RP:What The Water Gave Me

Part of the The Day I Tried To Live Arc

Summary: After Khitti and Eirik's duel for the Titans of Winter Tournament, Dominic and Brand jump in to rescue her from the incoming ghosts of the ruined city. They succeed, but Khitti and Dominic are attacked again, and Khitti's forced to finally used her necromancy on the undead. It works, thankfully, but when Khitti reveals her intent on studying it further to aid her research to find a cure and get rid of Amarrah, as well as the fact that this was kept from Dominic purposefully, the rift between the two widens even further.

Bloodstained Ice

Khitti had fought hard. At least she thought she had. She thought it would’ve been enough to take down that lycan. The redhead had sorely underestimated him and paid the price for it with blows dealt by Eirik, enough to knock her out entirely and take her out of the tournament. She knew the instant he hit her that last time, before she hit the ground, before everything went dark, that she’d lost--though the humiliation of it wouldn’t set in until she’d awakened. If any of the undead remained after all that, they’d certainly make their way for her as she laid there sprawled out on the red ice like a ragdoll, her own blood adding to the scenery. As her opponent vacated, so to would the audience that had gathered, leaving her there to recover or for someone to collect her.

The crowd began to disperse, but not Dominic. Not Illusion-Brand. They stepped onto the duelist’s field even as the others walked away -- Brand to dispense with the nearest undead threat, and Dominic to attempt to revive Khitti. He dropped the sign he’d been holding to his side and sat back on his haunches, looking over her injuries and calling her name. She’d taken a fair beating, and as Brand pummeled down another of the creatures Dominic found himself facing a dilemma. Once again, he had an opportunity to use that ability he’d been… gifted, if one could call something unwanted and forced upon him a gift at all. She couldn’t tell him no, in this state. Brand was too preoccupied to give advice, but he wouldn’t be for much longer. He could do nothing, and surely Brand would carry her to safety as he had so many times before, but… dammit, this was his chance to -do- something for once, not to mention to make up for his earlier failings. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe he was playing it all up in his head. He’d done it with so many other things before, was it that unreasonable to think maybe he was blowing the idea of him using magic out of proportion, too? He knew what Brand would probably advise, but he didn’t -want- his advice -- he wanted to make a decision on his own, for once. He could be useful too, dammit. He didn’t -just- lie around sipping tea and reading books all day. But, if he did this, if he really -could- do magic on his own, whatever its origin… what did that mean for the difference between him and Brand? What did that say about him? Dominic was still waffling, caught between guilt and fear, when Brand finished off the last of the undead. He was out of time. He had to act -now-, if he was going to, or he couldn’t even say it was really his decision regardless of what happened. Inhaling deeply, Dominic closed his eyes and placed both hands upon Khitti’s abdomen. Just as Brand caught awareness of what was happening, he blinked out of sight and was blocked out of mind. Deep breaths. What was the worst that could happen if he just gave into it? Dominic focused on the sensations at his fingertips, willing that strange healing water to spring forth. Don’t panic. Don’t panic, don’t panic. Don’t even think about it. Just breathe. With his eyes still clenched shut, Dominic wouldn’t see as the water poured forth, first as a trickle and then as a stream, until he’d wrapped almost the entire length of her in that shimmering aquatic shroud.

Khitti felt that strange sensation of serenity again, deep in the back of her mind. It stirred her a little, but not enough to wake her entirely just yet. This was it, yeah? She was dead, she had to have been. The tide was coming to take her away. No...wait. They’d been too far from the ocean for there to be any sort of tide. No, there was definitely water, the waves calling to her. Khitti could sense Amarrah trying to claw her way out, trying to takeover again, as she loved to do so when Khitti was weakened, but the water made Khitti stronger and she fought off that damned butterfly internally as her face contorted in distress. “...No...go away...I von’t let you...You’ll never get out…” was said to no one, her tone soft and even a bit sad. Her wounds weren’t as dire as last time, and soon whatever cuts, bruises, and that broken nose of hers healed with Dominic’s magic. Just before Amarrah’s hold would wane again, she’d twist those unconscious thoughts of Khitti’s, turning that gentle stream of water that had been calming her into a maelstrom. The poor Khat couldn’t swim, of course. She sank deeper and deeper into that stormy sea of her and Amarrah’s shared thoughts, drowning. Down...down...down into the depths...until finally she woke up. A loud gasp escaped her throat, like a swimmer that’d finally reached the surface just before it was too late, and her eyes squinted open. Frostmaw. Not just that, but the ruined city. Concern marred her features as she finally set her sights on the raven-haired male next to her, “Dominic…?” She’d forgotten about the duel...but it’d soon come back to her.

