Summary:The Essence of Alveua is summoned out into Zahara's body, with... interesting results.
XP:L1, V1, Z1
Tags:< We Always Hurt The Ones We Love | Sol Invictus Logs | Don't Be So Sentiemental >
Lucent "I wonder what she would think of what we are about to do..."
Lucent There is a click in the armor, as he takes out the Heart of Night, the Golden-Ebon pendant holding the Essence of Alveua, the last remains of the Ebon Dragon's true, living Essence, anywhere in existence.
zahara laughs, looking up at the sky. "I doubt she'd be terribly pleased, really."
Lucent "The only way I know to get her pleased involves horizontal dancing, really."
Lucent He picks the pendant and places it in Zahara's hands. "... no, I lie."
Lucent "She likes it when I smile."
zahara "Well, what do you talk about when you're together?" She runs her fingers lightly over the pendant, feeling a little chill at its touch.
Lucent "Our lives. Our problems with each other. Snarking at each other's lifestyles. What we like on one another, what we find beautiful... who we are. And, well. Dead things. I talk to her about dead things, little of the opposite... it is not... much, really."
zahara nods thoughtfully. "Perhaps you should work on having less... intense conversations."
Lucent "But she pulls all my strings. It is hard for me to keep a clear head near her..."
zahara "You are the only one who chooses how you will react to what she says." She lifts the pendant up, watching it turn in the sun, and then fastens it around her neck.
Lucent "I will try. I really will." He touches the pendant, pouring his essence into it. "And we just wait, now..." It was night, soon enough. A night of new moon, without much light... "Zee?"
zahara "If I turn all black and fly off through a hole in the sky, tell Cerin I love him..." She closes her eyes, as he fills the pendant with his Essence and tentatively releases her will's hold over her body. A shudder runs through Zahara, and she slides to the ground, catching herself on her hands, which dig into the rich soil as if trying to hold on to the world itself.
Lucent leans down, touching her shoulder, attempting to free her of any pain, of anything uncomfortable... "I will not let you be hurt. Not because of me." He shakes his head, whispering softly, to Zahara and Alveua both...
zahara is suddenly still, then, and her eyes open. Zahara's blue eyes look up into Lucent's own and he can see, in their depths, the faceted gaze of Alveua. Then they look down at her arms and hands, turning them over as she inspects the new body she inhabits.
Lucent "Zahara Zhan." He nods, looking into her eyes, his own full of sorrow as he reaches a hand and caresses her cheek. "I am not the man who loved you, I learned. I do not deserve your love, but I can tell you that he loved you very much. But we are alike... shadows of something that once existed, clinging to ourselves for love, despite the truth that we are not. Ephemeral, us both..."
Alveua Her only reply is a slow tilt of her borrowed head, and a buzzing sigh, her look inquisitive. It questions why he bothered to bring her back if he is not her love.
Lucent frowns, shaking, the hand caressing the side of her face moving away... "Well... I thought that... I... we..." He stopped, attempted to compose himself, and coughed. "Since it feels... strange to hold to it, when I am not Lucent... but this IS Amika, I am sure." He waved towards the Scorpion. "The one you helped reforge, once."
Lucent The giant scorpion moved is pincers closer, the lioness-eyes intent on her.
Varanim A small but distinct crunch marks where Varanim has been standing unnoticed in the shadow of a tree, now chewing a bite of apple as she watches the two of them impassively.
Alveua turns to Amika and smiles her twisted smile. She reaches out to stroke Amika's razor sharp pincer like a mother to a child. Then, she hooks her fingers on the edge and tears off a fragment of the creature as she hisses to calm her. Another calming stroke to the notched appendage and she turns back to Lucent and nods.
Lucent caresses the side of her face again, out of habit, then withdrawns. "I think you will feel more welcome, more true... to be in her, now. I think she would like that, as well." He winces a bit at the tearing, but it would get worse, he knew "And you would be more free."
Alveua catches his hand as he pulls away, the golden swirls in her skin seeming to catch the light redly. With her other, she lifts the piece of Amika to her lips and licks it slowly, then thoughtfully eats the shard. She glances over at Amika, then pulls Lucent closer, moving her hand to his chest and twisting his captured hand behind him.
Lucent blinks. "Wha...? Alveua, what are you doing...?" It was as if he could not feel the pain of hand. "Do you want to hurt me?"
Varanim takes another thoughtful bite, stepping out from the shadow of the tree and continuing on the path she was taking across the garden--and right by them. "Nice night for it," she comments as she approaches. "Whatever it is."
Lucent THAT shocks Lucent more than Alveua's behavior. "... Varanim!"
Alveua turns with a hiss, to Varanim, her venomous gaze fixing on the woman. "He is mine." Her grip on him tightens, and again he is reminded of how strong Zahara is. "Mine to hurt, yes, and to love."
Lucent He DOES struggle now, but she happens to be in Zahara's body, twice as strong as he. "I... ugh... told you. I am not that person. He is dead..." He looks at Varanim, "She... she is NOT Zahara, alright?"
Varanim "That would seem to be the situation," she agrees in a tone so perfectly inflectionless that the air around her seems to vibrate with possible meaning.
Alveua leans into lucent, though she keeps one eye on the intruder, clearly enjoying his struggles. A whisper stings his ear, "You remember it, don't you? How you would beg for the pain? Why won't you let me hurt you again? It feels so good..."
