brave_kreyu | OOM All Skate Skellig Dream Magic Weirdness -Part Five

"I have not yet informed her of my arrival," Elihu admits. "I was...generous in estimating my arrival time."

In other words, he wanted to poke around before she knew he was here. He caught Skellig's glance at the tattoo, but doesn't grasp its meaning in this context. "You thought she might send you to meet me?" His tone implies he is curious about that. That Skellig would think such a thing suggests that he is more than a night's amusement or a brief fling.

"We have been worried about her, and we did not part on the best of terms. I don't know how much she's told you about our family?" For all Elihu knows, Skellig might not even know Kreyu is a dragon!

"I know she cares deeply for both you and your brother," Skellig says. "And while she only spoke briefly of the fact that your last meeting did not end favorably, this did not change the feelings I could sense from her, towards family."

He notes the curiosity in Elihu's tone.

"And I only had just considered the thought, while sitting here. After you...spoke...with her last week, I knew she was concerned about how your other brother may react to meeting me. I have been told his temper runs a bit...hotter."

Red hot inferno, more like it.

"She was looking forward to seeing you, first."

"She is right to be concerned," Elihu admits. "My brother has many virtues, but his temper is a dreadful thing."

"Would you be averse to continuing this conversation over drinks?" he asks. "It would be appropriate for me to buy a friend of my sister some drinks, surely?" He's using 'friend' since Skellig seems to be more than an acquaintance or a means of sating his sister's needs. Husband would never occur to him.

"I would not be adverse in the slightest," Skellig replies cheerfully. "If only you will allow me the same courtesy, and at least cover a round or two."

He moves to stand, rolling his shoulders slightly as he does so - Elihu will not notice the reason why, as he is careful not to brush his wing feathers anywhere close. Or leave any to litter amongst the ground.

"I should mention, while we are in less-crowded company," Skellig looks around them casually, scanning those who are moving about the docks. Listening briefly before he finishes his sentence. "I know of her other forms, including her greatest and most powerful." He is casual as he says it, because how else do you say I'm aware she is a dragon and that means I'm aware you are as well in a conversation?

(Elihu may pick up on a bit more reverence in Skellig's tone, when Skellig speaks of greatest and most powerful, if only because it is true the way that Skellig feels when he is able to see her in her dragon shape. And there is also a deeper fondness underlying his words, one that is definitely reserved for only a select few 'friends'.)

"So I do not know if you would wish to drink in a tavern, or if there are considerations to be met? I am still somewhat unfamiliar with Amikaya, but I am sure we can find some place suitable."

Elihu chuckles at his mention of buying a round or two. "I could be persuaded."

Elihu is surprised at his admission that he knows of Kreyu's other shapes, raises an eyebrow. "And yet you are here. Not many would be so bold." Or so foolish, but he's not going to say that.

"I have never known a waterfront to be empty of places to drink," Elihu assures him. "Sailing is a dangerous business, and those who ply the sea are generally eager to drink when they are on land again. I'm sure we will find a place to suit our purposes."

"You have a point regarding sailing," he says. "Personally, I have never found it enjoyable, upon a ship. I seek...other means of travel, when needed."

Skellig thinks briefly about pirates, and wonders what Kreyu may have discovered so far during her conversation with the henna artist. He does not reach or invade her privacy by 'listening', but he does allow himself a brief second or two to focus on her heartbeat amid all the noise, reassure himself that she is well.

As they near the end of the dock itself (at least this section of it, the harbor is quite vast and there are several) there is an establishment that looks suitable enough.

"And I am here, yes. I care deeply for Kreyu's well-being, and while there are risks...I have found them worth it."

There will be places inside to sit, out of the heat of the blazing sun. And drinks!

Her heartbeat is calm, steady, relaxed.

"How did you meet my sister?" he asks, curious, as they enter the drinking establishment. "Last I heard, she was in a rather out of the way location."

A table near the back of the place is easily secured by Elihu along with the first round of beer.

"You are correct," he says. "She has taken a home in a smaller village -- a fair distance from here -- along the Mother River."

Skellig contemplates briefly how best to word this next part. He would not lie to her brother about how they met, but he knows it may be best if the story is told carefully.

"I am not originally from here," he says. "And I found myself in need of aid, near her village, during the hottest hours of the day. She provided shelter, and beer, for which I was very grateful." Skellig lifts his mug slightly. "Our meeting was quite...fortuitous, as later that day a band of raiders attempted to make off with one of the villagers, and Kreyu and I...put a stop to that."

