Slipping Sands...

[BadInfluence]

The time had come and gone… That foregone conclusion, the inevitable collection, the final bell tolling… He couldn’t help what was going to happen… No more than she could… And no… It was not from lack of trying… It wasn’t the lack of ANYONES attempts… Gods knew they had all tried to keep it from coming around… Sydel… Sybelle… Diovan… Jacob… Ace… Rose… Ryker… Everyone had tried… And in the end… Everyone had failed… There was no spell to stop it, no sacrifice any of them could perform, nothing… Nothing… and? Nothing… So what did they do? They just drew in together, all of them, close as a family… No one left Ace’s house… Everyone was packed in, every room taken up, every child bundled in together with their cousins… It was a hard time… On everyone… It was hard to enjoy the winter snow vanishing as spring came into flower… Hard to not see the blossoming flowers and budding branches and not hate them… Because they told a story of heart break… Of an imminent event that they could not run from… That they could not escape… It was just one hellish day after another… Where you are so glad you have it, and you stretch it as far as it can go, when the markings of twilight are like death keels… Another day gone… And that was how the house counted down the weeks… Then Days… Then Hours…



Hours before Khorn would come to claim what was his…

What was given in exchange for something priceless…

A Princely possession traded away…



He had known it was coming… How each day he got weaker… His glow faded… Even without using magic, with Sybelle and Sydel and… Well… The whole house doing all they could to feed his other needs… To replenish his magical stores through the medium he had always used… There was nothing any of them could do to make it better for him in the end… He was in pain and there was no hiding it. It came out in the way his once golden hair turned to red… And then to Pink… Then white… Slowly every drop of color was drained out of him, like a brush being dragged through clean water, sucking every drop of pigment from a voraciously colorful man… Like watching someone turn to stone or to wax… Then, Christmas day had come, Yule was arrived… With it’s arrival, came his departure from this world, this place of existence… He died, peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by people who had loved him… The family the orphan boy had managed to make for himself, despite the fact he knew nothing of how to make one, or how to even love for so many years of his life…



What no one might have expected was how incredibly vast the ripple effect was… How far the Echo’s of his death would stretch, just how wide, how intense…

It started off with the Villa… The home he and Sydel lived in… The one they took over when they killed the owner… The first man to rape her… It didn’t go up in a pillar of flame… Or salt… It didn’t explode… Or cave in on itself… It just went into smoke… Disintegrated … It faded out into silence as if it were just a heat mirage on the distance, an illusion of water and wind, of heat and sand… As quickly gone as any other illusion could possibly go… Why?... It was one of his gifts to her… To remove any… Every evidence of the bastard that had hurt her when she was just a child…

Her Treehouse… The one in town that she and Caela had grown up in… Was changed… The burned out bark, the charred remains of a house, the dead limbs… Were gone… Replaced… It was something far more beautiful than that decayed husk… The bark was replaced by smooth white birch… On it was carved not in letters but in vines and flowers, the story of their life, Of Caela and Sybelle… Of their loves and sorrows… The biggest points in their life… Their Courage… Their Marriages… Their Children… Grandchildren… Beautiful paintings of them and their families, their children, all came out in the bark… Things that would renew each year, over and over again, evolving with the passing of time… Continuing to tell their story… The leaves were once more whole, though not the color they once were, instead… Every leaf, every petal, every single part of the upper branches were in color… Rainbow splashes of every color one could imagine… The tree that had once housed their nightmares, now housed their realities, the happiness they had found… The colors representing the vivid life they now lead…

Garafin would find a map on his doorstep… Nothing grand at first it would seem, but for a man who had once sailed the high seas, it would be a treasure beyond words… For that map was the location of every place that Nautilous had sailed to… Explored… It revealed places on the map that no one had ever been to before… Had ever seen… It was like a dream come true, so many adventures awaiting the brave and true of heart, and if nothing else… It was the beauty of a world that now… Had all it’s missing pieces but together… For with that map… The entirety of every realm of the Great Tree was now listed, explored, and discovered… On top of that were several little x’s in certain places… Treasures… So should Garafin ever fall on hard times, or need money for what ever reason, there were places for him to find it… To take… To use… A gift from his friend, and his lover, with the heart felt wishes that Garafin find himself happy… No matter what he did.

Ace really needed so little… The man was a King twice over, had a beautiful wife, a handsome lover in Jacob… A family that anyone would envy… Plus he had not only a city and castle, but a house in Arvandor that many would give their eye teeth for, not to mention he was the Chosen of Lady Goldenheart… So what do you give the man who has everything?... You give him what he doesn’t have… Freedom… Ace was given immortality of a sort by Khorn, and when he had broken from Khorn so he could live in Arvandor with his family, he had given it up… Nautilous was giving it back to him. The how and why of it… Was his secret… And something that he took with him when he died…

Rose was…. Given something not to her own hands… Not a gift for her alone per sey… Rather it was a gift shared between Jacob, Rose, and Ace… The truth of what she was and what had happened to her… Locked up in a little vial… Waiting to be played at the right time… For now? They were simply told that… If anything happened to Rose… If they couldn’t heal her… To break the vial and take the information… Because in the end? In that little tube was the secret to her immortality, and should they use it, they would be able to either repair her… Or give her the gift of mortality… That was a choice that would be made some day, but surely, not right now?...

For Sybelle and Diovan he left a joint gift… Not in the form of money but something a good deal more precious. A special gate built near their home in the mountains… A portal that would take them anywhere they wanted to go, be it the surface or to the realm of the dwarves, to Olympus itself… He knew that there would be times when Sybelle would miss the surface… The little house they shared… The strawberry plant and their boat… And he… He wanted to make sure she would have that, when ever she wanted it, when she needed it… Because he loved her that much… Because their memories together were precious to him and he would never, ever forget them, even in the grave…

For Sydel… He gave the most precious thing he had to give… His home… Not the big fat rich places he had… But his true home… Where his hear, his mind, his soul rested… The little cabin that rested deep in the woods, in the place where only she knew, where only she could go… It would not allow anyone else to find it, the wards were so old, so complex… So multi-layered that they would never be broken…And only she was allowed through them. Inside his house was the life of the man… Not the one he pretended to be for pride or honor, not the arrogant peacock everyone knew him as, or the weak man he had become at the end… But the man who he was under all the others… Every secret he had… Every truth… Every hurt… All lay inside that house for her to discover… That one thing that was truly him… The one place that… If anyone were to say could house his soul…. Was it…



And that… Was how it stood…

He had cared for everyone he loved… There was not a person left behind that did not receive some part of him upon his death… Yet he knew it would not ease the agony or the ache in their hearts. He could only hope that what he did… Showed them all how deeply they were loved… Even in his own, unique, and misunderstood way…

[Deleted]

Sydel

…she had tried her hardest.. her damnest to stop it from occurring.. to stop it from happening.. even going so far as to try and make deals.. promises.. anything but it was just not enough ..and on that Christmas eve.. for the most part she had remained awake.. wide awake.. there at his side.. exhausted to her very core.. though flat out refusing to let herself succumb to sleep.. failing in her attempt though.. she toppled.. the stress.. the pregnancy.. it all became just too much for her small slender frame and fragile mine to take.. and she fell unconscious.. enough to force her body to repair.. an in that moment.. in that small sliver of time he was taken from her.. ripped from between her perfectly pale finger tips.. she woke to find him gone.. a piece of her heart forever missing taken with him when he left.. a huge black hole there in her chest and it weighed a tonne of that she was certain.. she fell horribly.. she refused to eat.. refused to speak.. for as much as everyone tried to prepare themselves for this moment.. no one was really ready.. could they ever truly be? It was Diovan and Jacob combined that did all they could to keep her from leaving Aces home.. for in as much as the whole family drew in together she just never truly felt emotion and love in the same way everyone else did.. the whole side of her that did.. was in her lavender ‘sister’.. but she was missing a great deal of it.. just little pieces.. that’s all that remained.. she remained hauled up within the room she was offered.. to the east.. the curtains drawn.. pitch black darkness her blanket.. curled up within a corner.. knees drawn to her chest.. head to her knees.. the children would never go without.. they would simply take from her.. and she herself would suffer over time.. becoming just a little more lighter.. her slender pale white frame just a little skinnier ..she knew he had left her the house.. she had seen the papers.. Diovan had sat down with her and told her..so did Jacob.. but nothing seemed to truly sink in.. grief was for al intents and purposes consuming her



Sybelle

She had struggled with the whole affair.. her love for both brothers was clear.. obvious.. Though Diovan would always hold the lions share of her heart.. the group of them all got together and moved into Aces large mansion like home.. even with all of Rose’s children.. Ace and Jacob.. Sydel and Nautilous there was still room for her and Diovan.. and to all exist quite comfortably.. no one really stood on each others toes.. as Christmas drew near it became apparent that it was nearly the end.. that.. the first man to replace the light in her heart after she ‘died’ was he himself about to pass over onto the other plane.. though it was under such horrible circumstances.. she tried to be strong for Nautilous.. and for Diovan. Though she’d often go and find a quiet place somewhere to just cry.. to just weep.. all the stress and strain just became too much to bare.. she had her babies though and her husband to think about.. her eldest son.. her grandbabies.. all of whom needed support too.. so she weathered through it.. the time came.. and rolled over.. that black cloud settled above the house for quite some time.. many were just so down and the strength needed to summon up a smile sometimes just felt like it was far to great.. though for the children she always would.. for Diovan.. always.. and he helped her a great deal.. allowing her to lean on him.. even though he himself had just lost his brother.. She had seen the gifts that Nautilous had left for her and Diovan.. the porta back to the surface.. so she could go visit that house.. she could see the monster strawberry plant and the boat..often subtly ushering Diovan to go and see if he could settle Sydel whilst she herself would wander off to the surface for some quiet time..


Jacob
The man he knew as his Father was going to die.. the one who had practically helped him become the man he was today.. was going to be leaving.. checking out early and he wasn't entirely sure how to handle that.. it was an ache growing there within his chest that was just growing bigger and bigger as each and every day passed.. he had been quite vocal in making sure everyone settled into the house properly.. that everyone had an area within that whilst cosy and close.. also gave everyone enough room ..enough independence.. he didn't want anyone feeling squeezed and stressed.. the time came and went.. Nautilous had passed and it had such a profound affect on everyone.. Rose his sweet blossom.. even though she had struggled being around Naut at times.. he noticed just how much his passing had upon her..dragging her down.. their daughter struggled.. and it killed him inside.. still he had work to do.. he had his medicine to perform.. his classes to finalise.. and his family to upkeep.. still so young compared to everyone else and yet.. he worked the hardest.

Ace
He took it all in his usual fashion.. stiff upper lip.. it killed him on the inside.. it hurt like a bitch but he wouldn't show it he instead worked hard on the property.. he carved into that garden.. into the surrounding paddocks.. he build structures and helped around the villages .. anything that would keep his mind off of what was happening back at the house.. he admired Nautilous.. always had.. always would.. even when they were on opposite sides of the fence so to speak.. he still held such a high amount of respect for the guy..and now there was nothing he could do to stop it.. much like Sydel he had tried bargaining.. he had tried offering.. all and sundry and yet.. it would seem there was nothing he had that would be of that much value to save the life of someone a great lot of them needed...he tried not to take it out on his beautiful kind hearted wife.. and for the most part he didn't.. but on occasion.. his stress would come out in the way he treated her in the bedroom.. though he'd never ever hurt her.. if his anger got too much he'd bail.. he'd walk out.. he'd remove himself from the picture.. to take that walk.. to let off steam ..the returning of his immortality was welcomed.. it made him feel a lot more like himself.. not quite so vulnerable.. not quite so weak.. something he would for life in its entirety.. thank Nautilous for..

[BadInfluence]

When a Primordial dies, it isn’t quite like the death of a human or an animal, nor like a Drow or Elf in Arvandor… There is no passing of one self into another realm, nor is there a cessation of consciousness as is believed to occur in animals, and certainly no blaze of new life like in the sanguine suicide of a star. Rather… The death of a Primordial is a bit like the death of a plant one might see in an every day meadow… Or perhaps more so like a Mushroom or other fungal form of life… For while the visible part does, in some instances wither and die, such as in Nautilous’s case… That does not mean that he is gone entirely… The core of him remains, without a body, spread out like a million fibrous strands of spider silk… Delicate looking… Invisible unless seen in the right light…. Yet incredibly resistant… Cut a strand of it and yes, the over all image is changed, but the structure remains…



When Nautilous had died, the part of him that was visible passed on, withered and died as the essence of him was drawn back to it’s more basic roots, the formless matter that is in truth all primordial beings in their natural state. Khorn is by no means a predictable Primordial, his favor and his ferocity are known to shift easier than sands on the wind swept dunes of Persia, and by no means does is such a creature bound to hold his word… Primordials break promises just like Humans, after all, and why not? Yet perhaps because of that very same fickle attitude, the fact that so much of the beings mind is consumed by war and blood, might just explain what had happened in the first place. After all, the rules were rather plain, a bit… Surprisingly straight forward for a Deity… Maybe there in lay the crux?



It should be without mystery that there was absolutely, without a doubt, no love lost between Nautilous and Kharn…. And given recent events, Kharn himself has fallen a touch out of favor, after all… Losing the Demi-Primordial Sydel, child of Khorn Himself, well… That does land one up shit creep without the proverbial paddle, doesn’t it? It makes one look… A little closer at previous dealings… Old contracts… Agreements… Acts… After all, the realms were rather busy at each other’s throats, his brothers were busy with their own little agendas… What else did Khorn have to amuse him when everything was running so… Smoothly? It was in these very same conditions that many a favorite had fallen from grace in the service of Khorn, and a Space Marine was no exception, Khorn’s displeasure could at times be…

Absolute.



While going over a certain new arrivals papers, if such things could be called a material item as fragile as pulped up tree corpses, there were several things noted… Work done by Ace and Nautilous, and yes, even his grandson Jacob in the war… Quite a few long lines of death tallies in regards to Sydel as well… All hidden, changed about, switched to Kharn himself to make him look a bit shinier, a little more blood thirsty than perhaps the soldier really was… Now… While a Primordial is free to break his promises to others, it is best not to lie to one, because they hold no such thing in their hearts as Mercy or Gentility… And Never Forgiveness. Kharn had been making a fool out of many, slowly, secretively adding bodies to his pile that were rightfully belonging to others… While this was being uncovered, several other little ticks were showing up as well, the Witches and Psychikers both taking more than a little glee in the tearing down of a former favorite spared no effort in making sure they uncovered every dirty little secret…



And one of them was very…

Very Dirty.



What was it, you might Ask? Rightly so too, for such dirty secrets of this nature are often of the kind that rock even some of the most well set constitutions, or at least shock a few unshockables… Nautilous was, according to the contracts found and called up on, due to return to Naggoth to serve his sentence… Yet there in lies something a little funny… Because many many years ago that ‘debt’ had been settled in the form of an entire races genocide... A thorn removed in exchange for the nullification of said contract. Of course, over time memories blur, become a little dulled… A lot can happen in a persons life, even more so in a set of Primordials playing Chess with the worlds at their fingertips… Still, with such a contract nullified… How does one explain the weakening and then death of a much beloved Primordial?



Easily, it turns out.


Insurrection.


It’s not hard to imagine why Kharn had done it. Remove the threat to a much valued position of rank as well as a rival, it was simply good business, as the saying goes… But saying’s aren’t shields… They won’t cover one’s hide when the shittith hittith the fannith… Until such a time though, Kharns plan had gone off without a hitch, and when December had come and Nautilous ceased to be? All seemed to be going to plan.



Until that first inquiry into things began…

And then it all unraveled from there…

As those in Arvandor suffered their loss, the pain of losing someone dear to them all, things were also being set in motion beneath their feet…



Nautilous came back unto himself… Of a sorts…

Not in a Flash or a Bang…

In a whisper…

….

‘Sydel….’

---

Rose: Things had been hard for them all… Like Jacob she tried to be the glue for their somewhat extended family… Sydel refused to see anyone… To eat or drink anything… Still, she stayed in their shared house and that was what was important, because it meant they were all still together… No one pushed her because they all knew Sydel could vanish as easily as the wind coming and going through the leaves, and no one wanted her to go, so they simply… Held onto the hope… The promise that Nautilous would come back… Which was something she still struggled with… She had a sort of love/hate relationship with the man, which when she thought about it was a little funny, given she was Sydel and Sybelle’s lover and Sydel had been the one to almost kill her when they first met… Nautilous had saved Pia in his own way, had given her Jacob and Ace, and her best friend Sybelle… He had done a lot for her… Yet a part of her… Wasn’t exactly had he was gone… And yet… She could see how her family, this broken, sweet, wonderful thing of hers was crumbling… Sydel and Sybelle… Jacob and Diovan… Ace and their children… Everyone felt his loss… Even she herself did, if she wanted to admit it, because there was no one else she could honestly be… Well… Herself… No one could really understand the mechanical nature of her immortality more than he could, and because of that, only with him did she feel she could really… Explain it… Like when things were breaking inside of her, circuits shorting and fuses blowing, memories fading out or becoming so sharp that the time they occur begins to shift… Nautilous had helped her repair them in a way only he could, and he could understand it, understand Her… So… If she were to look past her dislike for his arrogant attitude, the know it all behavior, the all consuming peacock nature that was Nautilous… Deep down?... They were a lot alike… Two rather broken people who had a hellish childhood and struggled to adjust… Maybe that was why she hated him… They were too similar… Or rather… Why she thought she hated him… Right now… At this point? She would give almost anything to get him back… Jacob was wearing himself out trying to keep his home life and work life balanced, trying to be a father and a husband all while performing his duties as teacher and doctor… He was so young… Too young to be dealing with such a full plate and it killed her to see him… She was the fixer… She made things better… Yet this was like trying to mold smoke… To nail custard to a tree… Impossible… and Ace?... Ace did what he did best… Throw himself into physical activity so his mind didn’t focus on thing’s he couldn’t change… Their garden and the lands around their home were so stunning they were the jewel in Arvandor’s crown, second only to the Crystal Palace of Hanali herself…. His brewery was turning out fantastic whisky in it’s first small batch and it was already a massive success… And when that didn’t help he came to her and they made love like they did in their first months together….Hard and violent, cracked and dented plaster, claw marks in soft wood, shredded dresses and sheets… Teeth marks and bruises, hickies and claw tracks, welts and rug burn… Not that she minded that for a single moment, though she knew he worried sometimes, despite her telling him she wasn’t about to break any time soon… If anything… The return of a viciously delicious fire in their bedroom life was the only upside since Nautilous died… Like the rest of them she kept busy… She had her work at Temple as well, her duties to perform, her quickly growing children who were hitting that age where it was a wild goose chase to keep up with them… Unlike Sybelle and Sydel and their pregnancies, her’s was silent… She still wasn’t showing, no kicks or flutters, no turning and uncomfortable pushing from inside… If not for the very slight traces of certain chemicals in her blood it would be easy to think she had never been pregnant at all. Because of this though she had taken up Ace’s habit of jogging… Of course… It was on this one particular morning, the sun was as of yet still not fully arrived, that gloaming between dusk and dawn when the world is hanging on the scales of light and dark…

She found him…

Or rather…

She fell right over him.

Tripped, really…

---

Diovan: He had come back to fetch something from the house for Sybelle, something about needing to prune back the strawberries before they went too wild, and that was when he felt it… Sort of like that shock you get when lightning strikes near by, the crackle of burnt ozone, the acrid sting in one’s nose… He just knew what it was, despite having given up that part of himself long ago, it was impossible to miss the return of someone who had been gone for months and left the world utterly bankrupt of any joy in the wake of such a departure… It wasn’t long after he began to search that he caught sight of a little sparrow making a bee line for his head like it harbored some sort of malicious intent… Only one person besides his Starlight love could master paper craft like that, and that was his daughter in law, and given the speed and intent of said little bird… He had a feeling he wasn’t the only one who had picked up on it… Had anyone else? Or was it one of those things where you just had to be in the area? Or come out in the right time? He had no idea, but he did know there was no way he could wait, no possible chance he could miss it… Sybelle and Sydel, his beloveds, his Wife’s… They needed Nautilous back as much as he needed them, and deep down, he needed his brother too. When the bird failed to land but rather flew right into his forehead, he didn’t even mind the stab of a sharp paper beak, rather he grabbed it and read what was detailed on the page… A rough location but one he knew well enough, with the plea to bring a horse and Sydel, not to waste a moments time…

…..

---

Nautilous: He hurt…. EVERYWHERE. It was like his body had been forced through a rapid growth from the bones on out, like someone had shoved glass into every fiber of his body and bones, like barbed wire where his nerves should be…. Breathing… Hurt. Thinking…. Hurt. Every pulse of his heart, alien and unusually fast, felt like a sledge hammer into those shard coated ribs… He couldn’t explain it but just… Existing? Was agony… It was like being born in reverse through some wicked sort of bubbling acid bath… Where was he? Was he still in Arvandor? Or had he been dropped on the surface? He knew he wasn’t in Naggoth, that much was certain, though he had a feeling the pain he was in was because of that damn place… But that was neither here nor there, was it? All he knew was that aside from the few random thoughts?... It took all he had to breathe… To just remember to work his lungs in and out… In and out… Breathing was some damn hard work… Though it got a lot harder when a deer ploughed over him… Something ran right into his legs, or he thought they were his legs, though they weren’t moving so he couldn’t be sure… They sure as hell didn’t jerk or recoil like they normally would… Something to think of later… For right now… Just breathe through the pain… And that was all he remembered before pain knocked him into blessed oblivion.

[Deleted]

Sybelle
/Sydel
…Diovan was her heart.. her first love.. her missing piece.. he cared for her like none other did and she knew he would do anything for her..anything without question.. his devotion was unyielding.. she had asked of him to collect something for her.. that those strawberries were growing wildly and required a little more pruning before she too felt it.. a sudden shift.. something had happened.. it was like a tug upon her person.. as if someone had an invisible rope about her frame and they gave it a pull.. enough to make her catch her breath.. to make it hitch there against the back of her throat before she sunk down into her seat ..her hands gracing her lap there… fingers curling inward.. wringing out the handcloth she had been using to dust lightly along the stone mantle.. before she knew it he was there.. standing in the doorway of that large white mansion.. – So its true.. then? –she asked tentatively .. waiting for his confirmation .. chewing there on the corner of her lip.. she was..perhaps cautiously optimistic.. very cautiously.. she told him to fetch the extra horse.. she would get Sydel.. nodding her head a little as she made her way up to the corner room.. quietly entering the blanket of darkness.. slippered feet barely brushing against the polished boards as she came across the frail figure curled up in the corner.. she plucked up a rich thick velvet rug.. siding it about Sydels frame before she gently helped her to her feet.. Sydel was slipping in and out of consciousness.. mostly from lack of sleep.. her mind running a mile a minute forcing her to remain awake..she slid her arm about Sydel.. baring the brunt of the weight.. what ittle there was whilst the two of them walked down to the lower level.. a pair of beauties though one would forever look incredibly pale in comparison.. especially when standing beside her coloured ‘sister’. She waited there upon the front step.. drawing her sister in close.. for her sweetheart to come around with the second horse.. those duo coloured eyes settled upon his features as he came around.. she moved across- .. You’re stronger than I am.. mmhmm.. you best hold her..Ill take the second horse.. and follow..-she took a breath.. moving to make sure Sydel was secured with him and that big red blanket.. whilst she saddled up and moved in to follow soon behind them both.. Sydel’s head came down to rest there upon Diovans shoulder..her soft cool skin quite a contrast against the heat of his.. she seemed to calm a little in his grasp.. just a little.. -

[BadInfluence]

Nautilous:

Yes, he was back, there was no doubt about it… The pain was far too uncomfortable for it to be a fragment of a dream or perhaps something else of that nature. True, when he had been down in Naggoth, there had been a Bride or two who had taken their shots when he was in limbo… The pain of that sort of torture and torment though, well, it feels a bit different… He also had a bloody slew of messages from them to pass to Sydel, her rank and newly discovered lineage stirred up some old grudges and angers, and his rather unfortunate self had been made into a sort of personal post it for them… Would he ever get them back for it though? That was impossible to say. He knew things were…. Different… Ok… Not different… Down right twilight zone funky… He’d never felt so weak, even when he had been for all intents and purposes, dying… What was going on? Fuck if he knew… Fuck a lot of things really… At this point though his mind was a little preoccupied with the pain of being moved… Someone was poking him… Or Gods… Let it be a some one, and not a some thing, those fucking Psychikers were sick little sons of bitches… He pushed that memory away rather violently, moving back on to the reality at hand, or what he hoped was reality… It would be a while before he could really distinguish anything, be it reality from fantasy or even his reflection, what a fun road that was going to be… Back to the presumable present… It seemed to take almost all his energy not devoted to breathing to crack an eye open, though when he did he half wanted to laugh, which for him and all things a damn welcome change compared to what he had been through recently… Rose was squatting beside him in her runners, finger to his cheek, and yes…. She was poking him. Out of ALL the people to find him, she would be the only one who wouldn’t be jumping for joy, but rather debating if he was worth dragging home or burring him somewhere near by… Not that he blamed her. It was just their… Thing… He wanted to tell her to knock it off, that he wasn’t a banana slug that was going to hustle on out of her way with a few jabs, though Gods knew even that little finger of hers felt like a foil rather than a soft manicured digit… Speech at the moment was beyond him though, like everything else it seemed, because though he could feel everything to such a level that it hurt like a son of a bitch… He couldn’t react to it. He couldn’t so much as move his pinky toe, let alone a hand to swat her away, which he wanted to do with a rather grand passion at the moment… Still, she stopped prodding him once he managed to crack a bit of his eye open, green to…. What used to be blue… Though what they were now? Fuck if he knew. He heard her sigh and get up, a flare of magic on his nerves that was like a salt bath after being dragged through a razor pit, and he was blacked out again…

Diovan:

