RP:The Stars In Our Faults

This is a Devout's Guild RP.

Summary: During their vacation, Khitti decides to finally go to Fog Forest--a place that's most like her home village in Dhavislaav--and on the way, she tells Brand about her troubles with Khitt. Things do not go well.

The Elimidorei Hotel, Rynvale Island

Khitti || Before Khitt and Brand had finally passed out for the night after all that shapeshifting and lovemaking, he asked her to shift him one last time back to Khitti. Mainly, he just didn't want to wake up with a raging… well, you know. The poor thing needed a rest, after all. Khitti slept fitfully and her sleep self could not discern why. Nothing in her dreams made sense, which was usually the case when she was anxious. She wouldn't figure it out at all until she opened her eyes and saw Brand.

Khitti studied her in silence, her line of sight roaming over her face and hair and whatever other parts weren’t covered by blankets. The intricate twists and braids had tumbled from the places Brand had put them, begging to be tended to and put back where they had been. Khitti had to fight the urge to move them from where they'd fallen for fear that she might wake Brand up. She just stared instead with furrowed brows, and it took some time for her to realize that tears had begun to well up in her eyes. Why was she like this? Why couldn't she just be happy? Why did she always have to worry? Realizing she was going to start sniffling too, she turned away, her back now to Brand. And when she thought she was going to be too loud or might shake the bed with her sobbing, she got up and headed to the bathroom, snatching up Khitt's shirt from the night before along the way, so she didn't get cold while she was sitting in there.

She closed the door as quietly as possible, then grabbed a towel, put it down on the floor in the far corner of the room, and sat down on it. Khitti stared at the wall across from her, as tears ran down her face, thinking far too many bad things--some of which was just as much Khitt's as it was hers, while there were others he couldn't care less about. If only Khitt had not actually been a part of her. The temptation to just set him on fire was strong. Most of this was his fault. Wasn’t it? In too many areas, the emotional lines blurred and it was too hard for her to really tell anymore.

Brand woke up with all the speed and wits of a bear woken from hibernation, much the same as Brand always did. When she got out of the bed, it was less out of a desire to start the day and more out of the realization that she -really- needed to pee, and unfortunately Khitti was in the bathroom. With eyes still half-closed, she muttered something under her breath and gave the bathroom door a few knocks. Please hurry. Bladder threatening to explode.

Khitti had dozed off a little, as one sometimes does after crying, thanks to the need to get rid of soreness her eyes now had and the headache that always followed. She didn’t quite register the first of Brand’s knocks, but the rest slowly did, and she was soon pushing herself up off the floor. “You idiot,” she muttered to herself as she rubbed her eyes. The door finally opened and Khitti peeked her head outside. Despite the still sore, still somewhat red eyes, she just kinda stared at Brand like Dominic would sometimes, which was kind of akin to a deer in headlights. “Uhhh, hi…” She cleared her throat awkwardly and side-eyed the ground as she slipped between the door and the doorframe, muttering more things, though this time it was apologies instead of scolding herself. Once Brand went in, she sighed heavily and got back into bed, pulling the covers up near her head. She closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but… sleep was not happening probably.

Brand was too sleepy to be observant. She puttered into the bathroom, did her business, and left again -- the whole while, with eyes only just barely open enough not to bump into anything. Then she crawled back into bed and wrapped an arm around the bundle of blankets that was Khitti. She mumbled something that was probably about how comfortable the bed was, but her words were so indistinct that it would be difficult to know for sure.

Khitti would let Brand go back to sleep, and even she eventually fell asleep herself. And when Brand woke up finally? Gasp. There was no Khitti. How strange. Hopefully she’s not reverting back to the way things used to be back in Frostmaw. Wait… Nope. There was definitely some faint shouting going on in the hallway, with a lot of cursing… some of which was not just in Common, but Dhavislaavian and Catalian too. And there was also what sounded like some glass crashing to the floor too. Thankfully, the walls were pretty well soundproof (which was for the better considering some of the things people do in these hotel rooms) and not much could be heard otherwise.

There was a whiff of smoke from a certain redhead’s shadowfire that wafted into the room as Khitti finally entered with a large tray and shut the door behind her. “Stupid entitled bitch,” she said as she leaned her back against the door with a heavy sigh, taking a moment to compose herself before she took the tray to the table and set it there. It looked like their breakfast had survived somehow--between the yoga and ballet she did for training and fighting purposes, and waiting tables occasionally at the bakery, Khitti’s balance was far better than it used to be. The only thing that hadn’t made it through the door was the poor little vase with a single trimmed down rose in it that’s added to trays to give it some fanciness. When she was certain that everything was fine, she flopped across the foot of the bed, face-planting into the covers, half-heartedly hoping she’d suffocate on it.

Brand || By the time Khitti reentered the room, Brand was awake and sitting up on the edge of the bed. Khitti received a questioning glance, but that was it. There was food to be eaten, and boy was Brand starving.

But when Brand was halfway through shoveling down her meal and Khitti still hadn’t moved from the bed, it was finally time to ask some questions. Like, “Are you okay?” and “What happened?”

