on Tristan and Soran, "You two, on the other hand, better keep your own protection spells up at all times when you're out there. And both of your Guardian's better be on the ball. If your Seer is possessed, don't waste time. Remove it as quickly as you can. You know how to do it by now, so don't dilly dally. You're going to be in the middle of an all out war, the last thing you need is a God taking over one of you and making it three times as hard. Understood?"

"Understood." Rethyn repeated the second part of what Deriea said. As he said it he took a moment to quickly glance over to Tristan before looking back to the goddess. The training had made him grow in terms of his abilities, his stamina had reached levels he didn't know as his teleportation range grew and so did too his strength in it. He could cloak further and move around faster than he ever could before. As the one guardian who's abilities provided mobility and utility over raw power, he knew that he had grown stronger. He may of lost his blade out in the woods during the last battle, but he had begun practicing with his knife once more. He knew he would have to go looking for the sword when he was allowed to, but for now he was more than content practicing the art he learned in his previous life.

Tristan was blushing as well, but he keep his gaze on the goddess. She had to be so loud with that statement didn't she. At least for the last couple of weeks he had been playing catch up, not only with her but his dad had keep him busy as well. He would often have to crawl to his own bed, which in a way kept him exhausted enough for him to actually get some form of sleep. He had to wonder a couple of things though with her announcement. Did that mean they were going to leave their house in the mountain and move back to the city.

Sitting on the other side of the group next to his guardian, Tristan's answer to having a separation with Soran was distance, not so much as to make the other feel like he was avoiding him. He would still talk to the other, but closeness was to much of a temptation to break the rules.

Deriea looked at all of them with a stern glint in her eyes. It was odd to see her so serious, aside from training of course, but even then she usually had her smirk going and teasing was always a given especially when she was throwing out insults to get them to work harder. For a moment, she looked... worried? Sad? Afraid? It was hard to tell because she covered it up rather quickly. Her gaze settled on Tristan, "Open your magic system. Can you bring out a map of the entire area please, I will show you what you're going to be doing starting tomorrow night. This house is your base of operations, so don't worry you're not moving into the chaos, you're just going out into for brief periods of time to get an upper hand in this war."

Tristan nodded and did as she asked, pulling up the map of the area they were in, there weren't to many populated places around. The town that was the closest was now empty, which was sad in a way. So he waited to see where she wanted to look first.

Deriea tapped her finger against her lip as she surveyed the area. Most the area was either in ruins or were abandoned due to the fighting getting too close. Her finger pointed to an area that was actually fairly close to where the main university was, "Here, zoom in here," she said to him.

Tristan did as she asked, zooming into the area that she pointed at.

"You may recognize it. The financial district that runs just parallel to the university you mortals are so found of filling up with souls every day. Why you would even go and sit in those chairs to listen to one single person day after day for hours on end is beyond me," she sighed and shook her head, "Anyway. Stray gods are roaming around this area and it's your job to get rid of them. Now, since we're not doing this like it used to be done years ago, it'll be a bit different," her gaze settled on Tristan again, "That nice little box contraption we've been working on the past few weeks... that's going to come in handy here. Remember, you can't trap a god in it unless it's been weakened enough to the point that it can't escape. So make sure you beat the hell out of the damned god or goddess before you go trying to encase it. Last thing I need is for you all to be attacked suddenly because the God recovered fast enough to do so," she rolled her eyes a bit.

"The box, if I recall, can hold up to three gods all at once inside of it. So, you're job is to go find yourselves three minor... let me repeat, minor gods. I swear if one of you goes after a major God I will kill you myself. Wound it so that it can't move, trap it, and bring it back to me so I can kill them permanently. It's the only way we're going to make a difference with this war. Otherwise, they'll just keep coming back in a few years and we're back at square one," she turned to Soran, "You are their eyes. Find a good spot to get in position with that nice sniper rifle of yours and direct them with the communication system you developed."

Deriea looked to Sina, "Patrol whatever building he's going to be on top of, keep anything that isn't yourself or your teammates away from him. Simple enough right?" To Rethyn, "Stay with Tristan, you two are going to be on the ground with Kilia who is going to protect you," She grinned a bit, "You guys are going to do the heavy lifting this time. Of course, with the bit of help you'll get from blondie over there. For the most part, you're the stars of this next round. Questions?"

