Illumin0sity

Journey to the East

Having seen his sister awake, Noah didn’t know what to say in regards to the magic he had seen. He didn’t judge his sister but understood how dangerous it was to wield it. He could see the greatness of lethargy in her eyes and the fatigue that must’ve been in her mind. She had held her forehead when she sat up and sat up slowly to denote her sluggishness. It didn’t take a genius to figure out she was affected negatively by her use of magic. Then, Noah thought on how it hadn’t been mentioned in the year they were exchanging letters and there was a sense of betrayal in him for his sister not telling him what she was involved in. Caesarion was a user of Reimancy as well, and it was who he thought of when he looked at his sister’s now crumpled frame on the bench.

Alena took a deep breath into his side, her warm breath on his skin, and drew his attention there. Looking down, he could see she was still adequately asleep and was far gone in comparison to his own sleeping, which happened in chunks of chimes and not hours like hers. It was mostly because he felt as if he had to protect her from any perpetrators who may have followed the caravan, though that was unlikely. Stroking her hair again, he looked up to see Elann returning to the wagon and pressing through the flap to appear as a recognizable shadow which walked towards him and Alena.

The girl’s parents were coming to get her in a few chimes. He nodded then shook his head at the offerance of food. “I’m not hungry,” he said. He had eaten a large dinner earlier that evening before the raid, thanks to Elann, and was still too on edge to even think about eating again. “I just want to lie down,” he admitted honestly.

Elann went away again, taking the tent out of the wagon to set up. In the time she was gone Noah waited for her to return and when she did, Alena’s parents were with her. There was an exchange of looks between Emery, Helena, and Noah. Since Noah couldn’t move with ease, Emery scooped Alena up and Helena thanked him for showing their daughter kindness and watching her. Noah figured there was awkwardness in her voice because of how close him and Alena were but he didn’t quite understand why it would’ve been a problem. With them gone, Elann helped him out of the wagon and into the campgrounds where they went to the barely lit tent which turned out to be well lit on the inside.

The migration woke up his dormant and sleeping injuries with irritation but they were soothed again as he lay down the bed Elann crafted for him. Still clothed in trousers, he lay on his stomach with his head resting down on a pillow. The little sleep he got was enough to make him not immediately pass out, enough to keep his buzzing quietly in wakefulness as he watched around the tent and listened intently on what was going on behind the thick walls.

Journey to the East

It wouldn’t be an easy road for Noah to forgive Elann. There had been a lot in him which had been pent up, objections that were made in his own meek way that were ignored. It was what he thought about as she kissed him, and he kissed her in return to cement himself saying she meant a lot to him. Her words, after the kiss parted, fell on his ears and he listened, taking it as another promise of a better road from here on out. In the end, her promises could only be fulfilled by action and it was what spoke readily to him as opposed from words being flung to fill voids of silence. She voiced what was on her heart and he appreciated that. To show his appreciation his other hand came onto her head, fingers in the strands as he usually did when he wanted to show his care for her.

Sometime during the hours Noah fell into a light sleep that he ebbed out of every few chimes, his hands making sure that he still felt both Alena and Elann, his ears making sure he still heard Aimee’s deep breathing not that far away. Each time he awoke the check was made and, in his stillness, his injuries weren’t bothering him considerably. The quiet rumblings of the wagon’s making their way off-road was what woke him again and alerted him to their stopping. There had been a few quiet murmurs heard outside of the wagon, probably the guards and the drivers communicating that they were to be stopping. He was awake now and his eyes fluttered fully open when Elann began to move.

Aimee stirred as Elann rose. The wolf woke up with a throbbing head and it forced her to get up slowly, her hand over her forehead to denote that it ached. Her hands felt cold, tingly, yet numb all at the same time. The hollow in her chest was gone though, and she was grateful for that at least. She loathed waking up to the wagon because all she wanted most of all was the be home and waking up in her bed with her loud siblings and quietly existing mother. Since she did not have that now, she sat up and watched Elann drop down from the wagon.

The wolf hung her head and brought her hand up to push the bulk of her hair back so it wasn’t in her face as she looked to Noah. Their eyes met clearly in the darkness but hers fleeted to Alena. The way the girl was niched into Noah’s side made him seem odd in her opinion but she held her tongue. She knew her brother was holding his tongue in speaking to her and his mind probably whizzed with thousands of questions pertaining to her magic use and more. She waited for him to speak but he didn’t. Looking over to him again, she saw his attention was on Alena and his hand was softly rubbing her shoulder.

Aimee ended up lying down again and turning towards the wagon’s wall, body curling underneath the blanket Elann had provided for her. She was sleep before Elann returned, and didn’t seem to wake for anything thereafter.

