tushanshu_logs | Do You Walk in the Shadow of Men...

Entry tags:

Do You Walk in the Shadow of Men...

Characters: Valdis and open
Date: The Month of May
Location: Throughout Keeliai
Situation: Various
Warnings/Rating: In Headers

Moving out of the hotel didn’t take long. Valdis hired a few kedan to help her move her things to the small house near the former palace gardens. It was a comfortable enough space, moreso because Wan had built it. She wasn’t entirely certain why she had waited so long to move here, but perhaps she had just needed time to let go of Anton. The house needed a bit of work after having sat empty for so long, but not much and nothing she wasn’t willing to do. Valdis was capable of creating things, not just destroying them.

The KPD hasn’t let up on patrols and she’s renewed the watches on the water sources. She now had thirty-seven officers and the support of the Justice Guild, a far cry from where she had started almost a year ago. The addition of four Kirin to the KPD resources had been a bright spot, but now Valdis had to find a caretaker for them. She hoped that the four mounts could help reduce response times to crisis as well as aid in crowd control should something arise. Allying with the Guild of Justice and Arbitration had been a wise move as it seemed to calm things down a bit and give both parties a more stabilizing structure. Now she could hunt...

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"It's of no moment." Kratos had felt Valdis's mana around the corner, but he hadn't expected her to come around it quite so fast. He offered her a hand up, eyes narrowed as he considered her and the state of her mana. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

It looked like the pace of someone trying to avoid Raine's lectures.

"Home." She took his hand and got to her feet, brushing herself off. "You won't tell Raine, will you?"

Then she blinked, and her eyes were completely black for a brief moment and then they were back to normal.

"Though I suppose you can't tell her if you were to perhaps accompany me?"

"That depends on whether she asks." Kratos could obfuscate with the best of them, but he wasn't particularly fond of lying. He frowned at the flicker in her eyes, and he didn't think he imagined the faint shift in her mana -- though it was hard to tell. Sometimes mana changed on its own.

"Do you feel the need for assistance?" he asked cautiously. Sometimes mana changed on its own, but it wasn't usually accompanied by a change in eye-colour.

Valdis ignored the answer to her first question in favor of focusing on his. She tipped her chin down, looking up at him with a small smile on her face. One that made her eyes glitter with mischief.

"Every woman needs the assistance of a strong, handsome man, don't you think?"

And at that, Kratos paused. That was definitely not the Valdis he'd met previously. Unless she was teasing him, which was a possibility, given the conversation he'd seen her have with Devin on the network. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility; and yet, there was that shift ...

"No," he said frankly, "I don't. Women are entirely capable of attending themselves."

In ... whatever manner that required. He reached out to apply First Aid, just in case, and seeking those changes in her mana which might be highlighted by the introduction of mana not her own.

"But that's boring," She tossed her hair over one shoulder, looking away and running her fingers through the dark strands, pouting. Valdis turned back to him a moment later, her eyes bright again.

"Are you playing hard to get," she asked, "Because I assure you, I usually get what I want and we can just skip all this nonsense. I'm not so young that I can't show you a good time."

Edited 2017-05-14 02:30 (UTC)

... Yes, there was definitely something wrong, here. "I'm married," he said carefully, because he was, for all that his wife had died. He took a step toward her to put a hand on her shoulder and turn her back down the hall she'd been attempting to escape, by-passing the open doors into the courtyard adjacent. "I believe we should see Raine again, now."

His artes weren't sensitive enough to feel the changes in mana. They needed Raine for that.

"Ha," She laughed, "That doesn't really mean anything. She won't even know, it's not like she's here." A beat. "Is she?"

Because that would be highly annoying. Valdis let him steer her a few steps, then stiffened and ducked out from under him as her mana shifted again.

"What do you think you are doing?"

She did not sound pleased.

"No." It was a short response, and as much of a response as he was willing to give, even if Valdis was in her right mind. Which, evidently, she wasn't.

Kratos turned to match her as she pulled out from under his arm, but didn't step closer. Her mana had changed again. That was -- unnerving. It felt like her, before; he'd only been able to tell the difference while the shift was in process.

