RP:Hearts of Shards

Part of the Time Heals All Wounds Arc

Synopsis: Kyori smells it. Smells the wafts of death. Something happened, and Penelope cannot fathom an explanation that makes sense to Kyori about the night with Linken. Too many pieces that cannot fit. Penelope explains she has to go back to save Linken eventually after she helps Leon Lovik recover, and Kyori says he would come too, but Penelope disagrees. There is a lot of heavy emotion. Lots of butting heads. It is just... a lot.

Halifax Roots

(1 of 2) Overcast skies cover Lithrydel a couple days after the downfall of Linken and a few days after the visit of Kellin. Linken, the metallic-armed elf sunk into the darkness—the void that Kellin warned her about. Everything the ill brother had warned her about came to life in different circumstances and more. The windows that surround the building are dim-lit. A sign on the outside of the door says ‘closed’. It is daylight. Late afternoon. Midweek. The shop was never closed that time of day. In the window, Ruari is shuffling about in the main commons and clearing off shelves robotically with the owner at his hip. The healer was weakly moving to grab the items, that Ruari wipes off the shelves, to relieve the weight from him, though each time he gives the frizzy-haired healer a narrowed look, but she remains stoic and shaky as she takes each item and places it in boxes. He gives in due to the state she is in. Emotionless. Distracting. Distant. Life had moved fast after the night visiting the deceased brother, and after that, life was not the same for the Ardelian. Although it only had been a few days, little did she know the twin's warning was real. Perhaps she was still in a state of shock where others would leave her to her silence. What was once a picnic turned into a Penelope's own worst dreams she never knew she had. People survived, although they died before her that dragging night.

(2 of 2) Penelope had felt the piercing blade within her gut. The cold steel of metal gaging through her stomach while she coughed out in agony. The life sucking out of her and the feeling of accepting the fate of a lighter world. A world of eternal sleep after an experience for the damned. And though her life was given back to her, she had several raw scars to show the night after she met with the deceased spirit of Kellin. A cream, long scarf was wrapped around her bruised neck where the entity had gripped around her throat to threaten her. To kill her—again after the first time. Underneath a layer of a white tank-top and red flannel was a layer of bandages across her collar-bone which would have been visible if it was not for the scarf around her neck. Then, her stomach--where the sword pierced her to take her final breath away. Her stomach was wrapped in gauze beneath that tank-top she wore. There were raw scars—not fresh wounds, for Linken had cured her before going into the void with the evil. Either way, she had been trying to carry on without a word, for processing what she had witnessed had been almost impossible. A book not even for fable, for only hell had a place for it. Even Ruari was confused with the memory that was swiped of what pain he sensed for himself, though everything he witnessed—being tied up, death, blood—it was all real. Little did he know, his body had combusted into several pieces and he was left to relive the memory, well, if it was not for the savior of the night. “Please, will you take a break? You need to relax Penelope. Yerrel told you to rest. Penelope, you know I can help you,” the apprentice begins, but Penelope turns away from the man nonchalantly before opening her mouth, “You know what? You want to go check on Aeric and Alexia…? See how they are doing at the cottage? I’d hate to leave them for long.” Without another word, she turns around to fiddle to put away some oils to quietly dismiss him without another word of the conditions they were in. Ruari abides as he feels the tension of dismissing damage between them, and he leaves the building without another word.

(1 of 2) Kyori hadn’t seen Penelope since the night the ghost of her twin brother warned them of darkness and corruption. His sister’s shielded them from the unspeakable horrors Kellin’s ghost was capable of. His grotesque appearance but a ripple on the surface. The warrior’d never have told Penelope in advance. In hindsight, he should have. That’s the thought that cycles around his head when he skips the waiting act and shows up at Halifax Roots unannounced. At first, the blonde can’t see the Halifax woman. He sees her apprentice reaching at tall shelves. The closed sign. The dripping afternoon sun. What was he doing in there? Kyori squinted through the coil of smoke from his cigarette until he caught a whisper of the healer’s frizzy hair but her dark hair went clear as glass. He holds his sapphire stare waiting for the figment to vanish or stabilize. Penelope does not vanish. What she does is dismiss Ruari, giving the spellblade a change to slip in behind him. His boots were light, scuffed and ratty as always. His clothes wrinkled like he’d slept in them. More than once.