Journey to the East

Elann drew quiet and he watched her invisibly writhe in her thoughts. He was quiet in his watching, as he always was, and remained that way even after she looked back up to him. She was petting at his leg, speaking up in a whisper. His name came first, followed by a question that struck a sense of worry in him as well. It was hard to watch her as she brought up all that was on her mind, each word heavier than the last it seemed, and Noah’s hand stopped stroking down Alena’s hair as he drew into a physical and vocal silence with Elann’s promise.

It seemed she came to finally understand the hurt that had been inflicted on him throughout the months, and a few months was a short amount of time in which requests were repeatedly made, seemingly without consideration for the past ones. He didn’t necessarily expect thank yous and commendations, but when so much was asked without pause, it was exhausting and he began to see she didn’t appear to appreciate the changes he had made for her. It was difficult enough adapting to the ever-flowing heavy emotions she often flooded him with. She was an intense creature and he was not, so the load of an overloaded bond and then stress of being asked to continually make progress with no break was too much to bear.

Elann retracted her hands from him and left him alone to think. His voicelessness allowed the silence to creep on into the caravan, only disturbed by the wagon’s wheels rolling over the bare road and the frame creaking when it swayed. The flap was closed, giving them the privacy for this conversation despite two sleeping persons very near. He was still reticent, uncertain if he wanted to speak and answer her words with a confirmation of some sort. He couldn’t hum and say he heard her because nothing would come from it. He wanted to choose his next words carefully because they would hold a great deal of meaning behind them.

Noah’s eyes fell from Elann and went to Alena at his side, his hand resting over her shoulder. He took a quiet breath, saying, “I don’t know.”

It was a simple saying but it was earnestly communicating his not knowing if he held the capacity to forgive her in that moment. Time enough had not passed for him to recover from their last spat, let alone the others preceding what was his final stand against her. He also didn’t know what she could do to earn his forgiveness and overall trust back. The course taken to the destination had been riddled with pitfalls and surprises for him, all emotionally jarring until he snapped as any being would when they felt mistreated. Him snapping brought nothing but an emotional hurt for Elann and then having the argument seemingly turn into the point where he was the perpetrator and not the one defending himself.

“You mean a lot to me,” he voiced, looking up to her again.

It was another statement that meant more than the words would allow. He could explain, and he probably should’ve, but the way he felt would only lead to him stumbling over his tongue. His words spoke of how he hadn’t left her because he clung to the hope things would change or he would learn to overcome his own problematic behaviors in order to spare either of them the breaking of a bond.

Journey to the East

Noah’s hand idly came up to stroke the length of Alena’s hair as she slept. It might’ve been an obsession of his, hair, but he liked the feel of it between his fingers and liked how light and malleable if could be to outside forces. The hair and eyes of others are what he examined first when seeing others for the first time. Hair, like a dog’s coat or a bird’s feathers, told of the health of an individual and the eyes spoke truth more often than not. They were two great indicators for him, and he saw innocence when he looked in Alena’s eyes, her cheer being a great encourager of his mood to act as a distraction from what was around him.

He was able to see Elann glancing at him whenever he looked up from Alena. When he did look at Alena, it was out of admiration and warmth, as those were the emotions that resided in his gut to live quietly with the others of whispering happiness and muttering doubts. He looked up again; Elann was approaching and he followed her with his eyes until she sat near his thigh, whispering. The stroking in Alena’s hair had ceased and his arm rested on her little shoulder.

“No,” he said quietly. “I’ll go to sleep when we stop again.”

Having just witnessed the bandit raid and lived through it, the protective sense in him didn’t want to sleep until he was assured that Alena would be safe. As it were then, she was with him and not her parents even though they weren’t far away. Elann and Aimee showed themselves capable of defending themselves, but Alena was just a child and couldn’t do that for herself. If push came to shove, he knew he would choose Elann over Alena, but since push wasn’t shoving, the little girl was where his protections lay.

The stroking of her hair continued again as he realized his thoughts. There was discomfort enough in him to keep him awake and his mind would calm itself as time went on, even if the process would have been sped up by a good night’s rest. Be that as it were, he was awake because she was asleep and literally leaning unto him for support.

“I’m okay,” he assured Elann once more, looking to the girl at his side before looking back to his bondmate.

Journey to the East

Noah nodded approvingly at Elann doing alright. There seemed to be a great deal on his bondmate’s mind, but unless she divulged it, Noah wouldn’t ask then and there, perhaps later. Elann piped up speaking to both Alena and him, pointing out that she was glad he was walking. He showed the both of them a halfhearted smile. He just wanted to lie down and sleep then, and the adrenaline had long died away, along with the herbal painkiller, so he was standing there throbbing. Noah attempted to ignore it for the sake of Alena and Elann being out and about, but it was becoming a great source of discomfort.