And the fact that she had to ask ... He met her gaze squarely, his brow furrowed.

"I was taking you to see Raine. Your mana keeps shifting, and you were acting unlike yourself. You don't remember?"

"What do you mean my 'mana keeps shifting'?" She asked, crossing her arms. "We already know I'm not myself, what's the..." Then she closed her eyes and relaxed, "Ok, well, memory problems aren't exactly new for me. What did I do?"

And there it was again. Kratos's eyes narrowed. This flip-flopping between possession and not -- how long since Valdis had come out of the dungeon had this been occuring? "Do not toy with a life and body not yours. Who are you? What are you after?"

Valdis took a step back, eyes widening slightly before narrowing again, "What are you talking about? You know exactly who I am, Kratos. Why are you acting like this?"

If there was another shift, it was subtle, almost imperceptible.

"I don't know what's happening."

She sounded distressed and she looked down at her hands, closing them into fists and then relaxing, only to repeat the motion once more.

And again. Was this even a deliberate switch back and forth, on the intruder's part, or was Valdis fighting it more successfully than she had when it first invaded her mind? Kratos couldn't tell, from the limited information he had; but Raine's Inspect Magic might be able to tell more.

"It seems the being which invaded your mind is attempting to possess you," he said grimly, but when he stepped forward to put a hand on her shoulder, to turn her down the hall, it was gentle. "We should see Raine. Her artes could tell us more."

For a moment, Valdis almost stepped away again, she didn't need his help to go find Raine. She felt fine, aside from a little confusion and a few blank spots in her memory, too small to be anything serious. Her hesitation meant that he was able to get close. She looked at him, her eyes suddenly pitch black, and her hand came up, palm pressed flat against his chest as she summoned the dark magic of the Void. It answered, more slowly than it might normally due to its injuries, but it came nonetheless. Sharp pain would shoot through his chest as the the Void reached for his soul.

The mana-shift this time was accompanied once more by the blackness in her eyes, something it hadn't done the last time. Kratos didn't take it as a threat, though his own hand snapped up to grip her wrist to stop her from doing something -- he assumed --
physically untoward, as befitting the flirting earlier.

Pain lanced through him suddenly, and the seal slammed up in the same moment that Kratos stopped being quite capable of moving his body with his own will. It was a wall of a ward in his soul, not made of light but time and space and an oath resonant in an unfamiliar language, anchoring soul to body and mana.

In the space between soul and seal, something else surged, with a shouting mental intent of Oh no you don't!, less words and more sensations of light and lightning and cool, dark earth. Wings flared abruptly, eyes turned flat and blank. As though an automaton had taken over, Kratos's other hand slammed forward against Valdis's chest to blow her back on with a crack of lightning.

The Void shrieked with rage as it tried to find a way through the barrier, slamming itself against it, again and again. The sudden release of magic sent the serpent back into the depths as Valdis' physical connection with its prey was lost. Valdis' mana shifted just as the lighting struck, flinging her back against the wall with a sharp crack. She crumpled to the floor, burns wrapping around her arms and neck and a puddle of blood forming under her head.

The moment contact was lost, Kratos snapped back to his body proper and with a gasp, catching himself on the wall. What in the world--

Not the time. His disorientation wasn't even physical; he shook it off to stride toward Valdis, shadowed by the feeling that he should be dizzy, and wasn't. A wide-eyed kedan peered around a nearby door, and Kratos belatedly remembered his wings were out.

I didn't pull them.

"Get Raine," he commanded, letting his wings disperse as he kneeled beside Valdis. Belatedly: "Tell no one else."

The kedan's footsteps vanished in a patter down the hall. Kratos inhaled, exhaled, trying to ease the lingering discombobulation. He pulled on mana and green light spun around him, healing pulled up from the earth as he pulled Valdis upright against his chest, one arm around her waist to pin her arms, one around her chest.

Until he was sure she wasn't going to attack anyone else, or there were better bindings around, this was how they were going to wait for Raine.