It hadn’t been easy for anyone in the house really… Their son Jacob had been trying to step into Nautilous’s shoes and become the glue, and though he loved him and respected the attempt, it was an ill fit… Jacob was a husband and a Father, and he needed to be those things first, and realize that… Sure, his family was a little bent, a little broken… It would hold together… His son was pushing himself too far, spreading himself too thin, and it worried him… Could he tell that to Jacob though? Not on your life… They were all doing things to try and push themselves into forgetting, or rather, trying to just do something to pass the time… To wait for the missing family member to return… Of course it had been months… Longer than any of them expected… Yet they would all wait far longer for him if needed… That wasn’t the point though admittedly… Of course all this was stuff and dust when he got the beak to the head, the note with the information from Rose, the location to arrive at… It was just like his brother to do it that way though wasn’t it? Catch everyone with their pants down so to speak! So he had told Sybelle the news and it seemed to just flower from there, and given the portal was right by their house, it was no issue at all to gather up the things needed… Two horses, a carry gurney for the back of the horse for his brother, and a small medical kit… Rose was there after all, and Jacob had been working with her for some time, so if there was any pressing need she could tend to it… There didn’t seem to be any pressing need for anything else… As Sybelle went into the house to get her other half, he made sure they had everything they might need, medkit and blanket and the like… When Sybelle handed Sydel off to him… He felt that same sort of panic and fear that always hit him when he saw her… He was convinced she was dying, though everyone else told him that it was not so, Sydel was made of sterner stuff… But convincing him otherwise so far had failed… He couldn’t do it… He couldn’t think she would be ok… Not without his brother… Those two were like a heart and body, one perfect being together, but shattered apart… Was he jealous? Perhaps a little… That was something to deal with at a later time though… He made sure Sybelle was comfortable atop her horse, safe and secure before he would hold Sydel in his arms and use a near by stump to get them up into the other horses saddle, grateful to feel her relax against him… If only a little… Was it because of who he was to her? Or was it more because, in him, there were traces of his brother? Was it because he had a somewhat duller, more watered down version of the same spark his brother had? He would never ask… The answer wasn’t really worth the sharp stab he might feel depending on the outcome… Besides… It was all going to be better soon, wasn’t it? His baby brother was finally back where he belonged… But in what state?... That was another bag of worms without a doubt…. Rather than let any of that show, he fell back onto his regular rescue routine, Captian of the Moonlight Tryst through and through… He was confident… In control… Sure of success… It would put those around him at ease… They would be off in a flash, though far from rushed or hurried, Sydel and Sybelle were in a delicate condition and there was the invalid bed to consider as well… Still, they made great time, fantastic really… It was then that they would come upon the scene of…. Something unexpected… Nautilous was there yes but… He was… Not himself… He was covered in scars… Some old, some new, some barely healing as they watched… Worse than that was the general look of just… How to explain it… It was difficult for him to comprehend because the man on the ground before them was so very far removed from the man they knew that… He was struggling to admit they were the same… Nautilous looked… Emaciated… There was no full, fit figure there, no God like body… Just a skeletal frame wrapped in dry, scarred skin… A prisoner of a long, ugly, cruel war where the country couldn’t afford to care for those they took… He had seen it before… In the Drow that sometimes escaped… The lucky souls to make it to the sun from a hell he could only imagine existed in the subterranean realms… He half wondered if his brother was even Alive… Could Sydel handle the sight? Could Sybelle? Sadly, he had no way to spare them the sight, as they were all coming to it at the same time… He dismounted first, Sydel left in the front of the saddle until he could carry her down, keeping her in his arms until they were by his brother…. A few words exchanged between him and Rose, if only to confirm he was alive and kicking, though the kicking part might be in question… Rather, if there would be any kicking at all ever again…* “Rose says he can’t move any part of his body… Nor can he speak despite being able to read pain in his nervous system… He is conscious though, she said he responds in small ways, mostly the fluttering of his eye lids…” *He then moved to lift his brother as gently as he could, appalled at how easy it was, how small his brother had become… Sydel had more meat on her than he did… Smelled better too, but that… That was something they would also figure out in time… Right now all that mattered was that he was back, he was alive, and he was going to be ok… Or… So they could all hope… They had him loaded up onto the bed, smothered in blankets, Sydel as well if she chose to ride with Nautilous… If anything she seemed to help him… His breathing sounded less laborious around her than without… All the while Rose was sending off birds like some sort of spring fairy, one to Ace and one to Jacob, one to the hospital… One to her favorite grocer… One to Aysil who, with Pia, would be the help mates to Rose as the house was quickly about to become a hive of activity…


Rose: It’s not a terribly comfortable thing to catch your feet on something while jogging… Even less so when you nearly face plant into the ground, only catching yourself on your hands and turning it into a tumble, sparing yourself and your possible children any injury… She knew this path through the woods, she knew it very well, the last three months had seen her and Ace and even Jacob tracking through it. It had caused a light trail to become rather defined, and even somewhat popular among those who decided to take up the habit, though God’s knew that jogging was a rather unusual thing for an elf to do… Many chalked it up to a surface thing as the three of them had all spent some time there in their lives, which in a way gave the act itself a certain sort of charm, especially among those who longed to visit the surface but weren’t ready for a full transition just yet. Because she knew the path so well, the fact something caught her and took her for a tumble, well that got her attention alright… Even more so when the thing that she thought was a moving root, was in fact a pair of very skeletal legs, something very not belonging in the woods… Had an Elder decided to spend his last night out here? Was she going to be notifying family about the passing of a loved one? It wasn’t exactly unheard of, sometimes the Elders went off alone to make their trip to the far shore, to make it easier on their loved ones… Others had it come on without much warning and took them where they stood… In this case it could go either way, and she was ready to do what was right, at least until she saw who it was… It was shocking to her really, and for a moment she stared down at him in blank wonder, if only because even as she knew who it was she could not force her mind to coerce the two images into one. He was… Not himself but there was no missing who it was either… That face, even stretched out tight like a drum over the skeletal sharpness, the clinging to the skull… It was him… Without a doubt… But… What had they done to him in the last three months? What had he gone through? Would he ever be able to relate it? She squatted beside him, her face damp with sweat, her golden hair in a long braid down her back to keep it out of her face…* “Peacock…” *She asked lightly… No response… Was he playing with her then? She could see he was alive, his chest was rising and falling, though he was also… Whistling… Like it hurt to breathe… Or as if it were hard… The medical side of her, honed to a skilled edge under Jacob’s teaching knew that he was sick, it sounded like pneumonia… Yet she also knew that Nautilous could fake his way into and out of everything, and for all she knew, this was a game of his to make her look stupid. So she poked the dry, leathery cheek for a moment, just to see… An illusion would have fallen apart under the tip of her finger, she would have dispelled it then and there, but nothing changed… So she stopped after the third attempt and began to send off information… The hospital had to be notified of course, she would need medical equipment at the house that she and Jacob did not have, such as respirators and Iv’s… Ace was notified as well, the two were best friends, and her Lion would want to know the moment his friend came back to them… Another to Diovan to make sure he got the girls out here, along with something to transport Nautilous on, and Gods willing… God’s willing his return would put Sydel on the mend and bring her back to them… She was terrified for her friend though she never showed it... Of course one to Jacob to let him know his second father was back and that they would have a bit of a task ahead of them to get him back on his feet… Pia and Aysil were notified, Aysil had felt in some way like this was her fault, what had happened to her father was because of their fight… Which was the last thing either of them said to each other… It had plagued Aysil to no end… It ate away at her like it did her mother, and she hoped that now, well now they might both start to get better… Pia and Aysil were to fetch from the local grocery mart everything on the list provided for them, and to bring it home straight away, and to start a few things for her. Pia knew her mothers kitchen and had her skills at the stove, through her small frame was still a little too short and beautifully childish for her to be allowed to work without supervision or help, which was where Aysil came in… She knew the two of them together would manage beautifully… Garafin had the triplets today along with Aylan, Grandma and Grandpa duty so to speak, which meant they were all out on the sail boat with the weather being so fine later today… Both the infants, Caela’s child and Marabelle’s were currently at the hospital with Mina as they had both come down with colic and a slight fever due to the weather change, nothing to be worried about there… Which left her a bit more room to work in than she would have had otherwise… The world was changing again, a missing piece was found, returned… Though they certainly had a bit of work ahead of them before the piece fit like it used to… She waited by Nautilous until Diovan, Sydel and Sybelle arrived, relaying the bit of information she had gathered… Magic seemed to hurt him in his current state, which given that Arvandor was basically run on magic, it was no wonder he was showing all the signs of pain to her… After her first quick scan and all those pings?... She couldn’t stand to do another one on him, so if there was something deeper, something hidden that she hadn’t picked up on? It was just going to have to wait a while to be found… She watched as Diovan loaded his brother lightly onto the frame, Sydel being tucked it along side him, the both of them under the blankets… Sybelle and Diovan would then head back to the house they all shared, she was confident that the medical equipment was on its way there as well, along with Jacob and Ace she was sure… She could hang back a little while… Keeping a soft smile on her lips as she watched everyone head off… Waiting for the silence to return to the woods and the trail… It felt like hours before she was able to drop the smile… And promptly, violently sick into a bush for what seemed like forever, breakfast and dinner both deciding they didn’t want to hang around anymore… When it passed she was shaking and sweating, washing her mouth out with a bit of water from the bottle on her hip, swishing it about before spitting it into the bushes… Poor things… The trail was going to have a certain aroma this morning for sure… What had made her sick though? She hadn’t had a single moment of nausea since that one morning when they were on their way out to Silverthorne… She was resting against the tree, waiting to cool down before heading back, her feet sure on the trail though her eyes peeled to make sure she didn’t find any other moving roots… When she arrived home she sought out Jacob immediately, one to go over what he thought about Nautilous and their possible plan of treatment, and the other about her little… Accident in the woods…* “I haven’t been sick in over half a year or so now… Not since the trip… When I found Nautilous I suddenly felt incredibly queasy and once they were gone I was ill… Do you think it’s something he brought with him? Something that might effect the children or Your mothers? Did you feel anything?” She would ask, the two of them in the vacant silence of his personal study, her concerns for the family clear on her face… Before she seemed to be taken over by something… Another wave of nausea? She reached for Jacobs hand and pressed it to her belly, still slender and flat, smooth beneath her shirt… His hand was flat against her bare skin… There it was… The tightness that wasn’t there before… A hardness… Then against his hand… A very strong, solid, insistent kick…



The news spread fast, even those who were only lightly associated with the Ruivendil’s family were abuzz at the information, though few knew the whole story behind it. Gifts began flooding into the house as if a dam had busted, rare herbs for medicine and special spices to perk up one’s appetite, soft robes and blankets for someone on the mend… The Hospital, under Jacob’s direction as the head doctor, had improved exponentially when he took over the position. So much so that they were quickly climbing the ranks as the best hospital in all the plains, of course that might be slightly exaggerated, or it might be true? All that could be said of it at the moment was the fantastic response time, for once she had gotten home from the woods to speak to Jacob, there was already a massive conversion going on…. Sydel’s room went from a rather bare space in the house to a virtual miniature hospital in and of itself, the bed was taken out and a new one put in with adjustable settings, dressers were topped with medical devices should any sort of emergency occur… An icebox was put in with fresh blood should a transfusion be needed… Though if it ever got into his body would have to be seen…. And if it did… How would it get into him? There were several clip boards now for medical notes, a white board for working out ideas, and the persistent hum of magically powered machines… Filters and respirators, humidifiers and pulse readers, the works… Nautilous would be set down in the middle of all this in the large bed, Jacob and Rose on either side of him, hooking up IV’s and feeding tubes because it was clear nourishment was needed… Monitors were attached to his fingers and chest to read his pulse beats, should anything ever happen an alarm would sound, and they would be able to handle any emergency that might arise… He was in the best hands that love could provide, the people who missed him the most were all around him, and his beloved Sybelle and Sydel were right beside him… Though Sydel was in the bed with him and refused to budge so much as a hair from where she had settled…

Yet what else was going on at this time?

Had Nautilous been Returned? If so… Why? For what Reason? Would anyone ever know?

What of Kharn? His betrayal? Khorn’s Vengeance would not be easily slaked…

Kharn had been caught out on adjusting many contracts and paperwork… Lies upon lies… More deceit and betrayal, signs of cowardice… And…. One might be asking themselves right this very moment… Who was the one finding these things? Who was, in a sense, the saving angel of Ace, Nautilous, and Sydel? Who was uncovering these secret plots to keep everyone in debt? In disfavor? Who had shown the Taint that Khorn had against them was unfounded? For surely it was not Khorn himself. What sort of a Primordial would do work as such? It was menial and beneath such a being… So then who? Not a bride, surely? Why would a bride do anyone any favors? Their entire existence is built around torture and torment, self serving and self reliant, without a selfless bone between the lot of them… Psychikers and Bloodletters? Never… They weren’t in a position to even look at paperwork, let alone read it, they simply followed orders like all good tools…

So then…. Who?

The realm beneath Arvandor was not at peace… Not that such a place as Naggoth ever could be, but even for them, there was a sort of madness abounding…

Someone had fled… A very important someone with what could only be called a group of underlings, some of the lowest of the low, even for Naggoth…

Kharn knew his time was limited and, with what he had stolen, he ripped open a portal to a realm of his own design… Still, even with the stolen power, the theft of something that belonged to another… He had no true skill to wield it, at the end he was just another foolish human hungry for power, a space marine out of his depth…

In Kharns own foolish pride and ego, he created what could only be called a shadow realm, neither real nor imaginary… A place between realities that spilled over into multiple realms and alternate dimensions, out of reach for Primordials and yet… Open to others… If one knew where to look… To find the hidden keys… To know where the Doors were… Were there any who knew of such a thing? If so… Would they ever share the information? Why? Why would they know? That was perhaps a concerning thought in and of itself…

With Kharn there went a group of killers… Those who were… perhaps… Stolen prizes? Things he had taken from Khorn? Perhaps contracts taken out in on own but with the lie of being under The Blood God?

Riveroron… Maela… Dravanos…

Those were the prime three… The heads of the Dragon, they were called, and a nastier group of killers in any realm would be hard to find… And of course… One other… A bride… A special Bride… A Bride which… If things got too tight… Would provide the perfect bargaining chip…

Aeson’s Koehlers very own Mother…

What other hells might be found in this shadow realm? What sort of beasts and monsters would exist in a place created by a power that the wielder has no true grasp on? Would anyone find out?

[Deleted]

Sybelle:

She could tell.. from the look on his face that he was worried.. he was so very concerned for Sydel.. she knew her husband thought Sydel was going to die.. but she was sure.. deep down within herself that no.. that was not going to happen.. there was a link there.. all be it light, all be it small.. and from her side not near as strong as Sydels was with her.. but.. whilst she knew Sydel was weak.. she knew she was still living.. and that the children were thriving.. she just needed to eat.. something she knew full well was not about to happen.. try as they all might have.. Sydel would just not take anything from any of them.. the trio were off on their way.. horses saddled up, she watched as he picked up Sydel as if she were made of spun sugar.. before they would be off on their journey.. it wasn’t too far.. and whilst they couldn’t take off in a grand hurry they still arrived shortly there after.. spotting Rose.. she tilted her head..sliding down off the beast there as she cautiously made her way over to Rose there.. her gaze those duo coloured orbs settled upon the honey haired beauty.. listening as the information was relayed.. the problems with magic use and how it seemed to be affecting him in only the worst possible way.. her gaze finaly fell to the shell of Nautilous.. she audibly gasped.. her hands rose to cover her mouth.. she was visibly in shock.. her shoulders sunk.. he looked so very ill.. upon the verge of deaths door.. with perhaps even two feet in the coffin so to speak.. her brows furrowed and her eyes welled up.. she felt so many conflicting emotions.. the desire to want to run in and cradle Nautilous.. to make sure he was on the mend and that he wasn’t going to go anywhere.. and then of course the fear.. that something was so gravely wrong.. she reached and grasped her dear sweethearted husband Diovans hand.. her soft warm fingers curling around his as she held so tightly.. drawing her bottom lip inward to chew upon it.. – ..he has to be ok Diovan.. –she curled into his side there for a moment longer before releasing her hold so he could go and pick up his Brother.. she moved to Rose’s side..watching from a little bit of a distance..seeing Diovan settle the very frail body of Nautilous onto the cart.. the quilts.. the velvet soft blankets.. Sydel being settled down soon there after.. she lingered there with Rose for a little bit longer.. giving her hand a small squeeze before she got back up onto the horse with Diovan.. the cart horse knew precisely where it had to go and didn’t require a rider.. she cured in so close to Diovan as they rode back to the property.. a little quicker this time though making sure the cart remained in sights.. before they arrived to everyone else following soon behind.. it would seem word travelled extremely fast..she slipped down from the horse.. allowing him to help Nautilous onto the property.. she herself helped her ‘sister’.. she herself not being extremely strong but with Sydel weighing a lot less than normal it wasn’t too bad.. thankfully the room was on a lower level.. she followed on behind Diovan.. noticing the room was still being set up.. a few more nurses heading out as equipment was put into place.. the bed was larger than she was sure she had seen.. watching then as Nautilous was placed down upon the bedding.. beeps and sounds were heard as a nurse or two hooked Nautilous up to this and that.. to make sure he was able to breathe.. that his temperature was not to high or too low.. she waited until she was motioned toward before she would help Sydel across to the bed there.. the thin though warmed covers were brought up over the pair.. taking a few steps back then.. gripping the wrist on her other hand.. scratching lightly at the skin.. it was frightening to see them both there in such poor condition.. she was worried.. it was easily readable on her features as a few tears tumbled down her cheeks..-



Sydel:

The first thing she felt was the shock of the cooler air outside.. she hadn’t left the confines of her room in quite some time.. it was enough to make her take a sudden breath.. to feel a soft delicate shudder creep across her soft perfectly pale skin.. and then it was him.. his scent caressed her senses.. she was being lifted up onto the horse.. and she curled in closer to him.. her head to his shoulder.. she calmed.. she relaxed a little more.. was it because it was him?..was it because she had gotten so tired.. so weak that she couldn’t fight it anymore.. or was there more to it.. she murmured when they rode.. feeling the bumps even though they were slight ..before they came to a slow..he pulled away from her and she leant down against the beast.. her head resting to the mane ..she could hear voices.. echoed though she was unable to pick up on what was exactly being said.. before she knew it however she was being pulled down.. she whined softly.. those slender pale fingers curled inward.. gripping as best she could before she was drawn across to where everyone was.. she blinked a few times.. all in effort to focus her vision.. she could make out the curved silhouette of Rose.. her soft youthful features .. Sybelle her ‘sister’ her sweethearted self standing beside her..and then another figure.. laying down upon the ground.. she blinked several more times.. before realisation would dawn on her.. it was him.. it was really him.. a shell of his former self.. but.. he was there.. it was her Nautilous.. there upon the ground.. her heart just about broke free of her chest.. she gasped.. her knees gave out from beneath her and if it weren’t for Sybelle she would have easily toppled..she watched through clouded vision as Diovan picked up Nautilous and moved him across to the cart.. she herself was helped over to it soon after.. though when she was lifted she pulled away.. weak though she may have been she used what strength she had left to pull herself up onto the cart herself - .. Naut? –she’d whisper crawling up the cart there before she layed down beside him.. her body curling onto its side.. her head to his chest.. she’d be quite cool to his skin.. her fingers clutching him.. clinging to him.. holding him so tightly.. or well as tightly as she could.. the blankets were placed down upon them and they made their way back to the property..she nodded off.. she just toppled down into the awaiting grasp of sleep.. even when she was lifted from the cart she didn’t wake.. being placed into the bed.. still unconscious.. though breathing perfectly fine.. when she was placed into the bed with him she instinctively curled in close once more.. –



Jacob

He had actually fallen asleep at the hospital.. having pulled an almost all nighter.. supervising a priority surgery with his new staff. Making sure everything was done properly ..he was burning the candle at both ends that much was clear and obvious.. so he was woken with quite a start when the sudden shock of magic from his beautiful wife took him by surprise.. he lifted his head.. taking in a breath .. the words.. the urgency hit him.. he toppled back off of his chair.. landing with a groan.. his glasses sliding down from his face ..he rubbed his head.. dragging himself to his feet.. straightening himself out ..he strugged to believe the information he had been given.. but he knew his wife would not kid around with this.. it was the man he knew as his Father for such a long time.. he threw around a few orders.. making sure the equipment that she had asked for was on its way.. swiftly.. before he himself would move to step out and quickly make his way to the property.. sliding on his jacket.. his glasses back upon the bridge of his nose.. he managed to get to the estate before anyone else.. swinging open the main doors nice and wide ..dropping his bags he moved through the halls.. making sure any staff that were on the property were well prepared.. the bedroom was opened up.. the larger bed in place.. a little magic here.. a little there.. and everything was arriving his poor heart was beating harshly there within his chest.. thumping away.. he wiped his hand across his brow there.. hearing the horses coming up to the front gates.. the nurses bringing in the machinery.. he opened up his medicine bag.. pulling out his implements.. his medical supplies.. before he turned to see his Father standing in the doorway.. holding onto a very emaciated Nautilous.. his mouth dropped open.. his hand rose to clutch at his chest- Oh good goddess! –he exclaimed.. motioning for Diovan to bring Nautilous in quickly.. he pulled back the covers on the bed.. watching as Nautilous was placed down upon the bed.. he motioned for the nurses to move in.. to begin hooking him up gently.. oh he was nervous.. a little bit frightened.. extremely worried .. but he knew better than to allow it to show.. his heart sank when he saw Sydel being brought in.. looking as weak as she was.. before she too was placed down upon the bed.. the two of them curling in close.. the covers were brought up a little ..he rolled his neck ..turning to Sybelle then.. taking her hands in his.. he gave a gentle squeeze.. reassuring her.. seeing that she was breaking down inside.. he offered a nod of his head to Diovan.. respect was clear.. thanks was even more evident as he tapped his chest there.. before he glanced toward his wife.. noting something was not quite right.. his brows furrowed.. he moved to the side there.. into the slight alcove.. - ..whats wrong sweetheart? –he’d question.. his warm hands coming down to cradle her cheeks.. lightly brushing against the softly cooled skin.. he listened when she said she hadn’t been sick in over a year.. he nodded his head.. he had been watching her closely.. and had been worried for quite some time.. though his brows furrowed when she mentioned how she got suddenly quite ill ..asking if it was something Nautilous had brought with him.. that could affect the children.. he glanced toward Naut then.. toward the two of them curled up on the bedding.. he shook his head.. reaching around to scratch lightly against the back of his neck- .. I cant make any proper educated guesses as I haven’t had a chance to look him over.. nor do I know the circumstances of his return.. whats happened?.. you’re worrying me.. –his eyes widened a little.. his hand rose.. he brushed the back of his hand across her forehead before she suddenly shifted.. reaching down as she took his hand.. he felt the softness of her skin before there was that sudden tightness.. and then that strong solid kick..his eyed widened considerably.. his mouth dropped open and his breath audibly caught- Oh good goddess Rose!.. Oh wow.. there is no way to have missed that.. –he looked up to her.. his eyes a little watery there as his lips curled into a smile-.. there’s no doubt there what so ever.. none.. no matter what the tests have said..

[BadInfluence]

Diovan:

It was hard not to be worried, really, there were so many reasons for it… True, he held most of them on the inside, kept them from coming out and becoming a burden to those around him… Repression at it’s finest really, and though far from healthy, it was better than the alternative. Like Jacob, the two had soldiered on in silence, keeping their own concerns and worries to themselves… Though he more than Jacob perhaps, if only because he had no Rose to lean on, as Sybelle loved Nautilous deeply and the relationship was… A little… Different in that regard. Telling Sybelle his inner thoughts on things wouldn’t do his precious little billy button beauty any good… So he just kept it inside… However, upon arriving at the scene, seeing his brother look like a roughed up and beaten Prisoner of War… It was impossible to hide everything… Perhaps because he had been worried nearly out of his mind for Sydel for weeks now? She was his Mistress and his Wife, for all intents and purposes, not to mention the mother of his children… She was never terribly soft to begin with, she would always run a little leaner than Sybelle, and when Nautilous vanished… She went from being quite slender to down right bony… No one pushed her to anything, no one wanted her to vanish if she felt pinned in a corner, but it didn’t mean they weren’t concerned… She had gotten thinner and thinner, paler than ever, and nothing anyone tried did a lick of good… Seeing them both together now… Nautilous and Sydel there on the gurney… They looked like a virtually matched set… Just ghosts of former selves… Rose was there, talking to him, but…. Hanali forgive him, he only listened with half an ear, he couldn’t get over what he was seeing…The only upside besides finding his brother again… Was that Sydel was rousing herself… She had refused his help to get down from the horse, she had done it on her own and gotten into the stretcher with Nautilous on her own power, her own accord… Which thank the Pantheon for it because it was the one sign he had seen since his death that she was going to be ok… He held Sybelle when she came to him, knowing that she had suffered quite the shock, his strong warm hands cradling hers lovingly… Supportively…* “I know he will be… He just cheated death… The Reaper wasn’t about to let him go easily sweetheart… He’s strong… Just a little bent up after coming back… We’ll have him right as rain in no time… With you and Sydel mothering on him, he could be dead and you two would bring him back to life, I bet my bow on it…” Plus Nautilous was about to have the best of the best care than anyone could provide… Jacob would be his full time Doctor, Rose his head nurse, and then everyone else on top… He would be spoiled rotten without a doubt, and probably get fat as a hog with everything everyone would be cooking up for him. Spoiled git. Still… If anyone deserved it, Nautilous did, because when he left they all saw just how much he meant to them… The glue he provided… He released her hands when she went to Rose, letting the two talk about what they would, giving them their space… When it came time to go, everyone was loaded up where they wished, blankets wrapped about tight and warmed, secured with a few straps to make sure no one went for a tumble… He held Sybelle in his arms as they rode back together, talking to her quietly, words just between the two of them… “He might have magic sickness… I haven’t seen it take on anything this bad but it sounds familiar… It’s like a curse gets put on you almost, and it just drains you out until you have nothing left. If you make it out, it’s a long, rough road to recovery… They do recover though, just like he will, he’s too stubborn to die.” He had a girl in his company get it once… She spurned the wrong warlock and he cursed her, and she had a hard time of it, without a doubt… Any magic was painful to her, even something as small as a mage light was like breaking bones to her. Her own magic even hurt her as it was drained off… She had lasted about six weeks before it ran it’s course and she got on the mend… Of course, she still had side effects, little flare ups of the curse now and then, certain advanced magics gave her a migraine for instance… But other than that… She was ok… He believed the same for his brother… He would make it out… He would get on the mend… They just couldn’t use magic around him… Simple enough, right? Arvandor’s medical unit dealt in magic and non-magical services, and a lot of the things he needed to get better, they had machines for… It wouldn’t be too hard… Right? He had to believe that… He had to put his faith in the skills of others right now… When they arrived at the house it was already a hive of activity, medical equipment and nurses, tubes and wires and all sorts of gee gaws he didn’t know heads from tails on… His brother was put into the larger than average bed then, Rose must have known Sydel would have been stuck to him like a Siamese twin, needing the extra space… Wires with pads and caps were placed on him here and there, all around Sydel so there wasn’t much interference or worry about things being ripped off accidentally… The heart beat was there… Strong and regular as it always was… Probably the only thing about his brother that hadn’t been changed drastically… When Sybelle started to cry, albeit silently, he knew it was too much for her in one go… So he came up behind her, gently placing his hand in the dip of her back, the other taking her hand in his as he guided her out of the room… Out the back through the busting kitchen as home made cures were being cooked up, tinctures and pastes, all sorts of natural healing things… Out the big glass sliding door into the garden behind, taking her to a spot in the weak though still warm sun, plucking a couple of billy buttons for her to worry at… He then sat down besides her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders… Offering silent support, his strength and his solidity, his love… “You can let it out now… Let it go….” Meaning she could cry as much as she wanted, or she could talk till she was blue in the face, or she could remain perfectly silent if she wanted to… He was there for her, no matter what she chose to do, and he would stay there with her until she had herself centered again…



Nautilous:

He felt like he was playing grab ass with consciousness… Grab ass with a big, ugly, stinky, mean as hell Troll with a greased up buttocks… Meaning he was losing… Badly. It just hurt and he didn’t have his usual strength to master it, so it tended to come in waves against his will, dragging him under and making him black out in sickening sort of rip tide rolls. He kept getting… Blips… Blips of the world around him in the form of smells or sounds… He felt the agony of magic being used around him… He heard Rose… Then new voices… His brother… Thank the Gods… He worried Diovan might have been off on a raid like an asshole and left their wives alone… Then… Bells?... He thought he heart Sybelle but… He couldn’t be sure… He was getting taken out under another wave when he was being moved, and though he was sure it was as delicate as it could be, it still knocked him out again…. Silence… Silence was good… Things hurt less… He was coming up to the top again when he heard her… Just one little word… The shortening of his name… Princess… He was the only one who called her that… And probably the only one who could get away with it too… It was his nick name for her, his Dark little Princess… It was a name he only ever used with her, an endearment from their youngest of years together, verbal caress… He felt her coolness against his skin, his own usual raging temperature was gone, and he felt her chill acutely… It also hurt for her to hold him, to wrap herself around him, but this… This he would never in a thousand years whisper about… Instead he summoned what pathetic, laughable little strength he had, and turning on his side… Wrapped himself around her as well. He would die a thousand times for her…. Go through this a million more… Just because having her in his arms? Was his one reason for existing… He blacked out shortly after but they remained wrapped up around each other until they arrived at the house, the two separated only while being settled into the house, into that slightly bigger than average hospital bed… He submitted to the needles and pads, even though every damn thing hurt, he knew that there was a better chance at something here helping him with the pain… And he found it… About five minutes in or so, someone, bless their elvish little hearts… Hooked him up to morphine… It was like liquid gossamer along his utterly shredded nerve endings, causing him to relax almost immediately, for the labored breathing to become easier… As the tests would show, he did have advanced pneumonia, though rather than regular fluid on the lungs he had more than a bit of blood, old and new alike… That would need to be drained off and he would need to be put on some serious antibiotics… He also had a good twenty or more sets of claw and teeth marks, blood letting and torture, each wound infected and nasty, on the verge of gangrene… As if the Witches would let him go without a parting kick to the nuggets… There was also… The cause of his pain around magic and his inability to move his legs… There was a blade broken off in his spinal cord, causing him lower body paralysis… Was it removable? Treatable? Would he ever walk again? Or would he be like his step father and be wheel chair bound his entire life? Would he even survive long enough to find out? Would his body accept the antibiotics? Would they be able to save all his limbs from the gangrene setting in? Could they keep his heart beating long enough to allow them all to do this in the first place? Those were questions without answers right now… What they did know? Was that though he was alive, there was no guarantee he was going to stay that way, or that he would ever be the same man again… He had been out of it for some time, just floating on that peaceful, pain free drug cloud… Some hours would have passed surely? Who could say? All he knew was he heard Jacob talking to someone… Rose? Rose… Something about… He had no idea… He turned his head as much as he could, using his tipped ears to focus on the sound, letting it guide him… Opening one eye about half way, which was all he could manage at this time, looking at his son… Jacob... The apple of his eye… “Hey Son…” He said, his voice weak, cracked… Like a rusty hinge heard from far away… The eye that was opened was no longer sky blue… Rather an outer blue ring of color with a center of pure, golden amber color, flecked with streaks of a darker blue at the core… Another change but… This one for the better… Hopefully… “Feel like shit… Sydel needs blood…” Yes…. He was thinking about her first… She needed blood or the twins were going to keep taking from her, and she looked so fragile and weak, he didn’t think she would last much longer without going full on comatose… Or there about… The rest could wait… What ever might come up he could and would accept it… So long as she was taken care of…

Rose:

As much as she loved her young husband, as much as she respected and admired Jacob and his resilience, sometimes his refusal to take care of himself made her feel like she would just about pop. They all knew asking her not to worry was like asking a fish not to swim, and as worried as he had been about her, she too had been about him. She knew he was worried about the baby, or if there even was one really, because for some time now… She thought she had lost it if she ever was… She had gone about her life carefully, cautiously, but… She had given up hope a few months ago about ever having another baby… If Sybelles liquid lust couldn’t help her conceive, nothing could, not in her book… Her insides were just too messed up after the triplets was how she took it, and for her, that was all there was to it… Four babies was three more than most elvish couples had, and her children were happy and healthy, beautiful little things with minds as sharp as steel… She was a happy mother, a happy wife, and she contended herself with that… At least she told herself she did… Though she and Jacob never argued, there were times where she got vexed with him to the point of her ear tips turning red, but he didn’t budge… He wouldn’t… Jacob’s therapy… His solace? Was in work… He missed the man he had picked for himself as a father, he missed his friend she knew, just as she knew he worried over his mother’s well being with him gone… She could understand it, she really, really could… But what good would he be doing working himself to the point of illness? It helped keep his mind off of the sadness at home she knew but it worried her and his babies needed their father around too… Aelora was getting almost uncontrollable when she got it in her head she needed daddy time, the fits the little red head would have were enough to make her despair of any redhead being sweetly tempered, and the only way she stopped was if she got taken to Jacob or Jacob came home… Would things change now that Nautilous was finally back? Would he stop spending so many long hours at work? She knew it was his job, something he did so amazingly, something he was passionate about… But he was working nearly every day, all day, sometimes for weeks at a time… Each time she got a letter she was afraid it was someone to tell her Jacob had collapsed from fatigue at work or something along those lines… In her heart? In her heart, for as proud of him as she was, she was glad Nautilous was back and in such poor condition… It meant Jacob would be at home where she could care for him like he deserved and needed to be cared for… She did what she needed to do, helping Jacob in every way he needed of her, knowing ahead of time even so he didn’t have to waste his breath or attentions… Making sure the morphine drip for Nautilous was as high as he could tolerate without risking anything, making sure the blankets were warm and switched out when they cooled, stocking up on everything they needed so no one would have to leave the room for things like towels or gauze… Aside from that? She let everyone do what they needed, at least until she had a chance with Jacob, her concerns for their family pressing on her mind… She would take the children to Garafin’s if she had to, if there was any risk that something Nautilous had was contagious, that might pass to their sons and daughters… She watched as Diovan lead Sybelle out the back, the girls busy in the kitchen, and she took her chance… Taking Jacob to the silent space so they might talk without being overheard… “I know he’s sick but… It’s strange… He’s almost… Allergic to magic… A bit like I was… His pain receptors went off the scale when I scanned him the first time, it got so bad I had to stop, but I couldn’t really find anything aside from infection… I don’t want our children to get sick, so if he is contagious, I’ll be moving them over to Garafin’s if you think that’s alright? I will take your judgement first, after you get a good look over him first… Make sure it’s safe… For all of us…” *She remembered when Jacob came home from the war so sick he nearly died, being locked up in the room with him, how sick Ace got just a little while after… She wasn’t about to have a round two of that… Before she could really say anything else though she felt something familiar but… Quite odd… That turning… She had taken his hand to press it against her belly, for him to feel the sudden tightness, the kick, healthy and insistent… Just a perfect thud… She threw her arms around his neck, lifting on her toes to plant a slow, passionate and loving kiss to his lips… She had lost his baby before… The miscarriage had torn them both down and she thought there wouldn’t be another child for him… That he wouldn’t have with her the one thing he wanted more than anything… The chance to go through a pregnancy with her… She didn’t know what happened… She didn’t know how… She thought Nautilous had something to do with it though… He had to… Why would her invisible, possibly non existent pregnancy suddenly become viable the day he came back? Why now would she finally have the nausea she always had when pregnant? Why now did she finally have a tight tummy and a baby kicking? He had something to do with it…. Surely? Either way, like he said, there was no way to doubt their baby now… Not with that kick… She clung to him tightly for a few more minutes before she would release him, dropping back to her feet, her fingers in his hair. “Alright Daddy to Be… Round two... I will get in touch with the hospital right now and adjust your schedule… I need you home, both for your father and your mother, and for this baby… No arguing, Mr. Falling Asleep at his Desk… Again.” She teased him, albeit lightly, because yes… He needed to be home more. She would leave the house still in her running clothes, not bothering to get changed as she normally would when going out to town and such, there were other things to do…. First the hospital as she said she would… Then back to where she found Nautilous… She was sure there were clues or something left behind there… Something that would let them know what was going on… She just wished she had Ace with her to help but she knew quite well he had other things to work on… The hospital wasn’t easy to work around, they had gotten used to relying on Jacob for everything, but she managed to cut his time there by half which… Though not as much as she wanted, personally, it was the best she was going to get… She also ordered a few other things she had forgotten in the general first run… After that though she was back in the woods, combing through the area where she had found him, her gut telling her something was there…



And something was…

Leave it to Kharn to be both sloppy AND arrogant… She hated him almost as much as she hated Riveroron… Almost… It was a close tie… Left behind some feet away from where she had tripped over Nautilous was a scroll, as well as the hilt of a dagger with the blade broken off close to the hilt, blood spattered all along the guard… Not fresh though, it had been dry for some hours at least… Did she touch anything? Not just yet… She was cautious more so now than ever before, one could say that in all his vileness, Ace’s father had taught her caution… She knew better than to jump head first into anything anymore, good or bad… She scanned the area, looking for any trips or triggers, any traps to snap the unwary…. Should she touch it? Should she go near?... Should she contact Ace and ask him to come out?

What WAS in the scroll?

Why was there a broken dagger left with dried blood?

Why did she hear the faintest sounds of glass wind chimes when she got within fifteen feet of the scroll?

How did Nautilous come back? Had he actually been delivered? Or had he escaped, fought his way free, and brought those things with him?

What of Kharn and the Heads of the Dragon?

Would there be a war soon?

Would the dragons bathe the world in fire and blood? Or would they only smoke? Would Kharn make an appearance? To try and take revenge on those who had caused his fall from grace? Would he come for Sydel? Would he force her into a position of his own bride to maintain some sort of connection with Khorn? Did he have other plans? What of Ace’s mother who he had taken with him? Was she just a pawn in a greater game? Or was she there for some other nefarious purpose? Was she a player, or simply a place marker? Had Tirithon actually sold her soul to Khorn in exchange for power, or had it been Kharn all along, leaving Ace’s mother in a hell that was entirely false?

[Deleted]

Sybele



..she had cured in close to her sweethearted husband there upon the back of the horse as the two of them followed along behind the cart ..she listened as he told her it could have been magic sickness.. how it could be a curse that drained the person until they had nothing left and how it had such a long road to recovery.. she murmured a litte and sighed-.. I hope he will recover. He is needed by a lot of people.. perhaps we should put a negate magic on the house.. I know it will be a bit of a struggle for everyone that’s inside at least at first.. it’s a very magical property but.. if it will help him out.. im sure it wont be to hard.. –she figured it would help.. a bubble placed about the property.. would kill off any even accidental attempts of magic use ..they arrived back at the house around the same time that the nurses were bringing in all the equipment.. dashing about on light footsteps.. she brushed her lips to the corner of his.. just a soft light kiss looking up to him there with those duo coloured eyes before she slipped down from the horse.. moving toward the cart.. she waited whilst Nautilous was moved.. carefully.. cautiously helping Sydel be moved to the very same bedroom.. she glanced around a little.. placing Sydel down upon the bed.. stepping quickly out of the way as it started to affect her..her bottom lip trembled.. she shuddered a little as her breath started to catch.. tears trickled down her cheeks.. though before she knew it his hands were upon hers.. drawing her out through the doorway.. the length of the corridors.. and then out into the back yard.. her free hand rose as she covered her mouth.. her brows furrowed and she just cried.. it was so much so quicky she curled in close to him.. sliding up onto his lap as her cheek fell to his shoulder..- ..I love you Diovan.. please never.. ever leave me.. I couldn’t handle it.. I really couldn’t.. –she trembled there in his arms-



Sydel

She had called out to him..a soft barely there weakened tone.. the shortened version of his name.. she hoped it was him.. sure he looked different.. sure he was clearly not well but she had to know.. and when he called out to her.. calling her by the pet name that only he could call her by.. she just about melted into his arms.. the corners of her lips twitched..perhaps the start all be it small of a smile.. before she fell back out of conciousness.. his arms were around her.. hers were loosely wrapped around his.. curled in as close as they possibly could be.. it looked awkward.. it looked terribly uncomfortable.. but neither of them could have given a single damn..they both murmured when the cart took off.. slight bumps here and there..they were separated when they arrived at the house.. before once more they found each other.. feeling the cool sheets beneath them.. the blankets however were warmed.. sharply pointed ears twitched to the sounds of machines.. the beeping and bleeping.. she felt him trembling beneath her every so often when things were applied to his body.. needles.. patches and so on.. before she felt him relax properly.. she felt that sinking and she heard that sigh.. her eyes though remained closed.. hearing him calling out to Jacob.. saying she needed blood.. her brows furrowed.. she murmured.. - mm.. no.. –she whined.. a clear frown crept across her youthful features- .. you .. you need to get better.. –she sighed.. her voice crackled and was little more than a whisper.. it had been some time since she supped on anyone.. the last being an attempt from Diovan a little while after Nautilous had left.. that whilst she did accept it rather begrudgingly.. it was so very little that it made no real difference.. stubborn wee thing she was.. –



Jacob

He had done his best to get everything set up.. the machines.. the books.. the charts all of it.. the patient came in with a secondary soon after.. he knew Sydel was not well so really it was not such a surprise when they were both placed down upon that oversized bed.. he motioned for the nurses to do what they had to.. applying the patches.. sliding the needles beneath the skin as gently as they possibly could.. he looked worried.. extremely worried.. he watched as Rose came in and administered the Morphine.. giving it a moment or two before Nautilous began to relax.. he reached across and patted her shoulder.. he had such respect for her.. such admiration.. for someone who had practically nothing to do with medicine before they really began to work together she had picked it all up So quickly.. he listened to her concerns.. leaving the two patients to rest for the time being.. nodding his head as she spoke about being allergic to magic.. and wondering if it was contagious -.. I don’t honestly think it will be.. but I of course cant be sure just yet.. I will spend some time with them both for a while after this.. and ill make a better educated judgement.. but my love.. if you are worried. At al.. please go and spend some time with garafin.. we will be just fine here I assure you.. you do whats best for you and the children.. –he looked up to her with those duo coloured eyes.. he didn’t want to frighten her.. sure there was a chance whatever Nautilous had could be contagious.. it could be something frightfully bad.. but he hadn’t really had the chance to look into it all yet..though his features dropped when she suddenly looked quite ill ..concern shifted to a slight form of panic.. she spoke on feeling unwell.. before she grabbed his hand pressing it to her flattened stomach.. only for him to feel the sudden firmness and then the unmistakable kick.. his eyes lit up ..before she threw her arms around him.. lifting up onto her toes and their lips met.. his hands came down to drape there about her slender middle.. his head tilting to the side just enough to allow him access to those sweet sultry lips of hers.. returning that passion.. that softness.. his poor heart thudded in his chest.. he so desperately wanted to be with her whilst she was pregnant.. he missed out on so much when he was away.. she slowly pulled away.. he leant in against her.. another kiss.. just soft sweet.. even a little bit cute to the corner of her lips before he released her.. his glasses were a little bit foggy at this stage.. enough to make him laugh a touch bashfully he nodded when she said she was going to get in touch with the hospita.. that she was going to make sure his schedule was adusted.. - .. no.. no you’re right yes.. I need to be home.. I understand you’re concerns.. your worries.. –he placed his hand to his heart there-.. I will be here until everyone is well.. I promise.. –his cheeks coloured when she called him out on falling asleep at his desk.. chucking quiety and nodding- fair call yes.. –he reached for her cheek.. cradling it a little bit longer before she took off like a pixie.. Nautilous coughing caught his attention as he was cleaning his glasses.. turning then as he made his way back into the room.. his head tilting-.. you should be resting.. –he reached over to brush his hand across Nauts forehead.. feeling if there was any temperature.. or fever – Glad to have you back.. even if you look like you’ve been dragged through hell and back..-he slid the glasses up from the end of his nose there.. catching sight of the colouring on his eyes.. noticing the differences.. he plucked up the folder there.. scribbling down a few more notes as he took down the numbers from the machines.. he heard Naut mention that Sydel needed blood.. and then of course Sydels argument in the negative.. his brows furrowed a touch- .. she does.. yes I know she does.. it would seem dear Mother has been stubborn since your departure.. Diovan has tried.. though only to fail.. I will go and collect him and see if maybe you can convince your lovely partner to look after herself a little bit more.. mm?..-he glanced down to Sydel there.. noticing she was all curled in and though she was pale.. and noticeably thinner she looked less stressed.. he motioned for one of the nurses to move forward and keep an eye on the machines -.. ill be back in a moment.. ill go get your Brother.. –he lingered a moment longer.. placing the folder back into its holder as he moved back through the house.. down the corridor.. noticing the children were playing quietly in the main lounge with Aysil and some nice young man looking after them all.. he caught sight of Diovan outside with Sybelle.. all curled up like they were.. he pursed his lips together.. wondering if he should indeed interrupt them or not.. thing is anyone could offer her a supply of blood sure.. anyone.. but Diovan was the closest to Nautilous.. which meant after such a long time of not having it.. it would probably go down better.. and would possibly give her better sustenance ..he exhaled softly.. making his way out.. – I don’t mean to interrupt.. please forgive me.. your brother is awake and communicating.. all be it slightly and sounding quite crackled .so Sybelle .. if you want to go and have a few words.. –he would nod.. waiting to see if she was going to hop up and head inside.. before he would reach to place his hand on Diovans shoulder.. -.. hold up.. just a moment.. Nautilous is requesting blood for Sydel.. she is of course weakly arguing the point but she does need it.. and I know that genetically you both are close.. and one of her children is yours.. would you give it another go?.. –he would glance up to Diovan there.. he wouldn’t push.. but the question was there.. he waited a little while longer before heading back inside after Sybelle-



Sybelle

She remained curled up with Diovan there.. even after her tears were spent.. just requiring the closeness.. the cuddles.. the feeling of his strong arms wrapped around her.. Jacob moved into the area soon there after.. making himself known.. she lifted her head.. wiping her hands across her cheeks there as she nodded.. listening as Jacob told them that Nautilous was speaking.. that he was able to communicate even if only a little.. that maybe she would want to go in and have a few words?.. she turned to look back to Diovan there.. lingering a little while longer.. reaching up to brush her lips to his forehead before she moved herself to stand.. making her way back inside the house.. toward the room there.. glancing at Aysil and the children.. before she came to the doorway.. cautiously remaining there a little while longer before she moved inside.. the nurses all headed out.. leaving them for a moment.. approaching the bedside.. her lavender hair loose over her shoulders.. those duo coloured eyes wandering over his well worn features as she sunk down to sit delicately upon the edge of the bed.. that round of her belly a little more prominent than it was before.. she took a quiet breath.. – hey.. –she’d whisper softly.. her head tilting to the side as she reached back to pool her hair over one shoulder.. she watched him.. waiting to see if he would reply.. if he would or could acknowledge her..her hand came down to rest atop his own there.. delicately soft warm fingers ..she bit down into her lower lip.. -.. you’re going to be ok?.. –she exhaled softly-.



Ace

He had been digging a trench or two.. down in the smaller villages on the outskirts of Arvandor.. helping out an older couple that was having some trouble on their farm.. and he was now on his way home.. hoisted up upon his horse.. torn dark jeans.. a grey wife beater styled top.. he looked a little worse for wear.. scratched up on his arms.. his face was sporting a bit more facial hair than he usually had due to just being too busy to worry.. when he came across her out in the middle of the forest.. he had gotten her notes about Nautilous’s return.. he whistled high.. shrill she wouldn’t have been able to miss it.. as he hopped down from the horse there- Good Afternoon beautiful.. he wiped his hands down against the sides of his shirt there.. a bit of grease.. dirt.. he smelt like pine.. like the deep forest.. as he came up to her.. closing the gap rather quickly as he reached for her cheeks.. cradling them against his rough palms.. his lips found hers as he drew her in for quite a kiss indeed.. it wasn’t soft or delicate.. it was strong and weighted.. it held such a drive behind it.. and more than enough to take her breath away.. before he pulled back.. his forehead pressing to hers there.. his breath.. scented of bourbon caressed her cheeks and chin- .. I’ve missed you.. –he whispered in that pitchy tone of his.. before he pulled back.. drawing her around suddenly so her back was pressed to his stomach.. his hands about her middle.. -.. so he is back then?.. mmm so why are you out here then?.. –he watched her as she began to scan the area.. before he too noticed the scroll there.. his brows furrowed.. she moved to approach ad the chimes sounded- Hold.. –he reached across for her shoulder there.. drawing her back slowly-.. don’t you touch anything.. –he moved to approach it himself slowly.. crouching down before it.. listening to the chimes he rolled his neck a little before he plucked it up from the ground there.. breaking the seal on it if it had one as he unravelled it.. glancing down to the words written upon it-

[BadInfluence]

Diovan:

It’s hard to explain sickness, any kind of sickness, especially when you’re no doctor yourself. At best he knew how to field dress, to take care of simple wounds while out ranging, and sickness? Starve a fever, feed a cold, and that was it for him. So this? This thing with his brother, the illness that made magic hurt him, the curse like symptoms… It made him worry… concerned… And yes, cautious… Aylan was still so little in his eyes, but already he showed all the promise of his mother, and he would rather die a hundred deaths than let his son be hurt… Would a magic nulling field cause a negative impact on his growth? His maturing in a natural way? Or would it hurt him not at all as, of this moment, he wasn’t using magic? These were questions he had no answer to, which in it’s own way killed him, if only because they made him feel useless and he hated the feeling incredibly. Jacob, he knew, would be able to tell if that was something that was needed or not... Right? Jacob was growing in his eyes in leaps and bounds, and though he knew the father son link might never be there, they were at the least close friends… There was a bond there, and for him, that was enough for now… He counted on Jacob to know anything there was to know about illness, partially because he knew Jacob was always abreast of the newest medical advances, but more so because he had complete and utter faith in his son. Still… The events of his brothers death, the return, and everything wrapped around it? It was part mystery, part confusion, and all of that was wrapped up in an enigma… Why had Nautilous come back in such ill health? Three months had passed yet he looked as if it had been years… His brother couldn’t have naturally lost all his muscle, his health, his strength in such a short time… Even in the most extreme of torture and starvation, he had never seen someone come out that poorly in such a short amount of time, even the Drow took at least a year to get to that state… He knew something else was at play… But what? Again, more questions he had no answers to… Right now though, he had more pressing things to think about, like his wife and their family… They would always take the first spot in his heart.* Yes, he is… More than just us, he helped a lot of people in Arvandor, a lot of families… He’s been awaited like a special kind of second Christmas…” He had seen the messages going and coming, he knew without having a drop of magical power himself that once word got out, it would spread faster than wild fire in dry grass covered in pitch… Things in Arvandor were about to be thrown into high gear, like a miniature Secrets of the Heart gathering but for the town only, and their shared home was about to become it’s own crystal palace… “I’m about as magically useful as a spoon for eating steak but… I do have the power inside so if you need to tap into it to cast the spell, or perhaps Jacob too, I can’t see any harm in it… Jacob would know best though out of all of us if it would help, so we’ll ask him when things… Calm down a little…” It was the best answer he had, and no matter what angle he looked at it from, it was a good one too… Sound. When they arrived and she gave him her parting kiss, he let her go from his side and do her thing, helping bring his brother into the room that he had been in with Sydel… Placing him down and letting those who knew what to do, do their thing. Right now? He was just an obstacle to those who knew what they were doing, and he didn’t want to be any sort of a hindrance, so he let Sybelle be close to Nautilous and Sydel for a moment as he took a place out of the way. When she started to cry and break down though he was there, gently leading her out of the house and into the back yard, away from the push and noise… Settling her down on a bench with him as he held her in his arm, letting her use his strength as she broke down… Was he jealous? No… He knew her heart was shared between him and his brother, and he simply felt blessed and loved to have the part of her that she gave him, because to him? It was his world. He would always thank every God in existence for her… For her choosing him… For loving him. When she curled up in his lap, he hooked his arm about he waist and drew her in close, wrapping her up in his cloak like a soft woolen blanket, almost cocooning her against his strong warm chest. I love you Sybelle… I could never leave you… I never did… Even when your life went off on a different path, I was always here, waiting for ours to join again… I’ll never, ever leave you, I promise… He whispered to her, gently kissing the shell of her ear, holding her…. Just giving her what she needed without making her feel closed in… He would let her cry for as long as she needed, his strong arms would hold and rock her, running up and down her back when she needed them… He would gently sing to her, things that helped calm her, helped ground her… Not that he didn’t want her to cry, he knew it was a natural emotional process, but more so that… He wanted her to feel safe as she did, to know she wasn’t alone, that she could crumble and know he wouldn’t let her break… When it was all done, when she had shed her last tear, his finger would gently slide along her cheeks… Gathering up the tears and wiping them away gently, moving down to cup her chin on the curled digit, tilting her head up to look at him… Moving in he would gently kiss her, tasting tears and sweet apples on her lips, the softest hint of caramel and the soft notes of tears… When had he last kissed her?... It felt like forever ago… His heart thudded strongly in his chest, it always did around her, she made him feel like it was his first time every time he touched her… He would kiss her softly, those heart warming, bone melting sort of kisses that make you feel as if you are going to turn into a puddle of goo where you sit… After several minutes though he felt he needed more, the soft kisses turning a little more insistent, a little harder… A deep moan passing his lips, half strangled sounding as he kept himself in check, never daring to push too far… Her pregnancy, her beautifully, slowly rounding figure… Every single inch of her was mind blazingly beautiful and arousing… With her sadness and her worry about his brother, he had taken his time, he had never asked nor pushed for time to be with her… He was perfectly supportive and caring, patient as a saint, always there to help her in every and any way she needed… But with his brother home now, knowing he was going to be ok, that their world was going to shift back into it’s proper place again… Well… Some… Needs… Were resurfacing… He broke the kiss off after, admittedly, some good time had passed… His lips tingled and hers would be a little swollen, a certain hardness beneath her soft thighs as she sat in his lap, his breath a little shot Forgive me… Not quite… What I intended… Give me a moment love and I’ll uh… Sort myself out… Just need to breathe… He said with a soft chuckle… He wanted her but he also knew that this was at her pace and time, not his, and he could wait perfectly fine until she was ready. He just hadn’t intended to get so aroused that a soft kiss would have morphed into what it did… Not that he regretted it… Though it seemed it was just in time as Jacob had come out then and told them that Nautilous was now taking, and he didn’t stop Sybelle from moving and going inside, he simply lifted her hand and kissed the backs of her knuckles gently and watched her go. To Jacob though he heard the question and he nodded his head, not that he needed a reason to help, and he hadn’t given up even though the last time had failed. Without Nautilous her appetite was non-existent, but with his brother back, surely it would pick up? He stood, pulling his cloak properly for a moment, making a few… Adjustments… Subtly of course…* Sybelle keeps her potions on hand in the house now with Rose since we all moved in together, there is a sky blue vial in there, if you can get it for me while I head into the house and get ready? It’s one of her cure everything potions, the kind that boosts your system and if full of vitamins and such… If I am going to do this, might as well do it right, make sure that even if she only takes a few mouthfuls… It will do the best good it can… He made his way into the house then, a bit behind Jacob because he was still trying to adjust a bit, but once that was done and he wouldn’t embarrass anyone or himself? He was in the house in no time, making a bee line to the room, nodding greetings to those he passed in the hall… Once in the room he removed his cloak and his shirt, the raven on his chest seeming to take flight in the dim green lit shadows, low hanging pants revealing a physique much closer to his brothers when he had been at his prime… Sybelle had kept her word, she fattened him up, and with his lifestyle all that fat had turned into muscle. He heard a few murmurs from the nurses but ignored it, and once Jacob was there, he took the vial asked for… Popping the lid, he knew it would taste like… Well… Sybelle’s medicine. She was a Goddess of Potions, no one made them better, but no one would ever say they tasted good… That was Rose’s expertise. He held his breath, tilted back, and drank it down as fast as he could. Naturally he followed it with a glass of water and waited a few minutes… Just to let it work through his body… Settling on the side of the bed by Sydel, he took up a scalpel from the stand and cut a slit into his wrist for her, pressing his thumb over it immediately to let it build up… To keep it from spilling… There he would wait until Sydel went for it, and once she did, he would remove his thumb and let it gush into her mouth before it would slow into a more enjoyable pace.



