Michellin

Wanderers

When Ruli left, Elva turned to Kire. “That’s an interesting skill he’s got there,” she commented.
“Shadow-walking is really convenient, and much less turbulent than the portals,” Kire replied.
“That’s not what I meant.” Elva smirked. “He calmed you down with a touch, didn’t he? Besides,” she said, gesturing at her hand, “you didn’t just hold hands right there because you couldn’t resist his magnetic personality, did you?”
Kire looked at Elva, lips pursed. “I’ll—you know what, I’ll explain later,” she said with a sigh. “I need to rest. Head’s pounding.”
Elva snorted. “I’m glad you agree. Though we both know you’ll just toss and turn until you’ve known the outcome. Want some calming tea? Gods, I need some, myself,” she muttered the last.
Kire rubbed her temple, nodding.

Ed cursed under his breath in between giving commands and shouting rallying cries. He knew the soldiers were rattled—so was he—but he couldn’t show that. While they had split the unit of monstrosities, they weren’t getting through them as quickly as he’d like. Elsewhere in the battlefield, the other battalions under the Wyvern flag continued to push against the other enemy lords’ forces, but Ed was afraid that, with the intrusion of the Gemini’s dolls, their targets would slip through their grasp. From his vantage point he could see Narda leading her own battalion trying to fell the monsters as quickly as they could while avoiding the explosions.

There was so much chaotic noise that he didn’t hear the man shouting for him, not until Ruli was close enough. Elvish? Ed whirled around, trying to find the source of the shouting, and his eyes fell upon Ruli, taking a couple of moments to recognize the man under the helmet. She’s alive! She must be, if Ruli was here. But why was he brought here? “Thank the gods they gave her nine lives,” he answered back, recognizing the Northern armor on him. “What I need? What I need is to tear through this blasted army of deformities without my soldiers getting caught in explosions,” he growled, his cool breaking for a moment. “Their numbers aren’t great, but they’d scattered some of our battalions.” He looked at Ruli, expression guarded. While he had seen how nimble and capable Ruli was during their fight against the wolves, he wasn’t quite sure how much one more person could do to turn the tide. “We need to rejoin our troops, over those hills,” he explained, pointing Northeast to them. “We had the Gemini allies on the retreat until these bastards showed up.”

Wanderers

Kire looked sidelong at him, weighing her options. She ran her left hand through her hair; it fell almost past her shoulders now. Despite not intending to bring him here, and despite everything that was happening, she found herself feeling comforted—glad, if she was being honest—by Ruli’s presence. Immediately, she felt guilty for even thinking so.
“Alright and—my sword. Did I bring it with me?”
Elva shook her head. “Didn’t see it.”
“Okay.” She sighed, turning to Ruli. “Alright. Just—be careful. Elva, do you have armor to spare for him?”
Elva nodded. “Is it fair to assume that’s what you said you needed? Armor, or weapons?” she asked him, already leading him out the infirmary, Kire watching them go as she stayed on the bed.
The armory was located at the basement of the manor and contained a wide array of weaponry. Battle axes and longswords, spears and staves, shields and bows. Mail and plated armor, too, along with helmets lined the shelves, proudly displaying the crest of the previous lord of the manor as well as the Wyvern sigil. “Anything you think you’ll need or can carry, you’re welcome to it,” she said.

Once he was ready, they returned to the infirmary, Kire still sitting up, looking tense. “If the place where I brought you back had been overrun by Gemini, you might need a better entry point,” she said. “We were near the front, where we had reappeared. It might be safer to enter where the supporting units are. I know where.” She held out her hand so he could get the location from her. “Be careful,” she repeated, worry in her eyes.

It was chaos immediately after Kire had disappeared. Narda and the men she had rescued were, in fact, sent back to safety, several units away from the front. The explosions weren’t large, but it looked to be coming from the monsters themselves. Ed had ridden up on horseback as soon as he saw where Narda had reappeared, having seen the succession of bright flashes. “Where is she?” he shouted.
“I don’t know!” Narda growled. “I need to get back there!”
“No!”
His tone brooked no argument.