He will leave out the first instance of digging an arrow from Kreyu's chest out of the story, for now.

Elihu smiles at hearing that Kreyu offered him shelter and beer. "That is quite like her. She is kind, sometimes even to her own detriment."

"I am not entirely surprised by the bandits," Elihu admits. "The neighboring kingdom is having considerable political unrest, internal strife, and that breeds desperate men and those willing to take advantage of them."

"Where are you from, originally? I thought I had at least a passing knowledge of all of the peoples on this side of the great sea, but I have not met your kind before."

"I am from..." Skellig looks down at the table, his mug of beer, his hands (which no longer ache, not since the moment Kreyu picked him up off of the sand and coated him in her blood) and then his attention shifts to the doorway as someone walks in. It is nobody of importance, but it gives him at least a reason to shift his gaze.

your kind

"I do not believe I am from this side of the great sea," he offers, voice low. It is not tinged with sadness or regret, but Elihu might pick up on a hint of something when he speaks, that runs beneath the surface of his words. The pain of not knowing, perhaps. "I...I do not remember from where I hail. And as far as I know, there are no others of my kind."

your kind

"I am what Kreyu calls...god-touched," he adds, lifting his mug to his lips - and meeting Elihu's gaze again. "At least, that is how she says these people would speak of me."

Elihu listens quietly to his explanation, picks up the emotion running underneath.

"God touched may be closest to what you are, this side of the sea," he allows after a moment of thought. "A mix of human and not human."

He takes a sip of beer, ponders his words. "There are those that would say amnesia is a convenient excuse to hide one's past. I know my brother, Revenin, would wonder if you were some being altered by an enemy, by magic." His smile turns bitter. "What better weapon to use against my kind sister than a weapon that does not KNOW it is a weapon until it is too late?"

There is no accusation in his tone, in his emotions.

While there is no emotion or accusation in Elihu's tone, this line of thought has brought a great deal of concern into Skellig's mind. It will be easily evident to the other man that this is a distressing thought to ponder, one that had not yet been considered.

"I truly do not believe that is the case," he says firmly. "I...I cannot explain fully, the reasons that I have to believe that. Nor would I expect you to believe it, from a being you have only just met, who is involved with your dear sister."

Skellig swallows hard.

"And I know I am not well-versed yet, in the ways of your Karma. But if there was a way to check if I had been...altered, somehow, and it was found I am a threat to her..."

He does not know if he would be able to live with himself, if that were the case. He would work to rid himself of the poison, the bad magic that might taint his being. But if it could not be removed, then he would find a way to remove the threat - himself - from her.

"...then I would do it, without hesitation. My care for her is too great for that uncertainty to exist."

Edited 2024-05-26 20:36 (UTC)

"Kreyu is a stronger mage than I," Elihu admits. "The best able to find and remove such things, if she were to look for them. But if I were an enemy, I would have planned for something nasty to happen if she poked about your being in such a way."

"I can tell you if you have been changed, but I can not be certain of my ability to ensure your safety if some kind of trap has been left behind in your being."

"I would rather ensure her safety over my own," he says bluntly, without hesitation.

Finishing off his beer, Skellig shifts his jaw before he nods.

"Could it be done here, in this space? Whatever you would do to check?"

"It can be done right here," Elihu assures him. "Unless there are traps, none here should even know there is something going on. I do not know what it will feel like to you, but I don't think it will be painful."

Skellig's response has earned Skellig some approval from Elihu, which he might be able to sense.

Skellig senses the approval, but it only faintly registers. His mind is focused on her heartbeat in his ears - steady and strong, relaxed - and he rubs his hand over his tattoo on his arm, briefly hesitating.

"If something should happen, for whatever reason," he says softly. "I would ask that you tell her not to be angry with herself. She would feel anger, first. Then guilt, I fear. I would not want her to bear that burden upon her heart."

He nearly adds on: and I would ask you to tell her that I love her, my dragon but he does not, because Skellig knows that Kreyu knows that as truth, and the words do not need to be spoken for them to be real.

"I will do so," he promises. Elihu places a hand on Skellig's arm, careful, and then the world disappears as Elihu's power surges over his body. The wind, the rain, the storm, are pressed all around him, seeking for cracks, stains left upon his soul.

It could be minutes later or far longer than that when the world comes back.

