Monstrous (Chapter Twenty-Two)
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mindcrackloveOver 2600 words in this one- it goes on for awhile, but I promise it's worth it.
Even more goddamn people join the party, we get to see some more Dranonic, and stuff happens. (I know, that last bit is so surprising.)
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kingdom of Illian, July 21, year 373. Time instance 483Z.
Vechs jerked awake just after dawn. He had to calm down for a moment before he realized that he needed to breathe. He took a rattling breath and sat up, heart pounding.
Nightmares had tortured him the previous night, but he was too tired to awaken before now. He knew he should get some more sleep, but he was unwilling to subject himself to that. Resigning himself to a terrible day, he looked to see who it was sleeping in the tent with him.
He was unsurprised to see that it was Blame- it usually was- but was surprised that it was after dawn and the Skullblade was still sleeping. He tended to take the last watch so he could wake everyone up, but when Vechs looked outside, it was Paul surveying the area and he looked content to let them sleep.
Vechs crawled out of the tent and stood up, feeling dizzy but shaking it off.
“Morning Paul.”
Paul looked over his shoulder at him. “You were exhausted at the end of yesterday. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
“Can’t. Nightmares.” Vechs didn’t feel embarrassed admitting this- Paul would understand. As he had predicted, the older man just nodded.
“What about?”
“I can’t remember. Various things. Some involved you guys dying.”
“We’re not going anywhere. We’ll be okay.” Paul assured. “You still have that dragon claw?”
Vechs patted it where it was still in his toolbelt. “Yeah.”
“Then we can do this.”
“How will we distract all the blazes and zombie pigmen and things while we fuck around with the portal and hold Zisteau there? How will we even get him there?”
“I don’t know.” Paul admitted. “But we have the means to do this. And from what you said, that Norazdomu seemed to think this was our best chance.”
“Are you inclined to trust magical men with time powers?”
“What other choice do we have?”
He was right, of course. Norazdomu really was their only hope as it stood now.
“How are Aureylian and Pause?” Vechs asked, changing the subject. He didn’t know what to think of Norazdomu.
“We treated you and Aureylian first, as you should always give the most attention to the quietest ones, but since you were fine we focused on her. She’ll be okay, but she’s lost a lot of blood and is in a state of shock, partially from the wound, partially from the dragon, and partially from your change yesterday.”
Vechs flinched. “And Pause?”
“He was hollering and whining and carrying on.” Nebris said, coming out of his tent. “He’s always like that, so we weren’t too concerned. It’s not a bad burn; he just can’t walk as much for awhile.”
“At least he’s alright.
”
“Well, whenever he’s being a drama queen, we know he’s okay.”
“I’m burned, not deaf, you assholes!” Pause shouted from inside the tent.
“Shush! Aureylian and Blame are still trying to sleep!” Paul chided.
“I’m surprised Blame is still asleep. Usually he gets us all up at dawn and makes us start walking three minutes later.” Vechs glanced over at the tent.
“We convinced him to sleep in and let people heal for a couple of days.” Paul explained. “He wasn’t happy that we aren’t going anywhere, but he did admit that Pause and Aureylian shouldn’t be moved for awhile. Mostly Aureylian. She lost a lot of blood out there, Vechs.”
“I know.” He sounded miserable. “I wasn’t fast enough.”
“Hey.” Paul stood and put a hand on Vechs’s shoulder. “You did your best. And she’ll live, okay? I just wish we had someone with a little more medical knowledge. I’ve done my best, and I know a lot, but I’m just not a doctor or a medic. I’m good at survival, but that only goes so far, and a lot of it is prevention.”
Vechs nodded but didn’t speak. “Can I go check on her?”
Paul nodded. “Come on.” He removed his hand and led Vechs to the tent. He opened the tent flap so they could both see inside.
Aureylian appeared to be asleep, curled up on her left side in her sleeping bag. The bandages on her right shoulder were visible, and needed changing as they were stained red above the wound.
