RP:I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In From That Shadow Portal

Summary: Khitti returns from Kelay. Brand's not drunk? Brand and Khitti fight, both with words and with magic. Khitti...summons a spider? Good lord. She really is the Queen o' Spiders. And, finally, once again a day with KhittiBrand only ends in sadness.

Frostmaw Tavern

Brand was sober. Relatively, anyway -- mild inebriation was still sober compared to where he’d been since Khitti’s retrieval. He’d set his mind on it since this morning, after waking up with yet another hangover and Khitti elsewhere without a note again. One day without drinking himself totally numb. He could do it. He just needed to… find a reason not to be drunk. That wouldn’t be hard, right? Nah. He was good at that. He was a man of action; he’d find something else to occupy his time. But as the sun climbed higher in the wintery sky, the only occupation he’d yet found had him trampling down a path in knee-high snow just outside the tavern, packing it tightly under his restless feet until he’d managed to weave a sort of moat around the entirety of the building. Where the gorram hell was Khitti? That flask in his inner coat pocket was only going to call to him louder than it already was as more time passed.

Khitti, well, she had been off playing superhero in Kelay. Not that she'd tell Dominic or Brand that. The original intent had been to feed without being identified, but that damned baker girl just went and mucked up everything. At least her cake was good...and she wasn't all -that- bad, Khitti supposed. She might have to bother her again some day. But for now, Khitti was on her way back, hood pulled up over her head, her features swallowed up by the darkness underneath. Her boot heels crunched their way through the snow and across the ice along the path as she spun and twirled the umbrella she was lent in her right hand in quite the Mycroft Holmes sort of way. She stopped a good ten feet or so away from the tavern, catching Brand's scent on the wind. Not that there was much else to smell outside in an eternally wintry town besides wood-burning stoves in homes and shops. It wasn't just a faint scent, like he'd been there and gone. He was outside. And then...there he was. The umbrella stops spinning, the vampiress not moving closer, instead choosing to stand there for a few minutes to study that ever-infuriating and confusing blonde.

Brand heard her before he saw her. Was it weird that he could differentiate the cadence of her footfalls from a stranger’s so easily? Ah, nevermind, better not to dwell on it. But… now she’d stopped. Why had she stopped? Brand halted in his pacing to glance her way, and it was in that moment that he’d decided what they were going to do that day. The thing that was meant to keep him from drinking too much. Changing course, he marched forward to meet her, grabbing her by her free hand and then continuing on away from the tavern and towards the fort. “We’re gonna spar today, peach. You’ve got magic to work on.” Geez. Normal people at least would have said hello first or something, Brand.

Khitti was immediately confused, as usual, when it came to Brand and the things he did. First, because he seemed to know right off the bat who she was. What the hell. And second, because without saying hello like a civilized person, he just decided to grab her and drag her along? What the hell again. And third. Well. Third, he...wasn't...drunk??? There was still a wiff of alcohol, but it's not like he'd been swimming in a lake full of whiskey. For a second, she even let out a faint 'huh' as she thought about Brand swimming in a lake of whiskey. A shirtless, pantsless Brand. Nooope. That thought went up in flames rather quickly as she finally registered that he was dragging her towards the fort. "M-magic? N-no. Vhat? Vhy now? Don't you have something else you could be doing? Like swimmi--I mean drinking?" Sheesh, Khitti. Mind out of the hot, naked Brand gutter. "I-I can't do zhat. You saw vhat it does to me. I'll set myself aflame! Dominic'll have a pile of ash for a girlfriend!"

Luckily for Khitti, Brand was not psychic, and their link wasn’t particularly active. Gods only know what he would have done had he realized where her mind was at. “Swimming? Where am I gonna swim around here? Everything is ice. And, no. That’s precisely why we’re sparrin’. Practice makes perfect an’ all.” He spared her the briefest glance before looking back ahead. “Next time you get into trouble, you’ll be glad for it. Even if you do end up burnin’ your hands a bit -- that’s why we go somewhere with a healer nearby.”

Khitti quickly spat out in her defense, "I didn't mean swimming! Shut up." Yes. Perfectly normal. Perfectly fine. Moving along. "You forget zhat I'm a vee bit more flamable zhan you? Vhere's your damned head at? Healers can't fix cinders and zhey can't use any holy magic to bring me back." She knew there was no point in arguing. When Brand put his mind to something, that's what was gonna happen. The redhead sighed, letting him continue to pull her along, her line of sight falling to the ground beneath them as she fell into silence. She wasn't really ready to spend the day with him just quite yet. Not after everything that's happened between them since the whole thing with Raiez started.

Brand suddenly realized /he was holding her gorram hand/ and promptly dropped it, counting on her to follow along anyway. “So I won’t use fire, then. Not a big deal. Maybe I shouldn’t specialize so much, anyway. Bad news if I end up against a stone golem or sommat.” No longer sure what to do with his hand, he elected to turn it into a gloved fist and knock her lightly on the shoulder with it. “You got any other excuses you wanna get outta the way, best do it now.”

Khitti hadn't really noticed that he was holding her hand until the moment he dropped it, and then she grew a little sad. She chewed at the inside of her bottom lip with a fang, trying to hide the frown that wanted to grow and show itself to the world. Then, he decided to punch her in the arm like she's 'one of the guys' and that gave her pause, the vampiress coming to a halt now that she was no longer being dragged. That didn't exactly feel the greatest emotion-wise, but it gave her all the more reason to push her feelings for him to the deepest, darkest corners of the void. She noted that he was wearing the gloves though, and that almost restored her faith in him, but not really. It was a necessity. Nothing more. No excuses come from her, however, as she picks up the pace again to keep up with him and does everything in her power to not look at him whatsoever.

Frostmaw Fort

Brand seemed more or less satisfied with her silence. It meant she was going along with it, at least. Soon enough they’d come to the fort, and Brand would inquire with the first person he saw there about where they might be able to do some training. Y’know, indoors. Where it wasn’t hellishly cold. He’d already been outside for hours, after all -- it was a wonder his nose hadn’t fallen off already. A ginger dwarf, rail thin by the standards of his race, led them to a massive hall with stone walls and a vaulted ceiling. Archery targets lined the far wall and here and there were suits of armor or other displays, but the room was largely empty. And more importantly, largely fireproof. “Don’t you be burnin’ the whole place to the ground now,” the dwarf wheezed, winking before his departure. Hmm. Apparently Brand had gained a reputation.

Khitti snorted softly at the dwarf's remark before he left, rolled her eyes a bit, then looked about the room. Yeah. Okay. Not promising anything, short-stuff. Ever the wild child, she's soon pulling off her duster and boots and untucking her shirt so that she might run about freely on her bare feet and without hinderance. Once finished, she'd stand a few feet away from Brand, her head cocked slightly to the side, a vague look of disdain on her face as she throws up her hands at him and asks, "Vell?" She was waiting, of course, for him to make his first move.

Brand was still taking stock of the room as Khitti shed clothes. Of particular interest to him were the crossbeams that lined the ceiling at regular intervals. They appeared to be crafted from iron rather than the usual wood. Fireproof, indeed. Were there a lot of fire-based mages who came through this way, enough that a room like this was necessary? It seemed awfully convenient otherwise. Brand was finally drawn from his thoughts at that word from Khitti, and it was only then that he removed his own garb. First the gloves and then the coat were removed and placed near Khitti’s clothes, leaving him in a woven winter shirt, trousers, and boots. No naked swimming Brand today, sorry Khitti. “Well,” Brand echoed, adopting a fluid stance and then beckoning for her to start them off instead. “Show me what you can do, kiwi.”

