[center][h2][u]Bonds That Heal[/u][/h2] [h3][color=silver]♤ Darius M Cain ♤[/color] & [color=#3098C1]Aeris Kasio[/color] [/h3] [hr][sub][h3][u][b]Time[/b][/u][/h3][h3]Day 2~ Afternoon[/h3][h3][u][b]Location[/b][/u][/h3][h3]Darius' Manor within Ominar [/h3][/sub][/center] [hr] Darius waited until Masha had entered the taxi and then vanished from his driveway before he moved. Casually, the fox retracted back into the house and turned about to shut the door. It made a heavy thump followed by a sharp click as his anxiety drifted away. The weight of everything fell upon his mind and he found himself surprised he could remain upright. The Abyss scene rushed past him like a slide show, each blunder and mistake became a vivid highlight in his attention causing a disappointment to settle in his pride. So much had happened today and it was hard to fully absorb it then story away. Even more disturbing were the consequences about to unfold from them. A weakness washed over him, like every bit of his Vis had been drained, leaving him more tired than usual. It was strange since the boost of Vis should’ve eliminate the physical fatigue by now. Darius frowned deeply then concluded, with a hope, it was because too much had happened today. From Logan’s reveal he was beyond human to the conflict with Krysta, there was too much to fully take in now. On top of it, he had dark, nagging feeling something was terribly wrong. Something he couldn’t place his claw, but rose the very fur on his neck upright and rattled his confidence in overcoming it. Shoving the creeping feeling from his attention, he exhaled then moved from the door. The fox edged through the foyer and into the entertainment room. He came to a halt near the doorway where, on instinct, his eyes shifted to Logan’s prior location. After the event in the tunnels Darius wasn’t surprised to find the being was gone. He sighed, quietly, in relief, as he was grateful for. It had taken every ounce of will to remain calm earlier, but it wouldn’t last indefinitely. The Abyss event was a complete blunder on his part, on both sides, as he had prided himself on being prepared for nearly anything and keeping his baser instincts at bay. Now that image was damaged. Darius closed his eyes a moment as he moved toward the discarded wine glasses and water bottle, then made his way back through the foyer into the kitchen’s direction. He carefully placed them all into the sink before he twisted and began to head up the manor’s stairs, his feet dragged the whole way. Upon entering his bedroom, the distinct musk of fresh soil and dampness caught his attention. He could hardly ignore it as it mingled in his cologne and natural musk, causing his nose to wrinkle in disgust. Darius inhaled a moment then lowered his muzzle to his side, namely where Krysta had managed to strike him. A dark, but hardly notable spot was there through the thick layered clothing. Immediately he knew that was where the rotten smell originated. Carefully his paw like hand reached through the clothing's neckline and came into contact with the location of Afua’s patch. A slimy, spongy texture connected with his coarse pad. A subtle, unnatural squish sound came from the brush causing him to retract immediately. Bring the quickly rotting flesh patch with it. Every fiber within Darius’ form instantly froze in place as he studied in silent, unreadable horror at the pus yellow and sickly green shade of the torn patch. This wasn’t good. Even when he knew it, his mind still screamed it in his head and echoed for a few seconds. On his wound, the blood once more began to seep and followed with a stronger decaying scent. Enough that the putrid smell overwhelm the light cologne scent on his person and made him feel like a walking corpse. Within his grip, the usually tough skin became stringy and began to fall apart in his grip. He let it fall from his grasp onto the carpet where it continued to take its accelerated but natural course in decaying. [center]~Later that Hour~[/center] Aeris shifted about in the bedroom that belonged to her within Darius’ mansion. She had been waiting for him to return home for hours. In that time, she had taken to busying herself by creating Brisn crystals. In front of where she sat on the floor there was a rather sizeable amount of crystals. They were placed in delicate rows, seemingly ordered by their size. The brightly glowing energy radiated from her hands that she held together in the shape of an upside down pyramid. In the space between her palms the energy collided, and sparks flew, but dissipated before they ever touched anything else in the room. She stared down at the energy, her eyes completely overtaken by it. While they were usually blue, and glowing, in this moment the difference between iris and cornea was indistinguishable. It was as though her eyes were [i]made[/i] of Brisn. In her hands, the energy continued to collide, a sound, only comparable to a welding torch coming from the reaction. Eventually, the sound changed. This change indicated the beginning of the crystallization. At this point, Aeris took a deep breath and then exhaled. Brisn flowed from her mouth toward her hands where this tertiary source of energy pooled into the newly forming crystal, creating not only a hollow area within the crystal itself, but at the same time