Carantathraiel

Wanderers

Sounded about right. He didn't feel far from that himself. Not to mention his own wounds didn't magically heal, and the sutures in his arm itched like mad. And weren't helped by the insect bites. He was crawling in his own skin. His gaze returned to her when she admitted her heart had actually stopped, but he didn't voice his reaction just yet. She was standing here, afterall. It obviously hadn't been permanent.
"No." He answered vaguely again in response to both of her questions. "I slept a few hours here."
He turned to settle his stick against a tree, mumbling something that could have been 'fucking insects' as he moved to a rock and sat. He braced his elbows on his thighs, his sleeve stiff with dried blood.

"You died." He said, though it wasn't a question. "I thought there was an agreement not to do that."

Wanderers

He was. Ruli wasn't sure why. If it was purely because Ysaryn bore even just a slight resemblance to him, giving him a small thread of connection to hold on to. In which case, Ruli suddenly wished he'd seen the half-elf's reaction to Envy.

He rather agreed with her point about Cordon, but the entire city was hardly able to know their faces. Hers, maybe. Not his. Or Zeke's, if they really needed.

"Its not your absence I would celebrate." He argued softly. "But yes. I do."
He bent and began drawing again, but his stomach growled so loud Ruli wondered if Kire heard even with the distance between them. But he blanched, still, at the thought of eating. He stopped his work once more, sighing in annoyance. His eyes flit to her once more, finally taking her in. The part of her hair that met the blade, the scalp still shining in healing. The way she held the stick. Her declaration that she couldn't lift any trees.
"How do you feel?" He felt required to ask.

Wanderers

He closed his eyes for a moment, pausing in his drawing, as the guilt washed over him again. Envy's burns and blindness. Ziad had all but caved on top of the Kartaian, the panic, the recovery, the trauma.
Envy only ever smiled. Never made it seem like he hadn't been blind his whole life.

Ruli opened his eyes and glanced toward Kire again, agony over his fight written across his face. Guilt that he'd let it out. Self-hatred for what it came from. Fear that she'd ask.

He turned away again, putting his back to her. For a long time, he worked in silence, likewise wishing he could drown himself in a drink. His stomach growled to voice its preference. Envy's company had eased most of the trouble in his gut, but in Kire's own words, he still felt the weight on his shoulders. Still felt something had been stolen from him.

When the kitchen was drawn, he stopped again, leaning on his stick. "Closest tavern is Cordon. If you visit her." He pointed out. ""Will Rab stay, or go back to Ysaryn?"
He hadn't missed the adoration in the half-breed eyes whenever they looked the female's way. Smitten from the moment his eyes beheld her.

Wanderers

"No." He repeated, finished with a building near the wider end of the glen that could be used as a sort of barrack or inn. Slowly, he moved further inward, passed Kire, leaning on what was currently his walking stick. "Just a lot to say about you. Primarily that she, they never thought you'd ask for help. Or that I would agree."

Here might be good for a sort of communal kitchen. Near enough to wear Kire planted the pantry. They could alter it later into a tavern when the town grew. He lowered his stick again and began drawing. "She asked about Envy." He offered in answer to an unasked question.

Wanderers

Usurped her throne. Fragments came back to him, before Gavin had injected him, when Akuma had mentioned the empress. The empress of Amria. He really hadn't held anything to it. Akuma said many things to worm under the skin like a parasite and infect the blood.
But Kire now mentioned throne. Her throne, to be exact. And Ysaryn called her Chieftess.

Kire offered to help, and Ruli tore his gaze from his drawing and gazed blankly at her. As if he had no interest in sharing this with her, in allowing her hands to be involved. But he shrugged instead. Do what you want, his shrug said.
Then, "Find a good place for a pantry."

Ruli went on working, casting glances at her she as hunted for a place that would be decent enough to store food, where they could build out of the winds way, and away from the western heat.

"So you are an empress, then." Ruli observed, at last.

Wanderers

He listened as he drew the line in the dirt, then took a step back. His leg shifted, stiffly repositioning as his bare heel bore onto a stone. Line finished, he straightened, shuffled, to make another.