(2 of 2) As soon as he steps into the shop he can smell it. Blood. Carnage. Rage. Death. Not a subtle whiff either. The whole shop has the suffocating stench of death. Not one body, or two, but hundreds. Hundreds of decaying, bloody bodies. That’s what Halifax roots smelled like and when the door shuts behind him, taking with it all the fresh air and mercy of the forest, he coughs back a heave. No greeting feels manageable in this environment. He leans back to prop open the door with a questionable vase looking thing. One look at her tells him she’s hurt. She’s shaking, packing stuff in boxes. “Penelope what’s…” Kyori takes a step towards her and the smell grows stronger. It holds him back. “What happened?” She wasn’t dead. He can hear her heart beating. She’s opaque but pale. But if she’s not dead why does the shop smell like...death?

(1 of 2) As Ruari exits the building, his gaze appears in a haze, and the apprentice does not notice the warrior. Mr. Erickson appeared as if there was no world around him. That was the first smell that would waft through the air. Ruari had exploded, and death had touched him—although he lived his final moments in unknowing agony. Penelope, however, had cleaned up the rest of the death that lingered in the shop and was surrounded by the ones who had died—who had revived—and remained at the old cottage she brought Kyori to the night of Pakellin’s spirit. Although she saw death’s door, the girl had been healed before she could knock on the door to the other side and before any other lives could be taken that night.

(2 of 2) Penelope remains standing with a flat, pained line with her back facing the door where the blonde enters. His voice echoes and creates a vibration through her back—an unexpected one which chills her nerves and makes her paler than before. How many people were going to creep up on her? Kailani and now… Kyori. The voice of the familiar. The voice that she almost found herself forgetting, though instantly regretting she knew it. “We’re closed, Kyori.” The Ardelian knew the warrior’s tone automatically, for he made a distinct mark on her life. Her accented words are like stone and off-putting to the ear. An unstable hand rests on the box before her before she turns her head to the side before hiding the stiff pain with a blink. “We’re selling. Know any buyers?” She tries to keep her tone as ‘steady’ as possible and gentle. Though, Kyori would know better than that—especially since he smelled the stench of stale death. On the floor below would be scrubbed, dark stains which were obvious. Past blood stains. “Are you still looking to build that resume?” Her humor is dry and barely present, but she does not know what to even say. Her tone was not easy-going, if anything it was unusual.

The warrior's pause gives way to Penelope's distance reply. Here she is, covered in bandages and smelling like death, and trying to throw him out? Or worse, saying she's selling the shop. He scuffs at the first strange remark. Closed, sure, he saw the sign. Selling, why would he know any buyers, he barely knew anyone. Looking to build his resume. That's the one that makes him move. "Hey," he aims to pivot into her field of view. He needs to see her face. Everything about her and the shop, even her apprentice, is a few degrees off. "Penelope." Kyori can practically see her bristle. "What happened." It's not a question. They'd seen things, dangerous things, and survived. They'd had enough talks and enough encounters that they could be titled friends with no stretch to the imagination. Good friends. Good enough that he knew she was holding back more than a secret or two. She's walled off harder than she'd ever been, even when they *met*. "Where are you going?"

Penelope could not necessarily look at the man as he approaches. Not until he says her name. Her full name. Moss eyes gaze at him and they are tired; lifeless. The dark circles from lack of rest is evident, but there are no markings on her face. Only exhaustion. ‘What happened’… What had happened? Her eyes sort of look over the room now. This room was only one of the memories of that night. The rest was out in the temple. The temple of Arkhen. “I’m moving back home. To the cottage in the forest. Until I can find another place besides Kelay to move to, but I can’t be -here- anymore.” Her eyes sort of squint and then her gaze looks at the man—the person she had given her trust to even when she did not want to. It was nauseating to think about. Kyori roamed into her life with bad timing, but little did they both know, the events that transpired would only make the girl stronger in the longrun and this was just the first breaking step. “You’d think I was insane, Kyori. But Kellin was right. The taint was real that was binded to Linken and... me. The darkness was… real, but what I saw when Kellin touched me was only a metaphor.” The woman was hesitant, but she attempts to reach for Kyori’s hand before she would attempt to gently tug him to the staircase in the shop. “Sit. Please.” She would sit first, and then the girl would wait to see if he would. Or even what he would do. “There’s a lot of things from my past that connect to what Kellin was saying. And a lot of gaps that you may never understand or know. Even I wouldn’t know, and I am still trying to figure out.” A hand reaches up to run through her hair idly in thought. “First, I just need you to promise me that you won’t tell a soul because it was my own words that started this mess to begin with. Second, I need you to promise me that you won't treat me like a heart of glass because... mine is far from it, and that's not what this about. And last, I need you to promise me that after I tell you some things that happened the next day after I saw you, you won’t try to weasel your way into doing anything rash because… you can’t. Because whatever happened is done, and Linken is gone.” The woman then inhales. “Did I ever tell you my recent troubles with Linken? That I found him in the forest probably two months ago?”

