Re: Within these walls…

[Aramina]

His Sarella Wenda had taken the habit of wandering about with her shields lowered, for she fancied that she Felt something from the stone of the walls and floors. A deeply slumbering presence. There were so many other minds in the Keep that she could never bee sure, but it felt rather soothing and eased the turmoil of Mina's mind. It was the only reason she'd been unshielded enough to sense the Lady's presence. The only reason she was there, to help her.

And now, it seemed that even though they had gotten to the Gardens, Mina was going to lose Crysheana anyway. It wasn't enough. The wenda watched the grass and plants whither back, brown and limp. A frownline marred her brow and despair rounded her shoulders. It wasn't enough.

Mina turned, holding out both hands in entreaty, even as Crysheana spoke. " It's not enough. I can't get you outside. The Dryad's Tree is no longer there. " Eyes clouded, she cast her gaze about, as if something might have changed in the small span of time, that would fix this.

Sending her mind out, Reaching for the nearest thoughts she could touch, she willed them to come to her. Constructs were created to serve a purpose. Perhaps that purpose could be to give the Lady life. It had taken many years of explanations by her Hamak that the Constructs were not people, but creations. The lower leveled ones could be used, right? Would Crysheana do that? But in the mean time, there was little else to do.

Mina reached for Crysheana, gently, carefully, her tone shifting to plead, nearly beg, her next words. " Take it from me. I can handle it. Take it from me. It's okay. " Even as she spoke, her mind was screaming for help, hoping that someone, anyone else in the Keep would hear her and respond. She didn't even spare a thought for where her bodyguards were, and if they might be able to assist them. She was focused on opening up channels rarely used to give an unobstructed flow of energy from herself, to Crysheana.

[TheRoseTheRain]

She frowned that the tree she was hoping to be here had gone. Being stuck inside this whole time had cut her off from their threads. With the doors open she could feel them all once more. Something else was here, or near to the Keep’s walls that she could use.

Crysheana smiled at Mina, lightly padding the air between them. I dare not take more from her. I know there is something here that can help me. So new this plant….I am so tired, tis hard to find. The lady’s thoughts had finally shifted from feelings to words. Though Crysheana did not know that she who had found her was a telepath, it might have saved her the pain of speaking.

Taking the step outside seemed a huge task to undertake, but once she was outside moving was not as hard. The pause she had at the door was because she used some of her strength to pull on the plants. Walking the few steps it took to be next to the banded, the smile on her face grew. Outside was better for her, she gave Mina a grateful nod. More plants withered back, but not to the point of death. No she would not maim the garden, rob the keep of its beauty. She waited for Mina to lead on.

[Aramina]

Tears pricked her eyes as the Lady seemed to gently dismiss the idea that she take her energy from the wenda. While her personal power had not changed, now that the soul sliver of Brigantia was properly placed, there was a well of energy that Mina was unaware of. However, it was as volatile as any flame, and needed a hand tempered and honed in dealing with it. Essentially, Mina needed Havoc to be able to use that power for anything aside from personal needs, a slow trickle as it had always come. " Please...."

Thoughts, slow with time, soft as fine sand, drifted, mere slips, to the wenda and her eyes widened. Was she Hearing Crysheana? Mina would grasp at anything, right now! " What is it? What are you looking for? I know most of the plants, here. When I am not doing other things, I like to spend time with the Gardener. I can Hear you. If you can make an image, I will See it, and I can show you. "

As she spoke, the Sarellawenda kept moving, kept drawing the fading Lady further into the Gardens, ever closer to what they both sought; a source of energy strong enough to keep Crysheana alive.

[TheRoseTheRain]

A look of surprise that quickly resolved into understanding. Her mouth moved with every word she thought, as though she was indeed speaking. Ah, I wast not expecting you to be a Telepath. But knowing B- Her thoughts grow sad for a moment, she shook her head slowly before continuing. I see why.

Crysheana cast her senses out, feeling all the plants that grew near by. Seeking the place that held the power to give her life new. There is something new here. One that holds great life within it. Her focus back on Mina, the hand she had freed from her neck, waving her to go on. Images of a silhouette of a tall tree was all the Lady could give her. It feels as you and he do. Embers bright. Starting to walk a little faster, she suddenly felt an urgent need to be whole once more, someone needed her.