When she asked about his wellbeing, he still didn't look up. "No." He answered simply when asked if it had been easy. Truthfully, he remembered little beyond the bloodlust. The unchecked hatred that had fueled his every move, and the pure desire to rip her to pieces.
And he hated himself for it.

"Now what?" Ruli asked as he straightened and shuffled stiffly along. He had no magical ability to heal himself, and beyond the administrations to his sleep-heavy body by the councilman's servants, he hadn't bothered with his injuries. "Does Amria call?"

Wanderers

Envy grinned again, less teasing, more grateful, glad to have more willing and capable hands. As Kire spoke, he nodded. "Sid's made a dish that is quite good. She dove into Ysaryn's herbs, though, but I won't be the one to tell her." Envy chuckled, turning back again to Gavin and Rab as best he could. As Gavin asked for a task, Envy shook his head. "Judging by the few furtive words Ysaryn passed along yesterday night, and by Kire's mention of lack of a recent meal, you have been busy enough. Take a day. Acclimate. Rest. Explore. Introduce yourself. Tomorrow, we will find tasks for you both. If you get restless, Aeron here will find something for you."

Aeron did not look up to the task, his midnight eyes hard on Gavin, but he nodded in silent agreement.

"You." Envy turned once more toward Rab, who straightened. "Your silence and my inability to see may create a problem. Perhaps you and I may sit together and sort out a means of communication. Once you've eaten and rested, of course."
Rab smacked his lips again, and Envy assumed that to be a positive response.
"All good, then. The two of you, settle, and we'll speak again tomorrow."

Ruli didn't return that night.
He walked until he found his way to the little glen, upon which they would build. Relocate. When he came across it, his body aching, his head worse, he stood and stared at it for a long moment before he stumbled further in. There was a small stream that ran its course through the hills, the lush green shrubs and flowers blooming along its sides. Ruli settled beneath a rather short pine tree and stared ahead, trying to imagine. To visualize what this could be with the right attention.

He was hungry. He hadn't eaten in Cordon, even when a platter of dinner, and breakfast, and lunch had been delivered. He wouldn't have kept it down anyway, he feared. Even now, the idea of eating anything sent his stomach biting and twisting angrily.
But he loathed the idea that the last thing on his tongue had been Akuma's blood. Or, at least the blood that had been inside her. He wasn't sure who it had belonged to. Or what. Just knew that it had been horrible. Coated his tongue as he clamped onto her. Until she threw him off with her magic. He had found pieces of her between his teeth before his interrogation.
After that, he had no desire to eat at all. Not even to erase the traces.

That, and his behavior.

Whatever Gavin had given him had unleashed him. Cut the hundreds of tethers he had forced into himself to keep who he had once been locked away, never to see the light again. He'd stopped being Rulitus, and had again been a number. A pet.
Not even Akuma burning and slaughtering her way through his home, laughing as his friends died, bled, and fled, had unleashed that. And when it came, it hadn't been his choosing. But Gavin's.
Not that he'd known. Ruli understood that. Ruli hadn't even considered that such an option would be presented. Ysaryn had mentioned drugs, and he assumed, technically correctly, she meant sedatives. Gavin had simply believed he was giving him an edge. Not tearing through his self control.

Ruli bowed his head and shut the world out.

Only to hear someone pacing before him. When he opened his eyes, the sky had grown dark, the mountains a void of black against the stars that peered down. It was cold, but he'd hardly noticed.
Envy stood some ten feet away, clutching a thick blanket, head shifting as he tried to locate Ruli, knowing by smell that he had to be close. The Kartaian inhaled again, and Ruli tilted his head back. "I smell so bad I should be far easier to locate."
Envy jumped, swearing softly, as he spun around. "Its rude to sneak up on blind elves."
"You snuck up first. I haven't moved."

Envy took a few slow, cautious steps forward, his bare feet searching for stones or branches that might nip at his toes. When he found Ruli's outstretched legs, he crouched. Even without being able to literally see him, Ruli had the feeling Envy read his mood with a clarity that only came with a long friendship.
He'd stayed for nearly two hours, offering Ruli the blanket once the cold settled into him and he'd begun shivering. They spoke, or at least Ruli did, offering his remorse and regret, until his eyes burned and his throat was hoarse.
He felt lighter then, but still refused to return when Envy offered kindly. He needed space, Ruli insisted. Maybe he'd get some work done when the sun rose.