Khitti called his name, and only now did Dominic stir from his trance-like state. He opened his eyes, saw his precious Khitti awake and healed mostly back to her usual self -- and immediately, panic set in. Dominic wrenched his hands away with such ferocity that he tumbled onto his back. Trembling, the muscles in his gut twisting and squeezing, he held those quivering hands out at arm’s length and stared. “Gods, I -- I did it. It actually happened. I tried to do magic on p-purpose and it… it... “ He couldn’t get that last word out, couldn’t admit out loud that it had worked. “But, I couldn’t have -- I didn’t, it… it must have…” And suddenly he was twisted onto his side, retching up lunch between coughs and choked sobs.

Khitti immediately disregarded whatever worries she’d had. There was no undead about--for now--and she was certain now that Brand must’ve discarded of them before he’d disappeared--he had to have known it wasn’t safe out here at all and hadn’t left Dominic by himself. In an instant, though with a few pained sighs as she was still a little sore, she was by Dominic’s side, holding him as he threw up, whispering words of comfort. “Shhh. It’s alright. It’s okay, love. You -did- do it. You didn’t have to, but you did.” She smiled softly as she stroked his hair, trying to calm him, “You saved me.” Then the memory of why they were even there at all hit her--like a punch to the head from a lycan--and she cringed. “-I- failed, zhough, “ was said with a sigh. “I knew I should’ve actually trained for zhis. My instincts for fighting have never been great.”

Khitti’s worries were a welcome distraction from Dominic’s own whorling thoughts. Though he’d shut his eyes again as his anxiety took hold, he groped into the air with one hand until it found Khitti’s cheek. “N-no, Khitti. Don’t say that. You were amazing.” With a few more shuddering breaths and one last minor bout of emesis, he managed to sit up again. Eyelids fluttered open and his gaze met Khitti’s again. “You did more than I ever could just to try…” Or couldn’t he? If he could do magic, then -- no, he couldn’t follow that thought to its conclusion right now. He needed to go back to taking those slow breaths, restabilizing.

Khitti pressed her face into his hand, nuzzling it a bit. “Shhh, you.” Once it seemed like he was finished with being sick for the moment, she pulled him into a hug, taking care not to squeeze him to tightly. She didn’t mention his magic anymore right now as she parted from him and pushed herself up off the ground. A hand would go out to help Dominic up if he wanted it, and whether he took it or not, she’d soon head to gather up her bow. “A lot of good you did..” was said with a sigh down to Diamond Dust. “Can’t even take down a damned overgrown wolf in a bit of metal. I knew I should’ve used zhose swords. Didn’t vant to kill zhe damned guy zhough...” While this had been the first time she’d seen him in his lycan form, there had been no mistaking the scent of wet dog the last time they’d crossed paths here in Frostmaw. There’s a shake of her head as her thoughts trailed off to some internal monologue to herself, the vampiress taking a bit of a slow spin to get her bearings on things again. Low moans rattled off in the distance again, more shambling figures of those nearly corporeal spirits making themselves known. “Dominic. Come here.” Her hand outstretched towards him again, motioning for him to move quickly, while a flare of shadowfire lit in the other.

“He looked like he was trying to kill -you-…” observed Dominic, his eyes cast to the icy ground. It wasn’t so much that he was arguing with her -- he was glad she wasn’t the type to kill unnecessarily -- but weren’t most duels and spars supposed to show combat prowess -without- maiming or murdering anyone? His gaze shot back up at the urgency with which Khitti called him, and from there to the approaching spirits. He was quick to arrive at Khitti’s back, clinging to her at her shoulders and peering around her to the threats beyond.