Alena hummed happily in reply to Elann’s question. “He promised to see me when he started walking again,” the little girl said, bringing her other hand up to pat Noah’s atop her head.

Noah forced his smile a little wider as he looked down at Alena and her cheerful voice. His eyes then fleeted to the openness of the clearing where the cremations had taken place. The guards were calling for those remaining to board their wagons because they would be moving within the next few chimes. Noah was glad to hear it and it meant he could rest his strained being.

Alena hummed an affirmative to Elann’s offer, taking a moment to confirm it with her mother before trailing after Noah and Elann again. Helped into the wagon, Noah went far to the front and sat with a pillow pressed against his lower back. Alena trailed after him, sitting at his side with her curious eyes constantly glossing over him. Aimee was the last to come in once the wagons started moving already.

The new rocking of the cart in the dead of night was lulling to the distressed Kelvic whose head was more rolling with the movements, his eyes sleepily closing. He was roused by the touch on his hand, Alena setting hers atop his as she leaned into his left side. He was drawn awake as it seemed Alena was being drawn to sleep. He lifted his arm and brought the little girl closer to him, figuring, like Elann, she would want to siphon from the heat he produced. He was quiet in his fatherly attentions to Alena as she drifted into sleep. Noah reached forward slowly and pulled the fur blanket over him and her legs, looking up to the rest of the wagon when she was adequately tucked in with his gimped arm.

Aimee made short work of falling asleep on the bench, in Noah’s shirt and a few new holes in her tights. The dirk had been replaced with her trunk, but she was lying on her back, her head turned towards the canvas wall. Her deep breaths could be heard in union with Alena’s softer ones. Though he was tired, Alena at his side was keeping him awake and there was a new sense of alertness in him.

Journey to the East

Noah walking with Elann from family to family and battlezone to zone wouldn’t have been favorable to him. He didn’t want to witness her immense love and caring for people who were strangers to him. Atop that, it wasn’t that easy to walk as it were and the raid had done a number on his own stress levels. If it wasn’t for Alena, he didn’t know how he would’ve felt about it all, but the girls cheerful voice despite the destitution around them was uplifting to the Kelvic’s heavy and conflicted heart, which weighed his chest and mood down. Aimee nor Noah were outwardly affected by the death around them. They killed without a second thought to defend themselves and those around them, and they saw death regularly. In their opinions, the bandits got what was deserved and Aimee knew they were with Dira now, about to be judged for their time on the land.

Noah looked up from Alena to Elann as she announced her presence. Still holding the male’s hand, Alena used her other to wave to Elann and greet the Benshira. The distraction Noah had given her from the area around them was enough to keep her mood light. It might’ve been a different story if her father or mother had been killed in the raid but, as it were, they were alive and well.

Noah pulled his hand from the hold with Alena’s and set it atop her head. She drew closer to him, hooking her arm around his leg as he answered Elann’s question: “She's doing alright. She’s happy now.” He looked down to her and she looked up to him, smiling softly. He returned the smile before looking back to Elann. “How are you?” he asked in Common, relieved the bond was lessening in its steady stream of heavy emotions.

Journey to the East

Elann’s need to help others was unfortunate to Noah. He wasn’t so selfish to not want to aid others, like Aimee, but the degree in which Elann did so seemed excessive. To him, it would’ve been more than fine to reside in the company of one another because of what they had witnessed and been through in the raid, and no amount of time in her lingering would satisfy the want within him. Dragged, he went with her to Emery and Alena’s family. Elann had protected them, and so they were okay. Alena was being held by her mother and Emery was assessing all that happened.

Noah all but ignored Emery and his wife, meeting Alena’s eyes as she looked up from her mother’s chest to see the approaching trio. Aimee showed her a smile and checked in with Emery’s wife, Helena, as Alena was set down. The girl came to Noah and hugged him around the legs. He rest a hand on her shoulder and the other on the back of her head, the strands of her hair felt under his burnt palm. There was relief in him to see her alive and a small sense of joy in having her see him walk as he had promised she would see. Like Aimee, Noah ventured to Helena. Alena held both his and her mother’s hands while the male was just looking around as the guards prepared to move again. Aimee talked quietly with Helena while Elann and Emery went about to tend to the grieving, fearful, and wounded. Those who had died were to be cremated, and the guards were going to tend to that.