[Aramina]

Mina smiled when it seemed that her abilities would be taken well instead of ill. She had not meant to eavesdrop, but Mina rather thought that if she brought her shields up, then she would lose what little connection that had allowed her to assist the Lady in the first place. So when there was sadness in the Lady, Mina inevitably felt it and remembered that Crysheana had been wife to the Havoc before Kathearana, and before Mina had even been born. It must ache to see the man she loved, the same man who had taken her life move on to another and then another.

As the Wenda's culture was not one found everywhere, Mina didn't know if it would help to explain her own mindset on such things, as she didn't know if Crysheana believed as she did that that it was possible to love more than one person, in different ways, and not be unfaithful to anyone. So Mina kept silent on the subject.

Instead, her mind scoured over what Crysheana told her, scavenging for something that would tell her this tree's location. And then it hit her so hard that Mina stumbled. It was new. It felt like her and Havoc. It held great energy. Embers bright.

The Tree created during the Rite of the Phoenix! It could be no other! Mina shifted her steps so that they could get to it. It would take forever! " My Lady, Crysheana, can you withstand Teleportation? I know the tree of which you speak, and I can get there in the span of a breath. Can you tolerate being Teleported by me, to it? If not, I hope you have the strength, for it will be a long walk for you. The Tree is at the cliffs. "

Oh, Mina hoped Crysheana could, somehow, be tolerant to being teleported.

[TheRoseTheRain]

Indeed her thought were of her love of before. Who he had been, before being lost to Chaos. How he had been before the meeting in the clearing when she was lost and away from the Rebels. How he was before. Whether she knew it or not, the love of many, Crysheana would be happy just to be held again. Even if she was not his only now.

It has been that long? The rite was used again? Once more sarrow panged her heart. Moved on, almost, for more than 500 years. To be away from her sons that long, heart breaking. Moving to touch the Lady of Flames, she reached out to grab onto Mina and her threads. Like riverlets of water falling over Mina’s arm, Crysheana laced her fingers into the threads so that the Teleport would not leave her behind. I believe I canst stand it. Please we must hurry.

[Aramina]

Now this was something Mina could do! To facilitate Teleportation, one had to drop barriers in their minds that had become automatic, barriers that separated the self from everything else. The most dangerous thing a Telepath could think was Did that thought come from me? Or someone else? Mina had known some individuals who had gotten caught in that loop, in essence, going insane, and having to have those barriers erected for them.

Mina was no such case, and secure in who and what she was. Those walls came down, doors opened, and she straightened, confidence returning in being given a familiar task. Her arms came up, opened, as she stepped closer to Crysheana, even as the Lady of Rain did the same. " Hold on to me. Tight as you can. I don't want to leave any of you behind."

Normally, that was a joke between mentors and first time Teleporters, but Mina was actually in earnest. The clay-like quality of her breakage was what prompted the caution, as she felt she could not grip the Lady tightly, the Lady had to do it instead.

When the Sarella Wenda wrapped her consciousness around that which was Crysheana, gently gathering up any stray thoughts hovering about. It was almost a physical sensation, to those she moved, though who knew what Crysheana would feel. It increased that feeling of rivulets of water running over her skin, but she would deal with the wet later.

" Don't let me go. " Mina kept all of her attention on where Crysheana was in her mental grip, with only a sliver needed for their destination. It might take a moment longer, because she was going to soften their landed as much as possible. Hell, if she could have landed them on pillows, she would have. Very little wavering of their current physical posture would have to do.

The only sounds were a pop like a joint being adjusted, and a thunk of something very large, but very soft, hitting snow. Sensations were a mix of things the Lady had felt in her life, so fleeting they almost could not be identified. There was no 'being-sucked-backward-through-a-straw' sensation,for Mina pulled most of that feeling to herself so that Crysheana would not have to endure it. It would only take the space of a breath to get there, with Mina cushioning Crysheana's transit with her own soft emotions. Then, they would be out on the grass no more than a length away from the tree, or at least that was the plan. The Keep had never prevented her from Teleporting before, but there was a first time for everything. It might not let her take the Lady from it's walls.