“Do we let her sleep or change those bandages now?” Vechs whispered.
“Let her sleep. She might not get any rest after this if we don’t.” Paul closed the tent flap and pulled the unwilling Vechs away. “Let her rest. I’d recommend that you get some more, too, but I don’t think you can.” Vechs shook his head. “I didn’t think so.”
A shiver down the spine.
Vechs shivered and looked at the sky. “I have a bad feeling.”
Paul frowned and reached for his bow. “I do too. Nebris, can you wake Blame?”
“Yeah. What about Aureylian?”
“No. Just Blame.”
Nebris nodded and moved quietly into the tent, gently shaking Blame awake and making a ‘quiet’ motion. He and Blame came out of the tent, Blame blinking rapidly to adjust his eyes to the light.
“What is it?” he whispered.
“Something’s up.” Vechs’s eyes shifted across the sky, looking for anything out of place, then at the forest around them.
After a moment with them all standing, tense, with their weapons out, Nebris lowered his sword. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe-“
A roar shook the trees and they all looked at the sky, startled.
A very familiar red dragon was swooping down on them, and this time it had a friend.
The second dragon was closer to thirty-five feet long and was cobalt blue with bright blue stripes on its back. It had similarly colored blue runes on each of its shoulders (including back legs) that glowed faintly. It had azure back spines and horns with a matching arrowhead tailend. Its eyes were a deep green.
On the back of the blue dragon rode two humanoid figures, but they were too far to see clearly- all that could be seen was that the one in front appeared to be green and gray, wearing white.
Friends, but not recognized yet.
The red dragon opened its jaws to blast fire, but the blue growled something and it settled for roaring instead. The blue dragon pulled into a hover about twenty feet in the air, the red dragon circling.
“Mortals! We demand that you return the claw of Mokdal, the flame dragon you attacked yesterday that you see here with me! You humans will pay for your crimes, but your lives may be spared if you return the claw and turn over the monster among you!”
“What the hell is going on out there?!” Pause demanded, hobbling out.
Pause immediately looked like he regretted this decision.
“We need the claw to stop the spread of the corruption from a Nether portal!” Vechs yelled at the dragon.
“It does not matter what excuses you have! Mokdal tells me you waltzed into the Dragonlands- banned to all humans! - and attacked him, stealing his claw and setting a monster on him.”
“We did no such thing!” Paul shouted, raising his voice to be heard over the red dragon. “We were perfectly willing to ask for the claw, but Mokdal attacked us!”
The blue dragon turned and spoke to the red one briefly- apparently translating- but the red dragon roared in rage.
“Kek humanos’ex del! Ee in ralkarren’xen tel kek aldobiva’xen dai!”
“He says he was attacked by the feathered one and that you lie.” the blue dragon informed them.
“Anorreh! Anorreh nai kii!” Mokdal waved a claw at Pause.
“That one.” the blue dragon clarified.
“Is that really the best descriptor of me you have? The feathered one?!” Pause demanded.
“Last warning, humans! Give us the claw!”
“Never. We need to stop this corruption.” Blame raised his sword.
“Very well! You will burn, and we-“
“Wait!” One of the humanoid figures on the blue dragon’s back suddenly stood. “Do not attack! I know them!”
“Doc?!” Vechs pushed his goggles up his face to get a better look.
“Don’t forget me!” Millbee jumped up as well. “I’m here!”
“Why are you not dead? Don’t they hate mortals?” Nebris demanded.
“Malkorvyss, please land. I am sure that our friends had a good reason for needing Mokdal’s claw.”
“And they just managed to screw it all up.” Millbee said cheerfully. “We do tend to be a bunch of fuckups.”
“Are you sure? They did attack Mokdal…”
“I would imagine they tried to communicate with him, but he doesn’t speak the same language as they do, so all communication was futile.” Doc reasoned.
“…Very well.” Malkorvyss translated for his friend, and Mokdal hissed angrily, but the two dragons landed.