The chimes ticked by and Noah didn’t stay at Elann’s side. The swelling emotion in his bondmate for all the people wronged by the raid was channeling down their bond and was approaching heights of threatening whelming. Since he was not near her, he could not ask her to close off her end. It was clear what Elann’s priority was, annoyingly enough, but Alena drew his mind away from his bondmate’s actions. As if in shock, she brought attention to his walking and asked how he felt. He answered earnestly, saying he was sad but he felt better. He turned the questions on her, asking how she felt in return. Their conversation went on aimlessly until the fires of those to be cremated were lit and the wagons were being reloaded. In that time, he was waiting for Elann to return.

Journey to the East

Aimee bound towards Elann and Noah. The dirk in her hand was still clean, unused, and was tucked into her palm by the hilt as she jogged towards the couple. Her heart dropped because she couldn’t see Noah from the angle she was approaching. She could see Elann and didn’t see a clear amount of panick in her face that denoted Noah being injured, at least gravely. She came further still and it wasn’t until she saw Noah resting on the ledge of the wagon did she embrace the Benshira in an hold that told of her gratefulness that both of them were alive and relatively well. The same couldn’t be said about the other families, but theirs didn’t suffer any casualties but mentally. The wails made Aimee all the more gratified by Elann and Noah’s safety.

Aimee followed Elann to Noah’s side and peered at her brother concerningly. She placed her dirk on the floor of the wagon beside him and watched him nod, just holding his hand at his side. “I’m fine,” he said, parroting Elann’s concern. He brought his left hand to grasp at Elann, disregarding the discomfort of the burn to physically feel his bondmate’s safety. It wasn’t until the afterglow of the battle did he remember his mother’s story detailing the death of her own bondmate. He didn’t think he could bear to witness Elann’s death. Despite the doubts in mind, he still loved her dearly.

His hold of her was unwavering and solid. The wailing around him communicated that others were not as fortunate as him. His mind drifted to Alena and her family. They were the only others he cared about in the caravan, and if it weren’t for him having had been injured, he doubted he would’ve even cared for their lives either. What mattered to him were Elann and Aimee, and that was all.

Noah felt Elann tug from him and he hesitated to release her. In fact, he looked at her with a deep sense of confusion in his brows. When he looked at her he was all the more reluctant to give her up to the rest of the camp.

Journey to the East

Noah’s face showed his discomfort. The hand holding the gem still crackled alive with energy but the glow had been halved from the radiance it emitted before the lightning bolt was expelled. Noah was taking the glow as an indicator of the gem’s charge and the static around his hand as a display of the next spell’s ready and deadliness. The hand at his side came up to his face as he searched his pale palm for blood. When it came back clean, he nodded to Elann’s words and took a breath. In the distance his sister was still readily protecting a batch of commoners. She was fighting with a guard, her magic and his steel acting as the shield for the batch of people they had in a corner of the camp.

He looked to Elann as her bow strained to loose two more arrows in succession. He watched the projectiles sail through the air to strike at their targets, making them pause and stumble with their new pain before swords were driven through them to their ends. Noah’s eyes went back over the field afterwards, noting the guards were pressing in on the bandits and repelling them. The collection of magic and steel on the trio’s side gave them an added advantage, there was also the fact that divine presences resided over the battle. Zulrav lent his aid by producing winds for Aimee’s magic and the stormgems were invaluable to Noah’s safety.

Noah heeded Elann’s words and found the leader atop his horse, protected by four bandits who were acting as his buffer from the pressing guards. He brought his gem up again and let the lightning erupt from the rounded tip towards the bandit leader. Determined to end the battle, Noah let the gem surge with its remaining reservoir, and watched the bolt, unblinking, as it struck the man in the center of the chest, the impact throwing him off his horse who bolted through the buffering footsoldiers. Noah dropped the now dull stone as the heat from the eruption was enough to scald his hand in that instant. He shook his palm as the shouts of the bandits came and went, a retreat being sounded to their relief.

He looked to his hand in the moonlight and noted the temporary red spot the stone had imprinted on his fingers and palm. The stone’s glow was no more as it lay dully in the grass at his feet. Noah looked up to see the guards chase off the remaining bandits. His left hand went back to his right side, the ache he ignored temporarily to dispatch the bandit leader now coming back. He staggered back to the wagon and rested his bottom on the ledge to catch his breath.

Aimee quelled the flame in her hand and returned the campfire to its natural state. There was a hollow feeling in her chest and a buzz felt in the forefront of her mind. She swallowed thirstily and knew that she was nearly overgiving in her feverish defense of the campers. The guard she fought with clasped his gloved hand over her shoulder and complimented her valiance with a nod of respect. She muttered a thank you but found herself looking more for Elann and Noah. She had barely witnessed the last strike of lightning which streaked out from the wagons, so that was where she went, running in the darkness.