“Animals tend to do zhat vhen zhey’re threatened. Eirik seems to be no different in zhat regard. Perhaps zhat vhy he’s been a bit like me in terms of dealing vith zhe guild. Very closely guarded. Doesn’t seem to vant to interact vith people much.” Rather quickly the undead began to surround them, she’d slowly spin about with Dominic clinging to her, creating a wide arc of flame around them mid-air. “Funny enough, I’d rather deal vith zhe undead. Zhey’re much more predictable--even zhese damned zhings. Zhe undead here in Lithrydel, zhough, are veird. Zhe spirits are nearly solid. Maybe it’s something to do vith zhe cold...I don’t know.” More fire is let loose to keep them at bay as careful steps backward are taken so that she doesn’t trip over Dominic or vice versa. “Just stay close, okay? And don’t let zhem touch you. Zhe ones in Venturil could kill you vith one touch. Damn it...I vish I had my violin. I haven’t had any practice vith controlling undead yet. Brand and I haven’t had a chance to go to Vailkrin…” Khitti was surprisingly calm throughout this entire ordeal, much more so than she had been during the duel. Undead she knew well. Undead she could deal with.

Dominic flinched away from the shadowfire, clinging closer to Khitti and further down her frame. “Brand? Vailkrin?” was asked, but there wasn’t much room in that head of his for him to ponder it. They were coming, at least three of them were coming that he could see. They flanked Khitti from the sides and behind, approaching more quickly than their forms should even seem to allow. He was probably imagining things in his fear, but Dominic thought one made eye contact with him just before he hid his face in the space between Khitti’s shoulders.

Khitti let out a hiss as they got closer, her free hand reaching behind her to grab Dominic’s shirt and keep him as close as possible, a few fire balls sent after the ones that closed in on them, though they still persisted. “Ve’ll talk about it as soon as ve get out of here, yeah? Now’s probably not a good time.” What to do, what to do? There had been incantations in those precious books of hers to aid in controlling the undead, but those were miles away now. “I swear to zhe gods I’m not leaving home vith my books again…” was muttered to herself as she tried to remember at least one of the spells, “Écoutez-moi les esprits des damnés--” Khitti fumbled with her words, the spell lacking conviction and proper pronunciation as the ancient foreign language tumbled from her mouth. “--les esprits de damnés? Why can’t zhese stupid spells ever be translated to Common?!” She continued to chant the first half of the spell, doing her best to memorize it and using it to remember the rest. The fire in her hand flickered, shifting back and forth carefully between the purple flames and an odd shadowy dust cloud.

Those fireballs only seemed to anger the spirits, Dominic observed, though at least they’d reeled away for a moment, screeching. They seemed to swat at the flames with gnarled and half-decomposed limbs until the fire diminished, then approached yet again. Was this the sort of thing Khitti had been fighting during that time she’d abandoned him and Brand? Come to think of it -- “I c-could get Brand to --” Dominic started, but was cut off by the spirit that darted forward with a piercing cry and spectral claws extended. The only way to dodge it was by falling back away from Khitti, half-crawling. There wasn’t time for Brand to take over their shared form, not as things stood now. Had he not spent so much energy on healing Khitti Brand could have at least made a reappearance in illusion form, but… between exhaustion and terror, it was all Dominic could do to scramble away from the creature giving chase.