Which was what he did. When he'd woken again, sprawled out against the ground beneath the tree and sporting some lovely new insect bites, he got up and shuffled about the site. Others had cut down trees and made neat piles of the logs, but he went about in search of something less stressful. His body still ached, his muscles tense, his bones brittle, but at least his head was clear. He went to work, moving rocks and using them as markers, finding branches and twigs to draw lines. Plan a few buildings. He was probably only two hours into it when he felt someone watching him.

She was bathed, dressed anew, and her face was flushed from her walk here. Suddenly very aware that he had neither bathed nor changed his bloody clothes, Ruli bent and went back to work, dragging a stick through the soil to draw what would be a wall. "How does it feel?" He asked without peering back at her. "Ending him? Her?"

Wanderers

Envy's eyes shifted without focused, the clouded orbs darting around Kire as he took in the words and considered their introductions. Gavin, he zeroed in on when he uttered the sound, but Rab's 'voice' was harder to pinpoint.
"Gavin the Gemini. And Rab, a half-Kartaian." He tilted his head slightly, as if still struggling to locate the half-elf. Rab shuffled, either in anxiety or because he realized this, and Envy zeroed in on him at the sound of his feet on the soil.

"You cannot speak. May I intrude into your personal history and ask why? If anyone knows, I mean."
Rab quickly turned to Kire and Gavin and opened his mouth, pointing to the stub of his severed tongue. Behind Envy, Aeron made a face.
"I see. Well," Envy smirked, shrugging, when the answer was relayed. "I do not see, actually, I believe you've realized. So I think the two of us would make quite the pair." He smiled, and Rab inhaled, chest swelling.
Then his face turned toward Gavin. He hoped. "And you, Gemini. Under the influence of dark magic, but escaped from it I presume in the nick of time to help our dear heroes in their time of need?" Envy grinned, showing his pointed teeth. "Sounds very convenient."

Envy let the tense silence fall for little more than half a second before he shrugged. "I don't believe so. If you were brought here, you're trusted enough. Plus there are several people here to whose bad side not even I would venture. One of them apparently punches trees to lumber in her spare time." He cast a (nearly) pointed glance in Kire's direction.

"You both may stay here, yes. Until such times as you decide to venture on, if you decide to do so. But I warn you, we are not strapped for supplies and comfort, though efforts have been made to rectify that. And you will both be put to work. Is that understood? Do say yes in some vocal fashion, as I cannot see you nod, young man." He grinned more kindly still towards Gavin as he stood sheepishly beside Kire. Rab smacked his lips together in affirmative.

Wanderers

Ysaryn smiled, nodding amiably at Kire's request. When Gavin asked about horses, her smile fell instantly with dread, before she made the connection between his assumption and the reality.
The trip was short. She held on to Kire's hand, while Ruli held Rab's and Gavin's to get them to the mountains. The youngest among them roiled uneasily after the fact, and Ysaryn watched him with a sort of glee while he collected himself. Even Rab looked off-colour, but he remained upright, even if he focused intently on the ground to remain that way.

Her eyes followed Ruli as the man slipped away, not into the caves but through the woods. Southward. Toward where they were intending on building their residence.
"You, go." Ysaryn said with another muted smile. "I miss my family. I will return in a few days." She promised. "Offer Envy my hello. And tell Zeck to eat fecal." A wicked grin, and she vanished once more, Rab's eyes searching for her for more than a few seconds before he followed Kire and Gavin into the caves.

Envy was waiting for them in the main chamber, along with several others of his makeshift household. Zeke was not among them to be told to eat 'fecal', but Aeron's young face watched in curisoity as the trio arrived. He muttered quietly, and Envy nodded as they stepped before him. "Ysaryn and Ruli?" He asked simply, cutting to the chase. When informed that one had returned to her people, and the other had wondered off somewhere nearby, Envy only nodded.
"You've brought me new faces." Envy said, catching their scents, hearing their steps, even if he couldn't actually see their faces.