That...probably wasn't a good idea, Brand. Welp, it was his funeral. Hopefully not, though. That would be bad. Khitti doesn't start off right away with her shadowflames, instead getting warmed up a bit by getting very up close and personal with the surly mage. She does cheat a bit, using that inhuman agility of hers to close the gap, all the while throwing a sharp right hook to the side of Brand's nicely chiseled face. Is it really cheating though if he hadn't said her vampire powers were off limits? "I'm sorry, Dominic. He kind of deserves zhis..." was muttered offhandedly, the force behind the punch likely far greater than what it should've been. Regardless of whether or not it hit, she'd soon be swinging again, this time with her left, a blow to the stomach gifted to the blonde. Maybe she was still a little upset with him. He had been a bit of a jerk lately, what with all that drinking and barely talking. Seriously, what kind of friend does that?

Brand tumbled away until there was distance between them again. Not much more he could do against that sort of thing. ‘Ouch’ was an understatement. “Not at all what I meant,” he growled when he was able to right himself again. Well, to be fair, he hadn’t specified. He’d thought it was kind of implied they’d work on her magic? But hey, if she wanted to play it that way… a wave of his hand preceded a waist-high wall of ice at Khitti’s back. No sooner had that manifested than he was racing forward, summoning maces of stone in either hand as he moved, poised to bludgeon her across the torso or else send her careening over the wall and to the ground.

Khitti grinned a little as he took the punches and stumbled away, "Come on. You know you deserved zhat. You've been an awful cow lately and you're driving Dominic mad." She didn't move as he charged towards her, a frown lining her lips. Stone. How does one counter stone? She didn't have a clue, and there was no time to melt the wall, not that it mattered. So, she stood there. The vampiress took the hit to the torso, her hands flying out away from her to give him a harsh shove to the chest, and a growl, before sidestepping away from and around behind him. "So are you gonna talk anymore? Vhen you're actually sober? Or are you gonna clam up again and not talk 'til your near dead because of zhe vhiskey?" Khitti finally summons up her flames, aiming a few fiery orbs at his heels, doing her best to hide the fact that it hurt her quite a bit to do so.

Flames, at least, were easy enough to dodge. Easier than vampiric-speed punches, anyway. And so he did, vaulting across that ice wall and then dancing away from her across the earthen floor, maces cast aside for the time being. He could recall them to his hands later if need be. “What’s there to gorram talk about?” Brand asked, pausing between words as needed to focus on not being set aflame. “What else am I supposed to say?” He’d respond to her flames with a series of stalagmites that would break through the ground to try to pierce her feet or otherwise disrupt her movement.

Khitti let out a sigh, "I don't know." Fine. Silence it was then. Much like she did on the mountainside on the way to Frostmaw, she leapt onto the side of the nearest stalagmite, then jumped to each one in succession on her way to him. And then, she had a thought. Could she at all use her powers from before? Those ground tendrils would be ever so helpful right now... She'd jump where it was needed, veering off the course towards Brand that she had initially chosen, and landing instead on the ice wall. Well, now was a better time than any other to try, right? As she had in the past, and as Amarrah had taught her to, she gives an upward flick to her wrist, fingertips clawing at the air as if pulling up some sort of invisible force from beneath Brand's feet. A pool of shadow forms on the ground, something entirely different from what used to happen. The dark magic leapt about and out crawled...a shadow spider of dire proportions. That fear of those eight-legged creatures kicks in right away, and Khitti's left paralyzed atop the ice wall, eyes wide and a scream briefly leaving her throat. Despite the fact that Khitti was the one that summoned it and had intended on it going after Brand, it doesn't. Instead, it lets out a sharp, hiss-like screech and skitters towards the vampiress. Summoning things from the void, especially when untrained, does not always end well.

Welp. Looks like the duel is on a time out. “What the bloody ever-lovin’ hell?” cursed Brand, eloquent as usual as he pivoted back around to assess their new, uh, friend. And then he was sprinting back towards the spider -- no, past the spider? -- yes, straight past the spider and for Khitti herself, who was then whisked off the icy platform by an arm around her waist and thrown by his side against one of the great stone walls. The spider, meanwhile, had circled around the ice wall and was gaining quickly. “I’m thinkin’ you maybe got an upgrade from shadow butterflies,” Brand snarked, attempting to pen the thing inside a great ring of flame.

Khitti let out another scream as she was grabbed, a bit of a struggle given, but when she realized it was Brand, she clung to him. Damn the consequences of such an act, it was a damned spider! Well, she soon remembered herself and was quick to push away from him, and gather her senses. As much as she could right now, anyway. "Gods damn it, get off of me." She attempts to summon the tendrils again, but much to her dismay, more spiders are summoned. These ones are rather tiny and number in the hundreds, a sea of the disgusting things pouring from the newest void portal on the ground near the obviously elder arachnid. "Spiders?! Vhy zhe hell is it spiders?! It couldn't be gods damned fluffy kittens or maybe even tiny little sparrows! AND VHY ZHE HELL ARE ZHEY COMING AFTER ME?!" Khitti claws her way up the stalagmite, an arm reaching down to help pull Brand up.

“Shush, woman. I just saved your ass,” Brand countered. “AND WHY IN ALL SEVEN HELLS WOULD YOU SUMMON MORE OF THEM?!” He was far too busy creating twisting vortexes of flame to follow Khitti up that spike of ice. Those fiery tornados were the cause of a thousand spidery deaths, a thousand screeching cries of agony that soon enough fell to welcome silence. Now it was just Khitti, Brand, a bunch of icy needles in the ground, and one very angry spider still caged in flame. Brand stepped just a bit closer to it, stroking his chin and peering at it curiously. “What do we do with your new friend here, miss Queen of Spiders?” That’s right. He hadn’t forgotten that one time she told him the thing. Or told Dominic. Whatever.

Khitti hissed down at Brand as he uttered that horrid title, "I'm going to kill you! Don't you ever call me zhat again!" For all her hatred of cats, she behaved like one quite well when frightened and out of sorts, and were she such a creature, her hair would certainly be standing on end. "Do I damn vell look like I can control zhis?! Do you zhink I vant to keep zhis around? Get rid of it, you damnable -gorram- idiot!" She was quite angry by this time, and had certainly decided that if he was going to take bloody well forever and stare at it, then she'd do it herself. The vampiress pushes off of the large rock that Brand had created and drops to her feet right in front of his ring of fire, probably much too close for one such as herself. Both of the redhead's hands alight, the purple fire growing steadily by the second, reaching up her arms and quickly catching her shirt on fire. She takes no notice, instead hurling both balls of flame at the spider, and moments later was summoning up more of the strange fire.

“Oh, sure, -I’m- the gorram idiot here,” Brand muttered, quickly pressing himself to Khitti’s back, his arms over hers, hands grasping her wrists. Freezing water was conjured from nowhere and bubbled around both of their arms and Khitti’s torso; likewise, so was her fire that had been sent the spider’s way. (Screeeech, said the spider. But it remained quite alive, albeit singed, and somehow even more pissed. Good job, Khitti.) Only Brand’s ring remained as he pulled her wrists to bring her into a sort of restrained dead man’s pose, arms crossed and hands at her shoulders. “Okay, Mother of Spiders,” Brand whispered in her ear. Damned jerkface almost sounded cheerful. What the heck. “Before you go about burnin’ yourself to a nice charcoal tryin’ to put this thing to rest, stop an’ think for a sec, hmm? You just summoned a massive gorram shadow spider. You don’t wanna see if you can’t get it to follow you or something?” Yes, Brand realized she was terrified of spiders. But it seemed, to him, a bit silly not to experiment a bit with the thing, now that it was here. The average person doesn’t exactly summon a great arachnid from the shadow realm every day.