filling that area and reinforcing the outer crystal. Once the crystal itself was completely formed, but still pliable, the energy in the hollow section changed. It turned from a glowing center point to a mist, actively swirling inside the crystal. What was left of the glowing energy inside the crystal moved toward the outside, pouring out of the crystal as though it was condensation. As the remaining energy exited the crystal it began to converge on the two midpoints of the outer layer, where it formed a symbol. A rune. Then, the energy dissipated, leaving behind an etching of the rune within either side of the crystal. Aeris smiled, and put the newly completed crystal in its place among the others. As she did so, the glowing of her eyes receded, returning them to normal. When this change occurred, the vampire’s senses returned to the world around her, and Darius’ scent filled her nostrils. Something about him, however, smelled wrong, inciting her to rise from her position on the floor and walk out of her room. [color=#3098C1]"Darius? Are you here?"[/color] The vampire called out to the fox, in part already knowing the answer. As she waited for a response, she walked toward his room, her body mostly moving without her instruction. As she walked, she wondered just what had happened to the fox. Had Szayeis done something to him? Did someone else? Darius had crumpled in a corner of his room. His eyes had started to blur and take on a milky white hue, but his ears were still untouched by the decay that ran through his body. Upon hearing hearing Aeris, his figure stirred in the darkness causing him to reach out a hand and grasp the end of the dresser. With very little strength in his limbs, he pulled himself upright to lean heavily on it. [color=silver] “Aeris?”[/color] Darius’ voice sounded raspy and pitiful to his own ears. He could only imagine what it might’ve sounded to Aeris as he shuffled his way to the bedroom door. At the sound of Darius’ voice through his bedroom door, Aeris’ brow creased in worry. He sounded weak, broken somehow. She tested the doorknob and found that the room itself was unlocked. Good, she didn’t have to break down the door. She inhaled as she pulled the door open, slowly, revealing the fox’s weakened state. The sight of him caused her to gasp slightly, in turn making her inhale the scent of rotting flesh. She almost gagged on the smell, but was able to hold it back as she moved toward him. He didn’t appear as though he would be able to walk, and making him wait while she went and got her crystals likely wouldn’t have been a good idea. Thus, when she was close enough, she gingerly picked him up, her arms at the middle of his back and under his knees, respectively. Carefully, she made her way back to her room and laid him on the bed, trying her hardest not to jostle him. Once she had his head propped up on pillows, she moved to grab several large crystals from the selection on the floor. As quickly, but carefully as she could, she set the crystals around his body until they formed an oval that encompassed his entire form. Throughout the placement and ritual set up, Darius seemed calm and unaffected. His breath was labored and shallower than usual, each inhale a struggle to create while he fought the impulse to shapeshift and heal the growing damage. He had started to realize something: the more Vis that poured through his Ostium, the worse his condition became. That was simple enough to stop but it didn’t mend the poison’s gradual progression or recover the damage already done. The only show of his discomfort was his fingers tightening into the palm at intervenes the pain was the worst. Aeris took a calming breath before focusing herself in much the same way she would have if she were creating a crystal. This was just a bit different, however. Slowly, she lifted her right hand, palm up toward the crystal just above his head. Her eyes began to brighten from the center of the pupil, outward, until the entirety of her eyes were once again cast in Brisn. Without a word, a single continuous beam of Brisn shot out of the center of her hand, and made contact with the crystal above Darius’ head. The crystal began to glow and the energy from her palm split in two directions, hitting the crystals on either side of the first. It continued like this until every crystal around his body was connected by the beam. Once all the crystals were connected, the energy shot into the center of the oval, coating the fox’s body. At this point, Aeris took a deep breath, and exhaled, once again sending Brisn from her mouth to converge on the center point of the colliding energy as she had done with her crystals earlier. [color=#3098C1]"Darius, I need you to inhale as deeply as you can. Brisn is going to fill your entire body when you do, though, and it may hurt, but I’ll do my best to help you."