Khitti || "Oh nothing. Just my hatred for people continuing to grow exponentially," Khitti said, pushing herself up off the bed finally. "Some bigshot noble's golddigging wife decided she couldn't be bothered to go downstairs and get her breakfast before the kitchen moved on to preparing lunch. So she waited at her room's door, ambushed me, tried taking the tray from me, called me the worst room service person she's ever had, and started screaming 'don't you know know who my husband is?!'." She sat down at the table, picked up her fork and knife and dug into her own food. "So I told her I can't be arsed to know every single noble in Lithrydel, let alone Rynvale too, and told her if she didn't let go of my food, she was going to find out who -I- am and that if she continued, I'd feed her firstborn child to Vakmatharas. She scoffed in disbelief, so I set her hair on fire." Khitti took another bite super casually in between gesturing here and there with her fork as she spoke. "She's fine. Probably. She used the vase on our tray to put the fire out. Then she threw the vase on the floor, stomped on the flower, and ran off into her room to have a tantrum like a two year old. So, when she shut the door, I melted the keyhole together and froze the door. I'll let her out eventually, but she needs a very long time out."

Mom-Khitti was clearly not one to be messed with. With her story finished, she shoveled the rest of her food in her mouth, and eyed her plate. She purposefully did not answer the 'are you okay?' and she wondered whether it was too late to add in a little white lie about her actually being okay, but she decided against it. And now that the excitement was over, she looked weary. It wasn't the normal kind of tired though. She was exhausted mentally--even her soul felt tired--and that woman had not helped much.

"We should go to the forest today. For a little while anyway. Damn place had a pull to it--probably would've stopped there yesterday if we'd not been on a time limit to get here." Khitti paused and thought about it for a moment, her attention shifting back to Brand finally. "It wasn't like that before. When we were there with Bradyn, I mean." She just shrugged. "It's probably all in my head though, because I've been meaning to go there anyway."

Brand couldn’t hold back the laugh that bubbled up in response to Khitti’s story. It was all so perfectly… Khitti. “Frak that woman -and- her husband,” Brand agreed, emphasizing the words with a nod or two. “Definitely leave them in there for now. We can go to the forest and see how forgiving you’re feeling when we get back.” The mischievous grin on Brand’s face suggested that she thought Khitti very well might leave the couple in there for the rest of the day, even if they returned earlier than that.

Brand finished her food and rose to start rifling through the suitcases. “I’m assuming you packed some good ‘wandering through a weird forest’ clothes in here somewhere, right?” It wasn’t long before the question answered itself. Brand found the perfect outfit for the occasion -- light and easy to move in, with greens and browns that would melt effortlessly into the forest background. She donned a matching pair of boots after and got to work putting all of it on. These were Khitti’s boots, technically, but it wasn’t like she didn’t have plenty to spare.

Khitti just smirked and blushed a little at Brand’s reaction, nodding in agreement. Once upon a time, Brand had only ever been exasperated by Khitti’s antics and it was a little weird sometimes for Khitti to think about just how much the Catalian had changed, even without the shapeshifting. She watched as Brand got up and changed her clothes--and stole her boots!--and took in the whole of her outfit. It was funny to see how much effort Brand put into her outfits nowadays and Khitti could only smirk a little at it. The more she watched her though, the more her thoughts went back to the ones she’d been having several hours ago. The smirk faded and she sighed, moving on to change into something of her own that would be more suitable for the forest. She even grabbed both of her swords that Camina had packed away for her.

Somewhere Between Elimidor, The Dragonlands, And Gamorg

Khitti || To spare Brand’s outfit and hair, they went the carriage route for transportation as opposed to the tikifhlee that were stabled away, since the forest was still quite a journey from the hotel. The moment they were in and seated and situated the way they wanted to be, Khitti was reminded of why she almost never rode in those damn things. It was waaaaay too cramped--even if it was one of the more spacious models--and it reminded her of that damn magical jar. She grimaced at the thought of being stuck in there again, then took up Brand’s hand and rested her head on her shoulder. “Brand…? I’m... not okay,” Khitti said eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of dwelling on the things in her head again. She wasn’t even sure where to go with things now that she’d finally said it and the frustration from it all brought tears to her eyes.

Brand was also suffering through a sense of claustrophobia brought on by memories of magic form-shrinking jars and mage-kidnapping dragons. Khitti's crying ended up being just one more reason to have uncomfortable flashbacks. Brand took Khitti's hand in hers and squeezed it to assure that she was listening -- even though her eyes were glued to the passing scenery as a reminder that they were not, in fact, trapped in a jar. "What's up, buttercup?" If either of the two of them was a buttercup, it was definitely Brand right now. But that didn't stop her from saying it.

Khitti || "I can't stop worrying about things," Khitti said faintly between sniffles. "And Khitt isn't making things any better. He keeps throwing his own problems over to me. Anything that isn't some form of anger gets shoved to my side of things. He's so awful." The tears continued to flow as she went on. And as she did, it would quickly become obvious that Khitti's emotions had been split almost as much as her gender. "I'm worried you're going to be this way for so long that you won't want to go back to how we used to be again. And that you won't want me like this anymore. He said it would be better that way. That he could handle protecting you and the baby and Dominic more than I ever could. He won't accept that he failed too. He even taunts me about it--it's almost like Amarrah is back." Khitti pulled her hand from Brand's and sobbed into both of her own. It was not often she cried like this. Even more lately she'd been trying to hide it from people she had to be around. And, apparently, she was not quite over that trauma she got from dealing with Amarrah.

"And I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you during this pregnancy. What if I can't bring you back? Khitt worries about that too but he won't admit it... He just dumps it all onto me and then goes and gets into fights at the Whaler's to make himself feel better." As if they didn't know enough already how similar Khitti and Brand were, this was just further proof, as the whole thing was akin to Brand going off to drink so he could ignore his emotions.

