She stood staring frantically down into the murky depths, heart hammering hard in her chest and her breathing laboured. With every blink she could not shake that eerie green glow from her sight and slowly sunk down to the ground trying to push away the overwhelming sense of fear. From her lips came murmured words, strange archaic words, like chanting in their essence though she was more or less unaware she spoke them. Faintly she heard her name called like a whisper cutting through the air and shaking her to the present. She looked up and back, her eyes wide and fearful as she stared at the figure of Alastair for a few seconds hugging herself. It was almost as if she did not recognise him but then gradually a dawn of realisation came over her expression "Týr?" she hushed in a whisper, laced with apprehension and uncertainty.
He had looked back at her with a flicker of aggression in his eyes but quickly it passed to one more of concern as he slipped beside her and pulling off his gloves he wrapped one arm around her waist, the other reaching for her hand. “I’m here” he had whispered gently “What are you doing?!” His hand felt warm against her own and she turned to him like a frightened child, appearing weak as if she did not realise her body was her own, mindful of her movements though she could hear everything. She buried her head against his chest as he gathered her into his lap as she whispered “keep me safe, keep me safe...” over and over again.
She felt her skin growing cold even with his warmth, that prickling chill that she knew could lead to something far more deadly. She heard him hush her frightened plea and felt him smooth back her hair "I’ll keep you safe" he reassured with conviction and promise "I will not let anything happen to you. I am here." She trembled with both chill and fear, pressing her ear to his chest trying to find his melodic heartbeat. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew her best bet was to have every sense of him create an emotional fortress around her, using that and his gift to drive the paranoia away. Cold tears slid down her face in terrifying frustration as her mind swirled in distraction, making his pulse impossible to find in the deafening confusion. All she heard was that cruel voice yet it coiled in and out of focus entwined with a new guise; a deathly whisper and a vision of pain all bathed in an eerie emerald green.
He spoke her name again, his bare hand reaching to tilt her face up to him "Blaze, please look at me" his words pleading. His eyes looked down on her awash of both his bloods; gentle elven concern and that fearful lycan possessiveness over her. "Eleni please tell me what is wrong!" he begged his voice holding a desperate edge. She gazed up at him her face lifted easily as she felt her limbs numb. Her dark eyes stared into his trying to focus, blackened pupils dilated and flickering all over his face as she tried to find him. His words had gotten through and yet she was fighting to see him "Týr?" she cried reaching up with her hands to find his face. It was warm and comforting and yet not enough. She pressed her wet cheek to his as she rose from his lap, her arms sliding about his neck and salty tears still streaming she found his lips, kissing him hard though punctuated by the occasional terrified sob. He kissed her back with a passion as if he knew she needed that soothing pull from him, his hands rubbing up and down her back. Then slowly, gradually she felt the world return. The green glow before her eyes diminished and she felt her burning chill fade away. The frenzied kiss also slowed to one more gentle as she found her comfort again "You came for me" she smiled sounding overly emotional and still not quite making sense. She did not realise he was close to tears as he cradled her closer “you are safe now, I am here”
She nodded trying to control her emotions though she was in a daze as if she did not truly know what had just happened having barely remembered leaving the port. She coiled back in his lap taking hold of his arms and wrapping them tighter around her as if she feared the return of her horror. She looked down at her hands, seeing the telltale retreating blue veins and her stomach turned. "For a moment...I thought I was lost" she whispered "I could not see you!" her voice still held a pained edge. “It is alright” he hushed though his eyes flickered to her hands, worry swelling up at what he saw. "Is it going away now?" he whispered. She paused with her eyes closed. There was a clearing of her mind and she felt her own cool control slowly returning "I think so" she replied quietly, looking up at him pained to see the worry she had caused "I am sorry! I never meant to frighten you. I just..." she trailed off shaking her head wondering if he knew without her speaking. "You saw it?" she asked holding her breath. Clearly she did not even recall him being in the port let alone his possessive sharpness and his flight away. He had left her to stare transfixed at the green runes as they swirled sinisterly around the Ivory statue whilst Alexith had tried to pull her away.
“Don’t! It’s alright" he again reassured "I saw it, I saw who did it" he admitted "It did this to you?" he asked softly. She shrugged and then nodded somewhat pathetically feeling suddenly ashamed to have been so afraid "I do not know what it is, it's intention, other than a grave warning. I heard it speak to me" she looked away disgusted with her mind and body for being so weak and submissive to the dark arts. "What did it say?" he asked reluctantly as she looked back up at him. “That the end is near. It said it over and over like a whispering serpent. But then it took on another voice and it called to me, drew me, tempted me..." she stared out to the water unsure what the rune had actually spoken and what she had imagined in her own fearful reverie. "Does it know what you are?" he asked, choosing his words carefully. She thought long and hard not wishing to recall but she wished for the answer also "I do not think so. I think perhaps it frightened my own curse into activity" she felt the sudden urge to take up her dagger and carve it out of herself. But there was little point. She had tried that before.
She held herself against him closely "It sounds foolish but hearing it spoke to you also makes me feel less like I was the target" she hung her head, feeling terrible for admitting such a thing. He looked at her sadly "It was not the runes, it was the man who made them that spoke to me" he confessed. "I followed him from the Wilds. He walked with a trail of green smoke and inside it were faces of the dead. I watched him from a distance as he drew runes into the air. When he left he stopped and looked at me directly and said the end was near. It was the same man who tore down the crest that day, the same one who smelled like exotic sand”
She felt her terror rising again "I could not bring myself to look away from it! It had me captivated so I almost forgot who I was. I do not want to go back there...what if he comes back? He obviously intends something...what if he discovers me?" she clung to him her terror making her irrational and disturbed. He gave her a stern look "You won’t go back, you do not have to! You'll stay in your home outside of Port, concern yourself with quiet life. Let the Governor handle it. It is too much of a risk for you to be there now, too much risk to us all. And perhaps it spoke to you only because you can understand it because of your own curse" She looked at him somewhat defeated though she knew the sense in his words "But the governor is unseen, hidden away and Eoin has left...who is to lead the port?" she asked desperately. "Who cares Blaze there are more important things!” he fired back as she looked back towards the Tarrund’s walls.
Suddenly she stood and began to pace back and forth frowning and shaking her head "they accepted me...they gave me a home and respect!" she mused aloud "this was not how I want to leave them Alastair! I wanted to leave them with care!" He stood when she did, turning to watch her "Think how much worse it would be if you stayed Blaze. Think about how you reacted, your hands, your skin was so cold and all you did was hear a whisper. What happens if it does something more? Will you be the destruction of them all, will you be the one to be the end?" his voice raised a bit, but only in his desperation to protect her.
She felt a flicker of anger but only as she knew she was right. She was not fit to defend them. Feeling a disgrace she turned from him and stalked away but she only got so far when she stopped, frozen in grief. She felt despair rising "I just want to be free!" she cried her voice heavy with heartbreak. "You can be" he replied with a soft conviction as he came up to her "We can be free" he wrapped his arms around her middle "You can be free, you only have to decide it for yourself" She hugged herself to him fiercely as if he were her anchor to any kind of worthwhile life, just one of the few things that made her happy and safe when everything else crumbled "but always it is here" she sobbed, exhausted and tired of it all "just when things turn in my favour it rears and reminds me that it pulls my strings!" He pulled her tightly against him "I told you I would keep you safe" he said against her ear and she heard his tone laced with a feral determination and dark conviction to his words that on some level made her shudder...
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