Nautilous:

If anyone with a pulse ever called her Princess, chances were? They’re be lunch, if even that since she could at times be a very picky eater, so they might just end up dead in a ditch somewhere… Or in her bath water… It was a name reserved for her, from him, by him alone. Anyone else trying was dead meat… And it was, out of everything in the world, the best way for her to know it was him. It was also, at this moment, the best thing he could manage to do. He missed the twitch, he couldn’t open his eyes, the light and the thought alone was painful for him. It was so strange, that something as easy as opening his eyes, was as painful to him as if someone were flaying his skin off of him with a rusted, salted blade… He wanted to say the pain was new… He really did… He wanted to pretend that this was just what came from coming back… He didn’t want anyone to know why he was so…. Familiar with this sort of intensity… Why he wasn’t still screaming his head off until he destroyed his voice and then, screaming into the silent, bloody void of pain. Even pain, when it lasts long enough, becomes…. Familiar…. Almost comforting in a way, especially when the absence of it is only another sort of torture, the kind that keeps you perpetually waiting for the next wave… Ace would understand a part of it… So would Sydel… Why?... Because when he had been in Naggoth… He had not gotten a friendly welcome… They both knew what it was like to be tortured down there… And he had been there for three months Arvandor time, which was close to… Well… What felt like a few centuries at least… He had gotten it a little worse than the other two though, and admittedly, it was well deserved… How many had he sent to that realm, personally, and laughed while he did it? How many plans did he destroy just because it was fun to watch one of them fail? How many had he caused falls from grace? How many Brides over the years did he add to Khorns court? How many had he tormented in his own way before he sent them down? How many high ranking people had he thumbed his nose at and bullied despite their position in Naggoth? Too many… And when he had been down there?... Let’s just say that… Old scores were leveled… All of that though was locked up in a place in his brain that he kept under damn tight chains and weighed balls, buried under boulders and capped with melted steel so to speak, because the last thing he wanted to do was remember any of it. He blacked out repeatedly on the way back to the house, but he never let Sydel go, he clung to her as she did him… Their bodies interlocked, refusing to move, to budge… The only time they were separated again was to get them into the hospital bed where they both would be treated at, and once they were there, they were again curled up tight against one another… He submitted to the waves of pain as he was made into a puppet, strings everywhere that relayed information to softly beeping screens, the dull green glow both comforting and yet somewhat eerie… He felt the cold rush of fluids into his body, that damned cold making him shiver, to cling even closer to Sydel… Though when some blessed angel slipped the morphine into the tube, it was like paradise, someone shutting off the ever firing nerves of pain in his body… Oh if he could have moaned he would have… When Jacob came in, he managed to crack an eye open for him, for his boy… Gods he loved Jacob as much as he loved Aysil and Sydel, and to know Jacob was here, thriving… It gave him peace… He didn’t want to talk about how many times they used him in their torture of him down in Naggoth, how badly they broke him when they found that chink in his armor… If I rest any more, I’d be dead still… He said and he tried to smile, truly he did, but it came out as more of a grimace than anything else. When Jacob would come to touch his forehead, he would find the skin dry and scaly, showing all the signs of being malnourished… Though he was neither hot nor cold temperature wise, he was not normal either, running more on the cooler side than not… If anything, he was showing multiple similar symptoms as Sydel did, the almost corpse like conditions… “Feels like I was… He then told Jacob Sydel needed blood, even in his pain riddled though blessedly numb now state, he knew she had been neglecting to feed… He’d nag her for it later surely… He heard Jacob say he knew she did, and that he would look for Diovan, while Sydel grew a little petulant and denied it… Saying she needed him well… “You first… I’ll go with you…” Which was his way of pushing her into a corner, where she had to get better if he was going to, and though she might hate that he boxed her up? It was what she needed, and she could take it out on him later. Jacob had left not long after that, and Sybelle had come in, watching her settle in beside him for a moment… Feeling the dip in the bed beside him… Her soft, sweet voice, like vanilla wafers… Bells… He whispered, turning his head to look at her with the one eye he could open, to see her healthy… Worried yes, but healthy, which gave him a sigh of relief… After seeing Sydel in such rough shape, he had been a bit concerned that she would be in poor form too, which he didn’t think he could stand too well right now to be honest… He’d seen too much in his time away regarding these two that seeing any sort of echo of it in reality would most likely send him into a fit… Yeah… Or so he thought…. He was no whiz kid but… He knew something was wrong with him… Bad wrong… He was in constant pain, and though the morphine helped, he knew it was just a damper… Even more he couldn’t move his legs… He could feel the pain all the way down to his toes but… He couldn’t move them… At all… Not even his little toe… Would he ever really be ok? He had no idea… But he didn’t want to worry her, especially when he could see she had been crying, her beautiful blue and green colored eyes red rimmed and a little swollen. He heard another come in, his ears able to pick up things in their own fashion, and he knew it was his brother… A few shifts… Murmurs… Then the smell… Copper… Blood… Delicious…. Life giving blood… Blood… Blood… Blood… His eyes snapped open, both at once, the pupils dilating instantly… Like a predator he growled, deep and low in the back of his throat, enough to make the hairs stand on end on one listening… Blood… Blood… Blood… Drink… Make the pain go away… Blood… Life… Blood… Life… Blood… Blood… Blood… Before he knew what he was doing, Sybelle’s hand was brought to his mouth and he bit… Teeth tearing through the delicate, thin skin… The reward of a gush of blood on his dry, cracked, broken lips… Sweet… Hot… Sweet… Hot… Sweet… Sweet… Sweet… He groaned as his eyes rolled up in his head and he bit her again… Again… Tearing deeper through the skin, demanding more blood, needing more… Skeletal like fingers bruising her delicate flesh as he gripped her like a tormented corpse…



Rose:

If it were just her and Jacob… If it were them at the hospital like they usually were, then she wouldn’t have a single concern if Nautilous had caught something contagious, they had all the proper preventative actions and tools to immediately stop anything in its tracks… But this was not the Hospital… This was their home. This was where Mina came to visit, an elderly human with virtually no immunity to speak of… This was where their children lived, Pia and Aelora and Alaric, Ionwe and Aylan and Aysil… This was where their children would be born, hers and Sydel’s and Sybelles… If there was any chance of a virus or something detrimental… Anything that might hurt any of them? She would remove them from the threat immediately… Move them over to Garafin’s or into her old house by the river… She would never risk them, ever…. I don’t know… I didn’t find anything but right after I found him I was sick, truly sick, and that’s why I’m worried… I can’t help fearing it might be something like you suffered when you got home from the war… If he is contagious with something like that… She feared the death of those she loved most if it were… If not for Nautilous himself? She would have lost both Jacob and Ace during those days… Without that sort of miraculous help now? She would move her entire family off shore to an island if she had to, don’t doubt that for an instant… Before she could say anything though she felt another wave of nausea, then something else, something familiar… A roll and tightening… She had grabbed his hand and pressed it to her belly, to feel what she felt, the drum like hardness now… Then the kick… It was… A very special time for the both of them, a chance to have what had been stolen from them, to be a husband and wife expecting a child… To say she was thrilled was an understatement… For so long she had feared there would be no moment like this for them… No kicking or rounding belly… No special moments were little hands or feet pressed against her skin… She reached up and wrapped her arms around her husband, kissing him lovingly, losing herself in the moment… In the passion… Her heart thudded like his in that kiss, tilting her head so he could have all the access he wanted, that he might need… They pulled away slowly, neither of them quite wanting to, but knowing reality wasn’t going to give them a chance for more just yet… He made her giggle through with that cute, loving, sweet little kiss of his… She rose on her toes one last time as he was busy cleaning his glasses to get a good nip at his jaw in, just a cute little love bite, an affectionate nip. She told him she was going to head to the hospital and set a few new hours and ground rules with them, telling him as a father and someone’s personal doctor, his hours were going to be shifting around, and that they needed him home. You do my love… For those of us who count on you… And for you, yourself, as you are… If your home more, I can watch you a bit closer and make sure your getting the rest you need, which I know you’ve been neglecting my lovely work-a-holic… She smiled when he admitted she caught him out at it, catching his blush as he reached out to cradle her cheek, her hand coming up to cup his own. I love you Jacob. She said, kissing the palm of his hand before she was off to the hospital, and though it wasn’t easy to get it done, it wasn’t as hard as it might have been either. She offered to take up most of the slack that would be left with Jacob gone, taking on two extra days of work a week for him, this way the rest of the labor was easily shared around. She knew with Sybelle, Sydel, Nautilous and Ace at home that Jacob would be well looked after. She could take on the two extra days easily… Well, easily enough… She had a picking nerve on the back of her mind though, that something was missing, something was off… There were so many things not adding up, she just knew something was missing, and her gut was never wrong on these things… What had Nautilous called it? A built in Bull Shit detector? Something like that… Either way, her feet lead her to the place where she had found him, or rather where she had tripped over him… And, sure enough, some feet away there was something off… Before she could get much closer than seeing the broken dagger and scroll, she heard the whistle. Ace had been gone a day or two, which to her felt like an eternity, but she knew it helped him… He did the physical work to give his body something to do so his mind could process things… It was his release, he wasn’t a man who was built for idle leisure, he needed the activity… She had her work at Temple and the hospital after all, so she understood very, very well… Though to see him riding up now… That afternoon sun picking out the blue highlights in his black hair… The dirt and scratches and sweat on his skin… The torn pants and grey wife beater…. Fuck Me… She whined softly… He had that effect on her… He always did… But when he was a bit roughed up like this, with his facial hair and sweaty like that, with a bit of dirt on him and in clothes like that? If she had been wearing panties, they would have dropped, instantly… As it was everything else tightened and she felt that delicious agony of arousal rip through her like a dervish… She had to fuse her thighs together, the short, thin jogging shorts providing no protection or assistance to hiding a damn thing… Hello there Handome…How’s my Lion? She would ask, trying to get her mind out of the gutter, out of her memories… Though let’s admit that it’s not so easy… Her voice had dropped an octave or two, showing that even if her body language didn’t give it away, she was certainly effected… When he got within range of her scent, the smell of his musk and pine, like woods and new earth and clean air… Good Goddess he was trying to kill her… She couldn’t breathe for a moment as another hard wave of lust hit her like a two tonne brick to the face… She moaned loudly when he closed that gap, giving up on hiding a damn thing, uncrossing her arms from over her peaking breasts… She threw them around his shoulders and buried her hands in his hair, fisting them tightly as he kissed her breathless, lifting her leg to wrap it around his waist… Her heel pressing into the dip of his knee as she silently, softly rocked against him, always hot and ready for him… All before he broke it off and pulled back just a touch, leaving her with a soft little whine, her leg dropping reluctantly… She still held him close, her forehead to his, her breath perfectly shot after that kiss. I’ve missed you madly… She whispered back in a voice husky with want and need… God only he could do that to her…. Make her soaking wet and begging for him with something as simple as the way he looked after hard work… Mother of Christ he left her a wreck just with that kiss and she wanted nothing more than to rip his clothes off and ride him until they were both sexually sated… She knew that wasn’t going to happen though but it was a delicious thought to entertain… She was spun quickly, a gentle gasp as she was pulled against him, having to fight the urge to grind her ass against his lap… A much harder fight than one might think! She had to breathe in her nose and out her mouth for a few moments, trying to drag herself out of the lava pit of desire he had suddenly chucked her into, her hands coming up to rest over his… I found him this morning… He’s with the family at the Mansion under the best care… I came out to see what is missing… She began to scan the area, to want to see what might be laying about, any traps or spells or seals… Again, Tirithon had taught her caution very… Very well… She would never be as brave as she used to be again, she lost that wild spark and had gained a good dose of hesitation, to the point that she double checked everything and hadn’t gone on a single adventure since… She heard the chimes when the scan showed nothing amiss, though Ace’s command to hold sunk deep into her bones, and she stopped instantly. She moved away from the area then as he moved in, trusting him, standing back as he went for the scroll and dagger… Be careful please my Lion… She asked softly… She took another step or two back, just in case, and brought up a shield around herself so that should anything happen she would be protected…



What was in the Scroll? That was the question of the moment… The scroll at first might seem like nothing terribly awe inspiring… Just a brass tube with a simple red wax seal at the end… Uninspiring… Simple, even… Was there a booby trap? Was there a trick? A trigger that would set off some sort of explosion? Not at all…

Or was there?

The tube opened up easily enough, and the scroll within seemed of common papyrus paper, long lasting and durable… The writing within was unremarkable… Common… Easy to read… Boring really… Nothing about it caught the attention, and if one wasn’t aware of the strange circumstances that had just unfolded, it would be all too easy to just toss it aside and forget it.

What was written however, if one knew of certain things, would prove interesting… Perhaps even… Vital?

If you are reading this, that means you have found my body, though if I am alive or dead on my return I can’t guarantee. I kept my word and I made it back, but at a cost as of yet, I can not calculate. In case I am dead soon after I arrive, or otherwise incapacitated, it is vital that these words be read. It was a lie. All of it was a lie. From the Bride to the Theft, to the Score and the Tally, all of it has been a lie. The Blood God has been Tricked. Naggoth is being Purged. The Brides are Hunting. The Witches are Hunting. The Psychikers are Hunting.

Beware The Chimes. They are Mushi, Deceiver’s, Minions of Kharn… Do not Listen to them… At all Cost… Do not Follow Them.

Ace… If You Read This… Be on Guard… Kharn is Hunting… For All Of Us…

We. Are. At. War.

[Deleted]

Sybelle

..she had stepped out with him.. her soft warm fingers curling around his as they wandered out into the garden..she was close to breaking point.. his brothers death had dropped her down so low.. only for him to return.. and looking as poorley as he was.. it was becoming all a bit to much.. but her dear husband would forever be her rock.. her sail mate.. he settled them down upon the bench there and she curled in nice and close to him.. her head to his shoulder.. letting the tears flow freely as he pulled her to his lap.. she listened as he replied.. letting her know his thoughts on her idea of a negate magical bubble on the property.. and how that Jacob would be the one who would know best of all.. she felt his arms sliding around her.. his cloak warm and strongly scented of him enveloping her as she curled in closer.. trembling a little..she told him she loved him and to never.. ever leave her.. that it would be the end of her if he did.. he gave her the reassurance she so desperately required.. the promises before he pressed his warmed lips to her ear.. she was slowly able to calm herself.. her poor thudding heart settled comfortably into its usual relaxed rythmn.. her head tilted upward a touch when he reached for her..when he brushed his fingers across her tear stained cheeks.. she blinked a little.. her lashes felt heavy.. their eyes met.. that strong duo colouring settling upon those sea foamy orbs before he leant in to kiss her.. a soft breathy murmur sounded in response.. it was so delicate and gentle.. just a sweet loving union between two beautiful people ..her heart was fluttering away in her chest there.. she reached for him.. her soft warm palm came to rest there against the curve of his cheek.. she returned that kiss.. sweet..loving.. a whimper breathy sounding there right into his mouth.. her tongue mingled and danced along side his.. he picked up the pace quicker than she expected.. it all become a little more insistent.. more wanting.. more needful.. his moan was met with one of her own as she sat up and in a little closer to him.. one hand remained there upon his cheek.. the other slid down to his shirt.. to grip at the fabric there.. to hold it as her fingers curled inward..they hadn’t really had much of a chance to do anything like this.. for quite some time.. before he pulled back.. a gentle whine sounded..her brows furrowed.. she heard his apology.. that it was not quite what he intended.. she blinked a few times till her eyes focused properly.. her cheeks coloured considerably..a soft little chuckle sounded.. -.. mmhmm.. no.. no need for forgiveness love.. –she rubbed her lips together ..oh her poor heart was hammering away in her chest.. she had noticed the sudden hardness pressing up against the apex of her thighs.. it certainly didn’t help matters.. though their saving grace before they would have probably torn clothing from one another was their son appearing.. she took in a breath.. glancing across to Jacob.. listening as he spoke on Nautilous being awake and slightly alert.. she nodded a little.. glancing to Diovan there as she leant in.. pressing her lips to the corner of his before she slipped down from his lap.. making her way back inside.. through the main lounge areas.. past all the nurses that were heading out for a few moments as she moved in to the bedroom.. her gaze fell upon the big bed.. the clean white sheets and the two figures resting upon it.. cautiously she moved across.. sinking down upon the side there.. nearer to Nautilous.. her voice was soft and quiet..offering a smile when he called out to her in a whispered tone.. she asked if he was going to be ok.. and his response was not quite so convincing but she nodded none the less.. her head tilted.. her gaze wandered over her features..- Jacob wil take good care of you.. –whispered gently.. noticing then as Diovan entered the room.. his shirt having been removed.. there was that muscular physique she would forever admire.. more so after their little teasing tryst in the gardens outside only moments before.. she watched as he sliced into his wrist.. before offering it to the weakened Sydel.. she offered Diovan a small smile.. a little nod of her head.. she understood what was happening.. and now knowing why Jacob had come out.. her brows furrowed when she felt his cool weathered fingers wrapping around her soft skin.. turning her attention back to Nautilous- ..mmm?.. –she figured he wanted to hold her hand.. so her fingers lightly curled in to hold just beyond his wrist.. she had no time to react though.. before she knew it she felt that sudden sharp hot sting.. his teeth sinking into her skin.. her gaze widened..her lips fell open as she released a surprised cry ..she went to pull her arm back when her reflexes kicked in.. only for his grip to tighten ..- .. No.. Nautilous.. what.. what are you.. –she trembled there.. a panic set in her eyes as she looked to Diovan.. before she cried out when Nautilous tore into her wrist deeper.. splitting the skin open wider.. she used her free hand to try and remove his grip but there was no way she could.. he was bruising the skin around the fresh open wound with his vice like hold.. - .. No! No Nautilous.. please.. –she cried out.. every time she tried to pull her arm though it just tore her skin more.. -.. You’re hurting.. –was about as much as she managed to get out before her body and mind thew her into shock and she inevitably lost consciousness…her eyes rolling back as she slid down off the side of the bed-



Sydel

She remained there.. curled into the awaiting though weakened arms of Nautilous.. falling in and out of conciousness.. kind of dipping in and out of sleep..unable to actively pick a side.. and at times waking with a bit of a start.. she heard the conversation between him and Jacob.. about how she needed blood and she rejected it.. audibly so.. before he more or less pushed her into a veritable corner.. saying if she went first he would go with her.. she mumbled quiety.. -.. fine.. –she whined.. rocking her head back against the pillows there.. her lids closing over.. her hand to the delicate rise of her stomach.. it was only very slight.. not near as prominent as Sybelles.. her face screwed up a little when the new scent entered the room.. it was soft and light.. she picked up that it was Sybelle pretty much straight away.. letting those two have their talk.. their chat.. the second scent though.. woody.. heavy made her brows furrow.. she was taking it in though keeping her eyes closed.. it was far to much effort at this stage and for all she knew very little reward.. sharpened pointed ears twitched though when the sound of blade to flesh sounded and her breath audibly caught against the back of her throat.. she dragged her tongue across her teeth.. oh her hunger was there.. that much was evident.. she remained still a little while longer before she could take it no more.. lifting up onto her elbows ..nudging her head toward the scent.. before he rewarded her..removing his thumb as she got that first gush of ruby liquid.. coating her tongue.. painting her cheeks.. her lids snapped open.. those pale white eyes lifted to look to him there with perhaps a touch of need.. and then adoration.. her right hand rose as her cool soft fingers wrapped around his wrist.. holding it there.. her lips locked over that newly opened wound.. just allowing it to drizzle.. to flow down into her mouth.. oh it felt incredible.. the heat.. the smoothness of it.. it was thick.. the taste was a little off so she knew he had taken something.. but it wasn’t unpleasant.. if it weren’t for her pregnancy her hair would have tumbled down into only a vague curl.. what with Diovans inherent goodness.. her free hand came down to rest there upon his thigh.. nails curling in sharp enough to cut through the thick denim of his slacks.. not to break the skin but enough to cause a little pain.. before all would be interrupted.. with Sybelles cries.. her brows furrowed.. she blinked. Releasing the hold she had upon his wrist there and his thigh as she looked across to what was unfolding beside him.. Sybelle struggling as Nautilous had grabbed her and he was more or less feasting upon her like an animal would.. she reached across with lightening fast reflexes to grip at his jaw like one would a snake or an animal.. to lock it.. to hold it-.. Don’t you dare.. Release her immediately.. –she would snap suddenly.. Diovans blood still trickling down her chin.. splashing in droplets upon her little white dress.. her strength was draining quicky but she was going to use what she had to stop this all from happening.. if Nautilous continued at the rate he was he would kill her.. she was sure of it.. if he had not of released by this stage she would have summoned up the strength.. the magical stamina to strike a hit to his forehead that would hit.. not to pierce the skin.. but to cause the sudden onset of a very magical migrane.. pathetic for her normal standards and abilities but she was lucky to have been abe to summon up that.. before she just more or less melted back onto the bedding.. unconscious.. both of them were.. like a pair of sister dolls..-



Jacob

He would have stepped out maybe a moment or two before Diovan and Sybelle would have finished their rather deep passion driven kiss.. oh he saw it.. he saw a great chunk of it.. its why he hesitated.. he didn’t want to interrupt it.. they were his parents afterall.. and he had noticed the divide…even if it wasn’t on purpose.. since Nautilous’s death.. from the brother grieving to the lover.. it put a wedge all be it small.. and this right here was the first time he had noticed the two of them together.. acting like they used to.. adoration, care and love within each others arms,.. but he knew.. he had to step in at some point and when the two love birds had parted he took it as his cue.. interrupting to let Sybelle know that Nautilous was speaking.. figuring she would go and speak to him whilst he himself had a few words with his Father.. discussing the requirement of blood for Sydel.. and hearing him mention the potions for wellness.. made sense.. easily obtainable.. they both stepped into the house.. he handed it over.. having a bit of a laugh at the grimacing face.. knowing all to well it probably tasted like death..before he ushered him off to deal with his rather unwell Mother.. he lagged behind for a moment.. putting the empty potion bottle away.. figuring the four of them needed a moment.. maybe even two.. before he heard Sybelle cry out.. his brows rose as he took off toward the bedroom.. nearly slipping on the hall rug in the process.. he managed to stumble into the room just when Sydel had a hold of Nauts face.. seeing Sybelle all but collapse.. the scent of blood and broken flesh quite heavy in the room.. the machines beeping like crazy since Nauts heart rate was going through the roof.. his mouth dropped open and if Diovan had not of run for Sybelle he would have swiftly collected her before she hit the floor.. seeing the blood puddling down from the torn open wounds.. – Good Goddess what on earth happened here!?



Ace

He had caught up with her in the depths of the forest that early afternoon.. having received the notes about Nauts return whilst he was off working his fingers to the bone.. his appearance was rather dishevelled indeed.. rough.. rugged.. and filthy.. scented of pine and dirt.. bourbon upon his breath as was usual.. he whistled to catch her attention before he all but stole those sweet supple lips of hers.. his arms snaking around her.. pulling her in closer and noticing rather quickly that she too was going to return such an advance.. her tongue welcomed down into the heated depths of his mouth.. her moans.. her whimpers were like music to his ears and that long shapely leg wrapping around him? Oh god it took every fibre of his being to stop from tearing the flimsy clothing from her body and pinning her to the soft mossy ground beneath.. to just fuck her to within an inch of her life.. the kiss inevitably broke.. breathlessness ensued .. from both sides.. he told her he missed her and he did.. incredibly so.. he hated that he had to put a bit of distance in there but it was necessary.. there was that fear there that he would hurt her.. and he never.. Ever wanted to do that again.. she told him she missed him madly.. oh that shined up his ego.. though it wasn’t all to terribly small to begin with..she moved away and he came in behind her.. wrapping his arms around her.. listening as she explained where Naut was.. and how he was being well looked after.. he released her when she went exploring before he too noticed the scroll there.. and heard those chimes.. he called out to her to hold.. to pause.. and like a good girl she did.. before he himself moved in to pick it up..he glanced over to her.. noticing the shimmer of the shield.. before he unscrolled the parchment.. turning it about.. his brows furrowed.. and he read it out to her.. about how it was all a lie.. and how the blood god had been tricked.. to beware the chimes.. and he made sure to repeat that to her.. to never follow them.. and that Kharn was hunting.. all of them.. how they were at war.. he exhaled.. his free hand rose to rub against his face there.. – We need to get back to the house.. if this is right.. and this is not some kind of stupid game.. then we need to be together.. if we remain separated like this.. we can be easily picked off at any point.. –he whistled for his horse there.. watching as he turned and came back in his direction before he took her hand.. snaking his grip about her middle as he lifted her up and onto the beast.. he followed suit soon after.. nestling in behind her.. before tugging upon the reigns.. directing the horse in the direction of the house.. his lips gracing the soft round of her shoulder-.. nothing will happen to any of us.. I promise..