Brand finally turned away from the window as Khitti finished speaking. But rather than share words of wisdom that might ameliorate Khitti’s feelings directly, or open her heart to receive what Khitti was saying and share in her misery, she gave Khitti a stern Angry-Mom sort of look and turned her into Khitt. “Listen here, you,” she said, shaking him. “What I just heard is an absolute crock of bullshite, and you of all people should know better after the male version of me spent years doing more or less the same thing to the female version of you -- avoiding confronting my feelings and all that. Shape up and shape up fast, or I’m going to make sure you -- as in you, Khitt -- I’ll make sure you -never- get to drink your problems away or blow off steam in fights ever again.” Without even letting him get a word in, she transformed her back to Khitti and gave her a quick, self-satisfied nod. “That should go a long way toward fixing the problem, I think.” Sometimes Brand-like problems require Brand-like solutions. Fight fire with fire. Etc.

Khitt might not have gotten any words in, but he did try. But, mostly, he just gave Brand a lot of angry looks while she yelled at him. And then he was gone. And Khitti was back and she just sort of stared, first at Brand, then at not much at all in particular. “Okay… now I know how Dominic felt,” she squeaked out eventually, eyes widened as she processed things. “He’s uh… He’s not very happy. I didn’t think he could possibly be anymore aggravated with me, but uh… I guess I was wrong. He’s not even mad at you, heh. He’s pissed because I told you. Even though he literally just promised last night to tell you things.”

Khitti frowned and put her face in her hands. “I’m sorry. Things were okay in the beginning. The two of us were so focused on helping you heal. And now…? I-I don’t know how to make things better. He doesn’t care much for the research and teaching I have to do at the various guilds, yet he insists on being the one out all the time. He doesn’t even like baking or anything so how am I supposed to get any work done? And the more he’s out, the more we have to explain why he even exists in the first place, or at least, the super short version of the story. I told him to tell them ‘Things are different. Brand has new magic. Let’s move on and do what we’re supposed to be doing.’ because I don’t trust him to be able to relay things properly. Not that -everyone- needs to know about this anyway. But when I’ve got Valrae showing up at the ship trying to check on me or Odhranos taking a trip to the bakery to talk to me about finishing this stuff with the Mage’s Guild and more or less saying he’s certain it’s going to kill him, and they find Khitt instead, they kind of deserve the truth. -I- should’ve been the one to deal with that. Khitt wasn’t the one that died. -I- did. He used -my- memories to try to comfort Odhranos and it didn’t help a single bit.” Before Brand might consider bringing Khitt back out, Khitti shook her head and waved her arms a little. “Yelling’s not going to make things better though, so please don’t bring him back out right now. It sure as hell didn’t work for either of us before any of this happened.”

“Was I like this? Before? He seems so much worse than how I remember what I was like…” She sighed and turned her attention to the scenery that passed outside. They’d nearly reached Gamorg and Fog Forest wasn’t much farther beyond that. “He can deny it all he wants though… He knows my worries are valid and -that’s- why he’s angry. Because he knows I’m right and there’s nothing he can do about it.”

Brand || Everything past the first few sentences washed over Brand, only half heard. That anger was bubbling over now, anger that she knew was a feeble mask for a whole mess of other, scarier emotions. But the anger was already here. It was already overflowing. There wasn't much else she could do except let the wave carry her.

With no warning, her magic split Khitti in two. Literally. One second Khitt was still in Khitti's head... and in the next, he was wholly separate from her, sitting next to her with his own body and mind.

Brand would have stood to yell at them, if there had been room in the carriage to do so. Something about drawing herself up to her full height (diminutive though that was in this form) would have been satisfying. Instead, she leaned out the window and waved at the driver to halt, let herself out, and spoke to them from the carriage step.

"I can't do this right now. I can't be the strong one for you while you're falling to pieces, because I've been barely holding it together, myself. I have been trying -so hard- to move on and find reasons to be optimistic and hopeful after everything we've been through lately, but the two of you --" She cut herself off, releasing her remaining breath with a long, slow sigh. "I'm going to walk away before I say something I'll regret. You should merge back together automatically when you figure out how the frak to get along. Until then, I think I need some space." She hopped from the step and marched back in the direction of the hotel. Surely it couldn't be -that- far, right?

Khitti || It took a few moments for both Khitt and Khitti to realize what the hell was going on. Brand said what she had to say and then… You’d think it would’ve been Khitt that would’ve been the upset one. And he was, but… Khitti jumped out of the carriage after Brand started walking away. “You absolute frakking hypocrite! Did you seriously expect everything to just go away after -you- decided things were fine?! That -I- was going to be fine?! After all of -that-?! THIS IS ALL -YOUR- FAULT! -YOU- did this. You let all of this happen because you refused to tell me anything! And even now you’re not telling me anything! Nothing has changed, Brand!! -YOU- haven’t changed!” She let out an irritated scream, got back into the carriage, and slammed the door shut. Khitt surprisingly eventually joined Khitti and the two headed to the forest. Khitti just stared at the seat across with her, with a glare that could--and usually did--rival Brand’s own. Khitt stared out the window. He half wondered if one of those ogres in Gamorg would eat Brand. Or maybe one of the many flights of dragons that made their home in the northern half of Rynvale. He wondered if he should be worried about it. He wasn’t, for now. Brand was Brand, after all. How many times had the masculine side said, in the past, that he could take on anything that vampire Khitti could -and more-? Surely, the two of them would be fine with not only elemental magic, but illusion as well.