They had retreated, enough to put distance between them and the abominations. Ed noticed, however, that the unholy unit of doll soldiers was smaller than the others. They had been deployed to confuse, not to wholly defeat the army. They still threatened to cut a swathe through their own forces, the strategy effective, and he suspected they were stalling for time, or covering a retreat, themselves. They held the line behind rocky terrain, the berserker Gemini forces hemmed in. They may be monstrosities, but when the battlefield grew too complicated, they were vulnerable. And after the soldiers had seen Kire and Narda hack through the abominations, they were heartened, and steeled themselves from fearing the dolls. Nobody has seen the Empress, however. Where are you? Ed seethed, even as they cornered one of the larger monsters. They reminded him of the wolves in the twisted wood of the gate, but worse: there was something roughly human about them, still, but their flesh sprouted muscles where there shouldn’t be, their forms bulging and stretched out at the same time.

Baiting them, Ed and his soldiers wove through the boulders and rocks, knowing that their archers were on standby nearby. As soon as they reached the safety of an outcropping, the archers appeared, raining arrows down on the brutes. Not far from them, Narda and her soldiers were cutting through the rest of the dolls. “Watch out!” Narda warned, seeing what were now the telltale signs of a pending explosion: the monster’s body shuddered, convulsed, mouth frothing as the Gemini gem on its chest began to glow. The body exploded just as Narda leaped back several paces. She still got knocked off her feet, but she didn’t take the brunt of the damage. “Bastards! Disgusting blood mages,” she growled, along with a string of more unpleasant curses.

Wanderers

Elva raised her brow at him, but she obliged, gesturing for her attendants to step back.
Kire’s breathing was panicked, rapid, her eyes on Ruli without seeing him. Then a whisper echoed in her mind, somehow louder than the frantic, confused thoughts that screamed inside her. A familiar voice. Ruli? Her erratic breathing slowed as he continued to ‘speak’, and soon her breathing mimicked the pace of his. “Ruli?” she rasped after a long pause, her mind still trying to catch up. Though she had calmed down, his presence still confused her. She closed her eyes, brow furrowed, and her left hand reached up to touch his against her cheek, the warmth of it making his presence more real, grounding her. Behind them, Elva breathed a sigh of relief.

After a few more moments, Kire opened her eyes again. “I’m at Elva’s,” she repeated, voice still small, as if assuring herself. “But—how are you here? How did we get here?” she said, looking up at him. Then her brow furrowed. “Why does my arm hurt?” She lifted her right hand, or tried to. It shook, and when she touched it with her other hand she felt gauze on her skin.
“Kire,” Elva said gently, stepping close this time, “you were in the middle of a battle. You brought Ruli there, and he brought you here.” She looked up at him to confirm that last statement before looking back down at her cousin. “Do you remember?”
“The battle—Narda!” Kire made another attempt to sit up quickly, but Elva put a hand to her chest.
“I’ll help you sit up if you promise not to try taking off immediately and getting yourself killed. And you need the burn to heal a bit more before you start swinging a sword with that arm. We both know you’re shit with your left.” Elva smirked, trying to get her to calm down with her quip. “Please, Kire.”

Please, she said. When Elva wasn’t butting heads with her, she was being serious. Kire nodded. “Promise,” she murmured, and she slowly sat up with Elva helping her.
Now that she was upright, Kire looked down at her right arm and grimaced. The healers hadn’t finished wrapping dry gauze on the whole burn yet. She touched it gingerly, hissed softly. “What’s another scar, right,” she muttered, before looking up at them. “I-I think—no, I did. I had to use it. There were…” her voice trailed off as she tried to piece together what had happened immediately before she lost consciousness. “Monsters on the field. And—fire. Explosions.”
“Good gods,” Elva muttered, her hand pressed over her mouth.
“I had to get Narda and my men out,” Kire said, her left hand closing into a fist. “I think I did. Sent them back away from the thick of it. But the fire made me panic. And I got knocked back into a portal. I thought—” she turned to Ruli, trying to think through the hazy memory, “—I—I didn’t mean to.” My last thought…

Elva shook her head. “Don’t use your Ring yet, alright? I’m sorry,” she turned to Ruli, “she might not be able to return you immediately.”
Kire didn’t object. She felt weakened, or rather, she felt afraid that something else would go wrong if she pulled power from the Ring again this soon. She’d be useless on the field now, even as every part of her wanted to go back to make sure Ed and Narda were okay. That their forces were holding their own, and that what had happened prior had just been a last-ditch effort of the enemy to throw whatever foul tricks they had left to buy time.

