((The Awakening has been going on concurrently to that meal. Now, a meeting of threads.))
***
K'luha hobbled with much difficulty back through the streets to her inn room. Her hip was probably back to where it had been before Anti healed her again. She just couldn't keep the damn thing healed. Dead people kept showing up and knocking her over and... K'luha sighed rather heavily, panting a bit as she paused at the door to the Quicksand. She leaned against the door and clenched her fists.Â
K'hai... she used to have a much better relationship with him. But that man that came back? As far as she was concerned, he was not her brother. Brothers did not hit their sisters. Nor did they obsess over their daughters.Â
Luha scowled darkly and pushed off the wall. Struggling to hobble along the wall, she continued down the way towards her inn room.
Keeping her hands folded at her waist in front of her, Antimony walked sedately next to D'hein as they returned from what she could honestly say was the most extravagant meal experience she had ever had. Though she'd stressed herself with worry enough that the main course had grown dry and tasteless in her mouth, by the time D'hein had ordered them dessert, he had managed to distract her such that she'd actually enjoyed the sweet treat. "Ice cream" had been a new concept for her, not only because it represented a level of extravagance in a dessert clime that she'd never had access to but also because of its milk component. Desserts in general were not something she was entirely familiar with, though the concept itself she'd run into a few times in Limsa.
If Antimony hadn't spoken much during the walk back, it was because she dwelled on these things far too much. She hardly noticed as they entered the Quicksand and passed into the halls leading to the inn.
D'hein was talking plenty, however, "Honestly, I think this is something we should make a habit of! What could be more appropriate than your daughters' two primary role models modeling roles for each other? A person as humble and adept as you, I say I could learn a great deal from!" He walked with his arms and tail swinging wide, whacking the walls, big smile on his face. His motions were grand and ceaselessly energetic.
K'luha of course, was pressed tight to the wall. Namely the wall that D'hein and Anti were walking by. Also namely, the one he swung his arm and tail into. K'luha knocked her head against the wall with the push with a loud thud and snarled. Luha gripped the wall and focused on staying upright for the time being.
Grey ears sticking straight up and then flat back, Antimony jumped at the thud and the growl, blinked confusedly at D'hein for several seconds, and then realized the sound had not come from him. At this point she turned to the left - nothing - and then the right - and nearly fainted.
She tried to speak but could only manage a squeak. She tried to move to do something - anything - but could only manage a cringe away from K'luha and a manic fuzzing of her tail.
It took D'hein a few seconds to realize that there was anybody near him, because he honestly had neither felt himself hit the woman nor heard her protest. He'd just continued walking at first, then noticed Antimony's reaction, then looked around him. When he finally did see K'luha, he appeared confused for a moment and then flinched away from her, saying reflexively, "Apologies! I hadn’t realized-!"
K'luha heard a squeak and heard a familiar smell, shortly followed by an apology by some male. She turned her head slowly and observed D'hein and Antimony, but only for a moment. By now, Luha had gripped her claws into the wall to hold herself up and scowled at the both.Â
Luha opened her mouth to speak, something rude and angry and bitter at K'piru, but the words died in her mouth. What was the point? She shook her head and slowly released the wall, getting a better footing beneath her. "Forget it." Luha waved a hand dismissively at D'hein and continued to limp painfully down the hall.
"You appear injured!" D'hein said, holding a hand up in vague protest, before looking at Antimony imploringly.
K'luha proceeded to ignore D'hein and continue hobbling down the hall to the inn room. She already knew that Anti wanted nothing to do with her, and she was all too happy to oblige the woman at this point.
Antimony felt absolutely trapped. She'd not prepared herself to interact with anyone one might consider family except K'airos, and maintaining her composure around her daughter took every ounce of her will (and even then it seemed to fail her half the time). Frozen, she stared with wide, terrified eyes at K'luha's retreating back and then, in a voice forced out through an almost impossibly tight throat, she choked, "Wait," coughed and then quieter, "You don't... look well."
Energized by Antimony's apparent philanthropy, D'hein surged forward ahead of K'luha and declared, in very fast words, "Indeed! You exude strength and fury as the radiant sun burning through a cloudy day, but pause a moment and profess to us that you are pained. I cannot let one pass me in such a state without the hooks of respect and mercy stinging at my heart!"