Khitti glowered at Brand as he called her that -name- again, her limbs tensing up as he holds her, her attention fixed on him for the moment. "If you don't let me go, I'm going to kiss you, and you vill be so overcome vith disgust zhat you von't see zhe fireball I zhrow at -your- face." Because of course he'd be disgusted by that. Yes. He was last time, at least. Definitely. She turned her line of sight back towards the spider, that fear flaring up again. "How zhe hell am I to do zhat? It just tried to kill me." As she stared at it, watched as venom as black as night dripped from it's stark white mandables, she began to shake with dread, "Vhy can't you just kill it? Vhy is zhis so important? I don't vant zhis...not zhis. Vhy am -I- able to do zhis?" She almost continued to rattle on meaningless questions that Brand likely wouldn't have the answer for, but she knew better, and shut her mouth instead.

Brand hesitated…? Nah, couldn’t be. Khitti was just imagining that gap of time between when she spoke and when Brand finally backed off with a grumbled, “Alright, but if you start catchin’ yourself on fire again I’m just gonna let it happen. Your own damn fault.” Well, that was an empty threat and they probably both knew it. Brand circled the spider now, a hand trailing behind him and gradually turning the cage from fire to a melding of ice and stone. Less immediately threatening to the creature, but hopefully still strong enough to restrain it if it decided it still wanted to eat Khitti for breakfast. “It’s not important, really,” Brand continued, “so you -could- just kill it. But aren’t you the tiniest bit curious?” His work done, he paused in place to contemplate his handiwork. “Could even give it a name if it works out. I’m fond of ‘Francis’ for a boy’s name.” Brand blinked, then circled back to the spider’s behind, tilting his head and peering at it sideways. “How do you tell a boy spider from a girl spider...?”

Khitti just stared at Brand as he went about his business trying to check to see whether or not the disgusting creature was a male or female. He...hesitated? "I-I don't friggan know!" She thrusts a pointing index finger in his direction, "Vhat zhe hell vas zhat?! You hesitated!" Khitti...this probably isn't the time for that. Her mouth drops open again, but nothing comes out and she's left to just drop her hand and stare at him some more. Alright. Gotta work that out in her head later. "I-I....I'm curious as to vhy my shadow tendrils are suddenly a gods damned spider. And zhen hundreds more gods damned spiders." She drew closer to the spider, and then closer to Brand, just in case, you know, it tried to eat her. Again. "I swear to god...if I get bit, Brand." She reaches slowly over the wall he built around the white arachnid, "N-nice spider. You're a good spider, right? Not gonna hurt me, yeah?"

“Eh? Dunno what you're talkin’ about,” said Brand, looking quite genuinely puzzled. He'd hold the expression a little bit past when Khitti dropped the matter, but ultimately seemed content to let it go when she did. “If it bites you, maybe you’ll get even more powers? I mean, you already have the fangs and the frankly disturbin’ amount of speed. Maybe a bite'll give you extra arms.” He shrugged, attempting to keep a straight face, but a smirk kept creeping on the corners of his lips.

Khitti no longer cared about that hesitation now as she outstretched her fingers towards the spider, but at his joke she did reach out with her free hand and smacked him hard on the shoulder. "You're such a damned jerk. I hate you so much." No, you don't, Khitti, but keep telling yourself that. "You act like I vanted zhe powers. I didn't have a choice. And, it vould appear zhat it's happened again. For zhe zhird damned time." She's the one to hesitate now, giving Brand a brief side-eyed glance, a faint frown appearing. Once the moment had passed, she was back to reaching out to the spider, leaning forward a bit over the wall to reach it, whispering to herself in a sort of mantra, "Please don't bite me. Please don't bite me. Please don't bite me." Even the spider was hesitant, but ultimately it did nothing. Instead, once she was close enough to touch it, it...nuzzled her hand like a cat.

Brand had managed to contain his laughter when she’d hit him and claimed to hate him. He’d managed to contain it while Khitti had extended her hand out, pleading with the spider the whole time. But the nuzzling… the nuzzling was too much. What started as a snicker quickly became loud, hooting, almost-falling-over peals of laughter (although he did take care to move out of smacking range from Khitti before doubling over). “I… I was right! I can’t believe I was actually frakkin’ right! You’ve got a pet gorram spider now!” he cried when he was able to breathe enough to speak. “All that runnin’ and fire and savin’ you and it probably just wanted to give you a hug…”

Khitti almost immediately shot Brand a look of 'I'm going to kill you a thousand times over'. As if to make good on that promise, she summoned up a small fireball and whipped it at his feet. "I -hate- you." The fire is kept around, the faint smell of burning flesh filling the air again as the flame grows, and the vampiress uses it to melt a hole large enough in Brand's ice wall to allow the cow-sized spider to emerge. It leapt at the redhead, knocking her to the ground, and wrapped all eight of its legs around her, giving her quite the spidery hug. Once again, Brand was right...and now her Queen O' Spiders title held weight...and she'd never hear the end of it for as long as she lived. Its black venom dripped from those mandibles still, but the spider seemed to tilt his head towards Khitti's hands. Drip, drop, drip went the poison like water from a leaky faucet as it landed on her palms. It burns for a moment, the vampiress letting out a yelp, but it heals it. To steal Brand's word, it actually -frakking- heals it.

Brand had smelled that burning flesh, and knew exactly what it meant. “Khitti, you coulda let me --” but, she’d given him that ‘no funny business’ glare so he’d just kind of decided to stand back and let her do her own thing. And then… and then the venom -- it -healed- her? “What in the seven bloody hells,” muttered Brand, kneeling down close to her hands and the spider’s fangs. A skeptical glance passed from her to the spider and back to Khitti again. “You alright in there? You let me know if I need to pry you out.” And then to the spider, “Er. Nice spider. Good Francis. Good boy. ...You tell me if you’re not a boy, yeah? Eh, blink them pretty eyes of yours twice or somethin’.” What the heck, Brand. Why are you so obsessed with giving the spider a name?

Khitti made a face as she peered up at Brand, "Vhat zhe actual hell? Are you hitting on my spider?" Was she a little jealous? No way. Couldn't be. "Uh...I might need help, yes. It's a little...cramped and I'm trying really hard not to freak out." Raising a brow, she shifts her attention towards the spider's face, "Vell? Vhat is it? Are you a boy or a girl?" Okay, Professor Oak. As soon as she said 'boy', the arachnid started to shake its butt like a dog and let out a soft, gurgled screech of delight. "Right zhen, Francis it is, apparently. Do you...vanna fetch a stick? Yeah? A stick?" Once again, the responded much as a dog would when the words 'fetch' and 'stick' are mentioned. "Brand...", Khitti whispered, "Make him a stick. For zhe love of zhe gods. Make him a stick."

Brand made a face right on back, because he’s super mature like that. “What, I can’t give your new spider friend a compliment? Never know. It’s not too late for you to get eaten. Might wanna make sure we stay on its good side…” The spider did his little wiggle and Brand quickly corrected, “er, -his- good side…” And then that request for a stick. Brand squinted quizzically before crafting a large branch-like thing in the air, an entwined mixture of stone and ice. With a flick of his wrist, it went flying toward the far wall. “Go get it, Francis.”