Wanderers

Elva listened to Ruli’s answer, already guessing even before he’d finished his explanation that he had no idea what happened. Still, it offered some insight. “We were afraid of that,” she said, clicking her tongue as she shook her head. “We’ve been practicing that new power of hers, and slowly she’d been doing well, but—it needs concentration, and we agreed she would only use it if—if the situation was dire. So something dire had happened.” The soot on her cousin’s face and armor was indication enough. Behind them, the healers were finishing dressing the arm and cleaning the rest of Kire, while others fetched a new shirt for her to wear.

“I’m—thank you for the offer, though I admit I’m torn. From what you had said, that would mean returning to the spot in the middle of an active battlefield,” she murmured. “Yes, Ed’s there, and so is Narda. But it might not be easy to—”

The healers cried out as Kire gasped, then struggled against them, trying to get up, knocking back some of their tools. Her eyes were wild, uncomprehending, and she grabbed one of the healers. “Let me go, let me get back, w-where am I—”
“Kire!” Elva raised her voice as she bent over Kire’s head, cradling her face to hold her still.
“Narda, Narda’s not—let me go!” Kire brought her fists down on the bed; Elva heard a crack, and the bed shook and sunk.
“Sedative,” Elva said, still facing Kire, and the healer nearest to her fetched it. “I hate it, but we might need to bind her,” she said, looking up at Ruli. “Could you help? I don’t want to remove the Ring, but if she keeps this up she might destroy the bed. The moment we hold her still, take off the Ring. No telling how effective the sedative would be while she’s wearing it in this state.” Kire had gone still but still addled, her eyes looking like a caged animal, another struggle bubbling up inside her.

Wanderers

Elva and Daryll, along with Etta and Precy, were the only Wyverns at the manor. Ed had gone to battle with Kire, and even Jan had been away on business on Kire’s behalf, securing another alliance. It always made the healer uneasy now whenever the family was separated, which was funny, considering she had been the first one to move away from the Capital. Now, all that rebellion seemed so petty, after having known what it would be like to lose both her brothers and to see the empire crack in two. She remained behind the most out of all of them, both because of her duty to the large Northern territories, which now were a safe haven for the Wyverns, and because, on the off chance that the rest of the clan fell, she, Daryll, and the girls would carry on. Gods, stop this morbid thinking, she thought, as she prepared the next lesson for the newest healers she had been training.

She heard a shout from the great hall, and a commotion immediately after that. “What in the gods?”
“Milady!” an attendant cried out, bursting into the infirmary. “The Empress is hurt!”
Elva cursed, and immediately instructed the healers in the room to prepare to receive Kire, rushing out with three others carrying a stretcher. When she reached the hall, Elva only took a moment to pause in surprise. “Ruli?”

Questions later. Elva bent down to examine her cousin. Rulitus had thankfully pulled off most of her armor, still warm from the portal. Kire’s right arm twitched, and the skin around the forearm looked burnt, the same way her Ring finger had after the gate. The clothes she had worn underneath looked scorched as well, and the side of her face was covered in soot from when she had barely evaded the flames from the explosion. “Gods above,” she breathed. She gave instructions in Taakalon to the other attendants, who immediately carried Kire back to the infirmary. For several minutes she spoke only to the attendants, and upon reaching the infirmary she dove into the work herself, loosening whatever clothing was left on Kire, carefully cleaning the skin, injecting medicines and applying ointments.

“I assume the Ring would help heal her, but with her being unconscious and the severity of the burns, it’ll need help,” she finally said in common tongue to Ruli, pausing in her work while another healer immediately took over the work she had left of. Elva’s gaze roamed over him too to scan for injuries. He looked perfectly alright, if not winded. In fact, he didn’t even look dressed for war at all, and she couldn’t remember either Kire or Ed mentioning going back to the other world to bring him or the elf woman to fight with them. She caught the eye of another attendant and told her to bring out a coat and boots for Ruli before turning back to him.