Tristan glanced at Rethyn for a second, and hoped that they were ready for the task she was about to send them on. "So how do suggest we draw out these gods...or are they just going to come up and introduce themselves."

Deriea grinned at him, "They are scavenging. They're probably lower ranks to either Eveylyn or Oni and were left behind for the scraps. Don't worry about drawing them out, little mortal. The three of you Seer's are throwing around enough power as it is right now to attract a half a dozen Gods to you if I threw you out in the middle of a desert. And before you ask, the barrier and Cryio's protection spells are what's keeping this place relatively safe. I say relatively because if Oni really really wanted to, he'd come find you and it wouldn't be hard for him to do. So be thankful the ass is busy elsewhere."

Yeah that was what he thought she was going to say...damn. So what was to say that a half-dozen gods weren't going to be around the area. He shook his head slightly, he was thinking to much, if they carefully planned things out maybe that wouldn't happen. He had in mind that they had to be in and out as fast as they could.

The word scavenging didn't really sit well with him either, it reminded him of every zombie movie he had ever seen. He was scared, he had to admit that much to himself. He glanced in Soran's direction now, it was just to calm him a little.

"Alright, if there are no questions other than that, you guys are free to go. Tomorrow night. Meet here. We'll go over final preparations. Save your energy," she gave a meaningful look to Soran whose face grew bright red as he quickly looked away and didn't say anything. Only then did Deriea's harsh demeanor drop and she laughed. Soran frowned. Was it ever going to be the next day? He shot a quick, sultry glance over to Tristan... he couldn't wait.




Following Day : Day of the Raid

Freedom... at last! Soran thought as he glanced himself over in the mirror again. His heart was beating rapidly and he was up early, unusual for the little blonde. Running his fingers through his hair yet again, he fanned out the bangs that were slightly spikey. He'd pulled back some of the blonde strands with a clip, the hair fanning out. In his ears were his earrings again, visible once more since his long strands of yellow covered them up usually. He grinned a bit as covering his hands were the gloves that he'd worn many nights ago that had seemed to really win Tristan over. Loose fitted jeans and a nice black shirt, this one with buttons. Of course he'd been fussing over it for the past half hour. Some opened... or buttoned up? He couldn't decide. Finally he came to a comprimise and undid only a few of them, just enough to see his pale skin underneath, but not enough to give away anything.

Rocking back and forth on his heels, he eyed his appearance one last time -he swore it was the last time... jeez, almost worse than a girl-. He had a present for Tristan too. Picking up the flower that he'd created on his magic system he twirled it around in his fingers. As it went, the red petals opened up and glowed a bit, exuding a nice scent as well. If all went well, it would really get the red head going. After all, he'd been working on that particular present for quite a while. He quickly stopped twisting it in his fingers... breathing in the floral scent was starting to make him a little bit crazy. Biting his lower lip he opened the door of his room and just about ran down the hall.

It was still rather early, the sun was up, but usually people weren't moving around until about eight or nine am, it was six on the dot. Damn my excitement... he cursed and wondered if Tristan would even be awake as he hovered outside the door that the red head had been confined too. He put the flower under his nose and closed his eyes. Taking a breath, he reached up and knocked as he tucked the flower behind his back. He was already grinning as he waited.

Being at it was 6 in the morning, and with nerves and worries sort of knawing at him, Tristan had a very sleepless night. He had been up since a few hours before, and in a fruitless effort to keep his mind off thing, went to let some steam off in the training room. He got back upstairs and showered, thinking he might as well give up on the idea of sleep. He walked silently back down to the room he had been in and saw the blonde standing there. His got this grin on his face, cause he couldn't help but think how cute the boy was.

Not to mention that he must have been really eager as well...

Tristan walked up behind the other, "I don't think he heard you, try knocking louder."