[BadInfluence]

Diovan:

The garden was showing all the signs of being at its peak, or close to, all because of a certain someone’s hard work. The fruit trees were heavy with their burdened branches, the many berries ripe on the stem, grapes on the vine… Many times the children had come in multi colored because of a few too many berries, splotches of red and purple and blue on fingers and lips, a few scratches from a tumble in thornier bushes… That was the beauty of where they lived though, children were allowed to be children, they got to be as wild and free as they wanted… True, it wasn’t exactly easy on the mothers, getting stains out of clothing wasn’t exactly easy. Still, no one complained, no one scolded… It was, in a way, the children who kept the place from being just too sad… Too morose after Nautilous had left them. It was a comfort to look at as well, which was why he had brought her out this way, for both the privacy and relaxation it offered… It was the best place he could take her that was close at hand… So there they had curled up together, he had wrapped her up in his cloak as she sat on his lap, and the kiss was shared… It had started off beautiful and sort, a much overdue joining of lips and love, though as all things do… They shift… And after several long minutes of the softest, most loving of kisses, he couldn’t deny his mounting passion… The need for something a little deeper, a touch more insistent, heavier… He was so glad when she returned his fervor, their lips pressing harder, tongues sliding along each other in a luscious caramel apple flavored dance… It was hard not to get aroused, and though he was ever gentle with her, there was no denying his need for his wife… An overdue need if anyone might say so… Still, this was not the time, nor the place and he knew that… His brother had just gotten back and Sybelle would want to spend time with him, to assure herself that he was there, that everything was going to be ok… It was partially that, and partially sensing someone nearby that caused him to slowly draw back on the kiss, and when that presence didn’t move or depart, he knew it was Jacob and well… He wasn’t exactly as flash as his brother and he preferred his intimate moments to be more…. Private… He apologized of course, but that was his nature, although he wasn’t a virgin anymore he wasn’t all that… Confident either. He still had pangs when he worried he was going about something the wrong way, or wasn’t doing it right, tripping over his own feet as it were. Of course his loves understood that, and Sybelle showed him in her way, and Sydel in hers… He was at least getting better, but no one could ever remove the gentleman from inside him, the man that had been started by watching his father… He smiled when he saw her blush, his own cheeks sporting their little streaks of soft red under his tan, seafoam green eyes glinting a bit as the passion still burned there for her… Always would. Rain check? I have an urge to give you a long, drawn out massage, followed by a few hours of soft love making… Normally they didn’t plan it, it just happened, but in a house full of people and the children and…. Well… The spark for random drop of the hat passion rather floats out the door… Plus after everything that happened at Christmas, Sybelle had needed love and support more than anything else, and he had used al his energies in that fashion… He even went to the surface with her, and he was coming to see in his way, why Jacob and Ace both had a soft spot for it. It would never be Arvandor for him no, never, but… It had it’s own little shine… He nodded to Jacob and watched Sybelle pop off to spend a little one on one time while he and Jacob remained behind, talking over the best way to help Sydel, which formulated an answer shortly after. The potion was easy to get, though Gods as much as he loved his wife, her potions would forever taste like something quite foul. They always did say the best medicines taste the worst… It was just a little after that when he went into what he mentally termed the sick room and came to settle besides Sydel, letting the scalpel cut into his skin, pressing the wound closed until she showed she was ready… When she got into a mood, even an open wound couldn’t temp her, so he had learned to read her signs… This time though it was different, the moment he let off the wound she attached herself to it almost immediately… He would snake his arm around her then, holding her against him comfortably, giving her a cradle in his arms for her to feed in a relaxed position… He let her take as much as she needed, he had plenty to spare after all, he was in the prime of his life and Sybelle’s extra portion sizes had gotten him into the best shape of his life as well… He caught the look in her eyes, and he couldn’t begin to explain the pleasure he got from it, the need and adoration there… When she reached out to grab his jeans, to shred through them with her nails to get at his skin, just enough to hurt but not harm… Gods help him he was a mess… A wanting, needy, horny mess… It took all his willpower to keep himself in check, to keep himself at less than a half chub, to bite it all down till later… He was still holding her close as she fed when things suddenly shifted gears next to them in the bed, at first he didn’t believe what he was seeing, and a split second later when Nautilous bit into Sybelle? You Bastard! Sydel had reached out to grab his jaw and he was leaping out and across the bed, ripping Nautilous’s hand away from Sybelle’s fragile skin, catching and holding her as she blacked out. He instantly covered her wound with his hand, stopping the blood flowing, keeping her from bleeding out. Sydel seemed to faint right after and to say he was now livid was an understatement. Big. Understatement. Are you Fucking Crazy?! What the hell is wrong with you?! He cursed at his brother, lifting Sybelle in his arms easily as Jacob came in, alerted to the issue by the cries of his mother. He looked to Jacob and tossed his head at Nautilous in the bed, who was starting to howl and tear at the bedding, causing him to have to yell to be heard. He’s not right! Something wrong with him and he BIT Sybelle, tore open her wrist! I need her stitched up right now before she loses any more blood. He would say, and he would lay Sybelle out on the couch in the living room, keeping pressure over her wound as he peppered her temple with kisses and whispered words.



Nautilous:

Weird…. Unusual…. Strange… There was a lot of words that could cover what was going around him at the moment, though none of them really quite fit it in the entirely, each was close but not the perfect one… It was like putting on a shoe that, yes it would suit ones needs, but would never really be comfortable… A lot of his mind was blank…. Or rather inaccessible to him… He could remember everything from his past quite clearly, but the months during his decline, as he was dying… Those turn into something of a blur, fuzzy and insubstantial, and a lot of the finer details he couldn’t recall… Then his death… That was completely blank to him… As were a few days in Naggoth when he first arrived, his first memory there was with a broken body and the psychikers all surrounding him, the witches working with them in tandem as they deboned him through slits in his skin. He remembered things in flashed afterwards, only at the start of each new torture, each creative way they decided to kill him over and over again… No… Not kill… That would be too kind… They brought him right to the edge before they would stop and let him heal himself before starting all over again… After a while in his mind though they all kind of ran together… More time with the Witches…. More time with the Psychikers… Back and forth… Back and Forth… Then in Tandem… Back and Forth… Time with Kharn…. Lots of time with Kharn… The space marine was nothing of not incredibly creative… Attacks on his mental self, his body, his soul… Every part of him was torn apart and allowed to heal before being torn apart again. To be Safe…. Secure… To no longer hear the constant cacophony of screams and the dying… To smell cinnamon and nutmeg instead of copper and rotting flesh… It was peaceful… So peaceful… The morphine was doing it’s job well, keeping much of the pain at bay, letting him truly rest for the first time in what felt like centuries to him… He just wanted to sleep but the family needed him first, so he kept dragging himself out of sleep, to talk with those who spoke to him… Moments later through the world bottomed out beneath him, dropped him down a black hole, and he was back in Naggoth… Blood… Blood… Blood… He hadn’t made it out then… He was still trapped in Naggoth… Blood… Blood… Blood… Kill… Kill Witches… Kill Psychikers… Blood… Blood is Life… Blood sustained him… Kept him going… Gave him time to exist until he could get back… Feed… Eat the flesh… Flesh is strength… Power… He had to get more… He had to consume… He had to survive to make it back to them… He had to fight…. Fight and Feast… Blood! Flesh! Blood! The cries of Sybelle were nothing new to him, they had used her and Sydel and Jacob against him down there, tortured him with their screams… To him? Her cries were no different now than they ever were before, it was just torture, something to break him again… He ignored them… It wasn’t until he felt the grip on his jaw that things snapped him back out of his broken mind, seeing Sydel there, causing him to instantly let Sybelle go… Blood smeared his lips, his eyes contracted down to mere slits, nearly lost in the sea of blue and amber in his eyes as he looked at her… When it dawned on him what had happened… What he had done… He broke. His mind went static, on the frits, and he screamed… If he had his legs he would have ran out of there, but they were useless things to him now, just lumps of flesh for no purpose… He tore at the bedding around him, wanting to get away from the scene, the reality of it too jarring… He could hear his brother cursing at him, screaming at him, and he didn’t blame him… What had they DONE to him?! Why had he even come back if he was just a monster? His heart was racing dangerously high, on the verge of cardiac arrest, pink foamy froth on his lips as he howled in agony and pain. All until he pushed himself beyond endurance and like Sydel, he blacked out, hitting the bedding with a thud. His heart began to slow and after some minutes, it was back in the safe areas, beating regularly… What had they done to him in Naggoth? This went beyond the realm of regular torture… This was akin to what the Brides went through… Turned… Changed… Tortured… Created… Refined… Was he like Sydel now? Or was he something else? Something Worse? Or was he nothing at all? Could this simply be his true nature coming to surface? The lineage of his Father coming to light without the powers of his mother to suppress them? Was the Dragon Awakening?



Rose:

She was perfectly oblivious to anything going on at the house once she left. Jacob had promised to look into it, and should she feel uncomfortable, she was welcome to take the children and go to her fathers Inn and rest there until any threat had passed. She had her back up option open, and the third of simply taking them all to her house by the river, always needing to be sure that there was something she could do… She was torn in a way about Nautilous’s return, she was glad of it because it helped bring those she loved back together, it healed broken hearts and stemmed tears… Yet at what cost? She knew now that yes, his arrival wasn’t contagious, it was simply her pregnancy finally deciding to make itself known… Yet if he truly was allergic to magic then there would need to be steps taken, her house would be locked down, everyone would be on restrictions… Given the fact that Pia was taking her classes in both literature and mathematics but magic as well, it would mean Pia would have to lock a part of herself up, and she couldn’t imagine what that would mean for the triplets? Three budding little children who were about the age to start feeling their magic inside, to have it smothered under a ward, just because someone was ill? What about the babies yet born? Her child, the twins of Sydel, and Sybelle’s baby? What risk was there to those new lives still being created? She didn’t like it… In a way… She was angry with him… For what he had put them all through as he died, then what they had suffered while he was gone, only to have a new crop of trouble come up on his return… It was like the perpetual Albatross for a sailor, and yes she knew that he didn’t do it intentionally, she still found herself unable to move past that stage yet… It just clung to her… Like a sort of humidity that clung to her skin… She wanted to shake it off, she knew that she was being unfair, especially for all he had done in saving Jacob and Ace for her… She knew that she was being unfair…Even cruel in thoughts but… She sighed mentally and just gave it up… She would simply let the emotion run its course and she would handle it as it came, and besides, she had her favorite distraction in the world whistling at her! She had seen Ace dressed to the nines as the King of Silverthorne, she had seen him dressed in a suit when they went out to some upper scale places for their random little date nights, and she had seen him in the uniforms of Paramour at the celebrations… She knew him very well in his casual clothes, though always so classy and sharp, still more relaxed than the others…. Each one was a different angle of her Ace, her sexy, stunning, god like husband… He was glorious as the sunrise and she never hesitated to tell him just how gorgeous she thought he was, and true it was no help to his ego, it was still the truth of her heart. She had married the most gloriously attractive man alive! But her favorite part? Was when he was like this… Dirty… A little roughed up… Sweaty… In old beat up clothes that showed wear and tear… Gods… Seeing him like this was like liquid lust she took in the form of vision and it was hard, oh so very, very hard not to beg him to take her then and there. Honestly, if not for the kind of day it was so far? She would already be on her knees with his cock in her mouth, savoring the taste of sweat and musk, working him over with her lips until he rewarded her with a tasty treat. She might just beg for it later, when things were more settled, calmer… For right now though, their desires and needs would be put on the back burner, at least in part… It was rather impossible not to fall into his kiss, the sweet bourbon laced high of his lips, the taste of his tongue as it slid across her own as he nibbled and supped on her moans… She loved him… Unconditionally… Unequivocally… Her fingers fisting in his hair to pull just enough to notice, that sweet hot burn along the scalp, her leg hooked about his hips as she rocked against him invitingly… She knew they couldn’t take it past this, but you could bet your sweet little ass that she was going to ride it for all it was worth, right to the end… When the kiss broke and they were both a tough out of breath, panting softly, hearts racing… She could taste him on her lips still, the bourbon and sweat, the delicious taste of Ace himself with was as addictive as opium… She growled softly at the thought of something she wanted to do but knew it would be put off again... Still, all things in good time… She told him that Nautilous was indeed back, and why she was out in this area of the woods, her gut telling her something remained to be found… The chimes were… Interesting… As much as she might wish to deny it, there was a definite allure to the sound, something that made her want to find the source of it… Seek it out… Gods help her too, because like Sybelle, she had a curious nature… Just… Unlike Sybelle, she had recently had it torn out of her system, so she was a good deal more cautious now than she had ever been before. When Ace told her to stop, she did within an instant, looking back to him as he came forward. She let him take the lead, to go for the scroll, putting up a shield around her. She might not have done it an hour ago but she was now, and she knew she should tell him about it but… It just didn’t seem the right time… So she waited… Once the scroll was read though the feelings of regret towards Nautilous came up all over again, and she was angry, angry about all of this. She blamed him. Blamed Nautilous for it all. She bit her tongue hard to keep from voicing anything, instead she put on her big girl pants as it were, and burrowed down. She might not like it, she might blame him for it, but they were family. Family stuck together, through thick and thin, through good and bad… This was just a rough storm, they would be ok, they all would…. They just had to stay strong while it raged… I doubt it… She knew in her gut this wasn’t a joke or a game… This was real… Kharn had a grudge against all of them in some way or style, so it made sense that when shit hit the fan, he would be out for revenge. She settled up onto the back of his horse as he put her there, making sure he had room to easily get up behind her, settling in comfortably against him. We need to go by my old cottage first, please? I know it’s out of the way but… I think I have a few things there to help… Nautilous had left with her several things in fact, always the one to be prepared for any situation, he had pretty much loaded her down with items and letters and all that stuff… Why her? Because out of all of them, perhaps she was the only one who wouldn’t hesitate to do something that might in the end kill him, because she cared for him the least out of them all. It wasn’t a bad thing, they were friends, she and Nautilous but… They would never be very close, not as he had been anyways, their natures just clashed too much… He grated on her and there was no helping it, but at least they were not enemies, she did not hate him nor he her… So with that in mind, she was asking to be taken to her old house, the place where she held treasures and secrets… It was why she never rented it out, despite it being excellent property and she could make a lovely coin during the holiday seasons, it was too valuable as a hidey hole… Secret floor boards, hidden rooms, nooks and crannies and special spaces… Plus there were memories made in her bedroom that she was never going to share with anyone… She felt the gentle kiss to her shoulder, her hand coming up to grace his cheek, gently stroking her fingers down his beautiful face... I know you will keep us safe… She trusted him… Put her faith in him… Her love and hope… When they made it to her house it was easy to side off of the horse, quite familiar with the beast and the position she had been in, pulling her shorts back into their proper position before waking to the gate and opening it… The fairy garden still beautifully maintained by Pia who spent a couple hours with her here every day on maintenance, the house dust free and still lovely, the door opening without a sound… She trusted him to follow or to remain close by, which ever he chose, feeling perfectly safe in her old home… She made her way into the spare bedroom, the one that had been Ace’s when he would come to visit, and she began to pull up floor boards. They were closed by a hidden hinge that would open only if pressed in the right place, springing up easily under her fingers, and inside she began to pull out boxes and bags… Several more boards being removed…. More boxes, bags, letters, packages, envelopes…. Scrolls and maps and jewelry… Weapons… An old bow that looked broken in several places… Each of these were in turn places into a giant rucksack bag that she used to use for laundry day, each one carefully packed so nothing broke, nothing was damaged or bent… She saw a shadow come to her side then, a bit off behind her, causing her to start look up with a smile… She thought it was Ace… Come to see all my hidey holes did you- She said before her words shifted into a scream of bloody murder. She was up like a flash and barreling through the door like a bat out of hell, whiter than a sheet and looking as if she had seen death itself, stopping only when she got to Ace’s side where she clung to him like he was a life line to a drowning man. She would not budge or move, despite the fact she was shaking and sobbing, her nails biting into his skin as she seemed to want to hide inside his very soul. No one had ever seen her so scared before, and in truth, no one had ever terrified her so much as what she had seen inside that house.



Purge…

Breaking the Mode…

Altering the Flow…

Editing the Stream…



So many words for what was going on in Naggoth, how such a grand upset could occur, and right under the Blood God’s own snout too no less… It had, indeed, made him the laughing stock of his brothers. Nurgle had even taken the opportunity to strike in the chaos, unleashing multiple plagues and swarms of pestilence among the warriors, adding another level of chaos to the realm already out of disorder… Slaanesh was not one to be out done either, though he took a different route, stealing a few brides rather than causing too much chaos… Things were going crazy, the brothers were at war, and yet the world seemed to be in balance… Perhaps that was because the brothers were in fighting versus using the world as a chess board for once? Who knew? For now, the ripples were not reaching the Surface and Arvandor was protected by the Pantheon, the family as it was…. Was safe… Or was it? After all… The gates kept out the Gods… But not all the minions… Not entirely… After all… Sydel had managed to slip through little loop hole… Why not others?

While the Pantheon was keeping an eye on the war going on below their peaceful archipelago, they were no longer watching the gates quite as closely as they once were, and because of that… Someone slipped in… Just one person… A familiar enough presence in years long since past… Indeed, a friendly one, though one who had not been through in some time… An old lover of Hanali’s… With the confusion going on, he was going to take advantage of it, to perhaps… Find something once lost? To reclaim a bit of stolen property? To check in on an investment? Who could say, really? His reasons were indeed his own, and what he might do with them, well that entirely depended on how things played out… He might become an ally… He might become their worst enemy… Would the infamous gambler Ace be willing to take the bet and gain a very rich pot? Or would he back out, cowardly to the end, afraid of risking what he might need to put into the betting pool? So many luscious little questions!



Duvainor:

He had arrived a few days ago, gotten in comfortably at a little house for rent at the edge of town, and settled in to watch… To see where they went… Who they talked to… What relationships they had formed… He had known that Nautilous would be coming back soon enough, all the stars told him so, and he wanted to be here in time for the arrival… Why? Because he could help… Because he might just be the ally they needed in this battle… He could be the very thing that turned the tide for them… But would they take it? That was always the question. Some people had a little more pride than others, but eventually, they all bend. They all cave in and give up the ghost… It’s just their nature… Still… This one might be a little harder than most… This family was made of sterner stuff… A little more battle hardened than most… It could become a challenge… He wasn’t sure if he relished or hated them, but it all depended on the person, if it was seduction than it was always fun but… He wasn’t here for that bit of fun… Though if it was offered? Well who was he to say no to a bit of fun? Nautilous’s foretold arrival did occur though, the star one more blazed in the sky, the herald of ordinance… He followed the family again, watching their house, staying just outside the wards and triggers so he wouldn’t alert anyone… When Rose left on her own, he couldn’t resist the drag of his tongue over her lips, remembering her so well… She had grown up beautifully too, a rose captured and preserved in the bloom of her beauty, the peak of her perfection… Her golden hair long and thick in it’s braid, the perfect curves that had only filled out more with child birth, the ripe breasts… Slaanesh himself couldn’t have imagined she would have turned out so perfectly fine, so deliciously shaped, the sort of figure that begs to be mated and often… Lucky husbands hers… Especially with her sexual appetite. He followed at a discreet distance as she went and found the tube, her husband coming up behind her, another man he would have sunk his claws into given half the chance… Hearing the letter read out… Seeing that the dagger had been left behind while the letter was taken… He saw the Mushi here, invisible to the naked eye, looking like wisps of long red hair… Writhing and twisting on the wind, just waiting to wrap around an arm or a leg, to drag the victim away to the other realm… He brushed them away easily, seeing more spread out here and there, the less malicious kind coming through the cracks… As if he cared… He reached down to pick up the dagger, again brushing off the Mushi, pouring a small vial of golden liquid onto the ground, watching as the Mushi were drawn to it immediately before fading back into their own realm. He settled the broken dagger into a bag at his side before starting off behind the two, taking a short cut through the tree’s that a horse just couldn’t manage, arriving several minutes before the couple. There he waited, in the main bedroom, comfortable as you please as he leaned against the wall. When she came in and knelt down on the ground, he admittedly enjoyed the view, just admiring what she had turned into… Perhaps even regretting a few things… It took her a few moments to notice him, though not on any fault of hers, he was a master at masking his presence. He could stand right in front of someone and they wouldn’t see him if he didn’t want them to… Though when she looked up and screamed he half wanted to chuckle… So… She remembered him after all? That was good… It might make things easier. He followed outside to see her clinging to her husband like bark to a tree, shaking like a leaf, and he tutted just a little bit… Such strong reactions… It wasn’t like he ever struck her… He stood in the doorway so Ace could see him, watching, waiting… Duvainor was, in a word, gorgeous… He easily made Nautilous in his prime look like a cute kid next door, his beauty was utter perfection itself, so superb that it blurred the line between the sexes flawlessly… Was he a gorgeous woman? Was he a stunning man? Long thick hair the same color as a sapphire hung over his shoulder in a loose curtain, tied only with a simple black silk ribbon, the tails easily falling to his waist… On his flawless, angelic like face rested a set of black, thin rimmed half-moon glasses that only added to his utter magnetic appeal… Behind those glasses sat a pair of lavender blue eyes that were perfectly captivating… He was neither too tall nor too short, too muscular or too thin, just utterly divine… 

[Deleted]

Sybelle

..her dear husband had asked her for a rain cheque.. that he had an urge to give her a long drawn out massage followed by some soft love making.. her heart had taken more than a few good tumbles after such was spoken.. and she offered him a little nod of her head.. eager it showed.. along with the colouring on her cheeks before Jacob had popped out to interrupt their little temporary love nest.. she had heard that Nautilous was up and active.. to a point so she departed.. brushing her fingers across the top of her dear sweethearted husbands hand before she slipped inside and away from the Father and Son.. she made her way back into the bedroom where the nurses were all leaving.. Sydel was resting somewhat peacefully and Nautilous appeared to be just staring up at the ceiling.. or.. so it seemed.. she hesitated a moment before she pushed herself in.. sinking down lightly upon the side of the bed.. she spoke to him softly.. quietly.. noticing he was being short with her but that his voice was just shot.. she figured he was still exhausted.. but the fact he remembered her made her heart swell a little ..she was worried for him.. watching the difference in the colouring of his eyes.. catching sight of when Diovan entered the room to help out Sydel.. before she felt Naut’s cool somewhat dried touch.. she offered a smile.. glancing then down to him.. figuring he wanted to hold her hand.. or something of the like.. only for him to just about floor her.. sinking his teeth down into her skin.. drinking from her that made her cry out.. she went to pull away only it got worse and he began biting deeper.. the skin tore open more.. the sounds in the room grew louder as a bloody Sydel reached for Naut.. Diovan was yelling as she was torn away from Naut.. the skin tearing making her pass out.. her body going into a small form of shock.. unable to process what was actually happening in that instant..-



Jacob

He had finished putting those last few vials away.. making sure the area was tidied and locked up before he heard Sybelles shrieking.. he took off hurredly toward the sick room.. the scent of blood was strong.. the sounds were loud.. Nautilous was growling and howling in pain.. Diovan was calling his brother out on everything.. Sydel appeared to have fainted and Sybelle was all bloodied.. a puddle forming there upon the floor and sheets.. his gaze.. that duo colouring shifted to Diovan.. hearing the explanation before seeing him head out of the room quickly.. he threw his hands up.. a ward secured the room.. he didn’t know the ins and outs of Nauts injuries just yet but he wanted no one going in and no one leaving at least in the immediate.. he swiftly followed the bloody trail.. finding Diovan upon the couch with a rather floppy Sybelle- .. Good goddess.. I could have never predicted.. I am so so sorry Diovan.. I should not have allowed her to go in on her own.. without one of us.. I have no idea whats wrong with your Brother.. clearly its not safe for anyone to be with him alone at the moment.. he dragged his bag over.. drawing it open as he plucked out a few implements.. the needles.. the string.. he placed Sybelles hand there upon his knee.. watching the blood pooling once more.. it was so open torn and raw.. his brows furrowed.. one hand came to rest upon her forehead.. a soft green glow occurring.. just enough pain relief to get her to relax.. as even in ones unconscious state pain can still exist.. Diovan would have felt her relax a little.. before he went to work on stitching that skin back up.. making sure it was clean.. -.. I sincerely hope she will be able to use this hand properly afterwards.. he has chewed down pretty deeply here.. we wont know for sure until she wakes up.. –he tied off that last stitch.. snipping the thred there.. it looked a bit angry but over time it would lessen in colour.. - .. we will have this sorted.. I assure you.. again.. I am so so sorry Diovan.. I will go and check on Naut now.. call upon me if you need to.. I will come running..-he slowly moved to stand there.. patting Diovans shoulder.. – come get me when she wakes and we will do a full scan.. just to make sure everything is ok.. - as he moved back into the hallway.. he wanted to move Sydel.. but he figured If he did that she would stop eating once more.. it was quite a gamble indeed.. dispelling the wards.. letting the security drop so to speak he moved in.. he moved toward Sydel first.. noting her unconscious frame.. the blood tricking out her mouth.. though he knew that was Diovans and she had not been harmed other than light scratching from Nauts sudden melt down.. he reached down and lifted her up a little.. moving her across to the opposite side of the bed.. placing her head down gently upon the pillow there.. wiping the blood from her chin.. noting the colour change.. she was not quite so gaunt.. even if Dio had only given her a little it had certainly helped.. he placed his hand down upon her heart to listen.. and then upon the slight rounding of her stomach.. everything seemed to be ok.. a little sped up from the sudden shock and surprise but for the most part ok.. he exhaled.. making his way back toward Nautilous.. his brows furrowed.. this was going to be complicated.. -.. Naut.. are you with me?.. –he would question.. not loudly.. but more than a whisper-. I need you to wake up and talk to me, It’s Jacob.. –he would place his hand to Nauts forehead.. curious if the amount of blood he had taken from Sybelle would be enough to help him out at all.. he sunk back in his seat a little.. motioning for the nurses who appeared frightened to come into the room-.. he’s out of it for the moment.. relax.. I need you to restrain him.. make sure his arms are tied to the bedding for the moment.. I need to make sure he wont lash out suddenly.. –he nodded.. waiting and watching before the nurses headed back out.. he rubbed his hands together.. upping the dose of morphine just for the moment.. that soft green glow shining as he began a full body scan.. now he understood the magic would be hurting him.. but without it he was far to much in the dark.. and he hated that more than anything.. he wanted answers.. and he wanted them now.. starting at the head.. moving down the torso.. checking out the spine.. the bones.. the blood.. the organs.. everything.. he just had to know what was going on in there.. - .. Sybelle is going to be ok Nautilous..