Rab was entranced. He had seen the Kartaian dolls in the mines, had seen their viciousness bleed out of them even in their incapacitated state. This on, so much smaller, so much softer. His colouring, with the scars that covered a large amount of his skin, didn't look so different from Rab's own. His eyes, Envy's now the soft cloudy pink that Rab boasted in his sclera.
He opened his mouth and pointed, from Envy to his chest, in an inaudible question.

Envy blinked, tilting his head curiously, before he looked in Kire's general direction (he guessed, based on footsteps), and arched an eyebrow.

Wanderers

Ysaryn swallowed, nodding clearly in a single motion. "Yes." She confirmed her heritage. Granted, she looked very little like her father, but she doubted this man was overly familiar with the elf to notice. When he voice his question about Kire, she once more answered clearly, a single shake of her head. "No, sir." Oh, she hated herself for that word. But now was the time to offer courtesy. "She is the woman who hunted the bride-to-be and her master. Who ended this."
Slowly, Ysaryn raised her hands to gesture vaguely. No sudden movements. Not when they were armed. Not when she was too tired to Walk out of harms way. Too drained to defend herself with anything more than words.

But her words were accepted, and they were brought to the councilman's chambers for questioning. Ysaryn slept uneasily, Ruli not at all. When he realized that they would be questioned, Ruli volunteered, his mind pushing away the temptation of a very long and deep sleep. He answered as best he could, as a witness to the destruction of Ziad, a citizen. Would swear on any god they asked him to that the unconscious woman was not Akuma, and that he had even seen the two snarling in combat before he'd interfered.
The rest of the details, he admitted honestly, were hazy. He'd been drugged, though he omitted by whom.

Once he was allowed back into their temporary jail, Ruli slept.

Ysaryn, once her injuries were tended to; -the slice on her arm dangerously close to ripping through an artery and ending her, she napped, then Walked briefly back to the mountains long enough to make sure Envy knew they were alive, before she returned with no councilman or his staff the wiser. For all they had known, she'd been in the lavatory.
She didn't appreciate being questioned. Not because she felt they doubted the story, but because she felt they doubted her simply for her race. Her fuchsia eyes held steadily, without flinching, her words clear. She kept herself still and properly upright, afraid for any movement being mistaken for hostility.

When they were finally allowed to leave, Ysaryn and Rab, which was his name, they learned through Gavin, struggled to rouse Rulitus. When they at least got him to open his eyes, he was visibly agitated and withdrawn. Gavin informed them it was occasionally a side effect of the drugs.
Which drug, he didn't clarify. And Ysaryn wondered if she'd been this agitated when she'd recovered, or if she had the same agitation to look forward to in Kire.

Her initial swear right after coming to gave Ysaryn an answer.

She crouched over the woman, a muted smile on her lips. "Good afternoon, Chieftess." The elf greeted. "Today, we are released." ysaryn shifted on the balls of her feet to gesture around the room. Gavin stood in the corner, hands shoved into his pockets. Rab, standing nearest to Kire besides the elf, looked at the blond curiously, mind alight in wonder as she woke. And Ruli, who sat on the windowsill, arms and legs drawn to himself and his head turned away. The state of his hair and clothes suggested he'd slept and hadn't changed or washed, while the others had at least attempted a bath and a wash of their articles. Ysaryn and Ruli were bandaged and bruised, though the elf showed little of the latter.

With some assistance from the half-elf, Ysaryn got Kire to her feet. While she stepped aside, allowing her fellow chieftess the dignity of standing on her own, Rab loitered just within reach, looking very much as if it just happened to be where he decided to stand. When she'd been given water, and a moment to adjust, Ysaryn turned to organize their return.
After walking out the front doors, of course. Ysaryn decided it best not to allow the men of the city catch a glimpse of the power they held, or what her people, already abused and feared, had the potential to do.

They all walked in silence, the elf watching the guards and footmen with cautious intensity. When they were out of the gate, she turned to the others. "Who goes to mountains? And who stays?" Her gaze most pointedly fell between Rab and Gavin. The former immediately shrugged, having no opinion, but his eyes followed Ysaryn in a way that said, I'll go where you go.
"If necessary, I go." Ysaryn admitted with her chin high. "But, I return at once. For the others. To make sure all is well."