[/color] Right now she was using pure Brisn, which would cause a great deal of pain to a Licenti, but she had a plan. She just needed him to have faith in her. Darius’ ear flicked to indicated he heard, however he hadn’t inhaled yet. Several moments passed as his figure laid completely still. Some part of him, chaotic and vicious, resisted causing his muscles to tense before gradually they relaxed. Along with the action, his nostrils inhaled deeply as they could. As the fox inhaled, pure Brisn would begin to fill his lungs and body. It would likely cause a severe amount of pain considering his Licenti blood, Aeris knew that, but it was the only way this was going to work. She watched him for a moment as he inhaled, and then she did the same. A shadow rose up from behind her, and wove its way around her right arm until it was just around her wrist. The shadow seemed to sharpen to a point and then slit open her palm where the Brisn beam was coming from, causing her blood to mix with the energy and dying it a scarlet color. Just as the color changed, the shadow shot itself into the beam, causing yet another change from red to purple. Once the purple beam made contact with the crystals, their colors changed as well, from a sapphire coloration, to amethyst. Then, where his body had been coated in pure Brisn, was now coated in what Aeris had termed “Tained Brisn.” Using this type of Brisn was the only way she’d figured out how to heal Licentia, since normal Brisn on this magnitude could potentially kill them. She’d never tried it in this ritual before, however, so all she could do was pray. The rotting stench was the first thing to vanish, fading as the tissue began to heal and revive itself back to its original state. Something dark and discolored poured from the wound in his upper chest, where the arrow had penetrated, then oozed into the makeshift bandage wrapped over it. It stained it completely black. Darius’ vitals began to recover as his expression went from being twisted as if he was inhaling tiny bits of glass to now normal air. Darius’ eyes fluttered open, closed to hide the pain, then shifted his head toward Aeris. [color=silver] “You know, it’s suppose to be me that should be healing you,”[/color] His voice still held the weakness, but a calm had washed over his tone. It appeared the ritual had worked. The worry on the vampire’s face relaxed a bit as the tension in Darius’ body seemed to drain. However, it was several minutes before she stopped feeding energy into the crystals, and, even then, the Tainted Brisn coating his body would not subside until he was completely healed. When he spoke, Aeris cracked a smile, a small laugh falling from her lips. [color=#3098C1]"Well, sometimes we have to change roles, Darius."[/color] She responded to him, the laugh still in her voice. After a moment, she cleared her throat to speak again, [color=#3098C1]"You’ll be coated in Brisn until you’re completely healed, but if you feel up to it, you could probably get up and walk around, it’s not going to mess anything up."[/color] As she explained how the remaining energy would work, she lowered her arm, and dropped to the floor, her left hand resting on her temple. The ritual took a lot more energy than she had realized. She was likely going to sleep for the next day and a half. Upon seeing Aeris’ form drop, Darius sat up and shifted to lean down at her. His eyes filled with worry over her abrupt collapse, trying to understand and solve the issue in his mind, while ensuring she hadn’t hurt herself. It was a habit he never bothered to break the moment he realized what Szayeis had done to her. Even when it was a weakness the Nightwalker seemed to take deep satisfaction in exploiting whenever fitting. [color=silver] “You shouldn’t have done that,”[/color] Darius lightly chided her, comforted by the fact she didn’t seem only exhausted, [color=silver] “I could’ve called M’ve instead of you exhausting yourself.”[/color] [color=#3098C1]"M’ve would’ve taken too long to get here, and you’d be dead."[/color] Aeris’ exhaustion permeated her voice, as her eyes rose up to look at Darius’ face. Her vision was blurring the slightest bit. She’d pass out soon. [color=#3098C1]"Could you call Mai when you get the chance? I haven’t seen him since last night, he’s probably worried."[/color] As she spoke, her body teetered forward a bit, making her catch herself with her other hand. Darius nodded, though he clearly didn’t enjoy the idea, his arms wrapped around her to take the weight she couldn’t and glide her into the bed. His free hand flipped open the sheets so she could lay upon the mattress itself and helped her to climb in until she was comfortable. Once situated, he flipped the blankets back over her weakened form,[color=silver] “I still hate seeing you like this. Besides, at worst I would’ve likely went back into the shard and waited until Szayeis awoke me. I merely underestimated my last encounter and it will not happen again.”[/color] As he wrapped up tucking Aeris in, he then paused to ask another question,[color=silver] “Besides sleep and the Sanguine, is there anything else you need?”[/color] Aeris looked up at Darius from her pillow, half her face sunken into the surface of it. In answer to his question, she simply shook her head. She didn’t feel hungry, though if she did end up needing food, she’d ask when she woke up. [color=silver] “Very well, I’m not far away. Sleep well and we’ll talk in the morning. I need to tell you something, if you’ve encountered a visit, and I’m sure you’ll want answers over things yourself,”[/color] Darius spoke then briefly touched his forehead to hers in a gesture she found familiar, [color=silver] “Thank you, Aeris.”[/color] His figure lifted up then casually left the room, closing the door behind him.