Khitti tried so hard to stay mad, and she sort of accomplished this, but the tears eventually returned. It made Khitt uncomfortable, yet he said nothing. The carriage soon crawled to a stop again just outside the forest and Khitti jumped out once more, wiping her eyes as she told the driver to stay there. The echoless sounds of lycan howls filled the air as Khitti stepped into the thick fog of Fog Forest, and Khitt--perhaps stupidly--trailed along behind her.

Fog Forest

In truth, Brand had never left the carriage until after Khitt and Khitti did. Oh, she had reason enough to feel angry, sure, and reason enough to split Khitti and Khitt apart for a while. But she wasn't -actually- stupid enough to try walking back to the hotel on her own, and she knew Khitt and Khitti were likely to get in trouble without her.

She fully intended to create the trouble herself, actually.

She'd seen it work a thousand times in stories and in life: two people would start off hating each other until the day they were thrust into a life-or-death situation with only the other to count on. The event would teach them how to work together and respect one another, or so the trope went.

Brand intended to help bring about such an event and then linger by, soundless and invisible, just to make sure nothing could go -too- wrong. Later, she'd have some apologizing to do for the deception, but it really did seem like the best way she could help them. Gods knew the two Khats weren't likely to resolve their issues otherwise.

Would Brand even need to create a life or death event? This was Khitti after all. For now, she was annoyed by Khitt's presence. "Why are you even still here? You didn't -want- to exist with me in the first place. If Brand divorces us, I'm literally going to kill you." She stopped and turned around to finally face him and he paused too. The two redheads looked at each other for what felt like forever, the same olive-green eyes locked with one another.

Khitti pulled Embershard from its sheathe, the darksteel and obsidian gladius pointed at Khitt. "Do you even understand what you've done? Do you understand how much work I put into this relationship? -I died- for this. Did you? It didn't take you very long to wall up those memories of yours. I can't even remember anything from your past now." She took a step forward, the tip of her sword finding the underside of Khitt's chin. "You are no one to me, and if Brand is just done with me because of you..." Tears made themselves known again and Khitti was quick to turn away, resheathe her sword, and continue walking.

Khitt said nothing for the duration of Khitti's threat. He just watched her, almost sadly. Now that he had -all- his emotions to himself, he was starting to feel a little regretful. "No. I didn't die," he said, following her again. "And I wasn't fused with Amarrah either. I was born with dark magic." Khitti stopped again briefly and threw up her hands before continuing ob. "Great. Yes. You're perfect and I'm not. Wonderful. That's not the first time this science experiment has heard that and I'm sure it won't be the last."

Well, this was off to a great start. They were already threatening one another. Or at least, Khitti was threatening Khitt. It was rather one-sided... for now. Even if Brand couldn't help but feel that Khitt being 'born' with dark magic was a little bit of a threat all on its own.

Brand would give them something better to threaten, and to threaten them. She swept together the nearby fog into the shape of a bear, with large, glowing eyes and an angry snarl. It would lumber toward the two Khats, sniff the air, and then stand on its hind legs, slobbering and growling at them. Most of the real threats in this forest were werewolves, but this... was a werebear. As soon as Brand was sure the two had seen it, the werebear lunged straight for Khitt.

As soon as she saw that bear, Khitti's tune changed real quick-like. Where there had been rage enough to bring on tears, there was now fear. Had Brand ever known about her bear phobia? Probably not, since Khitti assumed it was gone. She hadn't seen a bear since the Frostmaw war--Alex used to ride around on one. It had been so long and she'd been so sure that she was phobia-free... but that did not appear to be the case. "It was nice knowing you! Gotta go! Bye!" Before the last word even left her mouth, Khitti was already shadow-stepping into the nearest tree. Never mind the fact that bears can climb trees.

Khitt just sighed as she disappeared and the bear lunged at him. So he did what any bare knuckle boxer would do and punched the bear in the face. That right hook Khitti hit Brand with several times? Yeah, that was Khitt's specialty too. Except he was a lot more trained in close quarters combat than his feminine counterpart. "How in the hell can you be perfectly fine around a horde of undead, but can't deal with one frakking bear?!" He'd probably be a lot more flabbergasted by it if he wasn't so annoyed that she just left him there.

"Excuse me but being terrified of bears is perfectly logical! Punching them is not!" Khitti's voice was definitely coming from nearby and that bear would most likely be able to find her if it chose to. "You know where we grew up! How could you -not- be afraid of bears?!"

This bear was remarkably resilient to getting punched in the face, much like the person who had created it. It scrunched up its nose, roared, and swiped at Khitt. It was going right for the gut.

Brand agreed with Khitti, for the record. Bears were not something to be messed with. She wasn't -terrified- of them, per se, but she had a healthy respect for them and would give them a wide berth if she ever came upon a wild one. She was picking on Khitt right now with her illusion magic, but who could say for sure which one would be in the worse position at the end of all this. Cats -did- have a thing for climbing trees and then getting stuck in them. Maybe Khats did, too.