Kyori’s sapphire eyes track Penelope’s juniper as best they can around the room. He wanted to see what she saw, follow the train of thought to understand. He doesn’t move to interrupt her reasoning. He does scuff once. “Ghost whispers don’t generally think plant witches are crazy.” It’s a barrier. She’s seeing past the shop, eyes wide. His chest churns like a stormy sea. The warrior is sure he’s become a ghost to the healer until she grabs his hand and tugs. He tenses on reflex but doesn’t pull free. She asks him to sit but he can’t. Doesn’t want to. Can’t will his legs to comply. He didn’t say anything about it though. Penelope goes on, not forcing his hand in sitting. The blonde hover beside her, in range enough that she’d still have his hand. A heart of glass. Penelope’s words brew more questions than answers. Kyori does his best to tame his impatience for fear of making her more anxious. Sapphire eyes look up to catch her graze at her plea for the first promise. She had enough of his secrets to out him but asked him to keep this? Not a heart of glass, no.On a different day, he’d tap her knee and crack a joke but Penelope is dead serious now. Her list of promises ends and he holds that stare. He does his best not to look sympathetic. The first two promises, easy. “Okay.” His voice is rough, knowing the last promise was a lie. Don’t do anything rash? That isn’t how the spell blade usually does business but he’d wait to hear her out before deciding just what rash thing was needed. Afraid she won’t believe him, he adds another stern “Okay” for emphasis but his feelings haven’t changed. His head is buzzing. “I can’t remember,” is his honest answer to her question about Linken. All Kyori remembered was wanting to lay hands on this man who stained Penelope’s stories about the past. His callous hand gives hers a small squeeze. “Tell me everything, Penelope.”

(1 of 2) ‘Tell me everything, Penelope’. His voice echoes in the Ardelian’s frazzled mind. Eventually green eyes break apart from his gaze once he concludes to urge her forward with almost impossible explanation. The warrior hovers near, but he does not sit, but why would he? Her hand eventually pulls from his own before it rests on her chest. She itches at hidden bandages under hefty clothing that swallowed her petite frame. “Two months ago… I found Linken in the forest. It had been years since the last time I had seen him. The night before I left him was the last time I ever saw him and that was four years ago.” Pause. “He was hurt—almost dead. Yerrel and I brought him back to the hut where I did my best to help him recover… But when he did, something was wrong. He had lost his memory of who he was. A form of amnesia.” Her eyes squint and they are far away from the room they are in now. “And then… his eyes went so black. No iris… no whites in his eyes… just black. Possession. Possession of something that doesn’t belong in this world we live in. An entity.” Hands reach out for the railing on the staircase to keep tight on subtly. “A lot of bad things happened. And I tried helping him like anyone else in this goddamn plane. To figure out what was attached to him. Read through old journals. Went from town to town for anything to bring me a hint.” Eyes lift to meet the sapphire gaze before her. “You were still in that coma at the time when he returned,. Then again, I didn’t tell anyone except Lanara and Krice, but even they didn’t know the extent of it. Though, Krice warned me. Krice begged me to stay out of it. But Linken has two kids, and I couldn’t just leave their father in a state like that regardless of my feelings of disdain.” The healer tries to justify her deep-rooted actions. She then slowly stands up to build the uncomfortable distance between them. Her feet take her across the room to the counter where she leans back against the surface.