Elihu's face is worried, his voice low, and slightly horrified. "No magic has touched you but hers," he rasps. "But what have you two DONE to bind your souls together?!"

Howling winds, thrashing rain, relentless storms - all these are things which Skellig is well-accustomed to, so the discomfort of having Elihu 'search' through the crevices of his soul for any hidden dangers or darkness is minimal. Though it is unsettling, and once the world comes back, Skellig has to take a long moment before he can answer Elihu's question.

(Another round of beer is brought to the table at some point before the conversation resumes.)

"There was a villager who fancied your sister," he says. "Who took great offense to the fact that she did not desire his advances. Once I arrived, he saw me as a threat to his 'conquest'." Skellig's tone is clear of how he feels about Akatan's advances. "And as she would not lay with him, he shot her, with an arrow through the breast."

He touches his own chest where the barb ripped through Kreyu's flesh.

"I am a healer, by nature. I lay hands, give my own Light...Kreyu likens it to your Karma, my energy...it is how I work to heal" he explains. "Her wound was dire...mortally so. I fought to heal her, but she continued to slip deeper."

Skellig's voice is quiet, and it is clear he is simply repeating the facts as they occurred, trying to avoid growing too upset by replaying the images in his mind of her pale face staring up at him, her desperate grasps at his arm as she struggled not to drown.

"She offered me one of her items of Karma to aid my Light," he says. "I...I took her blood within my own lungs. That gave me enough time to heal her wounds."

Lifting the mug to his lips, he drinks to wash away the taste of iron and salt, the memory of her blood on his tongue and in his lungs causing him to shudder.

"Over my lifetime...lifetimes...I have walked many to meet Death. But I would not allow Them to take her on that day. I was able to heal her before my grip on her was lost, before this connection with her world was broken."

Edited 2024-05-26 21:50 (UTC)

"She would have returned in time, even if you had lost your grip," he reassures Skellig. "But I am glad that you did not, for the wait for her return is always painful for us." He ponders what he's been told a moment. "There is power in blood, power in what is given and what is taken. The bond might have sparked there, true enough, but I do not believe it would have been enough on it's own."

"The villager, what became of him?" The question is asked too casually, too easily, to be entirely innocent.

"After I was satisfied that my work to heal her wounds was complete, I left her in the care of a trusted elder - it was in her home which I did the healing - and went to find him. It was not difficult; he was cocksure, and left himself vulnerable."

Skellig pauses, looks straight at Elihu.

"After I was certain he was well-aware of his mistakes, I ended him with my bare hands, and left him to meet Death alone. Then fed his body to the crocodiles."

A brief pause, and he smirks slightly. "So his existence was not a complete waste."

Elihu's expression is satisfied at the description of events, and he smirks slightly when Skellig does. "At least he was of some use, at the end. A man who tries to kill ANY woman for rejecting his advances deserves no better." His victim being Kreyu only compounds the severity of his crime, in Elihu's mind.

"That is a point which you and I can agree on," he says. "I realize fully that she is a far stronger mage than I, and her other abilities lend themselves in her favor...she could easily take care of herself, against most. But regardless, I have sworn to your sister that so long as I am able to aid her in defense, I would seek to keep harm from coming to her. It is just what is right."

He might be a bit 'old-fashioned' in that regard, but it is what it is.

Edited 2024-05-26 23:26 (UTC)

Elihu nods. "One protects those one cares for." He smiles. "I see no reason why sexual congress should change that foundational truth."

He sips his beer.

Yes, Skellig. He DOES know you've been banging his little sister.

Ah, yes. That detail. He was wondering if and/or when that subject might join their conversation...

(To his credit, Skellig only slightly chokes on his sip of beer at Elihu's words.)

After clearing his throat, he shakes his head. "It does not. If anything, I would say it actually strengthens my respect for her, and deepens my desires to protect her from harm. For not only has she given me friendship and partnership, but she has offered to me some of the most vulnerable and sacred parts of her being, and I do not take that at all lightly."

Edited 2024-05-26 23:51 (UTC)

"It is good that you do not," Elihu replies. "For all my sister is uncomfortable with worship, we are as close to gods as any a mortal is likely to meet." The words are stated simply, as fact, a truth of the world.

A young woman brings them another pitcher of beer.

"Which makes it all the more curious that your souls have bonded so. Has anything else....odd happened between the two of you?"

He smiles reassuringly. "You need not fear for my sensibilities. I have seen most things humans can get up to with one another at some point, sexual and otherwise."

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