Aureylian, by this point, had awoken and poked her head outside the tent. She pulled back fearfully, but Vechs moved to stand beside her. “It’s okay, I think. We’re going to talk to them.” She shot him a confused and scared look, looking like she wanted to move away from him but thought better of it.
Doc and Millbee slipped off of the blue dragon’s back and moved to greet their five friends plus stranger.
“How did you not get downright destroyed by these dragons?” Pause demanded. “That red one tried to set fire to us pretty much instantly.”
“We weren’t recognized as normal mortals because they had found Guude earlier- he’s pretty weak right now, whatever disrupted his power source is seriously screwing with him- and he vouched for us. They can feel the energy from him and they’re not sure what he is, but they’ve decided that he’s a demigod. To thank them for not destroying us, we agreed to come out with Malkorvyss and Mokdal to take care of some trespassing humans- and good thing we did. You’d be dead right now if we didn’t.” Millbee explained. “What were you doing trying to get a dragon claw?”
Vechs stepped forward and explained the whole thing (introducing Aureylian as well). Once he was finished, Doc turned and asked Malkorvyss if he could help them shut down the Nether portal and save Zisteau.
“I don’t know. The Nether is something that dragons have not willingly dealt with since the time of Ietalk and Kylix- the Kaltaerion incident was an example of why. We could never convince all of the dragons in the Dragonlands to help.”
“I’m not asking you to convince them. I’m asking if you and Mokdal, maybe one or two others, will help. We can’t do it alone- there are too many.” Doc reasoned. “We will need Guude as well. Even if he cannot fight, he is still capable of talking and thinking and may be able to help somehow.”
Malkorvyss hesitated. “Kallor’drek will not like this.”
“To hell with what Kallor’drek thinks!” Millbee fumed. “This is the end of the world that we’re talking about!”
“Even the dragons will be destroyed.” Nebris said softly. “The forces of the Nether are ruthless. If this corruption knows how to open the deeper planes of the Nether, even the dragons can’t stand up to what will be unleased.”
“You have no idea what’s down there.” Blame agreed. “Let’s just say that whatever Kaltaerion unleashed was only the beginning. He never found all the secrets of the Nether. If he had, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Malkorvyss shuffled his feet. “I will do my best.” he said finally. “I will retrieve Guude for you, and see what I can do. Mokdal! Mhih leum verlak’thas!”
Doc looked over Pause and Aureylian as the two dragons took off and flew back towards the Dragonlands. “You need your bandages changed.” he remarked to Aureylian.
“Yeah, I know. We were all a little busy with the dragons to do anything about it.” she said quietly.
“We need to find the others.” Blame said suddenly.
“Others? Why?” Vechs gave him an odd look, pushing his goggles back to cover his eyes.
“We need everyone we can get. Seven and a half Mindcrackers plus Aureylian and one to two dragons aren’t going to be enough. Once Zisteau realizes he’s under attack, every single one of his minions are going to be entirely focused on our destruction.”
Aureylian shot Vechs a look at the word ‘Mindcrackers’ and he knew he wasn’t going to escape her questions this time. She seemed content to wait, though, until Blame was done speaking.
“I say that a couple of us remain here- Vechs and Doc, maybe, as well as Aureylian and Pause because they’re injured- and the rest of us go and look for the others.”
“No.” Nebris shook his head. “It’ll be faster with the dragons. I think we should wait until we’re sure we have their help, and then fly to the mountain in Traz’madar. I know that’s where I was trying to get to when you guys found me.”
“That was where we were going initially as well.” Vechs admitted.
“We were afraid to move Guude.” Doc crossed his arms. “At the moment, splitting up is a bad idea. We need Guude here to plan, and then we will find the others.”
Blame nodded, conceding the point. “Okay. Let’s get everyone set up, and we need some food. We might as well eat while we wait for the dragons to return.”
Everyone agreed with that, and most of them rushed off to gather food and firewood. Aureylian caught Vechs’s arm as he tried to escape, and he sighed. Here it comes.