[TheRoseTheRain]

Crysheana did as she asked. The feeling of water on the telepath’s arm was only that, a feeling, it was her grip on the threads of Mina’s arm that was producing the sensation. There was almost the desperation of being left behind in her thoughts, the moment of fear that teleporting might break her. Being wrapped up into the Wenda’s powers eased that concern, even if something was left behind so long as most of her frail self made it to the source of life beyond the protective walls, she would live.

The walls seemed wary to let the Lady be moved in this manner, yet no motion was made to stop them. Memories of the past coming back to her, fleeting as they were. All she was at this very moment were feelings and memories. From long ago happiness being at the school and with friends, to finding love, then to great loss, and finally in reflects of sorrow waiting for years to be found. As quickly as they transitioned to the side of the tree the fleeting feelings lingered on hope. That spark of light to harlard a dawn of a new day, a new life. That which brings joy to even the darkest of times, proven in the beginning of the great war. Those that dared to stand and fight. To seek out the future, those brave HopeSeekers. There stood the tree, blazing bright in threads of fire, embers of life, of the feather fury that defies death to soar the skies again. A single tear ran down the high cheek boned face of Rain. Was it pain of moving? Or the pure happiness that her nightmare of loneliness would be at its end? Both pulled on her as they stood there. Unmoving while she gathered the strength of form and will to press on to the tree.

[Aramina]

This was the first time that Mina had Teleported a Lingspelien, no matter what condition they were in. Whenever she and Havoc traveled, he always facilitated transport. It was hard, and it felt as if there was a lot more weight than there should be. Such an idea was incorrect; they weighed as much as they weighed. It was more the weight of their power, their energy and abilities and the amount of pressure it put upon Mina to move.

Still a very strange sensation and the wenda tightened her mental grip as much as she dared and she got them as close to the Tree as she could, without actually sending them over the side of the cliff, or putting them in the branches.

They appeared with no fanfare other than the pop and the thunk of something large and heavy hitting something soft and dense. Mina had kept a very tight control over the movement, so that neither wenda nor Lady would stumble upon landing, and they were perhaps a few yards away from the Tree that had grown there for the Rite of the Phoenix. There was nothing else that Mina could do, so she switched her cries and pleas for help to add the fact that now they were outside, by the cliffs.

Which, in retrospect, might not have been so very wise, for the last time Mina was found outside the Keep, by the Cliffs, requiring assistance, it had been when she'd been dumped there by the Broken Doll, sans the unborn twins.

[TheRoseTheRain]

Though the weight of the teleport had changed because of the power behind a Lingspelien was great, the difference in this one was not that much. The willow wisp of a woman that Mina was helping barely had any power left for herself. Enough to be seen, to move, and just enough to pull on the threads to grant herself more time. This lack of power was most likely why the Wenda could move Crysheana with her power.

Grateful that the target was not missed, weather over the side of the cliff or miles away, being only a few yards away was better than what seemed like miles from the keep’s garden door. Not wanting to linger out in the open for long, she reached out to pull on all the threads of life of the grasses around them. Slowly at first than with steady speed the grass wither and died around her. It would grow back, she still needed to make it to the tree.

A thankful smile was sent to Aramina. It had been a long time in coming, now with the end so near, Crysheana felt happiness returning. She could make it, all thanks to the woman that trusted the keep enough to drop her shielding. Unknown to her was the danager Mina felt being outside the walls of the keep, that bring her here made the Fyre feel fear.

Thank you.

Slowly strides that were at times uneven propelled Crysheana onwards. The path of dead grasses left in her wake. If left alone, she would come in contact with the tree. Melding into its bark to take refuge inside the heartwood. There she could regain that which she needed, life. Less there was more that was wanted of her, there she would be. For how long was unknown, may hap if another Lingspelien came along, they could aid her recovery. Her thoughts were of her family and what they might think when she greeted them again.

[Aramina]

Being out here, where she had come to after her children were torn from her body, where her mother decided she had to die for her failure and broke the connection between mind and soul, made Mina feel more than fear. Her loss was keen in the wenda by the association of place and time and she swallowed hard to keep from wailing her sorrow, anger and terror that she'd never see her children.