“Hey, you moron! Why don’t you use that magic you were supposedly born with and quit acting like a damn ogre!” Khitti was of course referring to Khitt punching the bear. He went to do it again and just as the bear swiped at him, a loud ‘bamf’ made itself known as Khitti shadowstepped back down, grabbed Khitt, then shadowstepped back up into the tree. Khitt might’ve made it out alive, but his clothing did not. “What the hell is wrong with you?! That was just getting good,” he said, eyeing the ripped remnants of his shirt. He let loose a whole slew of curses at the bear as he shook his fist at it; amongst it all, he mentioned that he happened to like that shirt and now he’d have to get another!

Khitti just watched Khitt yell at the bear. There was some sort of strange deja vu going on, because it felt like she’d been a part of something like this before, except she was in Khitt’s shoes. Well, she had. Often. Sort of. Yelling at an angry drunk Brand was sort of like yelling at a bear and probably just as dangerous. Khitt soon realized Khitti was staring at him and started yelling at her too now. Oh, she knew she probably deserved it, but between the bear, the Brand, and dealing with all those worries that Brand just completely ignored in favor of being mad at -her- for no reason, Khitti’s patience was rather thin. So, she pushed Khitt out of the tree. He’d be fine. It wasn’t very tall. But that bear was. And that bear was probably hungry, and while Khitt was just a skinny thing, eating him for lunch was better than eating nothing. He landed with an incredibly pleasant thud and the knowledge that he was probably going to have several large bruises later.

“You know, you really should be more grateful when someone saves your stupid self from getting mauled,” Khitti laid down on the branch, watching the two. “You’re worse than I am and I’m probably the most impulsive person I know, next to Quintessa. Say ‘please’.” Khitt looked up at Khitti finally, eyeing her as dangled one of her swords at him, just out of reach. Khitt would not say please. Nope. Never. Absolutely not. Khitt was a man! Or something. Instead, he lunged at the bear to punch it again. This time with a flaming fist. Take that, bear!

Khitt may or may not have noted by now that the werebear seemed... well, smarter than the average bear. It intercepted Khitt's punch with a huge leathery paw, used his momentum to send him flying over its shoulder, and roared its displeasure once again. It was the kind of throw that broke bones -- not that Brand was hoping to seriously injure Khitt, but then again maybe he was being a jerkface and deserved it. Shrug. Whatever it took to start forcing Khitti and Khitt to find some kind of mutual respect for one another.

Khitt had not. Because. Well. Khitt was not always smarter than the average bear himself. It’s rather unfortunate, really, because his stubbornness really bit him in the ass this time. Khitti cringed as she watched Khitt get swatted like a fly over the bear’s shoulder and sent into the nearest prickly-looking bush. She sighed. A lot. “Okay, so why couldn’t you have given the smart one the the whole magic-from-birth thing?” She was talking to those gods that she occasionally spoke to, of course.

“Why am -I- the one that gets the dead family, a bitchy butterfly, magic that wasn’t even mine for two decades of my life, and vampirism? And why am I always the one that’s gotta clean up other people’s messes? And -never- get any goddamn recognition for it? And why am -I- the one that’s gotta deal with something that is clearly NOT a goddamn regular bear?!” Yes. She noticed. She -had- studied up on lycanthropy briefly after Meri had been turned. And lycans of all sorts had sort of been a thing in Dhavislaav. “Meanwhile, this punchy prickly pear over here gets everything handed to him on a platter, wins fights in Craughmoyle at least three times a week, had a perfectly normal life and a normal relationship with Brand and normal marriage and he’s not even smart enough to tell the difference between a werebear and a bear? How is any of that even fair?!”

Khitt’d long since hopped out of that tree. She hadn’t even bothered with the shadowstepping. The whole time she’d been shouting at the gods, she’d been casting: first there was a large patch of shadow-ice on the ground that steadily crawled up the bear’s legs, trying to keep it in place. And then came the fire. A lot of fire. A -lot- of fire. Probably more fire than was needed. Enough fire that a few sparks managed to hit that bush Khitt had been knocked into and it was that fire that woke him up and reminded him that he was indeed alive and that he was in an enormous amount of pain. There were a lot of angry words coming from him now. “Oh shut up! You went five rounds with an orc and won and -now- you’re going to complain about pain?” Khitti was indeed still shouting and it was pretty obvious now what she was shouting at.

Brand || The bear shook faster and faster as more of its fur was set aflame, until -- POP! -- it vanished in a cloud of smoke, as if it had never been. A handful of coins and a small leather pouch littered the ground where it had just been. Yes, the illusion bear just dropped loot. Brand was feeling somewhat cheeky about her role as sidequest facilitator ... if indeed a sidequest was what today's events could be called.

From behind her veil of silence, she stepped a little closer to where the two Khats were, just enough to hear them better. She'd need to eavesdrop in order to plan her next move.

Khitti just stared at the space that the bear once occupied, as well as the loot it left. That… sure was weird. Unfortunately for Brand, Khitti’s mom senses started tingling--there was clearly frakkery afoot. Her face scrunched up in that usual way it did when she was thinking things and getting suspicious but it went no further than that as she sighed and picked up the gold and put it into the rather convenient pouch.

Khitt, meanwhile, was assessing the damage on his body. There was definitely a broken rib or two. There were a lot of cuts and places that were likely to be huge bruises and… Oh. That’s uh. That’s blood. A lot of it. The adrenaline from getting yeeted by a bear was starting to wear off and the pain started to set in even more. He touched the back of his head again lightly, half hoping that maybe he squished some berries during the fall and… nope. After taking a small taste, he determined that that was indeed blood, then wiped his bloodied hand on his black pants. And oh look, there’s the rock he hit his head on. With a boot, he kicked it into the bush, and walked over to Khitti. Just stay calm. He totally doesn’t feel a little woozy from blood loss and a possible concussion.

