Nightmares. (Finished)

[titania]

After a time, the two had arrived in the area of the sacred grove where the fairies made their home. On the outside, it was nothing fancy, though many loved to adorn their houses with fancy colored tapestries and the like.

When they arrived, Titania was there to greet them with a couple of guards at her side.

"Glad to see you made it. Welcome to the home of the fairies. Guards, take Kay inside and give her a bed in the barracks. Jin and I will be right behind you." The guards either assisted Kay with walking or walked alongside her, whichever she preferred. Titania looked to Jin and moved up next to him. She began to whisper in his ear and the guards and Kay walked off.

"How is she? Still warm to the touch?"

[Jin Reno]

Even though he had tried to be friendly and supportive, it seemed like Kay would have none of it. He knew he couldn't really blame her, for whatever had happened seemed to have affected her in several different ways. He wanted to help, but after her last sentence it seemed like silence would win after all, at least until they got to their destination. The silence was what bothered Jin, and it really got to him. He wanted to say something, but Kay was the more pressing matter at the moment, and she wanted it silent.

When the arrived, Jin let out a small sigh of relief as things where said and more people moved around. He relinquished his hold on Kay, passing her to the waiting guards before letting out a small sigh and rubbing his head. Titania made her way to his side and spoke softly as Jin watched Kay leave the area. "She seems to not be feeling well, and yeah, she's very warm still. If you have a small healing fountain, I would suggest she be allowed to rest in it for a bit. Let her gather her thoughts." He said, glad that he was able to actually speak somewhat.

[titania]

Titania nodded. She began to walk as Kay left her field of vision, going ahead to the palace. She motioned for Jin to follow behind her as they went in a different direction.

"The closest spring to here is in Faron Woods. Besides, that won't help her at this point. She needs something to suppress her wild magic, not heal her. I've got one of our shamans working on something right now. Should be able to get her calmed down and her magic back under control." Then Titania and Jin could ask their questions. This was a very strange circumstance.

[Jin Reno]

Jin walked along side Titania and listened as she spoke, thinking over her words and wondering what her shamans would be able to do to help her. "If thats the case, then how did she suddenly gain so much more magic? It seemed like, if she didn't release all that she did, she could of burned up right before us." Jin said, thinking about how warm Kay felt and the currents of fire magic she released back at the ruins.

"Do you think that would happen again if Kay went back there? When back to that area with the pillars and the circle?" Jin asked, hands in his pockets as he moved next to Titania. It seemed like a kind of scary situation, that one's own magic could destroy them from within if it got out of control. Could his own magic, no matter how small it was, freak out on him and destroy him? "Can all magic do that? Even healing magic?" Jin asked Titania, referring back to what he said before about Kay burning up.

[titania]

As Titania wandered into the shaman's hut, an older fairy was busy whipping something up.

"I don't know what will happen if we take her back there. Quite frankly I don't want to know. That was an incredibly volatile display of magic, and right now it seems like she bleeding magic power with the heat. That's my primary concern right now. I don't know if the pyromancy gives her body a heat resistance but if it doesn't she might overheat or dehydrate." She was handed a flask of bubbling red liquid. She nodded and thanked the old shaman before leaving the hut.

"I think there's an energy source in that area. Worth checking out again, although not with Kay. Kay needs rest now. Let's deliver this to her and then we'll decide what to do from there." She headed out towards the palace, Jin accompanying.

[Jin Reno]

Jin, walking in behind Titania, began to look all around the shaman's hut, examining every little thing with interest and a smile. "This place is pretty interesting." He said, before being drawn back to Titania as she spoke. "One would hope she would be at least a little resistant against the own flames her magic produces." Jin said, a little worried about Kay and a little concerned about the bubbling liquid.

"Well, the air was heavy with left over magic from the light in the sky thing, could that have been a contributing factor to this whole thing?" Jin asked, walking along side Titania, rubbing his chin as he tried to figure out what was going on. "Also, is that whats going to help seal her magic or something?" He asked, pointing at the liquid, walking toward the palace carefully.