Khitti let loose a string of curse words that’d likely even put Brand to shame as Dominic tore out of her grasp, that single hand clawing the air as if she could magically pull him back to her, “Dominic! Vhat did I tell you?!” There’s a few moments of desperate ‘What the hell do I do?’ going on in her head as Dominic did his best to get away from the spirits. “Écoutez-moi les esprits des damnés…” Her words trail off into muttering, the vampiress taking to snapping her fingers as if it were some song she could recall that way. And then, it hit her. “OH! Écoutez-moi les esprits des damnés, faites-le maintenant comme je commande**!!!” The Hermione Granger portion of Khitti’s brain suddenly flipped the switch in her head, the lightbulb coming on as she remembered the whole of the spell. The fire that had been shifting forms officially took on that weird dust cloud look and Khitti spun about, blowing the shadow particles on the horde that came to turn Dominic and Khitti into one of them. The dust settled on the undead and soon they stopped, lingering there in a sort of suspended animation. “Yes!!” The redhead jumped into the air joyfully, clearly pleased with her success, but that went away quickly as she composed herself. “Right. Yes. Um. All of you! Go back vhere you came from! Immediately!” She points at them like an angry mother sending her children off to time-out and they do as instructed, heading back into the mist and quite a bit away from Dominic and Khitti.

What a day. That gaggle of people that departed after the duel ended really missed out, didn’t they? Well, not according to Dominic. He, for one, had had enough excitement for the next week, if not longer. Chest heaving, he struggled to his feet and returned to Khitti’s side, leaning on her as if he might collapse if he didn’t use her for support. “Wh-what was that? What did you do?”

Khitti was probably still a little more pleased than she should be considering the fact that this sort of magic was used to kill her family, friends, etc. “You saw it?! Oh my god, Dominic. I can’t believe I did it!” She’d probably shake him a bit if he wasn’t so exhausted. Instead, she kisses him. It’s one of those super steamy kisses that Brand usually gets before and during ~things~. You know the kind of things I’m talking about. Khitti’s author has no control over her when she gets excited. *shrugs* Still brimming with the aforementioned excitement, she grabs his hand and starts to lead him to the entrance of the city. For now, whatever spirits remained seemed a lot less malevolent, or perhaps they got a whiff of that necromantic magic. “I read it in one of zhose books Brand and I grabbed for me in Xalious to research. Zhat is vhy I intended to go to Vailkrin. To practice it far, far away from here.”

Wait, were they heading further in, or -leaving- the ruined city?! It all looked much the same, and for a moment of panic he thought maybe they were going even deeper -- Khitti -did- seem like the type to go looking for further trouble, as excited as she seemed to be about her newfound ability -- but finally, Dominic started to recognize some of the landmarks and realized that they were, in fact, leaving. Thank goodness. He was sure he couldn’t take any more. As they neared the gate marking the end of the ruined city and a return to relative civilization, Dominic finally began to loosen his grip on Khitti, slowly relaxing those muscles that had been tensed up with anxiety for far too long now. “You want to do -more- of that…? Why?” Brand, of course, had been doing his part of keeping Dominic unawares as much as possible. “Is this… is this about Lydia? You’re going bring her back from wherever she went to, right?”

Khitti stopped the moment Dominic spoke her sister’s name. Whatever jubilation still ran through her form wiped the slate of her mind clean and was carefully replaced by that pensiveness that had taken hold of her moreso lately than usual. With a sigh, she turns around to face him, “Look. Dominic. I--” She paused, chewing on her thoughts a moment, “I have to go to zhe Shadow Plane. To get rid of Amarrah. To bring Lydia’s spirit here.” She lets go of his hand, bringing both of them up to his face in a reassuring sort of manner, “It’s zhe only vay. And you? You don’t have to go. Brand can block you out entirely. You don’t have to see anything zhere. -I- don’t entirely know vhat’s over zhere besides Amarrah’s people. In order to get zhere, either my magic has to get stronger or I’ve got to get someone to help me. I know I’ve got Valen now, but I don’t trust him one damned bit. He vent from trying to kill Lionel, Brand, and me to acting like ve’ve been best friends for ages. Vailkrin is just as horrible as vhat I zhink zhe Shadow Plane might be and I didn’t vant you to know because I don’t vant you to vorry or see any of zhe awful zhings zhat go on zhere. You and Brand...you didn’t see vhat goes on in zhat town. Zhe spiders are nothing in comparison, love. Not at all.” Guilt started to creep up on her now that she’d spilled -all- the details, and her signature frown made itself known. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just vanted to protect you…”