Khitti let out a pained 'oof' as the spider screeched happily and chased after the makeshift stick, pushing Khitti into the ground with the force needed to leap away. Grumbling to herself, she mutters under her breath as she stands up and brushes herself off, "...I vish you'd give -me- compliments...vhen you're not drunk..." She'd side-eyed Brand again with a bitter smirk, then shook her head, "So...I zhink I just became a mother. I'm not quite sure how I feel about zhis. Guess zhat makes Dominic 'Dad'. And, maybe you too because of zhe obvious." Not gonna think about those implications at all. The redhead puts her hands on her hips, leaning over like someone that had just run ten miles, "How do I deal vith zhis? How do I...make it go away zhat's not killing it? Our plane of existence -can't- be good for it after too long."

Brand gave Khitti one of those ‘oh gods is this really my life’ looks, with the bugged out eyes and thin line of a mouth. He was still trying to formulate a coherent sentence when the spider bounded back for them. Brand sent the stick flying again, this time to the opposite corner, and off Francis went again. “Eh, I dunno. You said you were trying to summon your tendrils, yeah? What did you do to make those go away? Maybe you jus’ do the same thing.” He shrugged, line of sight drifting back towards the spider as it picked up the stick and started heading back their way. “Do you even know if you’d still summon the same one if you sent it away? Maybe the next one won’t be so… petlike…”

Khitti shrugged, watching the spider. It was almost...sort of...cute? Oh god. What the hell was going on? "I just kinda vished it away, I guess? I'm starting to zhink zhat Amarrah had more control over everything zhan I did. Maybe she just ran zhings from zhe background." The thought of this causes her to frown, "I suppose, if I do manage to get rid of it, I von't summon anything else unless you're around. My magic's too unpredictable right now and I'm too much of a damned failure to deal vith it on my own." She strode past Brand, over to the shadow portal that still sat on the ground where it had formed, looking quite ominous. Canting her head to the side, she studies it carefully, then without warning plunges her hand into it. Yolo, apparently.

“Don’t fall in,” Brand warned, sounding almost casual. Well, they were spider parents now, after all. Going fishing in a pool of shadow is pretty much normal at that point. As the spider skittered back, Brand went to where they’d dropped their extra clothes, and rifled through until he’d found his scarf. The spider stood by his side, almost… eagerly? It was shuffling its legs energetically as Brand wrapped his scarf around the narrow part where its head met its abdomen. It was just long enough for him to tie the thing into a bowtie. “Hmm. Well, solved the one problem. I’m gonna need another scarf, though.”

Khitti left her hand sitting there as Brand wandered over to tend to the spider, crimson brows knitting together in frustration, "Hey! I spent a lot of damned money on zhat!" She sighed, shook her head, then looked down at the pool beneath her. "I guess ve'll know if it's him vhen I summon something again. Vhat if he doesn't come back? Vhat if zhey're mean to him because of us? Z-zhe other spiders, I mean. I can't keep him here. Not in zhe city. Hildegarde vould kill me." Finally, she plucks her hand out of the portal, blinking a few times, "Holy f--". That last unsavory word trails off as she studies her appendage, "Uh...Brand...come look at zhis." Her hand was covered in not only a thick black ooze, but some sort of weird pollen. "D-don't touch it. At all. I don't know vhat it is or vhat it might do to you."

Brand pouted. Again, totally mature. “Well, unless you have a better idea to tell him from anything else that comes through, it’s gonna have to do for now, isn’t it? I’m sure he can take care of himself, though.” He approached when called, bending at his hips to inspect her hand as near as he could without touching it. “Whaddaya s’pose -that- is? Should we have Francis lick it off, maybe?” Brand blinked. “...Can spiders lick?”

Khitti scrunched her nose up a bit, "I've got no idea. And fiiiiine, I guess he can stay for now. You better damn vell warn Dominic. Don't need him vaking up and dying of fright if you decide to be all...you know." She motioned at his head, as if to say 'when you're all up in the back of his mind'. "How are ve gonna get him in zhe inn, hm? You got an idea for zhat?" She lets out a 'hm' and then calls out to the spider, "Francis! C'mere! Come get Brand! Come on, boy!" The arachnid happily obliges, skittering and leaping its way to the pair. This time, however, he leaps at Brand, attempting the same spidery hug. "And, I dunno. I guess ve can see if he'll eat it."

Brand didn’t even have time to get out an “oh frak, please no” before Francis leapt upon him. “Okay, Francis. That’s very nice. Yes. I love you too. Go get the stick again.” The spider scuttled away once more, allowing Brand to rise up off the floor and assess himself for any new bruises the spider might have gifted him. “That’s a great way to get a concussion,” he muttered to Khitti, just in time for the thing to come back, drop the ‘stick’ in front of Brand (he had to leap back a pace to keep it from falling right onto his feet), and eagerly slobber all over Khitti’s pollen-y hand.

Khitti stuck out her tongue all playful-like at Brand, batting her eyes at him, "No vorse zhan zhat alcohol's doing to your head. Besides, he loves you so much and -you're- zhe one zhat vanted him." And then the slobbering happened. The poor vampiress was utterly horrified as her hand disappeared in between Francis' mandibles and into that thing that's considered a mouth. "Oh my gods..." Once he was done, he backed off a little and started purring, nuzzling up against Khitti's arm. "Vell, I guess it doesn't hurt him either. He ate it like it vas candy."

Brand just shrugged, grinning slightly. “Of course he did. It came from his… er, universe thing, didn’t it?” he took a step closer and adjusted Francis’ bowtie slightly. “Seven hells, but that’s still a bit of a difficult concept to wrap my noggin ‘round.” He moved around to stand behind Khitti, trying to get the spider’s attention. “Francis… if we send you back into there,” and he pointed at the shadowy hole in the ground, “are you gonna come back to us when you’re called?”

Khitti's expression shifted from horror to contemplation, then to sadness, "Zhat's...vhere Amarrah came from..." The thought hit her like a train, as she peered over into the blackness of the portal. She leaned over so much so, she looked like she might stick her head into it this time, instead of just a hand, and let it swallow her up to see what's on the other side. Francis, on the other hand, was all ears with Brand, staring up at him with such adoration and shaking his giant spider butt with an accompanied screech in answer. It probably meant 'yes'.

Brand actually took her by the shoulders and pulled her back from the portal, almost… tenderly? Nah. That couldn’t be the case. At any rate, he’d pulled her up and moved himself in between Khitti and the shadowy doorway, standing with a hand still on her shoulder and another under her chin so that she’d have to look at him. “Look, peach, you said bein’ out here too long is gonna hurt our new spider friend, yeah? Don’t think you oughta be climbing on over to the other side, neither. What if there’s worse out there than Amarrah’s violent kind of insanity? What if the hole closes on you and you can’t get back?” Some shard of one of Brand’s drunken dreams floated back into memory, of Amarrah turning into some even more vicious creature. There was no reason to think that -wasn’t- possible on the other side.

Khitti struggled a little as he pulled her shoulders, "Brand. Stop." But, she let him do as he wished regardless, letting out a sigh as he forced her to look at him, that of which she didn't do for long. Their eyes met for a moment or two, but she was soon looking past him over his shoulder, waiting until he finished speaking. "You forget zhat I'm already dead." She paused, brows furrowing as she finally met his gaze again, "And...vhat if I didn't vant to come back?" The vampiress sidesteps away from him, her attention on Francis as she picked up the stick and sent it flying towards the furthest side of the room, "Go get it and lay down. Be good," the spider doing what he was told soon after. Khitti puts a bit of distance between her and Brand, a distant expression fixed on her face, "I'm done talking now." This time, she remembers to roll up her sleeves before reigniting those shadowy flames of hers, obviously wanting to continue their spar.