[kaythenia]

Kaythenia had been escorted into the Palace by the Fey guards and into what appeared to be a lavish bed chamber to rest in, they assisted her in getting onto the bed before leaving her, the door clicking shut behind them. For a short time the Bard had simply lain there staring into the middle distance before drifting into that strange border of not awake but not asleep either. Her body felt heavy as if she might sink into the bed, as if someone had weighted her limbs down to stop her from moving too much. With concious effort, Kaythenia lifted her hand to touch her cheek to see if she was still bleeding heat from the contact with the circle. It was impossible to tell, the experience had drained her and the voices she had heard rattled around inside her head but didn't make any coherent sense. It was jumbled and made her head hurt when she tried to peace them together. Instead curled into a ball and lay motionless, the only sounds for a while were her heartbeat and breathing.

She could hear the approach of two sets of footsteps but thought little of it, Kaythenia didn't move from her position on the bed. Although she still know it she was still exuding heat and magic, the circle hadn't given her anything, instead it had simply unleashed the powers she normally kept under wraps. Kept under wraps because her control over them was sketchy at best in their usage. When she heard the door open once again, the Bard slowly opened her eyes and forced herself with some apparent hesitancy into a sitting position, as if her muscles ached.

[titania]

Titania and Jin reached the room where she had ordered Kay to be laid in. As they entered, Kay sat up. The warm was warm, feeling the effects of her heat.

"Wow, Kay, you're heating up the whole room." She handed the jug of red liquid to Kay. "Drink this. It's a magic suppressor. You won't be able to cast spells for a couple of hours, but it should cool you down and rebalance your energy levels." She pulled up a couple of chairs, one for her and one for Jin, placed them near Kay, and waited for Kay to drink.

[Jin Reno]

As Jin walked in behind Titania, the heat washed over him as well and he ventured that leaving the door open a crack was probably better then closing it. "Wow Kay, if we ever happen to travel to Snowpeak, I think I want to be standing close to you." Jin joked, taking the chair from Titania and sat in it sideways, his back shield not really good for sitting sometimes.

"I suggest drinking it down fast to try and not tasting it. Who knows what it is, but I've heard medicine usually tastes bad." Jin suggested, a little glad he wasn't the one who would drink the red, bubbly liquid.

[kaythenia]

"Wow, Kay, you're heating up the whole room. Drink this. It's a magic suppressor. You won't be able to cast spells for a couple of hours, but it should cool you down and rebalance your energy levels."

"Wow Kay, if we ever happen to travel to Snowpeak, I think I want to be standing close to you."

Heating up the entire room? Was she? Kaythenia lifted her hand and once again rested the back of it to her cheek and then to her forehead, she didn't feel anything overly abnormal about her temperature...but if Both Jin and Titania were commenting on it than it must be true. Kaythenia took the cup of red, bubbling liquid from the Fairy Queen and glanced down hesitantly at it before gulping it down quickly. The taste was acrid and bitter, the young woman screwed up her face as it assaulted her tastebuds, lowering the cup once it was empty. Hopefully this would work quickly, casting spells was not her only method of defense should she require it. The Daggers hanging from the belt around her hips were still visible, but hopefully she would not need them here. Her limbs still felt weighed down and heavy but stubbornly she stayed in a sitting position none the less. Putting the cup down on a wooden table beside the bed. Both Jin and Titania seemed to be watching her with interest and drew her legs up to her chest, feeling somewhat under scrutiny.

"Before you ask, I don't know what happened back there."

Kaythenia decided to mention that before the questions started, she could feel it coming and wanted to stop it before it could start, she did not give eye contact to either Jin or Titania and kept her gaze focused on the quilt, pleating it tightly as if she needed something to do with her hands.

[titania]

Over the next couple of minutes, Titania felt the heat fade from the room. Some lingered, but she wasn't feeling any effects from Kaythenia's expulsion of heat.