She motioned for him to sit with her by the remnants of the previous night’s fire.
“Vechs, I think I deserve an explanation. You don’t forget how you fell, do you? I think you know everything and how it happened, and that you’re hiding things from me. I understand that you don’t know me that well and probably don’t want to open up to a complete stranger- it would be silly to trust me- but I’m in on this as much as the rest of you are. I deserve an explanation.”
Vechs sighed and nodded. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s that I thought you wouldn’t believe me- and then, later, I didn’t want…I…I didn’t want you to know that I’d been lying.” He paused, but she didn’t speak, just watching him and waiting for him to continue. “I’m sorry I lied to you.” he said quietly. “But I don’t know if you’ll believe me even now.”
He took a deep breath.
There would be no going back.
“I was a worldbuilder. The Mindcrackers…we’re worldbuilders that fell from the Vortex. That power source is what kept us immortal, and I…I fell victim to a sort of…accident, that led to the zombification of Zisteau and the creation of my monstrous side…”
Aureylian listened as he told the entirety of the story, from the morning he woke up Zisteau to when he fell from the sky and met her. She never got angry. She never accused him of lying. She merely listened, nodding and looking upset and sympathetic at certain points along the way.
When he was finished, she didn’t say anything. Vechs looked away, fearing the worst.
Aureylian shifted closer to him and hugged him tightly, as if she could take away the pain and sadness caught up within him, as if she could heal his wounds, even though she knew she couldn’t.
And yet, despite what she thought, it did help. Vechs smiled, realizing that she wasn’t angry, and hugged her in return, feeling like the weight of all the world had been lifted from off of his shoulders.
They stayed like that for a long, long time.
Even more goddamn people join the party, we get to see some more Dranonic, and stuff happens. (I know, that last bit is so surprising.)
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kingdom of Illian, July 21, year 373. Time instance 483Z.
Vechs jerked awake just after dawn. He had to calm down for a moment before he realized that he needed to breathe. He took a rattling breath and sat up, heart pounding.
Nightmares had tortured him the previous night, but he was too tired to awaken before now. He knew he should get some more sleep, but he was unwilling to subject himself to that. Resigning himself to a terrible day, he looked to see who it was sleeping in the tent with him.
He was unsurprised to see that it was Blame- it usually was- but was surprised that it was after dawn and the Skullblade was still sleeping. He tended to take the last watch so he could wake everyone up, but when Vechs looked outside, it was Paul surveying the area and he looked content to let them sleep.
Vechs crawled out of the tent and stood up, feeling dizzy but shaking it off.
“Morning Paul.”
Paul looked over his shoulder at him. “You were exhausted at the end of yesterday. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
“Can’t. Nightmares.” Vechs didn’t feel embarrassed admitting this- Paul would understand. As he had predicted, the older man just nodded.
“What about?”
“I can’t remember. Various things. Some involved you guys dying.”
“We’re not going anywhere. We’ll be okay.” Paul assured. “You still have that dragon claw?”
Vechs patted it where it was still in his toolbelt. “Yeah.”
“Then we can do this.”
“How will we distract all the blazes and zombie pigmen and things while we fuck around with the portal and hold Zisteau there? How will we even get him there?”
“I don’t know.” Paul admitted. “But we have the means to do this. And from what you said, that Norazdomu seemed to think this was our best chance.”
“Are you inclined to trust magical men with time powers?”
“What other choice do we have?”
He was right, of course. Norazdomu really was their only hope as it stood now.
“How are Aureylian and Pause?” Vechs asked, changing the subject. He didn’t know what to think of Norazdomu.
“We treated you and Aureylian first, as you should always give the most attention to the quietest ones, but since you were fine we focused on her. She’ll be okay, but she’s lost a lot of blood and is in a state of shock, partially from the wound, partially from the dragon, and partially from your change yesterday.”
Vechs flinched. “And Pause?”