(2 of 2) Penelope continues, “A time came where Linken figured out Arkhen’s Temple was the only way to keep the entity from appearing because the light, for when it did… people died.” And her tired face grows into a grim light. “The day after I saw you, I went to visit Linken to have one normal day with him before we figured out a cure to his amnesia. But a mob of people came because word had spread through the forest there was a wandering possessed man. They were trying to take Alexia, his teen girl. We left the temple… And since the entity had been kept inside Linken for weeks in that temple, it made itself known once we found the kids and the mob. Those people in the mob were massacred. People here were killed. And then, we went to the temple where the entity was trying to fuse himself with Linken to begin to hurt more people in this town.” The girl sits up. “The only way it could fuse with Linken was if he gave in. The only way to give in was to give him no reason to… live. Killing the people he loved the most.” It was a lot to swallow and her words sort of catch in her throat as she reflects on the blood of Linken’s family on her own hands. The freckled woman was out of cries to give, so her face remains stale and empty which somehow appears worse. She pauses in the midst to let the heavy story sink in for the blonde man. In the back of her mind, it was best to save details unless asked. “The entity lined us like cattle for the slaughter... And when I was laying on the floor, I remember almost crossing over to wherever death was about to lead me... and, then I was brought back to the true darkness of the night of remaining face to face with that monster." She shakes her head. "That night with you was a warning from Pakellin because he was warning us that we were walking into the shadows of our death sentences.” A hand reaches up to scratch her head with unease. "But... we survived. Me, Ruari, Alexia, Aeric, Linken's other children..." And Kellin, though how would she bring that up? Best to keep that one on the low for now.

(1 of 2) Kyori stands, unmoving, while she talks. His trained ears and eyes taking in the shift of clothes, creak of stairs, any uptick in her breathing or heartbeat. Summarizing the epic in his head as Penelope reunited with her former lover on the brink of death finds the amnesiac possessed by an otherworldly creature. Lana’s name breaks at the strategic ear he’s trying to lend because he knew her. Knew the witch and her daughter Nat, had helped and damned them both in ways he hoped they’d forgive. This other participant, Krice, sounded level headed and justified in his warning. That’s what Kyori would have done if he’d been aware and awake. But he’d take the coma as a payment for his shortcomings with Lana and Nat and deal with what he’d missed now in the aftermath. And by dealing with it he’d endure the carnage and carrion as best he could. He owed the healer that much. The woman stands and moves away. He keeps his distance and lets her, keeping her overgarbed frame in view at all times. She goes on, outlining the picnic gone wrong and the people who died. The creature’s plan to kill all the people her former lover cared for the most. His family, Penelope. His breath hitches. The scene is too familiar.He doesn’t want to hear anymore. Kyori doesn’t want to hear that the children died and she barely escaped. He doesn’t want to hear but he does. Teeth grit, jaw set in unflinching stone. How many children did this dude have? The warrior has so many questions, none of which are asked. “Don’t-” He warns her when she starts talking about her almost death. But she does and he continues to endure, cursing under his breath to keep from breaking something. Anything. Everything in reach. ‘But we survived.’ Kyori can’t keep silent anymore.

(2 of 2) “Did you?” He asks hastily. “Did you survive?” His question is pounding in his own ears but maybe he whispered it, he doesn’t know anymore. He can’t even look at her without wanting to tear Ruari apart. He hadn’t protected her and those children. He wasn’t a fit companion. Penelope might as well have gone alone. Everyone was foolish. Everyone. Those kids should have run. Penelope should have run. Linken should have run. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE RUN! Kyori shoves his fists, knuckles white and tight, in his pockets. It’s too similar to his own experiences. He can’t keep a tight leash on his emotions so it tries to refocus on the danger. “Linken vanished or he died?” He needed to know what ‘gone’ meant. Was this over or would it come back? Would Penelope have to face this man and his demons again? Every blonde hair on the back of his neck stands up and the muscles in his arms flex as he loosens and tightens his fists in his pockets.

Penelope could hear the anxiousness lodged in the man's tone. ‘Did you survive?’ His eyes are detached from her, and for a moment, she does not know how to bounce from his question. Shakily, the girl reaches for the scarf around her neck and uncoils it to reveal the bruises of finger marks around her neck. They were yellowing over now with still the purple tint. The girl then shrugs off the flannel that was heavy on her small frame. The bandages are present—at least the one on her chest, but the outline of the one on her stomach is visible through the tank-top she wore. “I survived.” Maybe she did not survive mentally. Perhaps, though, not everything had settled correctly in her mind from the horrific night several days prior. Or perhaps it was the dying boy waiting in Yerrel’s hut that was keeping her mobile. Her neck sort of stretches out since Kyori’s timidness was making her tense than she already was or maybe it was the reflection of what had happened. In the distance, she notices the clutch of knuckles out of her peripheral. Anger. An instant and reasonable reaction. “Linken’s trapped… in what is known as the void. He used the last bit of energy he had bringing the people he--er—killed… from the dead.” With also one more person… her brother. The last bit of light magic Linken had was bringing Pakellin back mentally sound. The Ardelian sister did not know how to feel about that, nor bring it up, so she keeps herself a vault for now. Hide the dead, but not so dead, twin away for another day. “Linken had to keep the entity locked away, so his kids don’t have their father now, and for that…” Green eyes sort of slide over the tall man’s frame with a look of regret. Lips purse before she pushes herself straight up slowly off of the counter as she closes the gap of distance between them—save for a foot between. “I have to bring him back,” she finishes the sentence very quietly. Quiet and aloof. Was she an idiot? Sure, but it was for the children, and she would not take on the task until Leon Lovik was healed properly. The healer was ready to take the blow Kyori would give her, for it probably had to be coming--maybe. She stands off-kilter with those tired eyes, but she still remains with that confident line on her lips.