"I don't expect you to know. I don't think any of us know. But I think it's best for you if you don't go back there. For a moment I wasn't sure what was going to happen to you, or the ruins." She turned away from Kay, standing up and facing the window in the room.

She put her hands behind her faced, standing away from Kay seemed to be best for her. "But there is a question I have to ask you. Have you ever had a similar experience with an object-person reaction like that?" Titania had a feeling she knew that answer, but she wanted to hear it straight from Kaythenia herself.

[Jin Reno]

Jin leaned back and resting an elbow against the chair he was sitting in, resting his chin in his hand. He was beginning to wonder if all that had happened before with Kay had been forgotten, or maybe she was now suppressing it. Either way, it seemed as if he wasn't going to learn anything more about what had happened from her at the moment. When Titania spoke, Jin chimed in afterward, "Plus, if you went alone, even more things might just happen and the ending could be worse."

The question that the Fairy Queen asked next made Jin himself wonder if she had a similar issue in the past. However, this time he just sat and watched the two quietly, feeling as this was one of those moments were he should keep quiet for a bit.

[kaythenia]

"I don't expect you to know. I don't think any of us know. But I think it's best for you if you don't go back there. For a moment I wasn't sure what was going to happen to you, or the ruins. But there is a question I have to ask you. Have you ever had a similar experience with an object-person reaction like that?"

Kaythenia did not look at Titania even though the Fairy Queen was facing away from her, something about the tone of her voice suggested to the Bard that she knew the answer to that question already. She had experienced such a reaction before, anytime she came into contact with the Braigh, a silver chain which burnt anyone with Evalle's blood and the worst had been inside the Seomar. That circle had been drawn with her in mind, the sigils drawn to bind and strip her of her powers, her reaction to that had been simply a white patch on her memory until she came back to herself. The memory was still as clear in her mind as it had been four years ago.

When Kaythenia opened her eyes she was disorientated and shaking, it took her a moment or so to realise that her cheek was rubbing the stone floor and her gaze flitted around the Seomar. Marcus, the circle, she shouldn't still be alive let alone feeling her powers inside her, she braced her hands against the floor to struggle into a sitting position. That was when she saw it, her pale skin was stained red with blood, drying into the edges of her nails and into the whorls of her palms. The sigils from the ritual still burnt black into the backs of her hands, tainted by the blood. The Mage looked down at herself in horror, her clothes were splattered and stained. From the corner of her eye she spotted Marcus, laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood not three feet from her. His now sightless eyes staring into nothing, he had been brutally burnt on one side, almost unrecognisable. Nausea rose in the back of Kaythenia's throat, she turned away and retched dryly for a moment or so before the panic began. She had to get out of here, she had to leave now.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the images, Kaythenia balled some of the fabric of the bedsheets tightly in her fist. Her voice was even, although her hands were shaking, keeping her gaze focused on the bed. "I think you know the answer to that already, don't you? You know enough as it is." Jin was apparently decided to take this moment to be silent throughout the exchange, she looked up briefly and locked eyes with him before looking away again.

[titania]

Titania listened to Kay's response. Her attitude was not hr typical free-spirited self. She was being very serious right now.

"Four years ago, you were connected to a massive energy surge. Fire-based magic, unleashed for a reason I still don't yet know. Something tells me the energy surges are related. But I need you to tell me what exactly happened four years ago. We sent a scout to examine what happened, but the source was something unknown to our shamans and mages. I'm sure this is all very uncomfortable for you to talk about, but in order for me to help you I need to know more than I do now." This was all very new to Titania. Kaythenia was giving her a new look at magic. Fairy magic was largely uniform, except for some of the things the crossfires could pull off.

[kaythenia]

"Four years ago, you were connected to a massive energy surge. Fire-based magic, unleashed for a reason I still don't yet know. Something tells me the energy surges are related. But I need you to tell me what exactly happened four years ago. We sent a scout to examine what happened, but the source was something unknown to our shamans and mages. I'm sure this is all very uncomfortable for you to talk about, but in order for me to help you I need to know more than I do now."