Soran let out a gasp and whirled around. He backed away as well without thinking and hit the door. Trapped... was his first thought and his face ignited into a brilliant red color, the heat of it hurting his cheeks as he stared up at the red haired Seer. When his heart settled, he gave a laugh and then grinned at the boy. His eyes had their usual wicked light in them as he let them dance across Tristan's frame. He pulled his lower lip into his mouth and gave an approving little hum that he made sure Tristan could hear. His eyes traveled all the way down, and then all the way back up, very slowly.

"I have something for you," Soran said, the words probably having more than one meaning.

Tristan couldn't help but to grin slightly bigger as he noticed the others gaze. Yet he quirked an eyebrow as the other said he had something for him. He took a minute though before asking what it was to take in the others appearence. He had to admit, the other looked really hot, he even had those gloves on that Tristan thought were super sexy.

"What is it," he finally asked.

Soran noted the gaze and his face heated against his will. Keeping his grin, though, he pulled the flower from behind his back and twisted it around gently in front of Tristan's face, not too close but not too far either. The petals spread, a faint golden glow flooding the metallic looking treasure as the floral scent wafted lazily through the air between them, "For you. I think I made it better this time. It'll last longer, and you know... whenever you're... in the mood you can always just let me know," he teased, tilting his head back a bit, "Though I seem to recall you saying you were... always in the mood. Does that go for now too, baby? Because right now, you're really flipping sexy. And you smell amazing, and I really wish you'd just come over here and kiss me already."

Tristan couldn't help but to blush, and it wasn't even because of the flower. "I...," he cleared his throat. "Its beautiful," Tristan said, liking the scent the flower was giving off. He had to chuckle though at the blond seers next words. "You know...I don't seem to be the only one in the mood at the moment," he said as he stepped closer to the boy. The other had trapped himself between the door and Tristan, yet Tristan knew if he started kissing the other now, he wouldn't be able to stop. "I'll kiss you, just go inside first,"

Soran shifted his body around, his gaze dropping before he tilted his head down and gave a wicked little grin as he looked up at Tristan through his lashes, "And if I just stand here?" he challenged.

"There are still other people in this house Soran," Tristan said softly, "and if I kiss you right now, out here in this hallway, I am not going to stop with just the kissing...so unless that is your kind of thing, I suggest going inside." Tristan didn't step any closer, or he would be in the zone of no return. He licked his lips as they had gone dry.

Soran lost all train of thought, Damn... was his only thought as his lips parted to allow a soft gasp through, his grin fading instantly. He hated when Tristan did that, but at the same time it made his heart beat fly erratcally and he sort of loved that feeling. Reaching back, his fingers groped around for the handle of the door before he found it because as it stood, he couldn't quite get his gaze to leave his boyfriends violet eyes that had that intense look to them once again. The one that drove his blood to heating rapidly and his face to grow a deep red. The door popped and creaked open. Soran took a step backwards into the room.


As the door opened and Soran took a step backwards, Tristan followed him, and would do so until they were both inside before closing the door and locking it. Tristan didn't waste another second with thinking, he closed the gap between them and pulled the other toward him in a kiss. He hoped it conveyed the longing, lust and love he had for the other.

The door closed gently, but it was the lock that made Soran's heart jump to the back of his throat as it was thrown, preventing anyone from coming in, and with Tristan's large frame between him and the door... He was officially trapped. But he liked that idea. In seconds, he was wrapped up in a tight embrace that he eagerly returned. Having not been able to touch the taller boy for two weeks straight had killed him... well figuratively anyway. His mouth was captured just as he hoped and he returned the kiss with his own intensity. It took mere seconds before he was finding it hard to breath properly. He pulled away, still pecking away at Tristan's lips though, "So... hot... damn it..." he panted, "I've really missed this," he said meaning the kisses. It was, after all, his favorite thing to do, "You're an amazing kisser, have I told you that yet?" he said, his gaze locked on the boys lips as he waited to be kissed again.

Tristan chuckled again, "You know I am only half of the kiss, you are pretty amazing yourself in that area." He again went in for a kiss, as if to prove his point. This time he pulled back, "I've just missed you, holding you, touching you." Tristan kissed the other again, and began to walk him backwards toward the bed.