Kyori forced himself to look at the bruises she wore. The proof presented that she was flesh and blood alive. The outline of bandages, the invisible weight that rooted her in place. She planned to sell this place, move back beside her brother’s grave. Why there? Why now? Could she live there without seeing her twin’s death? His grotesque spirit plunging it’s hands into her? And survival? Her body survived but what of her heart? What if it was not a glass heart but the shards of one she locked away under her tired eyes. There was a removed distance about her. ‘The people he killed.’ He wasn’t distracted enough to miss her stammer. Who did he kill? Besides the obvious answer of her brother. Her explanation is broad, swerving away from details he’d expect after a traumatic encounter. Not a heart of glass. A heart of iron. A vault for all bad things to wither in the suffocating dark, just like the plants she so loved. All the questions that raged through him kept him upright. He pulls a hand from his pocket, sliding it down the bridge of his nose and over his stubbled face. All he could do was look at her, watch her as she closed the gap again. Penelope wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise. His sapphire eyes stare down at her over his hand, still covering his mouth in contemplation. What to say. What to do. A heart of glass. She didn’t want to be treated delicately. “I’m going with you.” He decides. Not a question, but a declaration. “I’m going with you the next time and I’m staying with you until then. I’ll help you pack essentials. The rest can wait.” She was an idiot. For pushing herself so hard. For risking her life for all these people. These children. He was an idiot too, for trying to stop her. Sh- “And your apprentice is useless in combat, apparently.” The blonde stuffs his hand back in his pocket just to look at her. Look at her Kyori, his mind screams, but he can’t. All he sees are her bruises and bandages and the bags under her eyes. “I’m not in a coma anymore. Use your resources and common sense to ask for help.” Sapphire again looks at the coloring marks around her neck. He can’t look anymore. Screw this. The warrior moves to a half filled box near the shelves they’d been cleaning off on Kyori’s arrival. Everything looks fragile. With a sigh he reaches for larger, heavy things on the higher shelves and pulls them down in precise motions to rest next to the box to be packed.

There were so many unanswered questions. It would take time to fill in gaps, but she knew that it would not take one night, for she was taking time to recollect pieces of that night. The pieces dropped that she had to pick up and puzzle together. The way he looks at her, she does not know what he is thinking with his hand shadowing his face. Piercing his nose what appears to be… frustration? Agitation? Penelope had been an observant girl and one to feel empathy off others. Kyori was a slate that was hard to read at times for her, so when he comments that he would be attending by her side, the confidence in her mouth line falls to a frown. There is a pang of irritation that builds. One that had been wanting to itch its way to the surface after the night the events with Linken took place. Perhaps it was one that cared too much for Kyori’s own safety and well-being. And he steps away from her. Actually steps away from her. The Ardelian follows, but does not expect him to turn around to face her. Yet. “No, you’re not. This is my battle, Kyori. And you’re not going to risk your life for a mess that isn’t even yours.” She says this sternly. “You don’t even know what you’re saying. Ruari didn’t know I went to see Linken. Ruari told me to stay away from Linken. The night this happened, Ruari was smuggled out of the shop because he ran his mouth too much. And then after… Linken killed him—or the entity—I—“ her mind trails to the pieces Ruari laid in. “Ruari didn’t have a chance. He was first. He never knew I was going to visit Linken. Ruari thought I was done but Linken’s son begged me to do something about Linken’s state.” Though Ruari was revived by Linken’s hand. The notion of ‘common sense’ is the most aggravating, and she bites her tongue for a moment before moving to his side to help place some items in the tote he held. “Do you think that I wouldn’t use common sense if I knew this was going to happen? I do a lot of rash things but I try to avoid the extremes. I went to Linken because I was supposed to have an ‘ordinary’ lunch. I knew what was there, but the temple was keeping the entity in him together.” There was a long beat. One that droned. Finally, she attempts to rest a hand on the man’s arm before attempting to pull him for his attention. “Look at me,” she demands, but he is obviously larger than her small frame. “Kyori, I care about you. No matter who the hell you even are or where you came from.” Even if he was a mystery to her. Juniper eyes stare at his frame. Because of him, she was uncomfortably open all the time, and she did not know why he had got her to be as open as she had. “I can’t watch you get hurt too. Please,” the plea is soft in that velvet accent. Aching. “I’m not even going to focus on it until Leon is healed. Leon’s my first priority because… he needs me now more than ever.” Eyes shift to the open windows to stare at the sun that was moving in the sky to a dimmer evening setting. "At least lie to me." Beat. It was as if she was outing the both of them. "Because that's what the two of us are good at, right? Lie to me and say you won't. Humor me for a month more." The tone in her voice is... hopeful he will cave into her twisted request. Just another little white lie.