[Deleted]

Ace:



..what had started out to be a usual day for him turned into something different entirely..first the note from his beautiful wife informing him of Nautilous’s return.. then coming across her wandering out in the forest in only the tightest running gear he was sure he had seen.. well maybe it wasn’t so tight but it sure showed off each and everyone of those sweet lush curves of hers.. the scroll was the next.. the sounds of the bells and the writing upon the paper.. all taking his attention hostage.. he knew she was worried and angry.. he knew he had to get a handle on it if he could and quickly before she went and did something brash.. whistling for his horse as he hoisted her up onto the saddle.. him nestling in behind her as he took off in the direction of the house.. or so he figured.. he made her a promise.. that it would be alright.. that he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to their family.. no matter what it was.. she told him she needed to go by the old cottage first..-.. but of course.. –he mentioned.. switching up direction a little.. turning then as the horse took off toward the little place he knew quite well indeed.. not too fast.. and making sure to take a wide birth about the trees.. he didn’t want to leave her feeling uncomfortable.. the pregnancy was an.. off issue.. so to speak.. something he wasn’t about to ask about.. but he wasn’t about to jolt her around like a rag doll.. arriving soon after he snaked his strong inked arm about her lithe frame.. helping her down.. waiting till her feet pressed the soft grassy soil before he himself hopped down in a sight crouch.. he followed along behind her though not too close.. allowing her to do whatever it was she needed to.. he knew she didn’t require a shadow..he wandered down past the gardens then.. chuckling quietly at the fairy section .. it was clear that Pia had been keeping that well stocked and organised.. it was all very well done really.. plenty of detail and a lot of work for such a small child.. he reached around and scratched at the dust upon the back of his neck there.. looking down the long winding paths before he returned to the front.. nearer to the gates as he leant against one of the thick wooden poles.. hands down in the depths of his pockets.. and he waited.. before he straightened with a sudden start.. hearing her scream-.. Rose?!.. –he called out to her.. more than prepared to close the short gap between the gate and the house before he noticed her barrelling out of there as if she were on fire.. she just about threw him off his feet when she grabbed him.. his arm slid around her.. holding her as fiercly as she was holding him-.. Woah.. hey.. Hey now.. whats going on?.. –he questioned.. glancing down to her there.. he winced a touch when her nails began to sink into his bare skin.. -.. Rose?.. –he would question her again .. turning his head to follow her as she moved in and around behind him like a child would its parent.. his brows furrowed.. clearly he was confused and more than a touch concerned.. wondering what in the fuck had just happened.. before he glanced up.. catching sight of a figure standing there in the doorway of the cottage.. his gaze narrowed a touch.. taking in the visage of this.. person.. was it female or male.. attractive yes.. incredibly so.. at least from what he could see at this distance.. but what had occurred here.. that had his attention more than anything else- .. What the fuck man.. really?.. do you get your rocks off frightening women like that?.. comeon.. it’s not cool.. –he exhaled shaking his head.. his hands came down to rest there upon his hips-.. I don’t know what you’re doing in there.. but it’s her house.. she still has a claim on it.. and even though Arvandor is pretty casual when it comes to walk ins..squatting in other peoples houses is something else entirely.. how about you hit the road.. before you are removed.. mm?.. –his voice held that pitchy tone.. that on anyone else wouldn’t hold well for authority but on him just seemed to work..-

[BadInfluence]

Things happen in weird ways. Not everything is charted, no single inch of space ever truly understood, no guaranteed outcome to any expedition. Who could say they knew where they would all end up in the end? Who knew how he would come back? Who could have guessed the changes that would overcome them all? Both in his departure… And his return. What had happened to him in those missing months? Even Nautilous himself might not be able to say. Who could explain the lost moments of his own mind? Naggoth changes people… It’s like a cancer, a tumor, and even if you survive it… You are never whole again… The You… That You once Were… No Longer Is… One must forge a new path… A new life… Forever realizing that the memories, both happy and sad, will never happen again… The realm of what was will ever remain in shadow, lost in the twilight, the gloaming of the recesses of one’s own mind…

Diovan:

He was Angry… Frightened… Concerned…. Confused… He was… A myriad of many things that he couldn’t easily explain, let alone reason on, which in the end made things so much worse. Panic? Panic when he saw Nautilous rip into Sybelle’s wrist and the blood start… When his wife shrieked in pain and he felt a flash of cold dread that leveled him in a way nothing else had… He had launched across the bed almost in tandem with Sydel releasing his wrist, blood spattering the once white sheets, the scent of copper so heavy on the air it might as well be a whores perfume. He had gathered up Sybelle before she fell, his hand over her wrist, uncaring about his own in this moment. His one, his only concern, was for his wife. He was worried… She was pregnant and in a delicate state, even if she was much healthier this time around than she had been the last, she was still not as strong as her other half… Seeing his brother attack her like that, like some sort of rabid beast, he had never thought he would see the day… Like Sybelle, he thought his brother incapable of so much as budging a single hair on her head, and to see him like that… Heedless of what he was doing… It was terrifying… He reacted on impulse, verbally and bodily, and he spared no time for an internal filter in those moments. Hanali’s tits Jacob! None of us did! None of us know what is wrong with him, for all we know, he’s mad. He had Sybelle on the couch as he kept pressure on the wound until Jacob could stitch it back up, but when he spoke on how she might lose some use of her hand… He had to smother down the urge to go back into that room and take a pillow and smother his brother… They needed Nautilous back… Not this freak walking around in his skin… He knew, in part at least, that he didn’t mean that… Not entirely…. But at the same time he was so angry that he couldn’t help it either… It was like he wanted nothing more than to scream and rage, but he knew it was unfair, no one knew what had happened to his brother… I promise I will… I am going to take her to our room and make sure she is comfortable… With that, he lifted her up in his arms, moving to the bedroom on the lower half of the house that they shared when in residence. His concern was well founded in his own mind, Sybelle used both her hands in her knitting and sewing, in her cooking and crafting, poultices and potions… How many people relied on her? Sure Rose was bang up on them herself, but she would need decades to become as good as Sybelle was, and they didn’t have time to wait… The people relied on her, Sybelle was their cure all, especially for those who chose the old ways versus the hospitals. How many people would struggle with colds and flues without her tinctures? He would do anything to make sure she healed up ok, that she didn’t go through any pain, that she wouldn’t be traumatized by this… Until they knew what would happen though, he could only wait, wait and hold her… Which is what he did, he held her in their bed, rocking her in his arms as he sung to her.



Nautilous:

Moving Sydel… Might save her… Might kill him… Would he hurt Sydel? It was more of… Could he? Unlike Sybelle, she was far more prepared, and even in her weakened state she could lay him out like laundry. If he had tried to attack her she would have given him a broken nose at the very least, and given him another one when he woke up, just for good measure. She was not the fragile sister. She was the fighter. He was glad, or rather he would be glad if he was aware of it, that Jacob was taking the steps he was… Did it feel good to know what he had done? Fuck no! If anything it made the pain worse, made him want to snap and gnash his teeth, to hurt whatever was hurting him… It was how he survived in Naggoth… You fought back or they grew bored and thought of even worse ways to torture you or tear your mind apart… He heard Jacob from far away, like he had a pillow over his head, muffling the sounds… Ya… Was all he could get out, short, simple and sweet… He couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag at the moment, but it was best not to push him too far at this point, he was…. Far from stable as he had already come to see. Hurts… To talk much… Can’t breathe. He said, which was the truth, each time he inhaled it felt like something was trying to dig its way through him. He didn’t struggle or fight when the nurses came in to wrap his corpse like body up, a measure to keep others safe, which given how frail he looked almost seemed laughable… But the question of the hour? Did the blood help? Yes…. Although not entirely visible at first glance, the amount he had taken was small in comparison, there was a change… His skin was less cold and dry… A little moisture was coming back…A little warmer… Nothing grand but… There was something… He remained still, though the cries of pain as he was moved about for the bindings, they were unavoidable. When Jacob upped the morphine so he could begin the scan, true it did help some, but the pain he was going through was off the scale for Jacob’s readings. Still, he bit down, he grit his teeth and tried to keep the screams back… What would Jacob find? It was more… What he couldn’t find… Chunks of organs were missing… Parts of liver and lungs, kidknee’s and bladder, all vital organs had chunks taken out of them… More than that, there were blade fragments still lodged in his body, some more prominent than others… The worse was the one buried in his spinal column, the reason for his loss of legs, and perhaps even some of the magical allergy perhaps? After all… Each time Jacob would pass the scan over, the blade in his spine would dig a little deeper, get a little longer… The same went for all the shards of metal in his body… The more magic… The more aggravation… Though the blood seemed to work the most internally… Signs of some organ and tissue repair… Slight, but there, a whisper of activity… He heard Jacobs words through the red haze of pain, his lids fluttering often as more and more often his eyes rolled up, but he held on… What… Did I do… He had no recollection at all of what happened… Of her coming in the room… Of him grabbing her… Biting her… Of Sydel stopping him or Diovan screaming at him… Nothing… He just remembered answering Sydel when she whispered his name… That was it… But these flashes… The black outs weren’t new… At all… He only wished they were…. Did… I kill someone…. Again? In Naggoth it was always like this… Pain… Torture… Then they would give him a ‘break’, let him slip out when he was at his worst, when the hungry was peaking… Then they would put some hapless Drow or other humanoid in front of him, some innocent for him to attack while he blacked out, leaving him to wake up covered in blood with the pathetically broken remains in front of him… Over and over again… It was hell to know he had done something but not remembered what… Only to come to in time to see the wreckage…

Rose:

Like her handsome husband, her own day had started out as usual, a full work day followed by family time at lunch with their children, then another few hours at temple before coming home to make dinner and such. She had stolen the chance for a jog when it came up, especially with Garafin having his grand children and knowing they would be gone for a few hours yet, it gave her the perfect option for a nice long run. He had put on her skin tight white running shirt, the ones with the thin straps so her skin could breathe, with a pair of thin jogging shorts that as her husband noticed, did nothing to hide what she had. It was easier to run in this sort of outfit, not to mention helped to keep her cool, which she needed on her longer outings. She was in the best shape of her life, and she knew without Ace or Jacob reminding her, that she had never looked better. When Ace had found her in the woods after sending off the letter, it was no wonder that the two were ready to rip the clothes off of one another, they were just naturally like that to begin with… If not for the fact Nautilous was involved and say, he had just come across her, rather than been looking for her? Chances were some trees, grass, and moss were going to show some serious signs of wear and tear as they tore the area up around them. That was for another time though as the situation was quite different… He kept her safe, read the letter off to her, the warning and information within… They were off after that, Ace settling her on his horse in front of him, the gentle kiss to her shoulder… His promise… To keep them all safe… That nothing bad would happen… She trusted him, with her whole heart she did, and she told herself not to worry… Ace was strong… He was her husband… He was, like her, immortal… They had… Well very little to fear… But that was them… Not everyone else in their family had that… Not their friends, not their children, not those who they loved… They had to be strong, both individually, but together… As a unit… Just as he had said. She had asked him if he might go by the old cottage first, her first home in Arvandor, the one she made her hidey hole and sometimes hide out when she needed some time to just… Let go. She sometimes rented it out when Garafin’s Inn got too packed or when someone needed to rent a house for the season, a little extra money she spent on spoiling the family with surprise gifts or little trips out of town on holiday… Thank you sweetheart… She would say as he took them in that direction… Noticing that he was taking the longer route… Avoiding anything that might bounce or bump her… Always being careful just in case… He never talked about her pregnancy or lack there of… Just like Jacob, everyone rather treated it like spun sugar, no one touched on it much if at all… Funny how easy it was to tell Jacob about the baby… But she couldn’t think of a way to tell Ace… The moment was all wrong right now… All wrong entirely… Ace needed something… Special… Something… Different. Just what she didn’t know but… That was something she would figure out… After all, she was still flat as a board there, and though there was a tightness there that wasn’t before… It wasn’t so much that it couldn’t be mistaken for say, her having eaten a bit too much, or gods forbid a little gas. When they arrived she went straight into her little house, all the memories always flooding back to her when she came home, causing her to smile… She was gathering up her dooms day materials, as she called them, her get out of jail cards and such as that… Plus Nautilous had asked her to do some things for him before he had even gotten sick, things that he feared might be needed in the future, things he needed her to keep secret… And she had… She had boxes on top of boxes packed into the rucksack, fragile envelopes, scrolls and vials… She was intent on her task while Ace gave her space, letting her keep the few secrets she had, the little niches where she hid precious things… Pia’s garden was incredibly well maintained, she often too Ree out here, her little pony… She and her mother together would work on the garden, add little pieces of furniture and such, ever evolving it… Pia’s love for them was much like her fathers when he was younger. She was unaware of Ace’s wanderings, she thought he was in the house with her, the shadow that fell across her as she was packing… Her mind on the task at hand, her guard down, no need to be fearful in her own home… Not in Arvandor… At least until she looked up… The world tilted suddenly, dangerously on it’s axis in her mind, and she screamed… She ran… She could not run out of that house fast enough, all the priceless treasures, all the vital containers forgotten in her dash for freedom. The first person she saw outside was Ace, making a bee line for him at full speed, and if she were taller or heavier she might just have bowled them both over. Being as short as she was though there was no worry of that. She clung to him like a life line though, unable to answer him at first, her lips was as stiff as wood in her mouth. She moved around behind him, her face buried in his back, her hands digging into his shirt… She wanted to beg him to take her on the horse and go as far away as they could… Take her back to the surface… Destroy the portal… Hide her in a bubble forever… She couldn’t take it… Not this… Not this… When she finally did get a few whispered words out, it was after Ace had said his peace, the mild threat at the end… Duvainor… Jacob would know him… If only from her own memories from when she had entered a Revere with him… The man had not changed at all… Though he seemed less tall now that she was fully grown, no longer a child, no longer…. Helpless… Though he still terrified her… Make her feel the same despair she had known her entire childhood… The knowledge of what she had been trained to be flooding back through her system… The despair that he had come to drag her back to it… All of it crashing down on her, making her body break out in a film of sweat, to shake… She couldn’t speak, only cling to Ace, to hold to close to him she might sink into his flesh and hide in his body until this all passed…

Duvainor:

Rose was acting out of her usual pattern, he had to admit, when he had trained her she wasn’t like this at all… She used to be more… Docile… Calm… Serene almost… She took everything in stride without showing so much as a flicker of… Anything really. Seeing her react as she had was… A bit of a disappointment… It certainly dulled the interest he had in her rather quickly. Her husband had his attention now, the rather blunt way of talking, the not so veiled threat at the end… What a pity… Still, what did one expect from a man who had served Khorn for so long, really? Certainly nothing refined… So crass… Even his voice blurred the lines of the sexes… It was sultry… Sensual… More like a purr if one had to say anything… But it too was neither feminine nor masculine, just that blend of the two, perfection. I was not…. Getting my rock off… Not was I squatting… Such an ugly word… He remained at a distance, not eager what so ever to tangle with the famous Ace, the mans destructive power was renown amongst all four realms. No, he was perfectly happy where he was, observing… He pushed his glasses up on his nose with the top of his middle finger, eyes never leaving the two, gauging… Measuring… I simply came to help… It is by no intent of mine that she took such a fright. She seems a sort of… Jumpy female… Too much caffeine perhaps… That is neither here nor there… He said casually, not quite bored but, not all together interested either… Like someone who walks on a fine line between utter boredom and mild displeasure. Then again, he was out of his regular territory, playing ball in someone else’s back yard… Disconcerting… Uncomfortable… But entirely do-able. I can leave if you insist, but then, who is going to take all the metal shards out of your dear friend? As skilled a doctor as young Anikin might be, he can’t help your friend, none of you can. Was he bragging? Or simply stating the facts? Was Jacob going to be able to remove the metal shards? Would he be able to remove the dagger blade buried in Nautilous’s spine? Would he even be able to help his beloved chosen father in a situation that was entirely alien to everyone but… Well… Himself? So many questions! He did delight in that, admittedly, a little ray of enjoyment in this rather spit shine realm… You forgot the Dagger at the scene, a rather important thing honestly, which I simply came to return. Which was the actual truth… The dagger was, in it’s own way, even more important than the scroll. Sure, the information was important and all, but it wouldn’t save Nautilous’s life… If anything, the information was almost redundant in a way, after all Nautilous himself would have told them once he pulled his head out of his ass… Still, all things in good time, he was patient after all… Incredibly patient. That and he had an eye for the finer things, so he knew when something was worth the effort, such as Rose herself… Now… Are you going to play nice, or do I take myself and my assistance somewhere else? Slaanesh isn’t the sort to waste time on a useless venture after all….

Yes….

Slaanesh…

Why not? When one thought about the over all beauty of the family, the promised perfection of the children, and the power along all the blood lines… Why wouldn’t Slaanesh be involved? Even more so considering that half the family’s blood line belonged to Khorn himself, what better way for the God of Depravity to thumb his nose as dear big brother than to take one of his own bloodline? It was just too ripe a chance, too perfect an option, especially considering the fact that Khorn himself had just been made a prime fool of by his former first in command… The time was too ideal to strike, and in order to make sure that the best chances were indeed in his favor, Slaanesh had sent his own first in command… Both lover and worshiper, Duvainor was most beloved of Slaanesh, and the head priest of the religion as well… None served better, none was more beautiful, none as intelligent as him… It was only natural he be the one to go and… Sweeten the currently bitter waters of the family… There was no question of success, not a single doubt in anyone’s mind that this would work, the situation was just too perfect…

[Deleted]

Jacob

His head was spinning.. so much had happened in such a small amount of time that he hadn’t really had the time to process it.. and he had this horrible sense of guilt.. having been the one to tell Sybelle to go and seek out Nautilous.. his heart was aching as he was tending to the torn up flesh.. hoping to the greater goddess that Sybelle would be ok.. that she would regain the feeling in her fingers and wrist.. he knew her love of drawing.. and how she helped out Garafin a lot when it came to tattoos and sketching.. this among everything else she did would dampen it all.. he had returned to Nautilous then.. making sure he was fastened down.. drawing Sydel to the side even if it was only a little ..he plucked up his board there.. making a few more notes as he slid his glasses back up.. looking down to Naut there.. asking if he could hear him.. hearing the short one word response.. – mm.. I know.. we will try and get that sorted as soon as we can..-he could tell everything would be raspy and painful.. just from the outside look.. he made sure to get the nurses to up the morphine levels.. in hopes that it would take the edge off.. to help him to relax there upon the now blood splattered bed.. -.. Im sorry Nautilous.. this might hurt.. I will try to be as quick as I can.. –he sighed.. rubbing his hands together as he began to move that green glow down over the body.. from the head.. to the chest.. noticing the missing pieces.. how all the major organs were in pretty poor condition.. and then of course the blades.. the shards.. his gaze widened a little.. and he did notice that the longer he held on the deeper and more aggravated all of this became so he released swiftly.. letting the glow dissipate.. his hand rose as he rubbed it against the back of his neck.. this was like nothing he had ever seen before.. something entirely new.. his brow rose when Naut asked what he did.. that was a curious thought.. how could have he forgotten so quickly?-.. uhh.. –he hesitated a moment.. unsure wether the news of such an event would make things worse.. but figured.. he knew better than to keep things from the guy he called his Father-.. you had an episode Nautilous.. –he spoke quietly.. softly as he scribbed down more notes-.. and unfortunately it was when Sybelle was beside you.. I was not in the room so I cant say for certain.. your Brother was.. as was Sydel.. but something caused you to go into attack mode.. and you fed on her.. quite roughly.. –he took a quiet breath..pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose-.. Im sure she will be fine.. she’s .. –he paused-.. resting right now.. with Diovan.. Are you saying you don’t remember doing it?..Sydel grabbed your jaw which seemed to force you to release.. she shot you with a bit of magic before she passed out.. but she seems to be ok.. she took some blood from your Brother.. –he nodded.. glancing across to Sydel.. who at this point had rolled over onto her side.. curled up like a child would.. looking for all intents and purposes a little better.. not quite so angular.. not quite so sickly but still with a ways to go-.. I’m going to do a bit of research.. and we will get this all sorted out.. I promise you..



Ace:

They had arrived at her house.. that little cottage that she had set up residence in when Jacob had gone to war.. he waited outside in the sunshine.. just relaxing against one of the thicker trees.. a cigarette between his lips as he drew in deeply from it.. nothing to weighted with herbs.. just something light.. this being the first time he had allowed himself to relax in quite a few months indeed.. he heard her shriek and watched her coming bolting toward him like a bolt of lightening.. his gaze widened and she just about bowled him over.. latching onto him like a child would who had been frightened by a stranger..before this figure appeared there on the doorstep.. he turned.. she whispered this strangers name.. this Duvainor.. not a name he recognised.. so he played it out as such.. he heard your remark about being crass and he laughed-.. really?.. cry me a river mate.. Such arrogance in thinking you are above the rest of us.. common folk ..-he reached up.. plucking the cigarette from between his teeth as he dropped it.. to crush beneath his boot-.. I can tell you with confidence that no one is above me ….-he turned to glance toward Rose a moment.. feeling her tighten.. almost bristle behind him when she was mentioned..- Might want to work on that entrance then.. –replied to your remarks on simply coming to help-.. clearly it’s not working for you.. –he chuckled a little.. his hands sliding down into the pockets of his torn rather dirty jeans.. though he tilted his head when you started mentioning leaving if he insisted..only who was going to help take all the shards out of his friend..mentioning Jacob.. his hands rose.. palms outward-.. now.. hang on.. see I don’t know anything about any of this yet.. I have only just come to the knowledge that Nautilous.. and Im guessing that’s who you’re referring to.. has returned.. in a rather bent up shape no less.. I no nothing about whats wrong with him.. –he reached back to pull Rose to the side of him-.. relax.. –he reached down for her hand.. his fingers curling around hers-.. so he’s got shards.. and it’s something you can repair.. that young Jacob can’t.. –his free hand rose as he scratched his chin.. listening as you then mentioned them leaving the blade behind..-.. well like I said.. completley in the dark to only a few moments ago.. –his brow rose when Slaneesh was mentioned.. dragging his tongue then across the front of his teeth.. -.. Slaanesh mm?..-well that made things a little more.. interesting.. he turned.. sliding his hands around Rose’s lithe middle.. lifting her up until she was settled comfortably on the horse.. -.. I think you should go back.. and check on Jacob , Sybelle, Diovan.. and the rest.. make sure everything is running ok.. he might well be requiring your assistance and you have been gone for quite some time.. Ill be along behind you.. Ill.. sort this lot out.. –he nodded.. motioning over his shoulder to the newest arrival.. -.. we will catch up tonight though, just you and I.. –he shot her a wink before waiting on her departure if she would go.. before he would turn back to that rather stunning specimen of a human.. if it was a human-.. right.. now.. clearly your talents are required.. but I am no fool to think that you would be doing this because you’re such a nice guy.. whats the price.. and whats going on here?..

[BadInfluence]

Nautilous:

Things didn’t always go smoothly… As much as anyone might have wanted his return to be an easy and happy thing, given the situation and current circumstances, the chances of that were slim to none. They had been warned that he would not come back the same… He would come back a shadow of himself if he came back at all… Everyone had sworn that they didn’t care about that, so long as they had him back, they were going to be happy… So far though… How true could that possibly be? Who here was happy? Sydel had to attack him to keep him from killing Sybelle, Sybelle was most likely traumatized for life now, Jacob was at a complete loss and feeling like it was his fault, and his brother was ready to send him back to Naggoth with a ‘do not return’ tag attached to his ass. Could he blame them? No. Hell, if he were in their shoes and someone else was doing this, he would snuff their lights out and consider it good business… Thankfully none but perhaps his wife was THAT cold hearted, so his chances of being coddled and nursed back to health were still good, for the most part… Though he had a very sound and rather well justified thought that, when he was a bit better, he was going to be dealing with some serious heat. Well deserved though, he knew that much, even being unable to remember moments of things around him. Right now, he just submitted to the restraints and the pain, even though the morphine was doing it’s job and holding a good portion of it at bay… It was letting him remain conscious for the most part, without it, Jacob would be having a long one sided conversation. For now though he could get out little batches of words, some longer than others, but it was still conversation… He felt the morphine levels up, felt himself sink a little more into restful waters, the light conversation… Jacob’s apology that things might hurt a bit… A very dry, painful sound emerged from his lips, which was in fact something of a chuckle for him… Tell me… Something… I don’t know Doc… A bit of humor… A little laugh… Sure… He was entirely SNAFU and FUBAR but… He was still HIM… He was still the guy who laughed in the face of overwhelming odds… When the scan began his knuckles went white, gripping the bedding, remaining as still as he could… Oh it hurt… Like a million little witches inside him, tearing him up again, taking choice pieces of his organs like sweet meats… How many times had they ripped him open and eaten what lay inside? How many witches had he seen with bits of lung or heart emerging between ruby lips and blood spattered faces? How many times had he been forced to watch them slowly disembowel him? To see his entrails caught on a hooked wheel as they playfully pulled it out of him, wrapping it over and over on that torture device, singing as they went? It felt like that all over again as Jacob did the scan, perhaps a little worse, there was no slight sense of nightmare to the illusion… This was all too real… No playful witches this time… He was grateful when it was over, when the pain was gone, the scan completed for the most part… He noticed the things around him without a doubt, he could taste the blood on his lips, his chin… Who’s was it? He couldn’t tell… He just knew that with this in combination with the restraints… He knew he had some something… He listened silently as Jacob told him what he had done… How he had attacked Sybelle, though why or how Jacob could not say as he had not been in the room, though Sydel and Diovan had both stopped him in time… Naggoth…. Changes you… Look at… Your Mothers… How… Different they are… I’m not… Myself… Anymore… Lots of…. Broken bits… Mind… Isn’t right… Long moments of… Blank blackness. He felt about as useful as tits on a nun right now, disgusted with his weakness, his reality… He had attacked his fragile, precious, beautiful Sybelle… He had hurt her… Something he had promised her that he would never do… He had done serious injury to someone he held so fragile and priceless against his heart… He hated it… He hated himself… He turned his head to look at Sydel who was resting peacefully a bit aways from him… Looking a bit better but still rough for wear… A bit like himself… Rose… Will know how to help… You married…. A good woman Jacob… She’ll… Be your lantern… He said before he would reach out as far as he could, to link his pinky finger with Sydels’, holding it… Wanting that contact… Needing it… No one here knew what it was like to be him right now more than her… She knew what it was like… She knew the nightmare…



Rose:

She clung to Ace as if she were a second skin of his, desperate for his protection, needing his strength and shelter right now more than ever… Tirithon, in all his hellish treatment of her, both in the past and more recently had never scared her like the stranger did. She had so many reasons to be afraid of him, Duvainor had ruined her life, warped everything inside her… Made her into what she was… It was only with the love of Ace and Jacob that she had found some sense of calm and peace, of love and laughter, they gave her joy… They made her happy… With them… She felt like she was able to live and breathe, to be free, to be… To be herself… The indigo haired shadow loomed above her like a guillotine, just waiting to drop, to sever her beautiful life like a head from her shoulders… Yes… Yes… Duvainor terrified her… She forced out the mans name and that was all she could do at the moment… All she could dare… It felt like someone had poured plaster down her throat and nothing would come out… No explanation… No words… She just hid behind Ace, trembling like a leaf in a strong wind, clinging to him tightly… She was glad Ace had so much confidence… That he was facing this stranger without a single tremor of fear… When Ace moved to pull her to her side she resisted for just a moment, fear over riding her natural willingness to obey him, but only for a moment… She came around to his side as he bid, though she still shadowed him, clinging tightly… When he reached for her hand she took his in return, squeezing it, trying to hide her fear as much as she could. When the two talked she listened, though she said nothing, remaining perfectly silent… She let them hash it out until Ace told her to go home. She didn’t fight as he put her atop the horse, knowing he wanted her out of the area and fast, not wanting to risk her if things got… Ugly… More so too, probably, because he had noticed how she reacted. She had to get the bag out of the house, she hadn’t asked to come out here for the sake of the view, lovely as it was… She knew she had to get back to help Jacob… Hearing Ace’s promise… The cheeky wink… She nodded her head softly from atop the horse before she would ply her heels softly to it’s sides, heading around behind the house, darting in through the back door… She got the last of the things she needed, shoved rather than placed into the sack this time, and loaded the heavy pack over her shoulder. She was up on the horse once more and she took off like a bat this time, kicking up plumes of fresh fallen leaves and dust, on her way home faster than you could say ‘bless you’. She rode like the wind until she got home, using a stump near by to dismount with the pack, knowing the horse would find his way to the paddock easy enough. She made her way inside cautious, casting two separate scans as she did so, just to be sure… Her next step was to set up a ward, the color of rose quartz as it settled over the entire property, complex and solid… It would let Ace in, as well as Melima and Garafin, Mina and the children too… And that was it. Everyone else would find themselves suddenly turned around, forgetting what ever it was that drove them to the house, and moving on elsewhere… She was taking NO chances, and Nautilous could just suck a lemon, because in her mind? Her family came first. Period. She came in the back door, through the beautiful large glass black of the kitchen, setting the pack on the large table. She began to pull things out quickly, sorting them into various piles, grabbing things down from the counters and cupboards… She worked quickly and efficiently, the nurses who might have come by and seen her knew better than to disturb her, she was in her mode and that was all there was to it… Soon enough various scents were coming to float about the house… The scents of blood and potions, not a savory or sweet smelling mix at all, it was almost… Noxious… Certainly foul… Something Sybelle would have been proud of. She began to fill up several IV bags then with the concoctions, her fingers as steady as stone, syringe to plug and back again… It took several minutes but by the end of it she had twelve large IV bags full of what could only be called void black in color liquid, the color so dark that it seemed to absorb light, giving no reflection of anything what so ever… She also had several syringes loaded with various colored fluids, though none of them looked friendly, exactly… They all held an almost sinister color to them, the friendliest being a garnet red hue… She loaded them all up onto a large medical tray, the wheels blessedly silent, covering it all with a cloth. She had a rough path ahead of her right now… A sickeningly twisted duty… Why had she ever agreed to it? Why? Because of Pia… For Pia… Her sweetest baby girl… She had to follow through for her… She donned her sterile latex gloves then, pulling her braid and pinning it up on her head, donning the cap as well… She wanted nothing of hers coming in contact with any of this… When she was protected and properly geared, she pushed the cart into the sick room, knowing Jacob would have a lot of questions… Questions she couldn’t answer… She removed two of the IV bags, setting them both up on the hooks that rested by Sydel and Nautilous, setting up the lines… Splitting them with the saline drip that was hydrating them both… Jacob… I need you to trust me right now… Not to ask any questions and know that I am doing what’s best… Please… She knew it was asking for a lot… She also knew it might come out as if she didn’t trust him with what she knew… Nothing could have been farther from the truth. She trusted Jacob with every fiber of her being, with every part of her, no one knew her better than he did… No one knew what she had lived through, lived with, what she had struggled to overcome better than he did… She loved him so much that it hurt her… But right now… Right now she hoped and prayed to Hanali that Jacob knew she did… That he knew she meant nothing by what she said, only that she needed him to do that for her, not because she didn’t trust him but… Because she needed him to trust her… To do what was best for the people he loved most… In a few moments she had the IV’s properly hooked up for both Sydel and Nautilous, the black backs simply waiting for her to turn the knob, to allow the fluid to flow and mix… She waited for Jacob for just a moment… Just a little time… Before she released the knob on both bags, allowing the black fluid to mix with the saline, though each one was at a different rate…. Sydels was much slower… Weaker… Nautilous’s though was at a much higher rate… So far, and for some time, it would seem as if nothing big were happening… Just a slight improvement on them both… A little more color… A little less pain… A touch more nourishment… She set the tray to the side, Nautilous’s this time, and pulled out one of six syringes… Please… Hold him down? The restraints won’t work… He’ll snap them… Why wasn’t she telling Jacob anything? It wasn’t because she didn’t want to… It was because she had made a promise that she would let Nautilous explain it to him… She would wait until Jacob held him, and if he did not, for what ever reason… She would call in two of the male nurses to do so, making sure he was properly pinned before she would take the first and pull Nautilous’s eye open, sliding the fine needle directly into the orbital tissues. She knew he would scream… She knew it would hurt… But it was needed… It was what he had asked her to do… It would only last for a few moments, though in those few, even in his weakened state… Would set either Jacob or the nurses in for a bit of a struggle, but she would get it done, emptying the entire plunger into his orbital space… Releasing him to close his eye and let it do it’s work… While that went on she did tell Jacob a little bit… Just what she could… What she dared… When he first got sick… Back when we were still on the surface… Do you remember? We were all living in the cabin together… He asked me do something for him… To hold onto things should… This was all before you two got very close, before he saw you as his son, otherwise I am sure he would have asked you and not me… But… I’m so sorry Jacob… Please… Will you forgive me? I would have told you if I had not promised to keep it a secret… She knew it was a lot to take in… The entire day was… They were both reeling… As it was, only the fact that she had this task at hand, kept her from crumbling and breaking down after the event at the cottage… She was just only holding onto a calm demeanor…



Duvainor:

He figured it would go this way… Honestly, he wasn’t even surprised, not given the mans history. A King of high breeding in all senses of the word, born to a life of luxury and refinement, given life on a platter to pick and choose as he pleased… And he was still as crass and foul as any guttersnipe this side of Mezoberanzan. Truly, the man’s blunt nature was as renown as his power, and his temper. He knew anyone who stepped too far outside of Ace’s good side typically got burned to a crisp, or worse really, he had certainly heard some stories… If it weren’t amusing to see someone so far from grace, if it weren’t entertaining to watch the famous Ace, he might just be upset that Slaanesh set him on this task in the first place. After all, it was the boys own father who had destroyed his first coven, a slight he was still not about to forgive even if the man was dead… Still… That was neither here nor there… It’s not arrogance if it is a proven fact, is it? But I am not dealing with a normal person, with normal thought patterns, now am I? He waved his hand idly, almost bored, dismissing the rest as one might dispel smoke. He gave his bit of information, not all of it, just enough to…. Bait the hook… Watching as it was taken as Ace rose to it, gobbling it all up, hook line and sinker… Of course, he wasn’t surprised at it, no more than he was that Ace was sending Rose off. Pretty little Ayla… Shame shame shame… He knew Ace wouldn’t want to hear her husband reverting to some old habits, the ever willingness to gamble, trusting his luck rather than taking the wiser course of hedging one’s best and leaving when the stake is high… The man was addicted to the rush, that was really all there was to it, something that Slaanesh fully approved of… After all, he WAS the god of debauchery in all forms… Excess was his middle name… I can see that getting off Opium has served you well… You have the right of it... Nautilous was in need of help that stretched beyond the mans powerful connections, he was in need of a God, and a God was willing to answer… Still, no one does anything for free, that’s just an illusion that people tell themselves so they don’t feel like used little beggars… Slaanesh was like any other God, he wanted payment for his Goods, and like any other provider of wares… The cost varied on the service… You have quite a few questions… Not that anyone can blame you… You’re all a bit out of your depth… Something that Slaanesh couldn’t have planned better of he had tried… Not that he did. Slaanesh simply saw the opening and took it. He was one of the more… Lazy Gods… Slaanesh didn’t ever really plan much… He was far too busy enjoying debauchery in all it’s forms… He was debating how much to tell Ace and how much to hold back… Clearly the man had grown up, such a pity too, things would have been far more fun if he had stayed high and impulsive… Price is such an ugly thing… It’s more like…. A trade… A bit of… You scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours… A… Friendly exchange… My services… Well… The cost varies… After all… It depends on just how much you are asking for… Just removing the shards were one thing… If he wanted the shards removed and the organs repaired?... That was another thing… If he wanted the shards removed and information given, that was another different cost… If they wanted ALL the information?... Well… That would be the heaviest cost of all… Of course… He could use a trick that Ace himself used many times before… Just give them a taste… A little favor… Just enough to get them hooked… To attach that first shackle and chain… Then let them come back for seconds, thirds, and let the weight add up until it was time to collect… Until they were so deep they couldn’t afford his price… Oh… Options… Options… Suffice to say… My god and your… Former god… Have never been on good terms… Helping you is a way that My God gets to spit in the eye of Khorn without even getting his hands dirty… Does that answer satisfy you for now? If so… It’s best we go to where ever Nautilous is being kept so we can provide our unique talents. Who knows… The damage might have already escalated…



Of course… How many times has the wolf come in, slinking about in sheep’s clothing, biding his time to strike… The snake does not attack out in the open, it hides, blending in until the victim is within range… Even the spider waits for prey in it’s web… Silent and patient… Was this then, what was going on? Was this what was to happen? Was Duvainor going to be that wolf, the snake, the spider in it’s web? Or was he a blessing in disguise? Was he going to damn the family to a debt that they would never pay off? Friend or Foe? That was the question of the hour, was it not? Of course… There was also no guarantee that he was the only one interested in the party at hand either… Khorn might be ‘cleaning house’ as it were, but that didn’t mean he was going to let his daughter and grandson fall into enemy hands either, it wasn’t how battles were won by letting other gain territory… There might be someone else there… Someone watching… Would they step in? Would they stop any of this from happening? Or… Was this according to Khorn’s design? Was there someone waiting, just watching to make sure it went according to plan?



Do it…



A voice would whisper in Ace’s head…



Save him…



Such a familiar voice… So calm… Beloved… His mothers voice, whispering to him, as if she stood at his shoulder… Giving him gentle advice… Guiding him as she used to…



At all Costs… He must Live…



Who doesn’t want to listen to their mothers advice?



If you do… Are you ready to pay the Price?



Another voice… Unfamiliar… A stranger perhaps? Then why did it feel so comforting?...



A bit unfair perhaps… Putting such a choice, such a conversation inside a mans head, but there were a thousand paths ahead of them… All of them… And only one person was taking about making the choice for the group… Perhaps these voices were his own conscience… Guilt and concern… The desire to repay the man who had done him so many favors… The guilt at what his choices had done before and the price that others had been forced to pay…

Don’t be a fool Aeson… You’re not alone anymore…

This voice was outside of his head… Yet somehow aware of what was going on…



Diovan:

Before you try to kill me… Listen to what I have to say… You’re standing against great odds… My father Does need to be healed… At all Costs… He’s the link to keep everything from falling apart… But don’t take it on yourself to make the decision on your own. Just… Don’t. He came out of the shadows then, or rather, solidified out of them… The rabbit mask was still on, though a bit more beat up, a bit worse for wear… In one of his hands he held the neck of another rabbit masked female… Controlling them… Keeping them under his will. You have more to lose now than before… Promise him nothing… Give him nothing… He’ll help you regardless… He has no choice not to… If he doesn’t, Slaanesh will devour his soul, and it will be the end of him. Did Diovan know something no one else did? Who was the female in the bunny mask with him? Why was it when he appeared the voices in his head grew silent? What was going on? Who was the good guy? Who was the bad? Most of all… Who should Ace listen to? What should he do? Who should he rely on? Would he make the decision on his own, try to shoulder it all by himself? Would he go home and talk it over with his family? Or would he listen to Diovan and gamble on that reality?... It was up to Ace… To figure out which was the right path… And just how it might change the fate… For everyone.

[Deleted]

Jacob:

..he was doing his best for al intents and purposes.. he really hadn’t any good idea on just what was going on just yet..he could make some pretty good educated guesses.. but that’s all they would be.. guesses.. he made sure the morphine was thick and at or above the highest dosage he could possibly give to someone of your size.. before he would start the scan.. and he most certainly noticed the way your knuckles turned white.. how the body stiffened.. so he moved as quickly as he could.. he never.. Ever liked causing pain upon another person.. especially not those that were close to him.. he took note of the organ damage.. the bones..the scarring and how everything looked as though it had been toyed with.. played with.. before he pulled back.. letting the magic energy dissipate.. allowing you the chance to relax and take the much needed breather.. you asked what had happened and although the hesitation was there to begin with.. he told you about Sybelle.. and how hurt she was.. nodding his head when you spoke about how Naggoth changed a person.. his hand rose as he pinched the bridge of his nose.. rubbing his hand across his forehead a moment after.. -.. yes I notice all to well the difference between the two.. the soft and the sharp.. the appetite.. the general demenor.. all of it.. they are polar opposites.. I do wonder if she might be a bit more helpful to you.. clearly not in her unconscious state.. but.. she took Diovans blood only moments prior without question.. if we could get some more into her she might be a bit more coherent for you.. at the very least conscious..-his hand slid back behind his head there.. scratching a little..- she struggled the worst.. with your departure.. I guess everyone else had someone to lean on.. and in as much as we were here for her.. it just wasn’t quite the same.. its incredibly good to see her taking blood though.. –he shook his head-.. we tried and tried.. seems she’d only take advice from you.. –he nodded when you spoke about how Rose would know what to do.. how he had married a good woman.. that she’d be his lantern-..I am an exceptionally lucky man Nautilous.. yes.. you are right.. –he offered a smile there.. -..She should be returning here soon.. I’m certain we will be able to come up with something when we get together.. rest for a while.. if you have indeed been dragged down through the depths and become.. much akin to your other half.. then you’re going to need blood.. –he pondered a moment.. tapping a finger to his chin-.. you can’t really feed from Sydel.. she needs every drop she’s got for the children.. and her own welfare.. your Brother will be seeing to her.. can’t deplete him completley.. I kind of need to be able to supervise.. to make sure all goes well.. hmm.. maybe Ace.. I’ll organise something very soon.. rest.. I’ll be back.. –he motioned to the nurses to loosen the bindings at least for the moment.. noticing you reaching for Sydels hand.. before he would turn and head back out of the room.. he had sunk down to sit there at the table.. his folder and copious amounts of notes resting down before him.. a little time passed.. and he heard someone coming up at the front of the house.. sounds of a horse.. and then footsteps.. he turned around catching sight of her entering through the back entrance.. her shadow was seen first before she flashed into view.. and was then gone.. disappearing into the room with all the potions and ingredients.. his brow rose.. moving to stand as he followed her.. standing there in the door way.. not making a sound as he didn’t want to interrupt her.. she looked to be quite engrossed by whatever it was.. before she donned the outfit.. the gloves and so on.. carrying the bags back toward the medical room.. he slid his glasses back up.. again following along behind.. his brow rose when she changed out the IV bags..telling him that he had to trust her.. to not ask any questions.. that she knew what she was doing ..he nodded-.. but of course Rose.. –he would simply observe for the time being.. his arms sliding down into the pockets of his coat.. the dark thick liquids were released into the lines.. syringes were next.. she asked of him to hold Nautilous down and he naturally moved forward.. placing his weight down upon Nauts chest.. his arms and legs were already restrained.. he wasn’t appreciating the non verbal treatement he was being gifted with.. afterall he never kept anything from her.. watching again as she injected the medicine into the eyes.. Naut struggled like crazy.. he knew it had to have hurt.. a lot.. the nurses had a bit of work to keep him down and still.. but in the end it was done.. he slowly lifted.. stepping back a bit when you asked about the surface-.. Vagely but yes I do remember bits and pieces.. You could have just told me what it was.. I don’t see the need for secrecy here really.. not sure what was to gain.. but I guess that’s between you and him.. –he nodded-



Sydel

It had all been so much.. so quick.. never in a million years did she expect to see Nautilous attacking Sybelle.. if she had a moment of clarity.. of clear thinking she would have understood it.. that need.. that desire.. that want for blood sometimes became so strong that it didn’t matter who it was infront of you.. you just lost it all sense of the familiar.. she slumped back against the bedding after hitting him with some rather depleted magics.. Diovans blood had helped.. most certainly.. though she would need more.. dark desire laiden energy would give her a fill.. something she would perhaps seek out.. when it got a little darker into the evening..her lips parted and she released a faint little sigh when she felt that finger curling around hers.. a murmur sounded and her own fingers curled around his hand.. - amin mori taren (my dark prince) –she whispered softly.. her thin pale lids shifted a little till they flickered open.. she looked across to him there.. just lingering.. watching.. before Rose had come in.. with her bags and needles.. her head tilted back to the flat bedding there as she drifted back off to sleep-



Ace

He had set Rose off toward the house.. figuring she was better off there.. offering what assistance she could rather than being there beside him frightened for her very life.. his attentions remained firmly upon this new figure.. this Duvainor.. arrogance personified .. the conversation turned to that of Nautious and he was pretty much in the dark.. he knew nothing other than what was in the letter from Rose and that information was farly vague.. he knew better than to think that this guy would do something out of the goodness of his heart.. the idea and thought alone was quite laughable really.. - .. a trade mmm?.. you’l need to be more specific.. I don’t just do blind trades.. or offer up never ending favours.. If you were to.. say.. repair Nautilous.. what would it cost then?.. –his arms lifted to cross there about his chest.. his head tilting to the side ..he nodded when you said it was better off for them to get to the house before things get any worse.. if that was possible..- it does satisy me to a point yes.. it’s not that far from here.. unless you plan to port there.. –he would go on to say before the voices began.. at first familiar.. hauntingly so.. it was his dear Mother.. he rolled his neck.. dragging his tongue across his teeth.. and then another.. someone that was unfamiliar and yet still quite comfortaing.. before the one person he never.. ever expected more or less materialised directl before him- Diovan?.. –his brow rose.. listening to how he was no longer alone.. that he was up against great odds.. that Naut did need to be healed at all costs.. that he was the link to everything.. but to not make the decision on his own.. to promise this newcomer nothing.. that he’d help regardless.. he turned glancing over his shoulder there.. -.. Intriguing really.. so if I am to believe this.. you’re all bluff and words then.. Might be time to be a little more upfront with me now mm?..

[BadInfluence]

Duvainor:

Well now… That was unexpected… So Boy Wonder was finally starting to come out to play, was he? And so very late in the game of life… Curiouser and Curiouser… That certainly made the game a bit more interesting. He had to wonder what caused the seal to break, after all a seal in place for about half a century wasn’t going to budge any time soon, and it seemed it was quite gone indeed… Or was it only… Slipped? Like a dog with a chain? Oh how delightful to figure it all out! He was certainly looking forward to it now, that went without question, it made the game far more entertaining… You did get smarter… I’m impressed… Disappointed but… Impressed… It’s a bit less fun playing the game with someone who’s familiar with the rules… Was he biding his time? If he was…. For who? A magical appearance of someone? A certain event to take place? There were so many things at play, that went without a doubt, and no one even really knew what the board was that they were all about to be settled on. He gave a few answers… Enough to set the hooks with bait, and he was all ready to draw back the line a bit, to sink the hook in… Then there it was… Interference… Disgust showed on his face, he had no reason to hide it, the disdain for the interruption was there on the sultry scowl on his face. Really… This is quite droll indeed… Damn it… This just took a big fat chunk of fun out of it… Though… It did at least give him a bit of keener insight into the magicless demi-god… Who was… Not quite so magicless now. He tilted his hips to the side, one arm crossed over his chest, the other raised to cradle his cheek in the most nonchalant pose. Well… He’s not wrong… And he’s not quite right, either. He said with a sigh, flipping a strand of hair out of his face, adjusting those glasses again… Ever the gorgeous being, the hybrid of man and woman together, each movement a sort of artistic expression. Though who should you trust more now? I’m not lying to you… But the magicless wonder just teleported right in front of you… Might be time you ask someone else some more pointed questions too, don’t you think? He really didn’t relish this being on him… The attention… Well no… He LOVED the attention… Less so the… Meddling… The irritating interference… The refusal to let things go according to plan. He was debating which road to go now… Take the high road? Lay all the cards out for the current situation? Or should he take the low road, play it out, give no extra information than what had been given and let the man decide from there… Still… The latter… Wouldn’t exactly foster the alliance he was hoping to get, now would it? How Unpleasant… It really was… It really, truly was… He sighed again and dropped his arms so that they were resting in his pants pockets, tapping the toe of his boot on the grass, not fidgeting but… More like how a cat flick’s it’s tail to show it’s irritation, so he too was… I am the only one who can remove the shards. If Jacob or Ayla… Rose… Were to try, they would just burrow in deeper, even into organs and bone if they needed to. Kharn wasn’t in a particularly forgiving moon with your friend when he had him in Naggoth. As it stands? He may never walk again, which really doesn’t suit Slaanesh at all, no more than I am sure it does you and yours… Hence why he sent me. Which was the truth. Nautilous might have been aligned with Khorn for a while due to his choice of mate, but at the end of the day, the boy had done more than enough work for Slaanesh on the side. If anything, more than a few wondered why the man who was, for all intents and purposes a God of sex in his own right, would go with the God of War. It just… Made very little sense… But then again what in love ever did? It was why he had nothing to do with the stuff, it was all clap trap nonsense, a tar pit for the stupid and easily swayed. The fact is that I am here to recruit. Slaanesh wants Nautilous back, especially now that he is completely free of the Blood God, and I am here to smooth the way. If his wife decides to finally fully commit, then that’s an added bonus really, but not exactly a prerequisite. Now that your curiosity is satisfied, we should head over to your house, porting is not an option. It’s been warded against my entrance. As if he would miss such a thing… Ayla hadn’t bothered to hide it, she had almost seemed to set it loud and proud on purpose, to thumb her nose at anyone who might dare tread into her little nest… Not much had changed there… She had been like that as a child, incredibly protective of the smaller ones, the weaker ones… She would take onto her shoulders the things the others couldn’t do, take the beatings for the weaker ones, do the uglier work… It seemed some natures just… Can’t be beaten out of a person…



Rose:

Jacob had a way of… Making her feel like a hind end without having to say much at all… No… Not a hind end so much as… He could make her feel incredibly guilty, even if she really had no reason to, it was still there… Like a paper cut doused with lemon juice… It was why she had originally told Nautilous no, multiple times, going toe to toe with him on it repeatedly… She hadn’t wanted to keep secrets… Gods knew her life was full of enough of them to fill a book on her past alone… Why would she want to take on another? In the end though… He had won out, ground her down, pulled every dirty trick he could… Getting her to capitulate when he brought Jacob and Sybelle into the mix along with baby Pia, saying that if he was gone, there would be no one to protect them… Considering how turbulent their world was at the time… She had given in… To protect Jacob… To protect Sybelle… To protect Pia… And she had kept her promise… Kept it secret… She had done everything that was needed of her, she had mixed everything according to his directions, prepared everything that needed done… She hadn’t said a whisper to Jacob, she just asked him to trust her, knowing he had questions… His last words just… They hurt… Dug deep… When she first injection was done, she set the tray to the side, the others would be administered later on… Each one after so many hours… She released a soft sigh, pulling the gloves off, throwing them in the bin by the bed before she would dust the fine powder off. She would wave her hand at Jacob, asking him to follow without speaking, leading him to her room. I was so wrapped up with the task at hand I didn’t notice you until the room… Forgive me? Even with everyone in the house, the three of them still had their own room, their own space… She hoped he followed her to her room, opening the door and if he had, closing it behind him, moving in to settle on her large window seat while leaving room for him as well… Just soaking up the autumn sun, wondering how summer managed to fly by them so fast… She pulled her blanket up as she toed her runners off, resting her head against the window, her back against the wall. Only in the privacy of their own space did she let the mask down, revealing her emotions in her eyes, in the lines of her face… I’m sorry Jacob… I am so… So sorry… If I knew what it was I would tell you but the truth is? I have no idea what any of it is… Not one bit... He didn’t even trust me with the information. It wasn’t like Nautilous gave anyone an explanation for anything, even at the best of times, and she was no exception to his typical rule. The man was secretive, only revealing as much information as was needed, and that was it. No more, no less. Her role was just to act as a safe house, to keep the items secret, and to mix them a certain way when the time came. How could she give her beloved husband any information when she had none? It wasn’t that she was intentionally hiding anything, she would never to that to her Jacob, when it came down to it she was almost as in the dark as he was. All I knew was what to mix, everything was color coded you know? So I had no idea what was in the containers… I think… He asked me partially because of my immunity to things… He wouldn’t risk you or Sybelle for the world… In the end? She said, turning to look at him, her eyes a little damp… She felt as if she had physically struck him by keeping it a secret, and deep down, it felt as if she were dying in a way… Such a sharp pain… Something she never once intended to do… She was so locked up in her head, making herself focus on the task so she wouldn’t break down after seeing Duvainor, so she wouldn’t panic the nurses or anyone else… She hadn’t noticed him following her until they were already in the room with the others… I was supposed to keep them secret and safe, to administer them to him when he was in dire need, same with Sydel if she went down with him… Which was the truth… It didn’t mean it was ok though… He was her husband, and he felt like he was hiding things from her, and it must have hurt him… She reached out to him… Hoping he might come to her… Needing his strength right now… Gods… Especially right now… Duvainor is here… Would he remember? Would Jacob recall the name of the man who bought her from Riveroron when she was no bigger than Aelora? The man who had tortured her for years, made her watch as many died off around her, season after season… Would he recall what she had lived through… What had happened? Or had he blotted it all out? Refused to remember like she desperately tried to… He said he came to help Nautilous… I don’t know what is going on… Ace put me on his horse and sent me home before… I just… Jacob… I’m terrified… Without the task at hand to keep her focused, she was starting to shake, the reality of the world sinking in on her again… She pulled the blanket tighter about herself, as if it were a shield, like a child she wished to turn it into a monster proof domain… Like nothing could touch her if she bundled up under it… Made herself small enough… I don’t know what to do… I feel so helpless… Defenseless… I’m scared so stupid I can’t even think straight… Tirithon at his worst couldn’t scare her as bad as she was now… Tirithon was almost laughable in comparison to the fear that made her feel faint just by knowing Duvainor was alive still… Alive and here…

Nautilous:

Torture can change a person…. Life can change a person… Love can change a person… Knowledge can change a person… Nothing can change a person like Naggoth though… It’s akin to being torn down to the molecular level and put back together, but nothing quite matches up anymore… It’s all a little off… A little out of place… Worse is that you can’t fix it really… You have to relearn yourself, give up any chance of being the way you used to be, to accept the new and the life you have to lead now… He had done it once before, when he had been borrowing a body until his had been re-created, his old one now fully connected to Sybelle… This time though… Well… There was no other body… There was no new shiny shell to house his consciousness… All those things were gone now, Kharn had stolen that from him using some vile trick, and now… Now he was just like his brother… A Primordial no longer… His brother was an elf… And he… Well he was a Dragon like his father… Not that he enjoyed that one gods damned bit… How was he supposed to live as a dragon? He knew about them sure, but that didn’t mean he knew how to live like one, especially now that… Now that he was supposed to take dear old dead beat dad’s place… Joy… All those things slipped in and out of his head, he couldn’t really hold onto any one thing for too long, like his thoughts were coated in grease and he couldn’t get a grip on them… Conversation was about as stable as he could get… Can’t say… She might… Understand it a bit more…. Able to… Explain… For you… In truth… She might be able to explain it for him too… He had been turned, not by Khorn, but by Kharn… An ugly… Sloppy… Messy job… Breaking him down to get at his candy coated core as it were… Gods damn all Space Marines and their relations to the Solars… They were the only things that knew how to kill or trap a Primordial, the one thing in all creation that a being like his mother had to fear, had to be cautious around… Sydel had been done properly, over time and with care, and he had just been taken to with a hammer so to speak… She would have to guide him… Teach him… Show him the way… If she even could… Not that he doubted her… He never did… It was more… How do you hunt when you can’t walk? What was she going to do? Give him a piggy back? She knew… I’d hurt… If she didn’t… She loves you all… But… Me most. And he was Damned proud of that! He was first in her, and she was first in him, and everyone else came after. He told him that Rose would help show the way… Meaning he hoped she had kept her promise to him… True it was almost three years ago now but Rose had a good memory… But if she did… Then things MIGHT be salvageable… He might come out of this ahead because of the steps he had taken before hand… Gods… Let him be so lucky… If not… They had a longer… Rougher path before them… A lot rougher… But… Doable… If Ace held strong… If he kept his chin up… Hope so… Don’t… Let her shoot me… In the arse… Those needles… Hurt…. He said… An attempt at humor… A slight one, but it was the best he could manage right now, which was what mattered right? He was still there… Just… Trapped under a lot of rubble… Worry… About Sydel first… Need… Her strong… I’ll… Manage on… On what he had already taken? Besides… Ace would… Never… Let me live it down… He could just Imagine the heckling the bastard would do… How many times he would call it out just to prod at him… Gods knew he and Ace had a great friendship where they could do that, but he knew while he was healing, Ace would use it like a cattle prod on his ass… He… Rather hoped he might get a bit of coddling from the girls admittedly… But that was his own sinful thought… He was about to slip off again as Jacob got ready to go, reaching out to Sydel, grateful for the loosened bindings… Holding his hand in hers… Needing her presence… That contact… amin mori tarien (my dark princess) And he was out like a candle… He rested in and out of that half conscious state until he felt the shift… The blackness… The familiar dark… Forget the Morphine, as nice as it was and as much as it helped, it wouldn’t hold a candle to this stuff… This stuff was mothers milk to him… As soon as the last of it mixed with the saline and was flowing steadily into his veins the changes started… Nothing drastic but still there… His vitals stabilized… Heart rate and breathing were normal after a few minutes… Though he remained washed out in color and cool to the touch, he was no longer as dry, his skin was less leathery… Sydel would improve a bit as well, though she wouldn’t fill out, it was obvious that things were going well for her too… Her bag was smaller, mixed more with the saline than his own, and with good reason… Something he would explain later surely… He was enjoying the slight shift when his eye was opened and he saw Rose… Well… Fuck. He KNEW it needed to be done but… He remained still, that blue gold orb staring straight up while she slid the needle into his tear duct tissue… And yes… It fucking HURT! He wanted to scream bloody murder at the top of his lungs but he didn’t… He grunted and growled and clawed at the sheets but…. That was about it… The nurses and Jacob though… He appreciated their presence… He wouldn’t want to attack Rose… Jacob would never forgive him if he did, and as it stood, he had already hurt one woman today… When it was all said and done, he did officially slip off into sleep, knowing the Purge was about to start and he did NOT want to be up for that one.