“What happened?” And where’s the sword? “Does—does this mean they lost?” she said, her face grim, bracing herself for terrible news. Where’s Ed? Elva swallowed the sudden chill from the dread she felt at the question.

Wanderers

When Kire and Narda reappeared in Elva’s manor, Kire heard a shrill shriek. When they hurried to the dining hall, alarmed, she saw two young girls tackling Ed to the ground. Etta and Precy were already crying as they hugged their older cousin, who found himself laughing through teary eyes as he hugged them and kissed the tops of their heads. Daryll the scholar hung back, a stunned look on his face, not quite believing what he was seeing. When Etta looked up and saw Kire and Narda, a fresh wave of tears went down her cheeks. Kire couldn’t help a laugh, too, and joined in, lifting the girls up to their feet so they all could embrace Ed. “Come on in here, you silly,” Kire called to Daryll, who dumbly followed, joining the big hug.
After Narda had been returned to the Wench and at the insistence of the other cousins, Kire promised to stay put with the family for a couple of days. For the first time in nine months, the Wyverns were gathered at the table. They held a moment of silence for Earnest, mourning him again now that Ed was with them. As they exchanged stories, Ed was glad to retell his, albeit with flourish, to Etta and Precy, while Kire had a long discussion with Daryll and Elva about the gate and her Ring amongst themselves. Later that night, when the younger ones had gone to bed, the older Wyverns stayed and talked of serious matters, though they were all rather curious about Kire and Ruli. Stammering and drinking her fair share of alcohol as she did so, Kire told them the bare bones of what had happened between them, then insisted that the matter be set aside. Their conversations lasted deep into the night, punctured by long, thoughtful silences, each knowing how precious such calm moments were, considering the kind of family they had, the kinds of dangers they faced.

A couple of days stretched to a whole week. A few days later, Kire asked Ed if he could teach her Elvish. “You’d have no-one else to practice on for a while,” she said, “and, you know, be easier to gossip between us, too.”
Ed very much doubted that was the only reason, but he nodded, though he told Kire he would take it slow, knowing how Kire was like with being tutored.

In her quiet moments, especially alone at night, Kire couldn’t help her thoughts drifting to Ruli. Their night together under Elva’s roof, the time they’d spent ever since first meeting him, the argument they had, and Envy’s entreaties to her. She found herself longing for their night together more than she would really care to admit to herself, but it was tempered by his reservations as well as her own. One night, a month later when as expected, thrown herself at work again, she returned to the manor exhausted. The day had been spent solely on a long round of difficult negotiations with her allied lords, who between themselves had been carrying on a feud even despite the war. Tired and irritable, she had transported herself to the seaside cliffs, terribly tempted to climb up to the crest and knock on Ruli’s door. But before anybody could spot her, she sighed, thinking the better of it, and went back home.

Amidst all this, she had been doing as Envy had suggested and practiced her portal work, supervised not just by Elva but Daryll as well. He had been avoiding anything that had to do with gates and magic for a long while, but now it seemed there was only so much his grief and apprehension could hold back, his natural inquisitiveness winning out. It helped that Ed had returned, assuaging his fears somewhat. Each time she tried it a headache would flare up, and she feared it consumed more energy than her normal portals usually did, rendering the new skill impractical. But she kept Envy’s observation in mind about how it was her limitations and not the Ring’s that was the determining factor here. The idea of her inability to surpass her previous boundaries had, as expected of her, fueled her stubborn desire all the more to master the new ability. Between this, the war against the Gemini, and learning Elvish little by little, kept Kire much more preoccupied than she had anticipated. The months bled together, until it had been almost half a year since she and Narda returned from the last adventure.

Towards the sixth month, Kire had been preparing for one of the largest campaigns since her exile from the Capital, over a year ago. They had hemmed in the forces of one of the Gemini’s most powerful allies, cut them off from support, and taken over their resources. Everything was going smoothly. Though Kire hadn’t tested her new ability on the battlefield yet, she was feeling confident she could use it when the need arose.

Which was why, when the unthinkable had happened, Kire jumped into disaster.