They weren't done yet. Crysheana still had to make it those last few yards to truly call it done.

For a moment, her emotional turmoil tainted her mental cry for any and all who could assist them. That might bring help faster, but if it was her Hamak who responded to her call, he might be a little upset with his wenda. No matter; Mina got them there safely, but they still had a little way to go, so she released Crysheana to re-position herself for further assistance.

" You're not quite better yet, my Lady. Let's get you to the Tree, so you can come home. " The words of gratitude stemmed the tide of despair growing in the Sarella Wenda, and she cupped her hand under Crysheana's elbow to try to steady her uneven steps toward her salvation.

Mina had no idea what was going to happen when Crysheana made it to her goal, and to be perfectly candid, she wasn't even bothering to think that far. Her eyes and mind were on keeping the Lady on her feet and moving ever toward that vision of life the Tree, grown by the Rite of the Phoenix, represented. So she didn't know that Crysheana was going to meld with the tree.

Had she known, she might not have panicked.

Though Mina didn't try to stop the Lady, rather figuring that Crysheana knew what she was doing, but that didn't stop her irrational moment of terror that the tree was eating her Hamak's wife! "Crysheana?!" And how would she explain, if someone did answer her Telepathic cries for help? Would they believe her without visible proof? As it was, anyone who might have observed her would observe her interacting with thin air. How could she explain?

[TheRoseTheRain]

Leaning into the helping hand more than a few times. Crysheana did not slow down, instead attempted to hurry to the tree. Aramina’s alarmed cry gave Crysheana pause. It would have appeared that the tree was eating her as she touched it. To those that did not know her gifts, the kingdom of plants were her domain.

All will be fine. Lady Flame.

Crysheana slid into the heart of the tree, pulling life from the ground through this vessel. Fronds curled as their water was sucked away, drained of life, turned black and wilted. One by one they slowly turned, it seemed as though the tree might die from what the lady was doing. Crackling embers spark a fire among the dying fronds. Bursting into flames, they are consumed. The bark splits from the heat. Oozing sap rivlets ignite like napalm. The once peaceful tree that stood alone near the cliff, now a pillar fumes with hissing steam and popping embers. The air was filled with the scent of burning wood, ash, and basil.

[Aramina]

She was hyperventilating and she knew it. Crysheana reassured the Sarella Wenda, but she couldn't seem to wrap her mind around what she was seeing and she had no idea what the Lady's abilities were. All she knew was that the tree seemed to be swallowing Havoc's wife, but that Crysheana was telling her it would be alright.

" Promise?" Somehow Mina's voice and tone had come out to make her sound like a lost little girl who's Momma told her everything was going to be fine when it really wasn't, and why don't you close your eyes and think about the snow while Momma takes you and your brother away?

Ah, nevermind.

As Crysheana moved further and further inward, Mina sank down to her knees, trying to quiet her anxieties as she watched. Again, the grass and other plantlife in the immediate area began to whither and die, their energy sucked out of them by the Lady in her efforts to replenish her life force. Tentatively, the Sarella Wenda began to hope that this would work. This tree was strong, made by magic beyond her ability to comprehend. The tree would fix her beloved Hamak's wife. Then maybe he would heal from the psychological wound of having killed her.

Then there was fire. No, that was too tame a way to explain it. Such was the distortion of air pressure from the sudden immolation of the tree that Mina was thrown over backwards to come to a stop on her side, her cheek and shoulder scraped and her head ringing. There could be no such sudden creation of fire without such a shockwave and this was a large creation of fire.

Mina knew she screamed, but her ears were ringing with the whallop she'd taken to her head when her cheek impacted the ground, she couldn't hear it. Landing had silenced the scream and she sat up slowly, blinking rapidly as she tried to make sense of the world again. Lifting her head, she twisted to sit upright and she stared in awe at what happened to the tree. She could only do one thing, shout one word both mind and voice. A word that would get attention simply because she never used it unless she had to.

"HAVOC!"

[Admin]

Through the mists of his mind, he heard her scream. He knew not what occurred, only the sound of his name echoing through the link between his sarella wenda and himself. She would not scream in such a fashion lest there was a grievous emergency. However, the events which he current participated could not be left. Battles raged, minds must be held.