Dominic ’s eyebrows sank low and knitted together as he processed this near-endless stream of information. “So… Brand’s going. And he knew, and… and nobody told me.” There was an exclamation of frustration as Dominic trudged forward, separating from Khitti momentarily. When he spoke again, it was with his back to her. “...No, it’s fine, I get it. I can’t do the kinds of things you and he can. I wouldn’t want to, even if I could.” But Brand could have at least let him know, and not keep locking him out of things, couldn’t he? How many times now had he heard something from Khitti and could only guess at how long Brand had already known about it before she informed him, too? But no… perhaps the most aggravating part was that, from their perspective, being out of the loop made perfect sense, so how could he argue against it? He couldn’t do anything, and telling him would only cause him worry, so why -would- they say anything? Regardless of what he knew or didn’t know, the end result was unaltered. “I just… I don’t know.” There was no point.

Khitti just stood there as he walked away, frowning all the more. “Dominic… I-it’s not Brand’s fault. I told him to do it.” Coming out with the truth didn’t make her feel any better and now she was suddenly wishing he’d not used her magic on her. He should’ve just let Brand carry her home. She’d still be unconscious and none of this would’ve happened and he wouldn’t have found out and she wouldn’t have remembered that stupid spell. What more was there for her to say? He was likely angry again and for the second time in this part of Hildegarde’s frozen wasteland, he was walking away from her after something stupid she’d said and did. She said nothing more in either her defense, or Brand’s, and followed behind him a few paces like some sad lonely puppy.

Dominic came to a gradual halt before turning around to face her. “No, really, I mean it. It’s all right.” Did he, though? How much of him was saying it just to avoid another fight? Even he didn’t know for sure. “And, knowing Brand, he likely would have blocked me out regardless of if you’d told him to or not. It’s the sort of thing he does. It doesn’t really surprise me anymore. I don’t even know if I’m actually that frustrated by it -- I get the reasoning, but at the same time…” He couldn’t find words for the rest and ended up just sighing and shaking his head.

Khitti sighed heavily. “Zhat doesn’t make it right. I -am- sorry, Dominic.” She pauses, chewing on her bottom lip, “I just...didn’t know how you’d react to me doing zhis. Getting rid of Amarrah and finding a cure requires it, all zhis research and practice. I’m not going to get someone else to do all of zhis for me like Pilar. I’m not zhat stupid. She vent to zhat damned Desparrow for help after I told her, varned her, not to. After she told me about all zhese experiments he vas vorking on. She lost her leg -and- a friend because of it. She vas looking for a cure too.” Where was she even going with this? Wasn’t this going to make things worse? “Y-you just need to trust me. Like I told Brand. You both need to trust me. Please.”

“I trust you,” Dominic shot back. He even took her hand in his and pulled her until they were walking side by side again. “I’ve told you. I’ll be understanding, whatever you do.” The words were already out of his mouth by the time he realized it was a lie. He hadn’t understood when she’d gone away after that vision shared with Brand. Or to some degree he had, and was angry anyway. There were limits to his empathy, even for him. “Let’s just… come on. I’m exhausted, and you probably still need rest even if that healing… whatever you want to call it helped.” He still didn’t quite want to admit it was magic he’d been using.

Things still felt off to her and she wanted to protest against it, but there was really no point. She’d let him lead her on and she’d remain silent, stewing on everything in the back of her mind. Why was it suddenly that Dominic no longer seemed to understand and Brand had? Or maybe neither of them do. Maybe this whole quest for the cure was a farce and she should quit now while she still had a chance. Maybe it wasn’t worth it. Maybe it-- Her thoughts were cut off by hushed laughter coming from the back of her mind, quiet snickering from that damned butterfly. There was no controlling or blocking her out now. This only made Khitti more somber, and yet, she resolved to herself that getting rid of Amarrah, and finding a cure, was indeed worth it. Neither Dominic nor Brand could truly understand. Once they’d reached the area the warrior’s guild headquarters was located in, she’d urge Dominic to take one of the wyverns with the promise that she’d meet him at home.