“He was hollering and whining and carrying on.” Nebris said, coming out of his tent. “He’s always like that, so we weren’t too concerned. It’s not a bad burn; he just can’t walk as much for awhile.”
“At least he’s alright.
”
“Well, whenever he’s being a drama queen, we know he’s okay.”
“I’m burned, not deaf, you assholes!” Pause shouted from inside the tent.
“Shush! Aureylian and Blame are still trying to sleep!” Paul chided.
“I’m surprised Blame is still asleep. Usually he gets us all up at dawn and makes us start walking three minutes later.” Vechs glanced over at the tent.
“We convinced him to sleep in and let people heal for a couple of days.” Paul explained. “He wasn’t happy that we aren’t going anywhere, but he did admit that Pause and Aureylian shouldn’t be moved for awhile. Mostly Aureylian. She lost a lot of blood out there, Vechs.”
“I know.” He sounded miserable. “I wasn’t fast enough.”
“Hey.” Paul stood and put a hand on Vechs’s shoulder. “You did your best. And she’ll live, okay? I just wish we had someone with a little more medical knowledge. I’ve done my best, and I know a lot, but I’m just not a doctor or a medic. I’m good at survival, but that only goes so far, and a lot of it is prevention.”
Vechs nodded but didn’t speak. “Can I go check on her?”
Paul nodded. “Come on.” He removed his hand and led Vechs to the tent. He opened the tent flap so they could both see inside.
Aureylian appeared to be asleep, curled up on her left side in her sleeping bag. The bandages on her right shoulder were visible, and needed changing as they were stained red above the wound.
“Do we let her sleep or change those bandages now?” Vechs whispered.
“Let her sleep. She might not get any rest after this if we don’t.” Paul closed the tent flap and pulled the unwilling Vechs away. “Let her rest. I’d recommend that you get some more, too, but I don’t think you can.” Vechs shook his head. “I didn’t think so.”
A shiver down the spine.
Vechs shivered and looked at the sky. “I have a bad feeling.”
Paul frowned and reached for his bow. “I do too. Nebris, can you wake Blame?”
“Yeah. What about Aureylian?”
“No. Just Blame.”
Nebris nodded and moved quietly into the tent, gently shaking Blame awake and making a ‘quiet’ motion. He and Blame came out of the tent, Blame blinking rapidly to adjust his eyes to the light.
“What is it?” he whispered.
“Something’s up.” Vechs’s eyes shifted across the sky, looking for anything out of place, then at the forest around them.
After a moment with them all standing, tense, with their weapons out, Nebris lowered his sword. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe-“
A roar shook the trees and they all looked at the sky, startled.
A very familiar red dragon was swooping down on them, and this time it had a friend.
The second dragon was closer to thirty-five feet long and was cobalt blue with bright blue stripes on its back. It had similarly colored blue runes on each of its shoulders (including back legs) that glowed faintly. It had azure back spines and horns with a matching arrowhead tailend. Its eyes were a deep green.
On the back of the blue dragon rode two humanoid figures, but they were too far to see clearly- all that could be seen was that the one in front appeared to be green and gray, wearing white.
Friends, but not recognized yet.
The red dragon opened its jaws to blast fire, but the blue growled something and it settled for roaring instead. The blue dragon pulled into a hover about twenty feet in the air, the red dragon circling.
“Mortals! We demand that you return the claw of Mokdal, the flame dragon you attacked yesterday that you see here with me! You humans will pay for your crimes, but your lives may be spared if you return the claw and turn over the monster among you!”
“What the hell is going on out there?!” Pause demanded, hobbling out.
Pause immediately looked like he regretted this decision.
“We need the claw to stop the spread of the corruption from a Nether portal!” Vechs yelled at the dragon.
“It does not matter what excuses you have! Mokdal tells me you waltzed into the Dragonlands- banned to all humans! - and attacked him, stealing his claw and setting a monster on him.”