Kyori keeps his back to Penelope while she tells him to stand down. Heat spikes in his ears and shoulders. Ruari didn’t *know* she was going? She snuck away? He can’t breath. That was not common sense. Every word she says makes him bristle in irritation. He stops moving, staring down at the tote without seeing it. “What do you mean Ruari died?” He asks while his mind puts the puzzle pieces together. Penelope almost died but her apprentice actually did? “Honestly, what if that spirit is manipulating you through his children? I know you’re a healer but gods Penelope.” His vision is splotched with dark spots that pulse in the long silence they leave before she speaks again. ‘Look at me.’ He doesn’t want to, doesn’t want to see the bruises or her tired eyes… but he obeys. The warrior turns enough for their eyes to meet. Just their eyes. He can’t risk another look at her injuries. It felt like a blow, her pointing out his mysterious past. He’d told her so many things, things no one knew, things he’d vowed to never tell anyone. She knew him better than any other living person. More truth than lie. “You know who I am,” he snapped, slamming one fist on the solid counter and pacing away in a tight circle. It took him half a breath to circle back and face her again, hands empty. “And what about me, Penelope? I care about you but you’d have me just watch you hurt yourself over and over again.” He gestures to her, comes within arm’s length and reaches out towards her arms but doesn’t touch her. His hands hover at her shoulders as if to shake her but he never makes contact. He can’t touch her, look at her, she’s so bruised and Kyori can’t stomach the thought of that demon’s hands holding her by the neck. Can’t stomach that the demon touched her at all. His eyes are pleading in the face of her request. ‘Lie to me’ she asks. “You can’t ask me to stand idly by because you fear for my safety as if I don’t fear for yours. It doesn’t matter that your apprentice didn’t stand a chance and it doesn’t matter that you have the best intentions. Penelope you can’t -“ The warrior pulls his arms back, hands shoved roughly in his pockets with a sigh. “I’m not going to let this happen again. I can’t. I can’t watch another family slaughtered. I can’t watch you die or almost die or see you covered in bruises and just walk away?” His voice drops to a near inaudible whisper but his resolve is unbroken. “I can’t lie to you, not about this. Not ever.” The sun splashing in stains the shop in warm, golden light. Any other day he’d crack a joke to make her smile, lie with his humor and body language to comfort her. Gods, he missed her smile. “I’ll tell you anything but that.”