Kaythenia felt the sudden need to get out of there, the only person she had told the story had been Youkai and even he had only been treated to an abbreviated, less shocking version of the truth. It was an easier one to deliver without retreating back into old trauma but by the sounds of things it was not going to be good enough for Titania. The young woman didn't know if she could give that kind of detail, it would mean admitting she was being held there against her will. That would lead to the question of why she was being held there in the first place, there was no way of segmenting parts of the story. Everything was far too closely intertwined to be picked apart even by a thread, Kaythenia knew that keeping secrets was a much safer and cleaner method of doing things. But if Titania thought to question her, or insist that she tell her every detail about the energy surge...then the Fairy Queen had another thing coming. A sudden defensiveness welled up inside the Magess who shifted her way to the edge of the bed, hesitantly planting her booted feet on the floor. Her head was down, her hair shielding her face like a fiery curtain for a moment before she looked up. Her expression was a look of such wretchedness, defiantly but with some difficulty she got to her feet. Kaythenia staggered slightly forward before gaining some slightly precarious balance.

"I'm not obliged to tell you anything." The Magess glanced from Titania to Jin. "Either of you."

Her voice was even but sharp edged, like a warning growl from a cornered animal, both hands were clenched into fists at her sides, her nails digging half moons into the soft leather of her gloves. Kaythenia seemed to be having to concentrate to keep her balance but none the less stayed upright.

[titania]

Titania awaited her response, not looking at Kay. When it finally came Titania sighed and put her head down. She then turned and looked at Kay.

"Very well. I will not force the story out of you. Of course, you understand that my ability to help you is limited." She slowly walked over to Kay, a look of concern on her face. "Lay down Kay, your body still needs rest. Feel free to stay as long as you'd like. The fairies are always hospitable to their guests, even if we try to limit who comes into the grove." Her gaze then turned to Jin. "You are welcome to stay for a time as well, although your need to rest is lacking."

[Jin Reno]

Jin just looked at the two for a moment before rubbing his head. The entire thing for him right now was just a little bit awkward, since it just seemed more like something for the two to talk about. It was all just a little too serious for him, but he kept quiet and just waited for things to calm down a little bit.

When Titania offered him the chance to stay there for a little bit, Jin nodded a bit. "I think I'll just rest a little bit in one of the rooms for a little bit." He said, feeling a little out of it, but he felt like he needed to stay, at least to make sure that Kay was alright in the end.

[kaythenia]

"Very well. I will not force the story out of you. Of course, you understand that my ability to help you is limited. Lay down Kay, your body still needs rest. Feel free to stay as long as you'd like. The fairies are always hospitable to their guests, even if we try to limit who comes into the grove."

Kaythenia knew that she currently didn't have the strength to walk out of here and even then where could she go? The idea of being this vulnerable out in Faron Woods by herself was a sickening thought, especially if Davik was hot on her trail. She wouldn't be able to make it back to Castle Town like this, she would collapse long before she was even within the vicinity. It was a harsh truth but the Magess knew she had to be logical, even though she cursed every second of it. With as much dignity as she could muster she walked slowly back towards the bed and lowered herself carefully. She turned her back to Jin and Titania and curled up into a ball, tucking her knees into her stomach and both arms around her head.

"Leave me."

(Exit Kaythenia)

[titania]

Titania did not want to waste more time. Kay needed some rest, especially with the potion settling into her system. A nap and she'd be fine.

She walked toward the door, giving Jin a motion to get out of the room.

"If you need anything, do not hesitate to ask anyone. We are accommodating." She opened the door, waited for Jin to exit, and left herself, leaving Kay alone in the room.

EXIT[/i][/u]

[Jin Reno]

Jin walked over to the doorway and looked back at Kay one last time. "Sleep well Kay... rest up." He said to her, before heading out of the room and looking back at Titania. "Do you think your magic could help me..." Jin asked, walking away.

EXIT

Finished!