Journey to the East

The humming continued to ring in Noah’s ears as he held one of the gems responsible for the sound. In this newfound trouble, Zulrav had given Noah weapons he could use in his crippled state. The fire erupted brightly several feet in front of them. The horse and thud of the man who was riding it caught Noah’s attention. To the left was the second rider whose horse had barely been controlled and steered. In the midst of battle he was still attempting to keep his terrified horse under the reins. The man who was thrown off got up and attempted to regain his bearings, but Aimee didn’t let him. Her dancer’s grace took her a leap forward as her Res worked through her veins and out of her fingers. The freehand came around and slashed at the air, the gassy Res around her rushing forth in a razor of cutting wind. The razor, barely able to be seen in the darkness, struck towards the disoriented rider. It cut into the ground due to the force behind it and sailed on striking the man across the chest and through his armor.

All Aimee heard was his dying cry and a thud. She took another step, pulling back the remaining Res from her slash of air to be recycled. In the distance, her free hand maneuvered it towards the horseman who was struggling with his mount and that was when the bright flash of light came from behind her, the sound of an arrow being pulled back preceding it. She used the momentary flare of light to sharpen her aim, creating another slash into the air by thrusting her arm in the direction of the rider, slicing him across the back. He finally loosened the reins to his steed and the beast reared so that he, too, fell onto his back. Aimee saw him reach from the ground to stand and it compelled her to mercilessly continued on. She took a third step forward and brought her hand up, ripping the wind upwards, before slamming it down onto the man, the impact of brute force crushing him into total limpness.

Noah rose his arm and stepped away from Elann when she nocked her arrow. The swelling light which emitted as she loosed it had been blinding, and startling, to him as an eagle and he didn’t chance having his vision affected here where he needed it the most in the darkness. When the light died down he turned his attention back to the field. Aimee had made short and magical work of two men and this magic she was using was totally new to Noah. It wasn’t the time to ask questions though, and so he scanned the camp from their side vantage point.

Hiding in the shadows of the trees were a collection of archers firing at random, undisciplined. The fire, glowing stormgem, and holy arrows were making the trio a large and visible target on the field and drew the attention of the archers. Noah watched one quickly nock and loose an arrow towards Aimee since she was the closest and most visible target to them. Aimee’s adept hearing saved her from the blow; she threw her body to the right and out of the way, landing lightly on her feet. The arrow continued on, embedding itself in the frame of the wagon behind the trio’s.

Aimee’s hearing also picked up the cries of a terrified family. In the darkness, she looked to Elann and Noah behind her, dashing off to aid one of the families whose tent was being overran by a bloodthirsty bandit. Smartly, Aimee came upon them and threw her hand out to the campfire, tugging on the already live flame and commanding it to engulf the bandit assailing the woman whose husband had already been slain. One of the children Aimee taught Fratava too was clutched in the homely woman’s arms as the bandit’s body went up in flames. His own screams of blood curdling quality erupted into the air as he threw himself to the ground. Aimee drew upon the already active wind to bring it down once again in the same crushing final blow to silence the man’s yelling. The wolf locked gazes with the woman, whose eyes were stricken with intense fear. It was the young child, a boy, who spoke out and said a thank you in Fratava, knowing that Aimee had saved him and his mother’s life. Aimee nodded and turned her attention to the next tent, another bout of screaming, whimpers, and swords clanging catching her hearing.

With Elann, Noah stepped up behind her and raised the stormgem. His bondmate’s sights were elsewhere and the archers were starting to split their attention between Elann and Noah and Aimee with her conjuration. He caught another arrow being loosed in their direction, aimed for himself. In total chance he raised his free hand and bid Zulrav’s bursting wind from it, sending the arrow unsteady in its flying and forcing it down into the ground before them. In the next action he willed the stormgem alive as he did before and the crackling ensued and enveloped his hand like the last time. As before, he asked the gem to aim for his sights and it did so. This time, instead of leashing a thin bolt of lightning, this one crackled and surged, erupting through the air with little more than intense sizzling. The bolt of white lightning took little less than a blink to reach the archer in question, ending him before traveling to the archer nearest him with the remaining energy of the bolt. Fried, both men collapsed in sequence.

Noah released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and brought his hand to his stitched side, the movements forcing a great ache despite the pumping adrenaline. He groaned and showed the pain in his face, falling back to Elann’s side for as much as it would do to give him a moment’s breath of recovery. Aimee had gone off and he could only see where she was because one of the campfires in his sights turned tornadic as she protected another family with her magic.