Brand suddenly wished it wouldn’t be so obvious if he chose to fetch that flask from his inner coat pocket right now. He considered arguing with her instead, but… he wasn’t so sure this could be solved with words, anyway. Brand heaved a sigh, nodded mildly at Khitti, and doubled the distance between them. “If I win -- and I will -- you’ve gotta buy me dinner.” There. A bit of snark to return to his usual form. Brand summoned twin fireballs. “Y’know, I’m curious what happens if we mix yours with mine.” Presumably to answer that very question, he threw one flame where it would linger in the center of their dueling space, and another at Khitti’s feet. Hardly a threatening shot, that one was more to signal the restart of their duel than anything.

Khitti shifted her attention up to his fire before looking to him again, "You realize zhat'd be considered a date, right?" She sent an orb of her own up to meet his, though hers didn't hover. Instead, it collided together with his own, creating a brilliant shower of sparks as they melded together to create something new: a flame that burned brighter than before, the base of it indigo, working its way up from various shades of purple-ish blues and shifting entirely to a dark magenta, and hot pink at the tips. Before he's allowed to say anything else, she quickly adds, "And no take backs. If I vin, you've gotta quit drinking so much." She'd taken a step back from the fire that hit near her bare feet, a smirk lining her lips as she aims one fireball at his left shoulder, and another at his right leg.

“Wait, wha -- that’s not what I gorram meant --” Brand stumbled right into the fireball aimed for his shoulder, missing the one aimed for his leg by sheer chance. Cursing, he hurriedly doused the flame with water and sprinted for the cover of the ice wall, all the while growing the splash of water by his shoulder into a thin watery armor that would cover the bulk of his torso and down to his knees. He wasn’t any more interested in getting cooked today than Khitti was.

The redhead rolled her eyes at Brand, "Fine, you damned baby. Go freaking drink yourself to death. Just be sure to do it away from me or else I'll shove my hand down your zhroat and light your insides on fire." Clearly, she was getting quite tired of his alcoholic escapades. "You're hurting -my- boyfriend vith all of zhat nonsense and it's starting to piss me off. You keep doing zhat a lot lately, pissing me off." Getting a bit angry now with him, her fire grows hotter, many smaller orbs pelted in his direction, attempting to take down the ice wall. "I don't know vhat zhe hell is going on vith you, but you're acting veird. Dominic's concerned about you. -Really-, truly concerned. Don't know vhy he should be, zhough. It's not like you give a damn vhat he zhinks or else you'd actually talk to him." She lets out a bitter laugh, "He says you open up to me more zhan you do vith him. I don't zhink he's really paying attention much vhen you're zhe one on zhe outside."

"I thought you said you were done talkin'," Brand retorted, finally rolling away from the wall with his new watery armor. She'd clearly hit a nerve, or maybe a bundle of them, because he sent more fire at the center, enough to send another furious rain of sparks throughout the room. As if that wasn't enough to dodge, what was left of the ice wall fell apart and reformulated into a trio of ice-stone spears that would shoot at various points of Khitti's legs or torso.

"Guess I'm not. Guess zhat's your job to keep everything all bottled up until you're angry enough zhat you take it out on everyone else." K-Khitti? You're legit doing that right now. You are -definitely- like Brand. You...uh. Okay. Nevermind. For Khitti, the dodging wasn't the problem. It was the fact that she sort of wanted to punch him again. She didn't though, but did dart her way about the room, avoiding his spells, until she popped up behind him. She'd give him a hard shove on the back, then appear at his front, a fireball clinging to her fingertips and threatening to hit him right square in the face.

Brand turned his forward momentum into a roll that allowed him to catch Khitti right in the leg, knocking her off balance if she didn’t see it coming quick enough. On his way back to his feet, more icy needles flashed into existence and shot straight to where he expected her to fall. The spears from before shuddered and began to free themselves from the various spots they’d been submerged into the floor, and then those went hurtling back towards her, too -- with the exception of one, which Brand caught and settled into a defensive stance with.

Khitti was about ready to open up her mouth again to yell at Brand, but before that could even happen, Brand knocks her onto the ground right where he wanted her. Unfortunately for Khitti, she hits the back of her head on the ground, and while she's trying to shake off the dizziness, what might as well be the sky comes crashing down on her. A few miss her, but most do quite a bit of damage to the vampiress. One slices into the left side of her face, blood quickly trickling from the wound. Another leaves a sizeable gash along her abdomen, through both shirt and flesh. Others left minor cuts and scrapes but the last one, well that one just so happens to catch her in the shoulder where she'd been injured during the war. Shadows jump about the room, as they had back at the inn, as she reaches over and plucks the ice shard from her body, the poor thing melting within her grasp almost immediately. For all the running around she could do, she was still slow as hell. She'd never been good at predicting where someone's attacks might go. The redhead pushes herself up off the ground, the shadows gathering at her feet, crawling up her form until they reached her hands, her fire sparking to life again. Something was different, though. This time, they were no longer that familiar purple; now they were as black as the void...and she was pretty pissed.

Brand wasn’t to be deterred by that flame. Not even black flame. Couldn’t be too different from what he was already used to -- at least, so far none of her fire had seemed it. Besides, he still had that watery armor on. Several passes were made at Khitti’s legs with the tip of the spear, swipes meant to make her jump in retreat until he could back her up to the wall. If he could manage that… maybe he could end this in his favor.

Khitti didn't jump or leap backwards, instead taking slow steps in reverse, her attention never swaying from his face. "I hate you." Her tone was flat, emotionless, a deep frown lining her lips. If he injured her feet at all with his swipes, she either didn't care or didn't notice. "Vhy do you vex me so?" There was no fireball to be had this time as a long strand of fire seeped from her palms, one stream hitting the ground at his feet, the other pointed atop his head. The shadows that filled the flames would soon escape, slowly attempting to engulf him, sucking the air out of the cage they tried to make around him, meeting and meshing together to close him in. The shadows would circle about him wildly like lost souls, burning hot from the fire that they had joined forces with to attack Brand.

Brand contended the fire with more water, quickly expanding the armor he’d been wearing out like a bubble around himself and diving out of the cage just before it could close on him entirely. The water steamed away as he passed through the barrier of souls, leaving him spearless and shieldless as he staggered to his feet again. “I can’t possibly be as gorram confounding as -you-!” he roared, barrelling straight for her, forging daggers in each hand as he did so. He’d make one slash after another, pressing forward after each one, both attacking and defending against her fire with hardly a second’s thought before the next wave. “As frakkin’ -maddening-! As infuriatingly headstrong!”

Khitti kept her slow pace backwards, though it did pick up a bit more as he summoned up those daggers of his, heading right into that wall where he wanted her. "Maddening? MADDENING? You've done nothing but toy vith my emotions zhis entire time!" The fire died away, and she was soon taking to deflecting his blows with the sides of her forearms and her fists, whichever would get to it first. It started to create quite the bloody mess, just as Khitti backed right into the wall with an 'oof'. "One moment you act like you care...zhat you give a damn...and zhen zhe next you're colder zhan Frostmaw itself!" Once he got close enough, a bloodied hand would snap out towards him, aiming to grab him by the throat and hold him there.