The Gemini, even without the aid of a world gate, still had tricks up their sleeve. Their spies had conflicting reports of what they had been brewing, and Kire thought all this only meant more blood magic. Part of it was true. When they marched against the Gemini’s allies, they were also greeted by a host of soldiers that were far from human. Still mindless, but formidable, the army of monsters took them by surprise as a part of the enemy forces transformed in the middle of battle. Gods, it reminded Kire of the dead Kartaian. She rushed to the front lines, taking down as many as she could with Narda by her side. Their soldiers needed to see that these monsters, though a more advanced kind of doll, were still just that.

Just as they were beating back the new abominations, something exploded nearby. Kire had a split-second view of the fire that burst out, and instinct made her open a portal, sending Narda and the nearest soldiers back, only for her to be thrown back, the force of opening the portals in her panicked state releasing an energy that sent her flying towards the flames. The Ring flashed white-hot as her frantic mind opened another portal for herself, every fiber of her being screaming for her to get out. I can’t die, gods not now, not until I see him—

She felt a crash as she fell out of the portal, and in her panic she grabbed onto what felt like another body, she couldn't see who, the portal overwhelming all senses, her eyes temporarily blinded by the portal light. Before she could land on the ground the portal flashed again, sending her back onto the battlefield with whoever she had been clutching in tow. Blue smoke rose from her armored form as the portal spat them both out, Kire unconscious.

Wanderers

Kire had a wry smile on her face. “As I’ve never had the experience of being given a talking-to by a father figure in that regard, it’s an oddly refreshing experience.” She fell quiet, thinking over what he said about such dalliances not working out well for him. She still had the stubborn part of her that said it might not happen the same way every time, but what was she defending, really? It wasn’t like she was asking anything more from him beyond the agreement they had earlier. She looked up again when Envy thanked him for reuniting the two of them and for breaking through to him, if only a little. That was a little surprising to her; she hadn’t attributed this to anything she did.

“Practice, yes,” she said, clearing her throat, the conversation rather sobering. “I’ll try not to break out the new ability in the middle of a big fight. Don’t want any more stranded Amrians here, right?” she said, smiling a little. She turned upon sensing Ysaryn’s and Ruli’s approach, then grinned at the elf warrior’s greeting. “I’m not wrong, though, aren’t I? I’ve already got a scar over one eye, I don’t want to risk getting a matching one,” she said. “I guess I better get going. Ed’s just been reunited with us, and we still have much to catch up on. Plus, you know, still technically in the middle of a war. I might not be back for a while.”

She turned to Envy. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll—do my best to follow it, I promise. Will you say goodbye to Narda, though? She needs something to tide her over till the next visit,” she teased, standing up and turning to Ysaryn. “Yes, Chieftess, I will come back and bring you to more snow. And more Ed,” she added, meeting the elf’s wolfish grin with her own. “I’ll even bring you to Myka and the ladies. Don’t forget to return what you borrowed,” she added with a wink.

They headed back out to the caves, where Narda had finished telling Gavin what had happened while they were gone. The lad looked thoughtful, if a little disappointed at what he had missed. “We’re off then?” the giantess asked Kire, who nodded. “Well then. I have my goodbyes to settle.” She stepped back closer to Envy and gave him a hearty embrace. “It has been wonderful. We will do this again,” she said, to which Kire chuckled, moving in for her own hug.
“Take care, Envy. And you, Ysaryn. Keep out of trouble. But not too much,” she said with a grin, embracing her. She pointed at Gavin. “You, though. Keep all the way away from trouble.”
Gavin rolled his eyes. “Yes, mother.” Narda snorted.
Finally, Kire looked at Ruli. “Well. Thanks again, and all that.” She extended her hand. “Keep well.”

“Not even a goodbye kiss? How cold,” Narda commented as Kire took her hand.
“I thought you were cautioning me? Honestly,” Kire muttered, giving one final wave to everyone before blue light engulfed them.

Wanderers

Kire watched him light the match after withholding the impulse to ask if he needed help. "That makes sense," she said about the ordeal having expanded her ability with the portal, rather than the capacities of the Ring itself. "I've only ever thought of the portals as a way to transport myself, and I didn't think I'd be capable of using it for anything else." She listened as he went on to discuss a parallel skill with those who Shadow-Walk, then remembered what happened to Ysaryn. Kire frowned at the memory; it looked extremely painful, and she was likewise glad it didn't take anything more from her.