“Did you ever stop to think that that’s why I didn’t want you to know? Because I had it easy and you didn’t?” He eyed her for a moment, then looked elsewhere. “Let’s get this over with. Do you even know what you’re looking for here?” Khitti didn’t have to answer. Just as she opened her mouth to do so, a star-like light lit up to the south of them. As Khitti left Khitt behind and approached it, there was another one, and then another, and another still. But they looked… familiar. She thought about it for a moment, then conjured up a ball of light in her hand. The star-like thing’s light grew stronger as Khitti held out the ball of light. “Well, these are either really weird will o’ wisps and we’re going to die soon or we’re going in the right direction.” Khitt just wrinkled his nose at it and frowned, the ever-growing worry about his head injury pushing away the possibility of death by whatever might have sent the star-like objects. It’s a good thing his hair was already red and that Khitti wasn’t a vampire, so she wouldn’t notice right away. Without another word, Khitti headed deeper into the forest and Khitt followed.

Brand didn't know where these weird stars had come from. -She- certainly hadn't conjured them. Maybe Khitti was lucky and this would turn out to be the 'sign' she'd been looking for all this time. Or maybe it would turn out to be a trap of some kind, in which case it was a good thing Brand was secretly nearby.

She was starting to regret leaving the two of them 'alone', though. She hadn't really thought far ahead to how she'd 'come back' and find them again, even if her plan worked. And Khitt had opened up just a little, but clearly there was more where that came from. For now, Brand would watch and wait, and hope that an opportunity presented itself to either reveal her presence or meddle secretly some more.

Khitti || “Are you even worried for her? Not even a little?” Khitti’s questions were about Brand, of course, and Khitt knew this. “No,” he said, still following behind her. Khitt sighed. “... Yes. But there’s no point in dwelling on it. If something so severe happens that our magic or Lennier’s healing skills can’t help Brand, then there’s nothing to be done about it. It just happens.” Khitti frowned and shook her head, “Have you seriously never lost anyone?”

Khitt shrugged--the best he could anyway, with those broken ribs. “I had a hamster once when I was eight. It bit me and died two days later.” Khitti rolled her eyes at Khitt and sighed exasperatedly. “Look. Just because I didn’t lose my parents and sibling doesn’t mean I didn’t lose anyone. I wasn’t the only one that was born with magic home. People--friends and neighbors and even some cousins--got carted off and burned in the middle of town. I got used to it. I’m just surprised -you’re- not used to it by now. You’re so concerned with losing people, yet you push them all away.” All this talking was helping keep Khitt conscious (sort of), but it didn’t help his growing headache. He wobbled a little as he walked but Khitti was none the wiser for now.

“None of them would understand what’s happened. It’s just better this way…” Khitti missed Meri terribly, but… it had been so long now. The time to talk had likely long since passed. She wouldn’t even know where to start. Khitt didn’t argue, though he eyed her with vague concern.

The Mist Covered Pool, Fog Forest

Eventually, they came to a clearing with a medium-sized lake in the middle of it, the stars having long since disappeared from sight. Across the top of water sat a thick, misty cloud of fog, that of which Khitti brushed away to peer into the water as she sat down next to it. Sorry, there won’t be any songs about reflection though--both of them were doing enough reflecting as it was. Khitti tried to mimic what Brand had done at Selene’s temple and closed her eyes. “Now quit asking me questions I don’t feel like answering.” Khitt sat down a little ways away. This was fine. It was a wonder that he’s still standing. Why hasn’t he healed himself, you ask? Because then that would mean Khitt would have to accept the fact that he got his ass kicked by a bear.

You can’t lose people if you don’t have people to lose. Brand knew how this whole pushing-people-away thing worked. Her male counterpart had done quite a lot of it. Still, it stung a little to hear Khitt being so on the nose about it, and Khitti rationalizing it away with the same kinds of excuses the other Brand used. Considering they both were guilty of this, it was actually a wonder that Khitti and Brand had ever worked out as a relationship at all. On paper, it probably shouldn’t have. Maybe this was something the other Brand should talk over with Khitti at some point when the feminine Brand wasn’t busy pretending not to be here. Hmm.

In the meantime, she’d sit and wait. For what? Well, she wasn’t sure. If she didn’t need to meddle any further than she already had, she wouldn’t. If she did, she would. And if trouble happened, she’d be ready for it. But until one of those things happened, she’d wait.

Once it was obvious that Khitti wasn’t going to yell at Khitt anymore, he decided to lay down and take a little nap. In the middle of a forest with lycans and dragons and werebears. With a concussion. He -really- isn’t the brightest is he? Well, at least he has the excuse of getting that blow to the head this time around. He instantly felt better--or so his brain told him--when he closed his eyes. The forest had finally stopped spinning. He’d probably stopped bleeding at this point too. Everything was fine. Perfectly fine. Until it wasn’t.