For an instant, what Brand saw was not what was. For that brief moment, something about their positions -- close together, enlaced in combat, her face scorching with rage as her arm shot out -- something about it called his mind back to times gone by. For that moment he froze, eyes seeing something else, something terrifying just beyond her face. It was time enough for Khitti to succeed in locking her grasp tightly around his throat. And then that instant passed, and Brand crashed back to reality by lifting his arms and pivoting in her grasp, twisting her arm just enough to loosen her grip as he did so. He crumpled to his knees, daggers falling from his hands and vanishing just before they would have clattered on the ground. One arm raised a shield of ice in case she was about to start another assault, in case his guttural, “Enough,” didn’t reach her ears in time.

Khitti's face contorted into an expression of confusion thanks to that look on his face, but it doesn't last long. She might actually still care, despite what she said. She steps around him, not even bothering to help him up as she moves towards Francis, giving him a dismissive wave of her hand, "Begone!" The spider lets out a whine, or a spider's equivalent of such, and scurries off to the portal it emerged from. Her path soon leads her then to her belongings, a foot kicking Brand's to the side before shoving itself into the proper boot, its twin soon following. The duster is snatched up then, and put on in one fluid motion, as the vampiress heads towards the door. It was clear she intended to leave unless stopped, but even then, it wasn't certain if she'd stop at all. She needed to get away from him though. She was either going to kill him, and Dominic right along with him, or try to comfort him with a kiss. Neither of those were a good idea.

The shield vanished again as soon as Khitti made clear that she was done fighting. Brand pushed himself to his feet again, but decided to say nothing to Khitti’s backside. He was still shaken from his vision. And what was there to say? She’d already said she hated him. That was what he wanted, right? That was going to get her to back off, to not be so ever present in his thoughts? “Vier--” He’d meant to call out to Khitti -- to say what, he didn’t even know -- and instead started popping out the name truly on his mind. That face he’d seen, for a fleeting second, that blonde-haired visage he’d seen in Khitti’s place. He’d almost called out her name instead of Khitti’s. Brand clamped his mouth shut and watched the vampiress make for the door, brows knit. What the bloody hell was wrong with him?

Khitti stopped just a few feet from the door, circling about slowly to face him. She'd caught that half-uttered name, and it definitely wasn't hers. Figures he'd likely have feelings for someone else or at least that's the conclusion her mind led her to. That was her luck, wasn't it? Dominic was probably some sort of fluke in that regard. Dark emerald eyes don't look at him, instead fixating on the coat and gloves she gave him, the woman having half a mind to set them aflame at this point. "I do not know who zhat is...but I hope zhey make you happy." She paused, her attention shifting elsewhere, anywhere else but on him. "It's clear zhat I cannot and zhat you do not vant me to, zhat I vill always be a thorn in your side. Go back to your drinking. I vill figure out my magic on my own. I've done it before. I may not have Amarrah now to guide me, but I'll manage."

Brand’s brows furrowed further. His gaze dropped to those clothes as well. For someone usually so resolute, he was certainly showing none of it now. “She’s a decade dead,” Brand breathed, so quiet she’d never hear him if she wasn’t a vampire. As if that had broken the strange spell placed upon him, he strode forward now, picking up the coat and gloves where he’d left them, putting them on again. He reached into that inner pocket and was soon drinking from that flask again, heavy gulps as if to make up for that lost time spent in sobriety. He’d need it, now. “Maybe more’n that now, I dunno. Fifteen? Twenty?” He shook his head. It didn’t matter. The fort felt claustrophobic, and now he wanted to leave possibly even more than Khitti did. He strode forward, intent on beating her to it. But that meant walking straight past her, of course.

Khitti could feel the uneasiness radiate off of him as if it were fire itself. There was a brief acknowledging glance in his direction as he stared at his belongings, but she soon looked away again, just in the off chance that he'd return his attention to her. She'd step to the side, allowing him to go by in silence to tend to his mental wounds while she would remain here for a few minutes longer and deal with her own emotional and physical ones. Her line of sight drifts from the ground, to her beaten and bloodied form, then to him again. She wanted to reach out, to grab his coat, and pull him into a hug, but...that wasn't in the cards. The redhead does move her hand a little, as if to do what she wanted, but her fingers would curl into a fist and the entire appendage would fall to her side again. Once again, another day with Brand was going to end badly...and now she started to wonder if there was ever going to be another after that.

That movement of her hand didn’t go unnoticed. He gave it the barest glance as he passed by, but made no further comment. What else was there to say? He certainly had not the faintest idea how to explain any of it to her. He was almost out of Khitti’s sight around the curved hallway when something beyond her vision startled him into instead ducking hurriedly into one of the side rooms. Something out there scared him more than the prospect of emotional intimacy. That must mean it was pretty bad.

Wait...what? What the hell just happened? Who the hell was out there? And how the hell did it manage to scare Brand of all people? He was a little off right now, so she chalked it up to that. The vampiress takes a moment to gather herself, then wanders headlong into what one can only assume is danger. She was sore, but the wounds Brand created with those ice shards had healed, and it was probably a good thing too. Igniting a flame in her right hand just in case, she creeps down the side of the hallway, her left hand pulling the hood up over her head to better hide her in the shadows, her attention flitting from both the unseen part of the path where someone might come from to the room Brand had ducked into and back again. There was still one thought that raced though Khitti's mind, even after the preparation and somewhat calming of her thoughts in regards to Brand: What the actual hell.

Khitti would promptly be yanked into the room Brand was hiding in as soon as she passed by. “Shhhh, you’ll tip ‘im off!” was hissed by Brand as he threw Khitti to the wall beside him and peered just barely around the doorframe. “It’s that damned elf. That Esche fellow. The psychic with the damned boundary issues?!” he spoke like Khitti would know who he was talking about, but… she probably didn’t. What the heck, Brand. You just keep getting crazier and crazier. “Oh gods, he’s coming this way.” In a panic, Brand shut the door… and was right back to being trapped in a room with Khitti. Out of the frying pan and into the shadowy death-fire, as they say.

Khitti almost let out a yelp, but luckily for Brand, nothing came out when her lips parted to do so. The fire dies away immediately and she takes to hitting him on the shoulder a few times after she's shut inside the room. "Don't freaking touch me. Who zhe hell cares who it is?! Just valk past him and get away from me." A psychic, though, was bad news and she knew it. It's not like she didn't have her own secrets to hide. She quickly boards up all the cracks in her mind like she was preparing for the zombie apocalypse, just in case something might want to leak through. "You're so gods' damned veird, Brand. I vill never understand you. Ve're allowed to be here just as much as zhis elf is," Khitti muttered as quietly as she could.

“You’re not the one with two gorram people in your head,” Brand growled, pushing them both further away from the door. This appeared to be some sort of dorm room -- it was as unoccupied as the room they’d just left, but row after row of bunk beds stretched across its length. “I never told the man, and yet I think he knows about Dominic and I anyway. That doesn’t creep you out?!” Brand chose to hide behind one of the beds in the row furthest from the door, just in case that elf chose to enter the room -- and she was dragged right down with him. “I’ll gladly take you over the likes of him. No offense, peach, but there are scarier things’n your anger.”

Khitti allowed him to drag her along -again- for the second time today. This was going to become a thing now, wasn't it? "I've dealt vith mindflayers, Brand. Nothing really gets any creepier zhan zhat, okay?" She sits on the floor with a heavy sigh, legs drawn up to her chest as she usually did when she was uncomfortable and upset. "I'd rather have an elf in my head zhan tall, dark, and tentacle-y from down below." She points down to what could only be assumed as the Underdark, and even further than that in the subterranean depths. Before settling into what was likely going to be their hiding spot for while, she reaches over Brand into his coat, grabs his flask, takes off the top, and promptly takes a swig. It was horrid stuff, but she downed a bit more of it before being satisfied for now and wrapping her arms around her legs, flask still in hand for now. "If zhis is going to become a regular thing vith you, zhis fighting and being stuck in a room vith you, you're going to have to find me a drink strong enough take down a vampire. I can't deal vith zhis."