Penelope explain every detail, for her mind was still sorting through what had happened. It was like a dream. A grotesque one at that. ‘What do you mean Ruari died?’ The memory brings a swirling pool in her stomach. The thought of pieces everywhere. Crimson splatter everywhere. The woman tries to push back the bile that wants to build up. “It killed him. Ruari doesn’t remember much but…” her words were slow. Details would be saved, for she could not explain such horror. “But Linken brought him back… I don’t know. It was just.. I don’t know.” Her voice sort of falters because of the memory. She was telling the truth. The thought of Aeric and Alexia being a part of the entity’s bidding made her head lighter. Her head begins to shake with a ‘no’. Stern. Stubborn. What was she supposed to do? Abandon the children? Perhaps there was too much tension. As he faces her, she keeps her gaze steady on his. Just their eyes. His are vividly tense. Then, he unravels on her and the druid hears the sting in his tone. Perhaps he had pushed himself more than she thought he had. As spews and confronts her, she cannot form words to balance out the hot-headed man before her. Then again, she was just as stubborn. Though Kyori was right. Very right. Hands reach out near her shoulders and then her eyes close to brace the touch, but his hands do not land on her. There was only slight relief, though the vibration from vexation is evident and he denies the game of lies. Then, it hits her. “Another family slaughtered…?” Had he seen something similar before? The words are quiet coming out of her lips. The whisper that exits his own lips makes her face fill with sadness and empathy. He had stood strong on the stance, and the emotion in the room is thick. So thick that it balled in her chest because… she could not deny his words. He was right when not playing it safe for her comfort. Kyori was caring, though headstrong, but he pulled her back into reality. The green stare searches into the relentless blue before her pale lips part. “Okay,” the freckled woman says this with clipped silk. So gentle. “I won’t leave you in the dark.” And then her gaze breaks from him and she turns to the counter to collect the flannel to shrug over her shoulders and scarf to wrap around her neck. The bruises would be gone in a couple more days. “You should take a breath,” she urges gently, and she needed one too. The girl had needed sleep, but did not know how. “Get some air. Cool off. I think we both still just need to digest, and... I can see you when you're ready to see me. -Really- see me." As in, the healer wanted his normal stare. She had noticed his off-puting gaze towards her state, but she understood. The feelings were human.

Kyori’s immediately disgusted with himself when Penelope flinches away. How was he any better right now than the monster? He wasn’t. He was a monster to let the family be slaughtered. To do nothing. To watch and run and hide. It was all his fault. Which made what happened to Penelope his fault, even though he had no right to claim it. The warrior couldn’t let another person he cared about get hurt. He thought he’d saved Lana from that bastard at the fair but the violence looped back, the wrath of the man Kyori’d hit redirected at the witch herself when he wasn’t there to protect her. What if the demon did the same? If the warrior stood before the beast and they did not destroy it, what if it came back to haunt them? Or her? Just her? “-My- family” is all he can say. His voice is hoarse with emotion. Her dismissal is justified but he feels rejected to be sent away like a bad dog. One hand combs through his blonde hair while he stares at the ceiling. She’s right though, he needs to calm down. The spellblade wanted to tell her how her bruises, her pain and her fear reminded him of his failings. To protect her, to protect his family. So she’s right, he can’t see just her in those wounds and heavy shirt. He doesn’t just see Penelope in her juniper eyes or her messy hair. He sees a combination of the people he’d disappointed and the fear that she’d be the next dead body he saw bit through him like a bitter wind. She knew somehow. “Don’t go back without me.” His other hand pulls out a pack of cigarettes, thumb flipping the flap open. “Lie to me if you have to but promise me.” And then he’d go. Even if she said nothing at all, he’d give her one last look that held the amalgamation of his feelings, and he’d push his way out of the shop and into the afternoon air. He flicked the end of the cigarette between his fingers once he was outside, three times before the tip glowed red with flame and nicotine greeted his lungs. The jeweled hilt of his sword glinted in the dying sunlight as he walked away, hair bright and heart heavy, with a thread of smoke overhead.

Penelope blinks at the warrior who admits to his own family being slaughtered. There is a pang that wrenches in her lower back but the room was so heavy, she cannot help but leave it be. For now. Until another day. Both of them suffered in their own ways and she can hear it in his tone. The blame was evident, but the circumstances were not his fault, and she can feel the tense atmosphere of dread. The healer hates to push him away, but it was a temporary request. One until he was put together to face her since she held the feeling of disappointing him. For not thinking, nor listening to the people who had warned her. As he requests that the Ardelian does not go back. She holds his gaze long again and he asks her to lie. Because of that, there is a feeling of uneasiness because she would lie. Though, the cigarettes are pulled from his pocket and there is a small twitch in her lips. Penelope makes up her mind and comes to a census. Her tone sinks gently back into that soft state. “I won’t put you through this again.. I promise. Not without you.” Her voice is so steady and she is nodding to agree to her own words. Before he leaves, the frizzy haired healer leaves him on one note. He is to the door by the time she says it. “And please. Smoke one.” Beat. “I hate when you smoke..” The voice drifts in the distance. Then, the golden tinted hair disappears in the thickets of the forest. Where the healer is left with a strange feeling—a feeling of wanting to comfort the warrior. To take the pain away. Both of their pain, but instead, she turns and continues to pull and place items in the boxes. Picking up the pieces to go... home.