Lucent "I... I remember." His body hardens, then. She cannot twist him any further. "I remember, but I am not that person. I wish I was, sometimes. But that time is done. The one to love me, now..." He looks towards Varanim. "She is the only one I love, now."
Varanim "The really, I mean just staggeringly impressive thing, is that you can say that without a shred of self-consciousness."
Varanim "I mean, it wouldn't have occurred to me to summon my dead demon girlfriend to play dress-up in the body of my friend the empress, and start with the fondling and misty gazes in the garden, all as an elaborate setup for a declaration that I only loved yet a third girl. Lack of imagination has always been one of my flaws, though."
Alveua "Foolish child!" She spits at Lucent, then glares at Varanim, the air vibrating around her with a thousand tiny stings. "THIS is what you want? What you love? She is nothing. She does not know what it is to love, to need, to crave. Ssssee how she mocks you?" Amika rouses, now linked twice to Alveua - once in the forging and twice now, in body. The scorpion moves threateningly towards Varanim.
Lucent "Do you want me to flare, Alveua? You only liked it when you wanted to be hurt, before. But she likes it. She likes it when things are brighter." He nods. "She mocks me. I think she hates me. But she loves me, too. Is that any different from you?"
Lucent He exhales little crystals of light, making Amika stop... and just exhale, warm night, warm feelings, over Varanim.
Varanim Varanim, who was beginning to lift her left hand with a wary speculative look at Amika, doesn't lower her eyebrows or take her gaze off the giant scorpion as she speaks. "Lucent, I was on my way to do work, and I'm about to continue with that plan. Is there anything else you need to mention before I leave, here?"
Lucent "Yes." He nods, his gaze into Alveua's, waiting for her reply as his words flow to Varanim. "Come here. Watch with me."
Alveua runs her thumb down Lucent's cheek. The nail would have cut if it were anyone but him. "You would kill me again with your cursed light? The colors are not so beautiful as they were with me, when they were right and glorious, reflection of the great Dragon. I loved the real you, then. With all your light, you are only a shadow of what you were."
Lucent "But I can still smile. And I would never consider killing you, Alveua, I find you far too beautiful... but if you hurt the woman I love, I would have to, even with tears on my heart. Do not do it. Out of respect for the real me, if nothing else... just continue your work. Give him your farewells, through Amika, not me..."
Alveua pulls Lucent's head forward into a crushing kiss, blood on her lips. "Who says I'm leaving?" She laughs.
Lucent "You will be in her." He looks at the familiar, "You will NEVER leave."
Lucent "But you better behave."
Varanim looks at the interplay between the two of them for a long moment, Lucent's request to stay and watch hanging on the air. Finally she says, "No, I don't think I will." And she continues her walk into the desert, the crunch of an apple bite trailing over her shoulder.
Alveua shoots a triumphant grin towards Varanim. "You're right. I don't think I will. After all, there must be some way to bring our Lord back from the dead." She flexes her fingers. "And if you wish to be stubborn, I will find another lover."
Lucent looks to where Varanim was disappearing, sweating a bit now. "Varanim? Varanim? Help...?"
Alveua unwraps the scarves from her waist and winds them about Lucent's shoulders. "Mmmm if I read the impression right, this should be fun, don't you think?"
Lucent shakes. "If you do that..." He looks into her eyes, his own burning. "... I will never smile to you again."
Alveua "Oh yes.... you will." She laughs, the buzzing almost overwhelming the sound.
Varanim pauses but doesn't turn, chewing in thoughtful silence for several moments longer. Finally she tosses the finished apple core and sighs. "Little demon, your games are boring. Amuse yourself with Lucent as you want, but one point bears correction: that isn't your body."
Varanim She reaches into the air, draws down the Mask of Summers, and releases a secret breath into her cupped hands. As she claps them briskly, a wave of sweet oblivion washes over Aleuva, bearing her out of Zahara's body. Above its irresistable suction there are only two possible shelters: the prison of the pendant and the intended body of Amika.
Alveua jerks and stiffens, Zahara's body collapsing against Lucent's with a gentle sigh, as the demon possessing her is parted from its host. Alveua screams in anger and denial as she loses her grip. Another, (growing oddly familiar) venomous glare at the architect of her new loss, and she almost lets herself be sucked away completely, before clawing her way back to the shelter of Amika, now thrice-bonded together.
Lucent "Thank you, Varanim..." He wipes sweat off his forehead. He could have stopped her with the Binds, but not forever... he knew few, few things more frightening than the Binds. He caught Zahara as Alveua left her body, "Zee, I am sorry..."
Lucent And before them, Amika begun to twitch. To contort. To shift. The Essence of the night pouring about her, the clang of an immense White-Hot hammer beating again and again as they heard her voice in the wind.
Lucent "My cage."
Lucent "My power."
Lucent "My design."
Lucent "Not yours'."
Lucent And before them the great scorpion begun to change!
Varanim Without looking back, Varanim tucks the Mask of Summers away and heads into the desert.
Zahara blinks a few times, and wipes the blood from her mouth. "That went... well..."
< We Always Hurt The Ones We Love | Sol Invictus Logs | Don't Be So Sentiemental >