He moved with Tristan, slowly working their way to the bed, locked in a heated kiss. He had his arms wrapped around Tristan's shoulders, but he was straining to hold him there. He was too tall, "Too tall," he uttered as he pulled back just enough. Locking his arms, he gave a little jump and pulled himself up using Tristan's shoulders and promptly wrapped his legs around the boys hips. with a grin, he settled there and hooked his legs so that he wasn't going anywhere, "Hmm... much better," he said as he leaned over and began biting the boys ear and neck and the soft spot between the shoulder and throat.

Tristan only mumbled incoherently as the boy wrapped himself around him with his legs, it made those last few steps rather interesting. Finally as they reached the bed, he stopped, he couldn't think straight enough to want to do anything but enjoy the other's bites on his ear and neck.

Finally when he realized that he was going to have to move, he turned and sat on the bed himself, with Soran still wrapped around him.

"Mm," Soran hummed a bit as he pulled away, leaning back just enough, "This is new. How about like this? Because then... I could," he leaned forward and began whispering into Tristan's ear all the thoughts he'd been putting together for the past few weeks. As he did that, his fingers traced circles around the boys shoulder, the other hand tangling up in his red hair. When he finished with the first portion of his thoughts, he leaned in, nibbled the ear and pecked a kiss on his cheek, "How bout that?"

Tristan chuckled, "I am willing...if you are able." He grinned at the other with a blush on his face. So the boy really had been thinking for the last two weeks.

"Oh... baby," he uttered, breathing the words in Tristan's ear now, "I'm able. Question is, are you ready? Think you can keep up?" he teased as he shifted around so that he was on his knees on the bed, lifted up a bit higher than Tristan, he had a different look now, the grin was gone, replaced by a sultry one, his green gaze languid as he looked down at the red haired Seer.

"Just watch me," he said as pulled the other down toward him for a kiss.




Rethyn had skipped out on the patrol of that night as he chose to rest instead. Rising much earlier than usual, Rethyn had stepped outside to watch the sun rise while practicing stretches. After an hour or so he went inside as he prepared himself a light meal of a single egg and two slices of bread. However with a little guilt eating at him he made a few extra hard-boiled eggs and placed them into the fridge for the others if the would want them when they rose or when they would return.

It wasn't long before Sina strolled into the kitchen and grasped at one of the eggs from the fridge. Giving Rethyn a small bit of thanks she had on a pair of headphones of which the volume was too high as Rethyn heard every beat. Making no comment to her, Rethyn had begun to clean up the pot he used as he thought the day out. He knew he had Tristan covered as well as protection from his Seer. After their "talk" Rethyn had begun to try to look upon his Seer more as a friend than someone he had to protect. At first he found it hard for himself as Tristan hadn't exactly gotten the best treatment from him at the start, but over time he'd tried talking to his Seer more around dinner. It was sad to consider, but the punishment of Soran and Tristan's actions had made it easier.

Frowning Rethyn knew he would have to make up for what he did to Soran too. As he stared blankly into the sink the high pitch voice of Sina caught him off-guard.

"Eh Blue-eyes, why're you staring off into the sink?"

"Please no..." Rethyn thought to himself before speaking with a sigh. "Because I'm thinking Sina."

"Well no shit you are, what about?" Sina retorted with a light chuckle. "Wanna tell me? I bet'ca I could help you out."

"Would I be insulting you if I said you couldn't?" Rethyn said back as he glanced over to the girl.

"We'll never know unless you say it Rethyn." Sina challenged.

"I need to give back to the others...I haven't exactly been the best person." Rethyn said before pausing. "So unless you have an idea that'll actually work..."

"Actually you and I have something in common Blue-eyes." Sina said as a little grin grew upon her face. "Mmmn...Come and see me when the day is done I'll fill you in on the plan."

Rethyn raised an eyebrow as he was about to ask her why she wouldn't just tell him now. But as she skipped away he sighed as clearly she wanted in the talking mood for it. Finishing up with the pot Rethyn quickly placed it away before heading to the living room. Once he reached there he took a seat in his favorite seat as he awaited for the others. By the door he had already placed his scavenged armor vest and his boots.