“We did no such thing!” Paul shouted, raising his voice to be heard over the red dragon. “We were perfectly willing to ask for the claw, but Mokdal attacked us!”
The blue dragon turned and spoke to the red one briefly- apparently translating- but the red dragon roared in rage.
“Kek humanos’ex del! Ee in ralkarren’xen tel kek aldobiva’xen dai!”
“He says he was attacked by the feathered one and that you lie.” the blue dragon informed them.
“Anorreh! Anorreh nai kii!” Mokdal waved a claw at Pause.
“That one.” the blue dragon clarified.
“Is that really the best descriptor of me you have? The feathered one?!” Pause demanded.
“Last warning, humans! Give us the claw!”
“Never. We need to stop this corruption.” Blame raised his sword.
“Very well! You will burn, and we-“
“Wait!” One of the humanoid figures on the blue dragon’s back suddenly stood. “Do not attack! I know them!”
“Doc?!” Vechs pushed his goggles up his face to get a better look.
“Don’t forget me!” Millbee jumped up as well. “I’m here!”
“Why are you not dead? Don’t they hate mortals?” Nebris demanded.
“Malkorvyss, please land. I am sure that our friends had a good reason for needing Mokdal’s claw.”
“And they just managed to screw it all up.” Millbee said cheerfully. “We do tend to be a bunch of fuckups.”
“Are you sure? They did attack Mokdal…”
“I would imagine they tried to communicate with him, but he doesn’t speak the same language as they do, so all communication was futile.” Doc reasoned.
“…Very well.” Malkorvyss translated for his friend, and Mokdal hissed angrily, but the two dragons landed.
Aureylian, by this point, had awoken and poked her head outside the tent. She pulled back fearfully, but Vechs moved to stand beside her. “It’s okay, I think. We’re going to talk to them.” She shot him a confused and scared look, looking like she wanted to move away from him but thought better of it.
Doc and Millbee slipped off of the blue dragon’s back and moved to greet their five friends plus stranger.
“How did you not get downright destroyed by these dragons?” Pause demanded. “That red one tried to set fire to us pretty much instantly.”
“We weren’t recognized as normal mortals because they had found Guude earlier- he’s pretty weak right now, whatever disrupted his power source is seriously screwing with him- and he vouched for us. They can feel the energy from him and they’re not sure what he is, but they’ve decided that he’s a demigod. To thank them for not destroying us, we agreed to come out with Malkorvyss and Mokdal to take care of some trespassing humans- and good thing we did. You’d be dead right now if we didn’t.” Millbee explained. “What were you doing trying to get a dragon claw?”
Vechs stepped forward and explained the whole thing (introducing Aureylian as well). Once he was finished, Doc turned and asked Malkorvyss if he could help them shut down the Nether portal and save Zisteau.
“I don’t know. The Nether is something that dragons have not willingly dealt with since the time of Ietalk and Kylix- the Kaltaerion incident was an example of why. We could never convince all of the dragons in the Dragonlands to help.”
“I’m not asking you to convince them. I’m asking if you and Mokdal, maybe one or two others, will help. We can’t do it alone- there are too many.” Doc reasoned. “We will need Guude as well. Even if he cannot fight, he is still capable of talking and thinking and may be able to help somehow.”
Malkorvyss hesitated. “Kallor’drek will not like this.”
“To hell with what Kallor’drek thinks!” Millbee fumed. “This is the end of the world that we’re talking about!”
“Even the dragons will be destroyed.” Nebris said softly. “The forces of the Nether are ruthless. If this corruption knows how to open the deeper planes of the Nether, even the dragons can’t stand up to what will be unleased.”
“You have no idea what’s down there.” Blame agreed. “Let’s just say that whatever Kaltaerion unleashed was only the beginning. He never found all the secrets of the Nether. If he had, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Malkorvyss shuffled his feet. “I will do my best.” he said finally. “I will retrieve Guude for you, and see what I can do. Mokdal! Mhih leum verlak’thas!”