Difficult, but not impossible. "Concentration, then," she noted, nodding when he said she would want to manage without the wards Ruli had placed. She fell quiet, pondering the possibilities and risks, when Envy turned to her and asked a question she hasn't expected. She was glad he couldn't see the blush on her face. "Envy, I don't--" she started, defensive, but stopped when he went on to say that he sensed something in Ruli. Further, that he was cautioning her against acting rashly.

A part of her was still defensive, indignant at being likened to an impulsive child. But she remembered their argument back at Lithilote, what he said about Aera, his scars. Envy knew Ruli best, and was still close despite what had happened with Akuma, so his fatherly concern was justified. Gods, Akuma. Her eyes widened at the realization. Of course. You're a damned fool, Kay. She remembered the moment their gaze met for the first time the morning after, the look on his face.

She sighed. "I don't know what to tell you. Really. I just thought he'd--that we're somehow the same kind of broken. Or running parallel with each other anyway. It's...a weird feeling of kinship, but it's there. I admittedly find myself drawn. You did say once before that we've got relentlessness in common."

She sighed again, leaning forward, her chin on her hand. "I have friends, family. And I can stand on my own two feet. But it just--I can't deny I get lonely. We have longer lives than humans, but we aren't elves," she murmured, remembering the conversation she had with Aera. She straightened up, looking up at Envy. "I...will keep that in mind, then. I'm from another world. I just kind of barged into your lives, after all," she said, echoing the argument she and Ruli had. "I don't know what you felt from Ruli's mind, but...I think no matter how I feel about him, he'd keep me at arm's length anyway."

Wanderers

Kire pondered the question of Gavin's origin. "That's likely. But there is the question of his sire, of course." She turned to Gavin. "I'll tell you about it later, alright?"
Gavin sighed. "Alright."
"I could give the lad the short version," Narda said. "See you later then."
Kire watched Ruli walk away before turning to Envy and going with him to his chambers. Though there was still work to be done, it at least looked homey.

At his request, Kire sat opposite him, cross-legged. "So, as you saw in the memory, I was able to do things with the portal I hadn't been able to before," she began. She rubbed the burn mark the Ring left behind. "Partly I think because some of the energy from the gate got absorbed by the Ring, and because I 'broke it in', I think I might be able to manage pulling or pushing things through the portals without me needing to jump through, myself. I was something if you had any ideas about how to practice that. I obviously have no gate to siphon energy from anymore."

Wanderers

“Yes, please, take her off my hands and put her to work,” Kire replied, chuckling, “she can do the work of ten men but chooses not to. Such a travesty.”
“Speak for yourself, Your Royal Arse,” Narda scoffed, before turning back to Envy, her hand on his arm. “I had a splendid time as well, and honestly wish we did have more time for more idle chat. I can assure you, however, that I will be back for more, and will badger the Empress over there to take me back for a visit. There’s only so many conversations I can have with that one, and she gets too seasick to stand riding the ship for too long. Why do you think she has such a terrible temper?”
“I have a terrible temper being around you constantly, is why,” Kire quipped back before turning to Envy. “Yes, we’ll be leaving soon, but I figured before we go, you’d like an account of what had happened while we were gone. Plus there are a couple of Ring-related things I’d like your opinion on. Also, if I don’t say goodbye to Ysaryn properly I fear she’d scratch my eyes out the next time she sees me.”
“Tempestuous little firecracker, that elf,” Narda said with a chuckle.

Kire chuckled along with her, then turned to Ruli. “You said Envy might like a look at what the gate had been like. Would you mind?”
“Aw, wait,” Gavin said, a little disappointed, “does that mean I don’t get the details?”
“I’ll tell you about it, don’t worry,” Kire said, then paused, thinking something over. “It might not be the gate that had brought you here. I’m not sure. But the one we got rid of had only flared up as early as nine months ago. If it had been around for longer, the Raielwen would have known about it.”
“Ah.” Gavin tried to hide his disappointment. “Would still be interesting to know more about these gates. Not that I’d open one myself, of course,” he clarified, looking at Envy.