“Heh,” was the only response Brand initially gave, so busy was he on staring at that door and willing it not to open. Frak -- he could hear footsteps approaching. It had to be him. He must have already realized he was here -- no. No, the steps hesitated, but eventually passed right on by and out of Brand’s hearing range again. “Hmm. New plan for your little bet with me, okay?” Brand finally said when he felt he could breathe again. “You and I get drunk together. There’s gotta be a way for you to manage it, yeah?” He could hardly believe he was asking. That, too, seemed almost like he was asking her on a date. Maybe he’d chugged more of that alcohol than he thought. But then, the thought of Viera called for more than a few stiff drinks.

Khitti stared at the door as she rested her chin on her knees. Does he even think about the things he says before he says it? Likely not. "No." She had an explanation, but she chose not to give it, not unless he asked, and that was likely not to happen. She wasn't going to waste her breath. That's usually how things went with him, anyway. Instead, she takes another drink from the flask, hoping to the gods that -something- would kick in, but she knew it wouldn't. It never did. Even if she could get drunk, there wasn't enough in that flask to do it. She'd close it soon after, then drop it into his lap to do with it what he wished.

No, Brand seemed to accept that answer without elaboration, though not without another few swigs from his flask. He’d had good intentions today, he really did. He’d meant to not drink so much. He’d meant for this sparring thing to be something good for both of them rather than the disaster any interaction between them ever seemed to end in lately. He’d even meant to say -something- to Khitti. Maybe not even something very big, just… something different from his usual closed-off demeanor. Well… maybe he had, just not what he’d had in mind. “I think you’re safe to go now, if that’s what you wanna do,” Brand said finally, though he slumped a bit further into his spot against the bed, making it clear he was content to stay where he was at. Plenty of alcohol left.

Khitti side-eyed Brand as he took another drink, listened to his offer of letting her leave. He was going to stay here...? Well, that wouldn't do. Not with that psychic about that he was so afraid of. She'd snatch the flask out of his hand, push herself up off the ground, her free hand outstretched towards him to help him up. "Come on." Her voice was soft, almost defeated sounding. She wasn't leaving here without him. "You say zhings vhen you're drunk...you don't zhink he'll hear zhe zhings you zhink too?" Well, he said things when he -wasn't- drunk, but those were even worse. "You should, at least, go back to zhe tavern..." If he didn't take her hand, she pull it back to her body, and head towards the door, -with- his flask, using it as bait to get him to come with her regardless.

Brand stared at her hand a moment. It was beginning to look like he might not accept it. “...No, I s’pose you have a point,” he said instead, heaving a sigh, and used her hand as leverage to bring himself to his feet. Soon enough he’d pass her, only turning again when he reached the door. His eyes burrowed holes at her feet, making him look very much like Dominic for that instant before he made eye contact with her again. “...Shouldn’t’ve let you get so involved,” he muttered, opening the door in such a way as to let her pass through ahead of him. “Y’know, every damn day I wonder why. That’s my bad, okay? I frakked up.” Brand, you’re awful at apologies.

Khitti passes through the doorway, but stops, just on the other side, a hand outstretched, palm flat out towards him to get him to stop. "Brand. Shut up. You're being vague again. If you're talking about Dominic, I've told you before and I'll tell you again, he can make his own damned decisions. Despite you calling him 'kid', he's nearly as old as I am and if zhis somehow doesn't vork out, zhat's on me and him. Not you. Just as vhatever zhis hell you and I are trapped in has nothing to do vith him. So just stop." She was very seriously now, her words strangely wise for someone that rushed headlong into danger all the time. "Other zhan zhat, I have no idea vhat zhe hell you're talking about...and you're driving me insane with your veird half apologies and your barely talking about zhings. Either you do it." She pauses, finally lowering her arm, "Or you don't. If you do, great. Wunderbar! Maybe you and I could be -normal- friends zhen. Because friends actually talk to each other, instead of zhis one-sided hell. And if you don't, I don't care. I've tried. I've tried so very hard. I tried months ago. I tried in zhe cave. I've tried now. I can never seem to catch my breath, so to speak, and I'm tired. I'm so very tired zhat I feel like I'm just going to drop dead." She takes a step backwards away from him, then pivots towards the exit, her line of sight on the floor ahead of her now. "If all ve do is talk about zhe veather and our magic, zhen so be it. I'm so very tired of giving my all, every piece of my entire being, including my heart, and getting nothing in return." Her hands curl into fists, and then a sigh escapes the vampiress before she's moving on, soft bootfalls the only thing that breaks the silence that now comes from her.

Brand stared a bit after her before jogging to catch up, falling into step next to her. “Well frak, kiwi, but which the hell is it? You tell me to shut up an’ talk to you in the same breath and no wonder you gorram confuse me so much.” As if she was the only one being confusing. “I just meant -- hell. You oughtn’t be around me. It’d be easier on both of us; I think that much is obvious by now.” He snatched the flask back out of her grasp and took another few swallows of its contents. “An’ yet I can’t seem to leave you be, neither… Hell, here I am doin’ it now. I don’t know what the frak is wrong with me.” Oh, Brand, but I think you do. Somewhere under all those layers of denial, you definitely do.

Khitti 's fists uncurl, then reform again as he spoke, that frustration rising again deep within her chest. "I don't know, Brand. But, if you really zhink never being around you is really going to be all zhat easy on me, zhen you really underestimate how much it hurt me to let you go, to escape vith everyone else vhen Raiez vas coming back." She'd not look at him, even after this admission, her attention ever fixed on the path ahead of them. A flash of memory leaked over through their link by accident, her mind on too many things at once to keep all the doors locked and the walls boarded up in her head: Brand was tending to the child Khitti had handed off to him, and just as she was making her decision to fight off Raiez, she'd look back towards him to get his attention, to tell him, but it was too late. He was much too far away. Instead, all she could muster was a sad smile and an apology before making her way towards Raiez. The redhead's brows furrow as she remembers it all too vividly, then shakes her head, picking up the pace so she was a step ahead of him. Once they were outside finally, she searched around the courtyard, trying to find something else to think about. Something happy. Something good. The night after the coronation, when her and Dominic were running about like children out here. That was a good memory. Thankfully, it hadn't gone away like so many others.

Walled Courtyard

Brand very much appeared like all the heat and agitation had been sucked out of him. It was surprising to realize their link was still open; he spent so much time keeping his mind locked up and unreadable that he hadn’t even noticed. He’d follow along in thoughtful silence as their scenery gave way to the snowy world outside, and then some. He lingered by a frozen puddle, casting just enough magicked heat from his palms to melt the perimeter of it and leave an oddly shaped shield of ice floating in its center. One knife-thin slice of flame cut through it, and another, and another, until there was nothing left but slush. Brand sighed and sank to his haunches beside it, trailing a gloved finger through the now lukewarm water. “I didn’t wanna leave you either,” he admitted at length, still staring into the pool. His voice was a soft rumble against the wintery winds. For a second, he almost wished he hadn’t donated his scarf toward being able to find that doglike spider friend of theirs again. “If you hadn’t found that kid, I probably wouldn’t have.”