Diovan:

Once every few years… He had a black out spell… Moments when hours of his life were gone… It was related to the opium use, or so he told himself anyways, though the moments still came even after he pretty much cut himself off from it… He had left Sybelle sleeping and stable in her bed, the curtains open so the sun fell on her, warming her… Letting her feel more… Secure… She was lightly covered so she was neither too hot nor too cold, but that perfect in between, and on the beside table were a couple of healing potions of her own creation and a glass of water to wash the taste from her mouth after. Where was he? At his tree house… The one they out grew with their growing family… The one that he was going to expand and remodel so they could all fit in it again… But for right now, those were just thoughts, plans… Sybelle still had a ways to go before she gave birth, they all did, which he was thankful for… A little calmer so they could deal with the mess at hand… He put the opium pipe to his lips, the first time he had used in over a year, keeping it for emergencies… When he needed to… Let his mind wander and process things… Which right now he seriously needed… He only had about half of a pinky nail sized ball, quite small indeed, just enough to send him off into that half doze where he could process things without over thinking them… He wasn’t entirely surprised when he slipped out of consciousness, sometimes he did that on opium, and it usually resulted in a fantastic nap or outright full on sleep… When he came to though… He found an odd mask in his hand… A rabbit mask… Not only that but he had a few claw marks on his arm… Long strands of white hair wrapped around his fingers… Oh Gods… He said with a start, sitting straight up, looking on his clothes for blood… For a weapon near by… Vanima had gotten him hooked on opium and let him loose on people before… Things were… Weird… When that happened… He was definitely not himself… He had killed people, fellow elves, and to this day he was still working off his sin… Had he struck again? How? He had barely had ANY opium at all… Hardly enough to send someone like him off the deep end… No way he had done something like that again… Had he?... He saw no weapon thankfully… Nor did he find any blood on himself either… He was safe… Right?... He hadn’t hurt anyone… Yet… The claw marks and hair told him another story… It was too long, too straight to be Sydels… Sybelle’s was the shade of lavender he loved most… Rose was of course blond… He knew no one with hair like this… This was just like Sydels, he knew it, but the length and lack of curl were very much not like her own… Should he ask her?... Yes… Yes he would… When she was awake again, that is… For now though, he put it in an envelope and sealed it with wax, cleaning the light scratches easily though not bothering to wrap them… The scratches were less obvious than bandaging would be… He simply tossed on a long sleeve shirt made of light cotton, perfect for the weather and the hour, changing his pants out into a simple pair of loungers… With that, he made sure to air the house out and put the pipe up, well hidden from prying eyes… All that was left was the mask which he shoved under the couch cushion because yea… What the actual… That done, he left the house to go back to where Sybelle was, at the mansion where they all stayed at. He had to pass Rose’s old house on the way, nothing new there, seeing it as it always was… Empty but beautifully maintained… He saw briefly, for just a flash, a man and a woman in a rabbit mask, almost identical to the one he had at his house under his sofa… Only for a moment later it to be gone… Leaving him wondering… Just what the hell… But he really didn’t have time for this, he just didn’t, and he pushed on homeward…

[Deleted]

Sybelle

..her dear husband had asked her for a rain cheque.. that he had an urge to give her a long drawn out massage followed by some soft love making.. her heart had taken more than a few good tumbles after such was spoken.. and she offered him a little nod of her head.. eager it showed.. along with the colouring on her cheeks before Jacob had popped out to interrupt their little temporary love nest.. she had heard that Nautilous was up and active.. to a point so she departed.. brushing her fingers across the top of her dear sweethearted husbands hand before she slipped inside and away from the Father and Son.. she made her way back into the bedroom where the nurses were all leaving.. Sydel was resting somewhat peacefully and Nautilous appeared to be just staring up at the ceiling.. or.. so it seemed.. she hesitated a moment before she pushed herself in.. sinking down lightly upon the side of the bed.. she spoke to him softly.. quietly.. noticing he was being short with her but that his voice was just shot.. she figured he was still exhausted.. but the fact he remembered her made her heart swell a little ..she was worried for him.. watching the difference in the colouring of his eyes.. catching sight of when Diovan entered the room to help out Sydel.. before she felt Naut’s cool somewhat dried touch.. she offered a smile.. glancing then down to him.. figuring he wanted to hold her hand.. or something of the like.. only for him to just about floor her.. sinking his teeth down into her skin.. drinking from her that made her cry out.. she went to pull away only it got worse and he began biting deeper.. the skin tore open more.. the sounds in the room grew louder as a bloody Sydel reached for Naut.. Diovan was yelling as she was torn away from Naut.. the skin tearing making her pass out.. her body going into a small form of shock.. unable to process what was actually happening in that instant..-



Jacob

He had finished putting those last few vials away.. making sure the area was tidied and locked up before he heard Sybelles shrieking.. he took off hurredly toward the sick room.. the scent of blood was strong.. the sounds were loud.. Nautilous was growling and howling in pain.. Diovan was calling his brother out on everything.. Sydel appeared to have fainted and Sybelle was all bloodied.. a puddle forming there upon the floor and sheets.. his gaze.. that duo colouring shifted to Diovan.. hearing the explanation before seeing him head out of the room quickly.. he threw his hands up.. a ward secured the room.. he didn’t know the ins and outs of Nauts injuries just yet but he wanted no one going in and no one leaving at least in the immediate.. he swiftly followed the bloody trail.. finding Diovan upon the couch with a rather floppy Sybelle- .. Good goddess.. I could have never predicted.. I am so so sorry Diovan.. I should not have allowed her to go in on her own.. without one of us.. I have no idea whats wrong with your Brother.. clearly its not safe for anyone to be with him alone at the moment.. he dragged his bag over.. drawing it open as he plucked out a few implements.. the needles.. the string.. he placed Sybelles hand there upon his knee.. watching the blood pooling once more.. it was so open torn and raw.. his brows furrowed.. one hand came to rest upon her forehead.. a soft green glow occurring.. just enough pain relief to get her to relax.. as even in ones unconscious state pain can still exist.. Diovan would have felt her relax a little.. before he went to work on stitching that skin back up.. making sure it was clean.. -.. I sincerely hope she will be able to use this hand properly afterwards.. he has chewed down pretty deeply here.. we wont know for sure until she wakes up.. –he tied off that last stitch.. snipping the thred there.. it looked a bit angry but over time it would lessen in colour.. - .. we will have this sorted.. I assure you.. again.. I am so so sorry Diovan.. I will go and check on Naut now.. call upon me if you need to.. I will come running..-he slowly moved to stand there.. patting Diovans shoulder.. – come get me when she wakes and we will do a full scan.. just to make sure everything is ok.. - as he moved back into the hallway.. he wanted to move Sydel.. but he figured If he did that she would stop eating once more.. it was quite a gamble indeed.. dispelling the wards.. letting the security drop so to speak he moved in.. he moved toward Sydel first.. noting her unconscious frame.. the blood tricking out her mouth.. though he knew that was Diovans and she had not been harmed other than light scratching from Nauts sudden melt down.. he reached down and lifted her up a little.. moving her across to the opposite side of the bed.. placing her head down gently upon the pillow there.. wiping the blood from her chin.. noting the colour change.. she was not quite so gaunt.. even if Dio had only given her a little it had certainly helped.. he placed his hand down upon her heart to listen.. and then upon the slight rounding of her stomach.. everything seemed to be ok.. a little sped up from the sudden shock and surprise but for the most part ok.. he exhaled.. making his way back toward Nautilous.. his brows furrowed.. this was going to be complicated.. -.. Naut.. are you with me?.. –he would question.. not loudly.. but more than a whisper-. I need you to wake up and talk to me, It’s Jacob.. –he would place his hand to Nauts forehead.. curious if the amount of blood he had taken from Sybelle would be enough to help him out at all.. he sunk back in his seat a little.. motioning for the nurses who appeared frightened to come into the room-.. he’s out of it for the moment.. relax.. I need you to restrain him.. make sure his arms are tied to the bedding for the moment.. I need to make sure he wont lash out suddenly.. –he nodded.. waiting and watching before the nurses headed back out.. he rubbed his hands together.. upping the dose of morphine just for the moment.. that soft green glow shining as he began a full body scan.. now he understood the magic would be hurting him.. but without it he was far to much in the dark.. and he hated that more than anything.. he wanted answers.. and he wanted them now.. starting at the head.. moving down the torso.. checking out the spine.. the bones.. the blood.. the organs.. everything.. he just had to know what was going on in there.. - .. Sybelle is going to be ok Nautilous..



Ace:

…this was all becoming a bit to much for him.. especially the dramatics of it.. everything seemed to have been settling for a while there.. everyone having moved into the property.. in together.. and funnily enough actually getting along for the most part.. but..then Nautilous died.. Sydel fell hard.. Sybelle suffered.. Diovan suffered.. everyone did in their own way.. and now.. it was all in upheaval again..and this one.. this particular suave looking gentleman ..or was it a woman?.. this creature before him was a fine specimen, he would at least admit that much.. he nodded when you said that you were the only one to be able to remove the shards.. he had a feeling.. deep down that it wouldn’t be quite so simple.. that something would be up.. so really this was no grand surprise.. a quiet chuckle sounded when he heard you suggesting they head over to the house.. that porting was not an option with all those heavy wards in place- .. what can I say.. the girl knows her shit.. ..-he slid his hands down into his pockets.. leaning somewhat as he watched.. as he observed.. listening most of all.. to try and gage just what was going on.. what was being hidden.. what was being kept from him.. he was not going to allow his family to be in danger afterall.. his wife.. his children.. not in a million.. he nodded when Slaanesh was placed on the table.. made sense.. he knew Sydel had had dealings with the god of debauchery in the past.. and with Khorn on the back burner..well its only sensible that Slaanesh would come arunning.. Sydel and Nautilous as a package could do that one particular god some professional work.. he dragged his tongue across his teeth.. it would be then that everything would change.. shift.. the apparition.. Diovan no less.. something that caused his brow to rise quite highy there upon his features.. what the ever living fuck?.. Diovan? The only one seemingly in the group that didn’t fuck around with magic and shit.. and yet here he was.. offering up advice and predictions.. warnings.. before he was gone.. his hand rose to reach around the back of his neck.. rubbing against it.. - .. Im not sure what you think I can do about recruiting him.. he is his own person.. and like fuck if he is going to listen to me.. get to his wife it might work.. offer up something they need it might work.. but I know.. from experience.. from observation that those two don’t do anything for free.. –he nodded.. whistling as his Horse came into view.. – got your own transport?.. don’t feel particularly like sharing..

[BadInfluence]

Diovan:
What was there to be said about this? All of this? What the hell was going on, really? At the end of the day, it had all started out so easily, so calm… Just the same thing, their day to day, the existence without a member of their family. It had been weird for them all yeah, Nautilous had been such a staple of their existence for so long that when he had just suddenly been lost, it had rocked the lot of them right down to their multiple cores… But they had moved on… Learned to adjust… To live… Sydel never fully recovered no, the pregnancy was the only thing that she really focused on, that kept her going… The rest of them had adjusted just fine though… Or… At least he had… It was hard to miss someone who caused such conflicted emotions in himself. A part of him missed Nautilous, missed his little brother, missed his family… The other part was just glad to have him gone. For as much good as the man could do, he also left a hell of a wake of utter chaos, screwing people up and over like it was a game. Why would anyone want that around? Every day was pretty much a guessing game of just what shit his brother was going to stir up… It ruined the calm, comfortable life he enjoyed, the life with his beloved Sybelle… Though he well knew without his brother, Sybelle would still be lost to him, gone forever in another body… The one of Sydel. So yes… There was a big struggle inside his soul about this entire issue, and it was even more so now with his brother back, and in such a state… The mighty one brought low, the Dragon with his wings clipped, a Lion without his fangs… A part of him wanted to tell him that it was what he deserved. Another part of him felt for his brother… To lose something so vital to your existence… He had felt like that for decades after Ace had taken Sybelle to the surface… Did he have time for this though? No. He had… A lot of other things on his plate right now, all of them screaming, demanding his attention… All of it. Every ounce he had to spare. Sybelle had been attacked by his brother, she had fainted and was asleep in another room of the house they all shared, the use of her hand being in deep question. Like usual, he went to his house, and took a dive into his weakness… Something he was doing more of now than he had in years, and he knew, he knew he was getting rehooked… Feeling the claws sinking in deeper… Deeper… Rooting in his marrow… Every time things became hard or stressful, he felt that pull, that need… Over and over again he was caving in, and Sybelle in her sweet, wonderful understanding way… Wasn’t exactly helping… She made it easier for him to use… Made it feel less… Guilty… Less… Dirty. Wrong… Gods help him… He was sinking in… He knew it when he looked around, the scratches on his arms, the mask tucked away under the couch… Why?... Why?... Why?... WHY? After all this time? All. This. Time. Where was his mother when he needed her? Where was she, with all her soft words, all her wisdom? Where was she with all her abilities to fix everything wrong? Gone. Absolutely gone. Was she with a new lover? He knew she took them from time to time, little passing amusements, her last one had been Ace himself… So then who was it this decade? This century? Was she remembering what it felt like to have a body beneath a new lover? Or was she off in one of those vast darkness of space that Primordials called The Game? Or was there something else going on entirely that none of them knew of? He had changed, showered, put on a different shirt… Anything to wipe away what might have happened… The feel of silken strands still on his fingers, but no recollection of who, or what he had hurt… He made his way back to Ace’s house, and the ward nearly fried him from the inside out, like someone suddenly dropping him through a field of boiling hot steam… It took all he had not to scream bloody murder at the pain, reeling back and dropping to his knees, every inch of his body seeming to smoke. Hell, it even hurt to breathe. Such a… Strange sensation. He looked up to see the soft ripping of a rose quarts shield, glittering as it moved, but remained fully intact… Somehow, someone had warded the entire property, down to the last blade of grass… He was both in awe of the sort of skill that had to have taken, and really, really pissed off… Why? Because he was hurting on the inside from something he couldn’t really comprehend. Why was he locked out? Why was he unable to get to Sybelle? Has he actually caused that damage to Sydel then? Was it her hair that had been on his fingers? Oh Gods… It would explain why he was locked out… Oh Gods… Had he finally snapped? Had he hit that state again? Where was Vanima? Vanima would know… She would have the answers… Why would she mess with him again? She was on house arrest until further notice, locked away in her own house, so had she began to torture him again in her boredom? He felt like shaking with fear… With paranoia… Anxiety…

Nautilous:
Would people STOP poking at him? He wanted to reach up and swat at someone… Anyone… Something out there was really grating on him and he was ready to kill… But each time he so much as tried to twitch he felt something tighten in other places… Painful places… Every jerk of so much as a muscle was rewarded by pain pretty much all over… Everywhere but his legs… Fucking useless things they were to him now… He might be in and out of it… He might be a total fucking train wreck right now, sure, he knew there were long moments where most of his brain just was NOT going to function on an intelligent level… He was like a high functioning retard right now and Gods… Fucking GODS how that grated at him!! To have moments like this where he was fully aware of every little thing, only to have it slip away, dragged out of his hands by something out of his control and left little more than a broken vegetable… He could smell the blood on the air, taste the sweetness on his lips, the sheer flavor made him want to moan in pleasure… Probably the only good thing he would ever feel again… But there was the flat out wonder… Who had fed him? Who knew he needed it? Who had offered up their wrist to him? It was a taste he didn’t know and… And yet he did… Little golden notes of recollection, soft balls of light floating through his memory, only to be gone when he reached for them… Frustrating… So very frustrating… He felt shuffled about… Felt more movement around him in a sort of dull, far away sort of sensation… Just little blips… Then pain… Oh sweet, delicious, ecstatic agony… He thrashed hard, reaching out for a Psychiker, a Witch, a Blood Letter… Nothing… Just more tightening, like he was tangled up in the sheets, or… Worse… Yet physically? There was little more than a twinge from him on the surface, barely a little wriggling of a finger, but by all that was pleasurable this cained like a bitch on a pms streak. Fucking hell boy… Was all he could really utter, almost too broken to understand, but it was there… What was he going on about Sybelle being ok? Was she not? Had she gone into premature labor? Or was she in full term now? How much time had he lost down there? That was the easy thing… Loosing time… There was no such thing down there… Naggoth was without such a trivial unit of measurement… You only knew what happened AFTER the fact… When you returned to the surface… He had no idea what was going on around him for what seemed like the millionth time, and all he wanted was some fucking answers, same as Jacob… Though they were certainly going to be going at it from opposite ends… Jacob would find just a wreck with the scan, the missing chunks of organs, some of them appeared to have been… Chewed upon… Like… Someone had ripped them out and snacked on them before shoving them back in sloppily… The worst of it though wasn’t the apparent cannibalism of sorts but the shards… Those were the dangerous parts… The single blade had, with all the magic around him, shifted into multiple shards… Digging through his spinal column, severing nerves and fibrous tissues, severing parts of his spinal cord… Holes being dug slowly through his lungs and alveoli… Drowning him in only the most torturously lackadaisical way… He could only lay there, tortured from the inside out, feeling every damn millisecond of that pain as the shards dug through him like silver little grave worms… There was no way to count how many slivers there were… Were there ten? Twenty? A thousand? Each time Jacob would have tried to focus on one, it would seem to split and speed off in a thousand different directions, slicing through bone and organ tissue alike. What could be gathered as a whole though? More than perhaps Jacob might want to know… The spinal cord was severed in several spots… There would never be a spark between that column and Nautilous’s legs again it would seem, the man would be permanently handicapped, unless some form of divine intervention was to occur. There would be a long, long, long road to recovery for the rest of him… Several bruises over the brain, fluid building in the skull in a subdural hematoma, putting pressure and causing mental retardation in several forms in this state… What came back to them? Was it their Nautilous? At this point, it would be hard to say that was true… It was more like a broken monster in the same shape of the man they all cared for… Some more than others… Would he get better? Would he walk again? Would he even be able to do a fraction of what he had once been capable of? The eye color was not the only thing that had changed… If anything… It was the smallest… Most innocent difference… Just how deep did the damage go? The body had come back in one piece, damaged, still somewhat whole but… What about the rest of him? Central Heterochromia was the least of their worries…

Duvainor:
He was entirely too bored right now… He had thought at first he might have a bit of fun with Ayla… Finding her alone in an empty house was just too good a chance to pass up, it had been so terribly long since he last saw her at all, and yes… Someone had missed her greatly… Someone who had put a great deal of time into her… Carving out the perfect doll… The irresistible form… That figure that called to both sexes to be thoroughly enjoyed, demanded exploration of hand and lips and tongue, even when pregnant the body was attractive… Oh the work had been done very well indeed… And over such a long time… Such careful care… Such precision… It was going to waste here… Producing offspring like some mewling squib… She had been designed, no, destined for such greater tasks… The perfect tool… The ideal weapon… And all because someone decided to fall in love, it had all done to seed, making such a dilapidation of what had been meant to be so much more… At least the children were… Productive… A good genetic line for all they were only Halflings… Well… Those born to the Halfling mate at least… Ace’s were just… Genetically gorgeous… It was impossible for the two of them to breed and not make stunning, perfect children, lovely possible soldiers for Slaanesh if one could get their hands on them… Still, even with a promising future, it was still a waste on the whole… Could he perhaps get her back? True, he was here for Nautilous and Sydel, possibly even Sybelle and Diovan if the case could prove possible… Hell, he would try and seduce the entire house to his side if possible… Down to the very youngest in the house… After all, Slaanesh was not above recruiting the young with promise, look at Ayla… Just a babe when taken to recruitment after all… Pia and Aysil were tempting little fruitlings indeed… Especially Aysil with that bloodline… But… He was getting ahead of himself… How could he not though? This was the most fun he had had since Khorn had wiped out his last covenant… He was bored from idleity, and this, this was a chance to stretch out… To play… To tempt and test… One thing at a time though… Right now… Just the main task at hand… Though Ace wasn’t exactly making it easy… Indeed, it made him want to truly sink his teeth into the whole thing… Of course she knows… Who do you think taught her? True, this was working against him now, but Alya had been trained from a damn early age… She had been selected, groomed to be one of the special ones for Slaanesh, a tool for only the most specific of trials… Stupid girl she was… Still trying to protect the weak, as if she could somehow shield the unworthy by effort alone, like they were deserving of the effort. She was just ruining the genepool really, letting the weaker breed, dragging them down… He reached into his silken sleeve to pull out a well laced cigarette, dragging it under his nose with an appreciative sniff, pressing the glasses up his nose for a moment… Ah… Those stunning lavender colored eyes… The beautiful face to the point of near obscenity… A small flicker of magic and the end was lit, no need of a flame, the scent of sticky sweet opium and finer Drow narcotics instantly hitting the air. If you help, you earn some favors, and if not? There is no loss really… You weren’t sent here to recruit him after all… You’re just a possible tool… A means to an end should it come about. He knew Sydel would do it… That was the easy clench… She had already dipped her toe into the pool more than once and found the water very much to her liking… Her only draw back was the fact she still had ties with the blood god, those irritating little… Obligations… That had kept her from fully committing… Now… With her husbands life on the line… Telling her that the only way to save her beloved was to commit fully and completely… Well now… Why would she even think to hesitate? He could see her diving in head first... Nautilous… Well he might be a little bit of a harder sell, but the chance to get back everything stolen from him in Naggoth… A chance for revenge… Just like Sydel, he saw no reason why he wouldn’t jump at the chance, so that one… That was pretty much in the bag… The hard ones were the other targets… Slippier… Harder to grasp… They were the side quests, so to speak, but ones he was interested in getting… For… Personal reasons… But that would all come to a head in it’s own time… Though if it were all done before Nurgle came to Arvandor… That was harder to tell… One thing was for sure… War was coming to Arvandor… A cleansing… A plague… A Desecration… Already the signs were there… The silence of many of the Pantheon members… The appearance of driving forces so alien to the Elvish race… He looked up at the horse Ace had whistled forth, debating several things, and behind those glasses… A glimmer… A glint of something… Foreboding perhaps… I came with nothing but… I will… Be along shortly… He will survive till I arrive and you talk your… Darling wife into dropping the wards she has placed on the house…
Rose:
Jacob seemed to just… Ignore her… Like what she had done had earned her the cold shoulder treatment… Not that she could blame him… Duvainor had shook her hard, to her very core, made her feel like a little girl all over gain… Helpless… Hopeless… Terrified… When she arrived home she had thrown up wards like a mad woman, exhausting herself to the point of running on auto pilot, which given the circumstances… Was the best thing she could have done… She was not herself… She needed to shut down to… Survive? It was a coping method… Unhealthy perhaps yes but… It had helped her to survive before and it would stand her in good stead now. Jacob just shutting her out a bit, losing himself in his medical world, it was no different than her was it? She had left Jacob there, emotionally and mentally shutting down in phases, like doors closing in close succession… Did she go to her room? No… Did she go to the empty children’s room? No… The kitchen which was, as all knew, her safe place and her sanctuary? No… She left the house… The grounds… Walked through her wards which she knew were being attacked… It had registered an alien force trying to go through it… Still, they had done their job, they had stopped the enemy… They would stand long in her stead… She needed to walk… To run… So long ago it seemed… Someone had once told her that if she stopped running… If she just stood still… That good things would come… And they had… Yet so many painful things had caught her too that… Was it really fair? Did it even out? Did the bad balance with the good? She wasn’t in her right mind, somewhere inside herself she knew that… A warning flag, a bell ringing…. She was too numb to hear them, to see them, lost to the dark sea she was sinking into… She didn’t choose the woods… She didn’t choose the long open valleys and glades… She choose the portal that Nautilous had set up near by… And to the surface she disappeared… Her past had followed her to the only heaven she had ever thought she might get, and because of her taint, she had put Arvandor in danger… Those she loved in danger… At least the surface was its own kind of hell… Her luggage couldn’t taint this place, no worse than it already was, and it was safe… Safe from her… Without anything but the clothes on her back, she entered the Summer that was the weather in the Surface, the polar opposite to the one in Arvandor which was entering Winter… Her feet? Where would they lead her? Where would she go? Where would she disappear to? Did she do this for attention? Was she being stupid? Was she going to cause more trouble for those behind her? No… Or she hoped not… She just… Needed space… She needed to… Explode… Deconstruct… Hit that red button… Go Nuclear… The last thing she wanted was anyone to be around her… To witness what was most likely going to be a messy break down before she found the parts to put herself together again… Jacob had a lot on his place with a house full of three invalids… He didn’t need her getting in the way and she had done what she promised… Ace? As much as she loved him… Adored him… How he was first in her heart… Her first love… She didn’t think he would… appreciate… her need… He bucked up, marched on through so much, already suffered so much in his life… He didn’t need to baby sit her… She could… Would… Get through this on her own… Go from A to Z internally… Sort her mess out... She wasn’t going to drag anyone down anymore…