Khitti sighed. She tried talking to Cyris and Delisha and Vakmatharas, but they either weren’t listening or just didn’t care. “Why was this so easy for Brand? Maybe Selene is just nicer to her followers?” Khitt said nothing, because Khitt was unconscious. After a few moments of silence, Khitti opened her eyes and peered down into the water. Strange, there’s those lights again. But they were in the lake this time? Huh. Realizing Khitt still hadn’t said anything, she looked over at him… and the large scaly tail that was curling around his legs. In the few moments it took Khitti to realize what the heck was going on, the serpent of the lake was already lashing out from within the depths, aiming to chomp on her and bring her underneath the water. It missed, thanks to Khitti shadowstepping at the last possible second, but… it took Khitt back under the water with it. RIP

As per usual when something goes wrong, Khitti’s got a lot of swear words and panicking. Does she really want to go in there? Khitt wasn’t fighting back so clearly there’s something wrong. Ugggghhh. If only she were still a vampire, then this wouldn’t be a problem. Welp. Khitti sighed heavily. It’s one of those ‘I’m going to regret this’ sighs. And then she took a deep breath and jumped in.

Here was a situation that Brand certainly hadn’t created. It brought her a rising panic, much like the one Khitti had before leaping into the water. But she couldn’t very well sit by while Khitti and Khitt were in actual, real danger, could she? With a sigh, she shifted her dress into something more appropriate for swimming and leapt in after Khitti.

This poor serpent was going to be so confused when it was attacked by an invisible enemy. Brand figured Khitti was most likely going for Khitt’s rescue, so Brand focused on finding the great eel’s head and then gouging out its eyeballs with her magic. If she could do that, she’d feel safer becoming visible again. It was probably high time to let the pair of Khats know she’d “come back for them”, anyway.

The lake wasn’t as deep as Khitti’d anticipated, thankfully, and so it didn’t take long for her to cross the distance the serpent had put between them by shadowstepping. She grabbed Khitt’s hand and tried to pull him away but the beast had its tail tight around his legs. It was a poor serpent indeed, because as Brand was gouging out its eyes, Khitti pulled out one of her swords and hacked away at its tail. The harpe glowed with rainbowy light magic, only further adding to the pain the serpent was going through. The serpent thrashed about, releasing Khitt and whacking Khitti with its poor mangled tail, sending her down to the bottom of the lake.

As she neared the bottom, a light flared in the darkness, mirroring the light from Khitti’s sword. It caught Khitti’s eye, but she was running out of air and needed to get Khitt before he drowned. Resolving to come back for the mysterious thing in a bit, she used up the rest of her magic to retrieve her masculine side and get the hell out of the water.

Gouging the thing’s eyes out was easy. The hard part was getting back to the surface afterwards. The serpent had thrashed about so much that Brand had been thrown yards and yards away, with no reference for where she’d been thrown or which way was up. The thing that saved her was a little bit of light illuminating the bubbles that flew from her nose and mouth. “Bubbles always rise up,” she thought, and followed them to the surface.

Once there, she made herself visible, spluttering and coughing not far from where Khitti and Khitt had come to rest. “Hi there,” she said, once she could breathe somewhat normally again. “I helped.” She didn’t offer an explanation as to how she was there or why she’d ‘come back’, and she hoped she wouldn’t be made to give one. Hopefully it was enough that she was here, now.

Khitti just stared at Brand for a moment, then narrowed her eyes at her. So she -had- sensed some sort of frakkery. She didn’t know what kind specifically, but if Brand was here and not back at the hotel like Khitti assumed she’d be, well… It was clear Khitti was trying to figure things out. She did this, of course, while simultaneously smacking Khitt in the face a few times. “Alright. Nap time’s over. I’m not carrying your stupid ass all the way back to the carriage.” But, Khitt did not wake up. He was breathing at least, which meant he hadn’t drowned -somehow-. Khitti started checking him over, finding not only the massive bruise that’d started to form where his broken ribs were, but also the dried blood in his hair. “I swear to the gods, I’m gonna set all four of us on fire,” she said, trying to hide her worry with the irritation that was still present after she finished looking Khitt over. “How are we even together? How has this even worked with all of this lying? We are all literally the worst.”

She summoned up her healing magic, pulling the shimmery light like it was taffy, and molding it into a sort of bandage. She put one on Khitt’s abdomen and another on the back of his head. It didn’t take long for the two patches of light to absorb into Khitt’s body, but it didn’t seem to be enough. Khitti couldn’t hide her worry now as a deep frown made itself known. She tried again with the holy magic, her hands hovering over him, channeling it into his body.

Meanwhile, that light from within the lake returned, getting brighter and brighter as Khitti used her magic. It went unnoticed by her for now, however, as her back was turned to it.

“Fuse with him,” Brand said, as if it was obvious. Easy for her to say. The two Brands hadn’t found it particularly difficult. “But it won’t work unless you let him in. And he has to be willing to let you in. Not that he has much choice in the matter right now, what with him being halfway to death and all.” She sighed and began playing with a stray ribbon from her dress, still soaked through with water and sticking to everything. “You have to at least be willing to share your memories and thoughts with one another to some degree, so you can understand where one another is coming from. It’s a lot easier to compromise if you can get that far. You’re two people sharing a body -- you don’t get to just wall each other off like you would anyone else you didn’t know or trust. You don’t get a choice, so you only get to choose if you’re willing to work together or if you want to be completely dysfunctional as a whole just so you can keep a few things private.”

Khitti’s attention shifted to Brand. “Don’t talk to me about letting people in, like you're some expert on it. The two of you are no better than we are when it comes to that. I’m not doing anything without his consent. I forced my way into someone’s head once like that and I said I’d never do it again and I meant it.” She meant Dominic 1.0 and Brand’s masculine self, of course, back when she’d tried to get the two to understand that she cared about Dominic. It might not have been exactly the same sort of thing, but it was close enough.