Speak swift else you will be punished. I have no time for dithering. His 'voice' strained and over a great distance as though he struggled for the very words he spoke unto her.

[The Healer]

Confounded teleportation... The plea for assistance had not gone unheard. Mozafirium heard Aramina's initial, desperate call for help. Unfortunately, within the walls of the Keep, he only had his legs by which he could travel, so the journey to the place of the call's origin had been a tedious and arduous jogging up multiple flights of stairs from the basements of the Keep.

By the time he arrived at the gardens, he could only witness the disappearance. While he did not see whom Aramina clasped in her arms, it did not take him long to realize that she had someone. Their threads wound together and as the place distortion of the teleport's threads faded, the Healer saw familiar yet unfamiliar threads. Could it be, had it been...?

There was no way to guess where Aramina took the other. He stood, wondering where he should search. From the gardens he walked and into the corridors of the Keep again, the halls he wandered. His steps moved him toward pain, for now he sensed it. A great pain that cried out as something died, and something was reborn.

Mozafirium followed what the Lyra City people called the 'Healer's call'. It led him through the corridors and into the courtyard that served as the Keep's foray. Under the portcullis and along the path that led to the ocean. He did not need to follow the 'call' after that.

He saw it all. He saw the deep oranges and maroon threads that were the gentle Aramina. He saw the wane collection of threads, pained and shaking and pale, near transparent, as she leaned on the palm tree. It is her. It has to be. Has she really returned after all this time? He witnessed the palm tree burst into flames. He heard Aramina scream.

Four steps later he was running, and three steps after that he was flying. Heavy wing beats pumped through the air. His cloak swirled around him. In a spiral of feathers and moonlight, Mozafirium dropped his current form and did something he rarely did these days. He changed back to his true form. The dragon.

The swift flight of the dragon allowed him to reach the scene much faster than he would on foot. Trails of rainbows and music burst out in his wake. Feathered wings glistened, silvery and opalescent in the day's light. Clouds gathered in the sky above. He would be with the two figures soon....

Knowing Aramina possessed telepathy, he reached out with his mind, hoping that she would sense him. Calming aura washing through any mental touch they connected, he sent reassuring thoughts and the great, strong embrace of his wings around them both with the promise he could solve what ailed the newly reborn (and save the tree too).

[TheRoseTheRain]

By the time the Healer had gotten there, Crysheana was well within the Phoenix tree. The palm sat between a constant state of billowing smoke and burning to cinders in flame. Fronds consumed down to ashes that fell to dust the two near it. New fronds grew, but as fast as they grew they'd ignite. In an ever growing circle of death and rebirth.

As much as the tree burned, it re-grew, the piles of char and ashes were building around the tunk. Cascades of sooth fell as the soft peck succumbed to the weigh, mini-avalanches spread the ash farther away from the tree, widen the base like a nest.

[Aramina]

Mina laid down onto her side, curling into a ball when she heard the strained tone of her Hamak in her mind. But she knew as well as he did that she'd never use his name like that unless there was something seriously wrong. It was always the gentle and affectionate word her people used for someone who was beloved to them. Except the one time that she'd not been able to cry out at all, out here by the bluffs.

Crysheana is home.

There, that was not dithering, was it?

Her type of Telepathic people had a unique method of sending images, feelings, emotional sensations along with the words they projected and this was no exception. Tagging along the words like lambs behind a ewe was her fear that she could not save the Lady. Images of the corridor where Mina first encountered the faded Lingspelien. And now, the tree where she burned. It was a much more efficient way to communicate than just words.

Another presence, one she had been too occupied to register eased into her thoughts and she lifted her head from the cowering position she'd taken, scanning for the familiar Healer. And while she didn't find the tall winged man, she found something else. Something Mina had never seen in person and only knew from the murals of the Keep.

The Dragon.

Another person might have been frightened, but not the wenda. Not one who could read hearts and minds as though from a book. She knew Mozafirium, (thought that took a moment) and reached her own mind out to him as he flew, coming to make everything better. His calming aura added to the effect that his mere presence did and her trembling abruptly ceased, letting her relax for the first time since she'd Felt that presence in the Keep. Mozafirium would fix it all. After all, he'd fixed her.

Right?

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