Khitti stopped when she realized he no longer followed her. She turned to look at him, as he said those things, and played about in the puddle, and suddenly it felt like all of those walls she started to build up came crashing down around her again. She tried to keep her composure, her words a stammering mess, "S-she vas too important a-and I knew I could trust you to protect her. Y-you did exactly as I vanted..." It was the -one- time he did as she wanted. "You'd probably be dead if you'd stayed and I don't zhink..." She shook her head again, and turned away, lips pursed together as she chose not to finish her sentence.

Brand looked up at her, his hand pausing in its rotation around the shallow pool. “Y’don’t think what?” Barely was the sentence out of his mouth than he seemed to realize where she was going with that. He withdrew his fingers from the water and stood once more, shaking the moisture out of his glove. “Don’t put me on a gorram pedestal, peach. You’re too tough for that. You can and will survive without me.” Not that he could relate from his own experiences or anything, nope.

Khitti grinded the heel of her boot into the snow, brows furrowing angrily as he assumed to know what she was going to say. He was right, of course...again...but that didn't mean he needed to say it. "Surviving on zhe outside is a lot different zhan surviving on zhe inside." He'd likely know all about that. Not like he'd admit it though. "And, don't--" She paused, gathering her thoughts. "--don't ever tell me vhat to do. I'm not putting you on a pedestal. I've done zhat before...vith..." She didn't speak the elder vampire's name, but pressed on anyway. "J-just...shut up..." She clenched her hands into fists again, "How does one put someone on a pedestal vhen zhat person zhinks zhey're better zhan everyone else anyway? You're always so sure of yourself. So up zhere in zhe clouds. Always gotta be number one. I can't put you on a pedestal because you're already zhere. You're always so far out of reach...and I zhink you forget about everyone else you leave in zhe dirt beneath you." Khitti chanced a brief glance in Brand's direction, then started off towards the exit again.

Brand had intended to just let her go this time, if that was what she really wanted. Talk, she’d say, and then tell him to shut up or walk away when he did. Like she was doing now. Again. Didn’t mean he liked it, though. [For all of your talk of me goin’ hot then cold, you do it just as frakkin’ much.] The thought floated up against his will, a bubbling up of anger and negativity and bitterness that seared into their link before he could stop it. No, maybe he didn’t care if he stopped it. It’s not like it would be the first time he directed something harsh at her. It was Brand’s turn to pivot away again, as if nothing had happened. He turned back to the puddle and willed it to come to a boil.

Khitti caught that thought and instantly she too was angry, enough for it to bring tears to her eyes. She stopped and spun around, her arms thrown out into the air, as if she thought she could just toss her frustration to the wind and it'd go away, "I told you I don't know how to talk to you! I told you! I don't know vhat you vant from me! Zhe moment I am varm vith you, you shut me down! Zhen I get cold and it's vorse zhan a damned blizzard. I build up all of my valls again, over and over and over again...and zhen you say one little zhing and bam!" She ignites a flame in her left hand, "It melts again. I'm trying to put an end to everything. I'm trying so hard to get rid of zhe zhings in my head. Zhese feelings for you...but zhen sometimes it's like you don't vant me to. Vhat is it, Brand? Vhat zhe hell is it?"

“Both!” Brand spat at her, loud enough to disturb a nearby family of owls from their roost. The pool shot up like a geyser, leaving steaming patches on the ground that evaporated the snow underneath; one could have heard a seagull calling all the way from Cenril in the silence of regret that immediately followed. He shouldn’t’ve said anything, dammit. He knew better. He shouldn’t have gorram said anything. Brand scowled at the dirt revealed by the steaming water nearest him and snuffed out the last of its rising vapors with a slight clenching of his jaw. “Doesn’t matter,” he growled. “Can’t happen.”

Did...did he just say...both? He did. Wait, he did? No. No, he couldn't have. The corner of Khitti's mouth twitches a bit, her eyes wide and disbelieving. She takes a few quiet steps towards him, her gaze fixed on that ever angry blonde. "Brand..." Crimson brows furrowed, but for once not in anger, her voice almost a whisper and calm, though she was still very clearly unsure about everything much as he was. "Brand...shut up." She took another few steps towards him while he was so focused on that puddle, or what was left of it anyway, approaching him slowly as if he were some sort of skittish animal. Brand the bunny rabbit. Yes, that's what he was.

Brand exhaled, a long, shuddering sigh… a death rattle for the status quo. He had -one- task, to keep his gorram mouth shut, and he’d botched it. He was in the middle of some long internal tirade against himself when he noticed Khitti creeping closer. One boot drew nearer the wall behind him; one rusted blonde brow lofted. “What d’you think you’re doin’?” He looked every bit as skittish as Khitti supposed him to be.

Khitti coughed awkwardly and shook her head quickly, "Vhat? Me? Nothing. I'm standing here. Vhat are you doing? You're being veird again." She pointed over his shoulder, over in the distance near the fort's entrance, "I zhink zhere's a booplesnoot over zhere. He seems pretty scared, and I zhink he might be alone." She pauses, shifting her attention towards one of the statues, "You should tell him he's not alone...and zhat he doesn't have to be scared anymore. Zhat no one's going to hurt him." There was definitely no rabbit, but she continued to inspect that statue like nothing was going on. Just a normal conversation. About rabbits. Yep.

Brand closed his eyes and heaved the kind of weary, beleaguered sigh one might expect more from a new parent than from someone like Brand. Well, he -was- spider-dad now. But that’s besides the point. One eye popped back open, then the other, and his scowl renewed its intensity. “Do us both a favor an’ forget I said anything.” He trudged back for that same entrance Khitti had just pointed to, as if she’d ever make it that easy to exit the conversation now. “Guess I’d better go find that rabbit.” Brand, could you possibly be any more sarcastic? I don’t think you can.

For the love of god, Brand. You're probably the most infuriating person in the world. And cute. So lucky you're cute. Khitti breathed a heavy sigh of her own, then darted off after him. She'd slip in between him and the doorway, blocking his escape. "No." She'd get close enough to put a hand to his chest and push him backwards away from the door, then maneuver him to the wall so he can't go anywhere. She points at him as if to say 'stay, boy', "Vhy? You keep making up stupid excuses. Just stop it. And, you can't just say something like zhat and zhen just run off. Zhat's not fair at all, you damned booplesnoot."

Brand probably would have responded to at least some part of her actual argument, but he was too boggled by that last word. “The hell, Khitti.” Damn. He didn’t even use one of his totally-not-petnames for her. He sidled along the wall, still determined to make his escape one way or another.

Khitti sighed as she realized Brand truly wanted to leave, "Fine. Go." She turned her back to him, taking a few steps away, "You're doing it again. Zhe hot and cold zhing. It's always gonna be like zhat, isn't it? Never an in-between? No compromise? You zhink I'm just some stupid starstruck little girl. I'm not, okay? I've zhought about zhis as much as you, maybe more. Don't you zhink zhat on some level Dominic knows too?" A few more steps, "I'll forget, if zhat's vhat you vant, but you von't and it's probably going to keep eating you up inside." For probably the final time that day, she'd actually attempt to continue her path towards the inn.

Brand slid down the wall as she departed until he was curled at its base. His head was buzzing with too many competing emotions and he didn’t want to attend to any of them. The flask was opened again, and he’d drink himself straight to the bottom and watch his breath leave clouds in the snow. He cursed Viera. He cursed Lydia. He cursed Gideon, and Dominic, and even Khitti. He even cursed Francis, briefly, but then immediately felt guilt for it. But mostly, he cursed himself.