Raine, as it happened, wasn't far; she was sensitive to things like the Void, especially within the Guild building, and the kedan Kratos had sent found her already moving in that direction, unsure only of which hallway to take. With specifics relayed Raine broke into a run, and skidded around the corner toward them with staff in hand, taking in the situation.

Valdis was unconscious-- concerning, but not cause for panic, probably. Kratos looked alert and functional, but he might have turned off his ability to feel pain. Again. Raine stopped near them, eyes wary, not seeing quite yet what had happened and loath to approach until she was sure. "What happened?" she demanded.

Healing Stream ended and Kratos examined Valdis without releasing her from his grasp. Some of the burns were still in evidence, but the blow to her head was healed; yet she wasn't waking. Not encouraging. Kratos pulled up Healing Stream again, so he wouldn't have to use his hands, and Raine came around the corner.

"She was being possessed," he said tersely. "She kept switching between flirting with me and being confused. Then --" He paused, trying to figure out how to explain something he was still trying to sort into some semblance of logic.

Fortunately, there was one thing fairly clear from all of that. "This -- Void of hers. Does it, by chance, eat souls?"

"--that entity, then." The one Raine hadn't been able to purify from her. Raine frowned fiercely, coming a little closer to look at Valdis from a nearer angle. "Let me help. But we can't release her if she's still possessed; who knows what something like that might do with control of her..."

It was Raine's turn to pause at Kratos's question; she had an arte mostly formed, and she finished setting the pattern into place, held it there with staff faintly glowing. "Hm? Yes, something like that." Several more things made sense at once. "She attacked you. Are you all right?" Valdis surely seemed to have the worst end of the bargain, but the Void... Raine knew some of what it was capable. "Heal." This directed at Valdis.

"I'm fine." This was much less tersely, and more in keeping with Kratos's impassive tone. "It seems the seal does not allow for death as a result of the soul's separation from the body, at least when performed on a spiritual basis."

She'd have done better to run him through with a sword, and even that was no guarantee. "I retaliated without much thought."

That is: forcefully and instinctively. He did not mention the other part -- the sense of distance, feeling himself moving without being in control of the actual movement; and that reverberating No which had not come from him. It had felt ... It had felt a lot like Yuan, actually.

Everything was dark, but also empty, no sign of Hila or the Void, so she wasn't within her soul space, so where?

Valdis heard voices. Raine and Kratos. She took a deep breath as she regained a better idea of her surroundings. The Healer's Guild, she had known that. She'd been headed home, so why was she so sore? She suddenly became aware of the restraining grip around her torso and began to fight, trying to break the grip, only half aware of who was holding her.

"Let. Me. Go." She demanded, her voice hoarse.

Retaliation would explain Valdis's condition. Though it didn't seem as though Kratos had used light magic. ...that was probably for the best. Raine nodded to Kratos, and might have said more but for Valdis beginning to stir again, drawing Raine's attention.

"That's enough," Raine said sharply, with every expectation that Valdis would listen to her. "Are you Valdis? Are you in control of your senses?" If she was Valdis, the set of questions should already explain some of what had passed to her. "You're not in danger, but we need to establish your identity."

The squirm only made Kratos's grip tighten, firm but not cruel. She was strong, though; stronger than an ordinary human, which necessitated more strength from him. Her elbow connecting with his stomach didn't do much to hinder him except make his grip tighten to pin her arm a little better.

"What do you remember?" he added to Raine's string of questions, and looked up at Raine proper. "She didn't seem to recall what she'd been doing, in-between." In-between moments of being possessed.

At first, the tighter hold only made Valdis fight harder, but Raine's sharp command caused her to cease momentarily as she considered the questions. At Kratos' voice, there was a flicker of intense dislike that quickly passed. Then she smelled blood and relaxed, more out of shock than any recognition of the questions.

There were spots of darkness in her memory, not long gaps, but considering she didn't remember how she had ended up on the floor and the fact that she smelled blood and burned flesh, she had to wonder.

"I didn't kill anyone, did I?"

Her voice felt too even for that question, but she was too tired to actually feel much at the moment.

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