Doc looked over Pause and Aureylian as the two dragons took off and flew back towards the Dragonlands. “You need your bandages changed.” he remarked to Aureylian.
“Yeah, I know. We were all a little busy with the dragons to do anything about it.” she said quietly.
“We need to find the others.” Blame said suddenly.
“Others? Why?” Vechs gave him an odd look, pushing his goggles back to cover his eyes.
“We need everyone we can get. Seven and a half Mindcrackers plus Aureylian and one to two dragons aren’t going to be enough. Once Zisteau realizes he’s under attack, every single one of his minions are going to be entirely focused on our destruction.”
Aureylian shot Vechs a look at the word ‘Mindcrackers’ and he knew he wasn’t going to escape her questions this time. She seemed content to wait, though, until Blame was done speaking.
“I say that a couple of us remain here- Vechs and Doc, maybe, as well as Aureylian and Pause because they’re injured- and the rest of us go and look for the others.”
“No.” Nebris shook his head. “It’ll be faster with the dragons. I think we should wait until we’re sure we have their help, and then fly to the mountain in Traz’madar. I know that’s where I was trying to get to when you guys found me.”
“That was where we were going initially as well.” Vechs admitted.
“We were afraid to move Guude.” Doc crossed his arms. “At the moment, splitting up is a bad idea. We need Guude here to plan, and then we will find the others.”
Blame nodded, conceding the point. “Okay. Let’s get everyone set up, and we need some food. We might as well eat while we wait for the dragons to return.”
Everyone agreed with that, and most of them rushed off to gather food and firewood. Aureylian caught Vechs’s arm as he tried to escape, and he sighed. Here it comes.
She motioned for him to sit with her by the remnants of the previous night’s fire.
“Vechs, I think I deserve an explanation. You don’t forget how you fell, do you? I think you know everything and how it happened, and that you’re hiding things from me. I understand that you don’t know me that well and probably don’t want to open up to a complete stranger- it would be silly to trust me- but I’m in on this as much as the rest of you are. I deserve an explanation.”
Vechs sighed and nodded. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s that I thought you wouldn’t believe me- and then, later, I didn’t want…I…I didn’t want you to know that I’d been lying.” He paused, but she didn’t speak, just watching him and waiting for him to continue. “I’m sorry I lied to you.” he said quietly. “But I don’t know if you’ll believe me even now.”
He took a deep breath.
There would be no going back.
“I was a worldbuilder. The Mindcrackers…we’re worldbuilders that fell from the Vortex. That power source is what kept us immortal, and I…I fell victim to a sort of…accident, that led to the zombification of Zisteau and the creation of my monstrous side…”
Aureylian listened as he told the entirety of the story, from the morning he woke up Zisteau to when he fell from the sky and met her. She never got angry. She never accused him of lying. She merely listened, nodding and looking upset and sympathetic at certain points along the way.
When he was finished, she didn’t say anything. Vechs looked away, fearing the worst.
Aureylian shifted closer to him and hugged him tightly, as if she could take away the pain and sadness caught up within him, as if she could heal his wounds, even though she knew she couldn’t.
And yet, despite what she thought, it did help. Vechs smiled, realizing that she wasn’t angry, and hugged her in return, feeling like the weight of all the world had been lifted from off of his shoulders.
They stayed like that for a long, long time.
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Date: Monday, March 23rd, 2015 12:06 am (UTC)Yay! They found others! Vechs finally told Aury! Yay!
Here we go again. Great story and (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Monday, March 23rd, 2015 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: Tuesday, March 24th, 2015 01:32 am (UTC)Mnimnen dohm shunk talkorukt. (Thank you for your interest)
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Date: Thursday, March 26th, 2015 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: Sunday, March 29th, 2015 09:35 pm (UTC)Did you finish the series?? The final book from Sunny's perspective really fucked me up, I was really not expecting ANYTHING that happened during it!
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Date: Sunday, March 29th, 2015 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: Sunday, April 12th, 2015 06:16 pm (UTC)