The light caught her attention finally and Khitti studied it for a moment. “Stay here and keep an eye on him.” She didn’t even wait for a response before jumping back into the water. It was probably safe to assume that if she didn’t come back soon, that the serpent might’ve gotten her.

Brand probably would have protested, had she been given the opportunity. She probably would have pointed out how it wasn't the same thing and here's why, and so on.

But she didn't get a chance, and maybe that was for the best. Instead, she frowned down at Khitt's unconscious form. He probably wouldn't even hear her. She was probably wasting her time. But she decided to talk to him anyway. Maybe it would make her feel better, if nothing else.

"Hey. I miss you. I miss -us-, even though those memories are from a life that... I dunno, maybe never existed. I know things can't be that way, and I'm not asking them to be. But... I -am- appealing to our history together when I ask you: can you please work things out with Khitti? Please? For me?"

She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "You're stuck with each other, anyway. You might as well make the best of it."

It was definitely for the best because Khitti wasn’t going to listen to it. Just what the hell had Brand been doing? Why the hell was she here after all of that arguing? Khitti was torn between worrying about Khitt and being annoyed with Brand, and not being able to focus fully on either one was making her even more irritated.

The serpent had long since returned to its underwater lair to pout and nurse its wounds, allowing Khitti to search for whatever the hell was down there. She followed the light and eventually found a small chest buried beneath the dirt. She lugged it back up to the surface and pushed it into the grass just as Brand finished speaking to Khitt.

The chest was locked of course, so she froze the lock itself to break it, the metal already a bit brittle thanks to rust that had formed who knows how long ago. Within it was a deck of tarot cards and some strange dark metal contraption that looked like it was a ring within a ring within a ring. “I’m starting to think that those lights -were- will-o’-wisps,” she muttered to herself.

Khitti sighed and left the box where she’d put it, then moved back over to Khitt to try again with her holy magic. More patches of light were summoned up and put where they were needed on Khitt’s body. Triggered by Khitti’s magic, the weird contraption hovered out of the box, each ring spinning differently from one another and glowing with the same magic Khitti was currently wielding. Those same stars from before returned, this time in a large circle around the three (four?) of them, their lights piercing the fog once again. Just in case it was some sort of trap, Khitti grabbed Brand’s hand and shadowstepped them out of the circle. Yes, she did leave Khitt there. He’ll be fine. Probably.

After a moment the lights got brighter as rainbowy magic exploded in the middle of the circle, showering glittery remnants of it all onto the ground and Khitt.

Once again, Brand didn't really get a chance to protest. It was fine, though. She probably didn't want to be in that big ball of light anyway.

When it was over, she stepped tentatively to the edge of where the circle had been. Even after... whatever had happened... was over, she was still too wary of it to step inside. "Um. Khitt?" She felt a little silly for calling out his name. He'd been clearly unconscious just a second ago, after all. But she'd felt compelled to try.

After the few seconds of silence that followed, Brand turned to Khitti again. "I don't suppose you have any idea what the frak that was?" Her question wasn't accusatory. Just... tired. So very tired.

Khitti just shrugged at Brand. “Well. Considering the fact that it reacted towards my magic, it might be a magical implement of some sort.” She followed after Brand, and passed her, going into the circle to look at the contraption. “There’s stars engraved into it,” she said, inspecting it. “Annnnd the symbol of Cyris too.” Khitti crossed her arms and sighed heavily. “I should’ve known. It was the same sort of pull Tenbatsu Kaji had. I don’t think this thing is fused with a sprite though, because it’s yet to talk to me, and I don’t feel like it’s trying to and interference is getting in the way.” She sighed again, but this one sounded like it was more out of relief.

Meanwhile, Khitt was waking up, though he hadn’t quite opened his eyes yet. Except, he was… talking in Dhavislaavian? To him and Khitti’s mother…? “Aber, Mami, ich will heute nicht in die Schule gehen! Ich will zu Hause bleiben und mit dir Kekse backen.” Khitti shifted her attention away from the maybe-implement and looked to Khitt exasperatedly. “I thought you hated baking. Also, just so you’re aware: you’re dead. I had to bring you back, but you’re an undead now. You haven’t started rotting yet, but the spell made your hair fall out.” She side-eyed Brand as Khitt let out a cry of anguish, feigning innocence. “What?! No!” He put his hands on his head. “Hey wait…” He pushed himself up off the ground finally, smirking at Khitti. “Ha ha. Very funny.”

Brand was trying to smile. It -was- funny. But the corners of her vision were darkening, and she was starting to feel a little woozy. “Khitt... Khitti... I think -- you’re going to --” She swayed where she stood, and then collapsed.

And just like that, Khitt and Khitti were back in one body and one mind again. The separation had only been an illusion, after all. An illusion Brand had been keeping intact for a very long time now. Too long.

She -did- have limits to her magic, as it turned out. It was the last thought she had before everything faded into aether.

Khitti || When the two redheads were fused again, it was Khitt that was on the outside now. He was quick to catch Brand as she passed out, and laid her on the ground briefly as he gathered the chest and put the still hovering implement back into the box--him and Khitti would have to figure out what the hell it was when they got back from their vacation. For now, however, Khitt would put the box on Brand’s lap, pick her up again, and head towards where they’d left the carriage. It was obvious Brand was going to need a nice long nap before they resumed any sort of bedroom activities and despite being healed, Khitt felt the need for one also.