K'luha paused, mildly surprised to hear her aunt even address her. With an obvious statement of course, but apparently that was all that was left of her aunt. Fear and obvious statements. Of course, Luha found herself actually looking at a complete stranger who threw up words like so much vomit.Â
Her face remained unimpressed by his rapid vomit of words and she scoffed loudly.Â
"Yeah. I haven't looked well in months." Luha replied in an irritated and deadpan tone before stepping forward, moving around D'hein and continuing to walk.
"Did I not--" What? She wasn't entirely sure what she'd intended to say there, but it refused to come out. The almost relaxed, almost pleasant atmosphere D'hein had managed to cultivate at least superficially around them had shattered and Antimony could not possibly know where to look to gather up the pieces. As the younger woman continued to walk away from her, Antimony's mind flashed back to K'airos - her beautiful smile, her joy, her strength. What did she owe to her daughter? What debt could she possibly pay?
"K'luha, I--" The young woman's movements were stiff, clearly pained. At the very least, she could... "I am sorry. I was--I was wrong. I--don't walk away hurt."
Walking backwards to stay in front of K'luha, D'hein said, "If you've been like this for months, then Nald owes you as many months of comfort and beauty." He paused and one of his ears twitched, pointing at the wall, while his other angled at Antimony. "Especially if you're a friend of my friend's. The voice of holy mercy beckons! Merely pause and collapse into its waiting arms!"
At D'hein's words, Antimony flinched and half-turned away, unable to look at K'luha further.
This man and K'piru were just like the dream team of shit on her nerves now. After being criticized, ignored, slapped, and now knocked into a wall, K'luha was officially done with this shit. She was going to go home. And never leave it again. And if K'ailia wanted to be stupid she could do it elsewhere. Luha was sick of this shit and she was furious that she was probably never going to walk properly again, much less run. She was going to be a burden on the tribe the rest of her damn lift because of this shit.Â
"Limping away K'piru. I am limping away because my hip is back to where it was before you healed it again." K'luha promptly informed her aunt, her voice dry and cold. Her eyes glowered at D'hein and scoffed. "And the only holy voice of mercy is Azyema when I die. Which at this rate, I am hoping for soon." Luha snapped irritably at D'hein and continued to limp to her room.
Her legs would not move, her feet frozen to the floor, an icy chill inching up her spine. Antimony listened to K'luha's door creak open, listened to her footsteps, even listened to her words, but she hid her face. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, likely too quiet for the younger woman to hear, though it was just as well for Antimony wasn't even certain what she would be apologizing for.
"I'm afraid such an attitude does little to show oneself mercy," said D'hein, who really doesn't know when to stop talking, "No matter what occurrence has rendered you this way, dear stranger, you deserve to show yourself every mercy, kindness and comfort. At least admit that much." He positioned himself near K'luha's door, arms crossed, expression stubborn.
If K'luha had one thing, it was excellent hearing. Which was yet to be damaged, but Azyema knew it would be soon enough just like everything else. Luha paused at the door and stepped inside, looking out at D'hein and Anti for a moment. Words died in her mouth again and all Luha could do was shake her head and close the door on D'hein's face.
Ears and tail drooping, Antimony flinched at the sharp crack of the door and fell silent.
More like on D'hein's foot, which caused a tingling up his leg that he frowned down at, seeming confused. "Hrm." The door popped open a moment later. "I think that hurt." He raised his gaze, looking at something inside the doorframe or something, canting his head, "Apologies if I'm being invasive, but it's too far outside my nature to gaze into suffering and distance myself."
K'luha frowned as the door opened again. Just. fucking. Ugh. Luha rubbed her temples and limped back to her bed reguardless. "Leave me alone creeper."
"D'hein," Antimony muttered a bit weakly, not really sure where she was going with that.
Crossing his arms over his chest and putting his fingers to his lips, he muttered the word, "Creeper," to taste it, and then dropped his gaze to Antimony. "Yes? It certainly can't be held against me that I have difficulty not assuaging pain when I perceive it. What kind of uncanny world is it where the suffering refuse treatment and those who would aid are made to feel guilty for daring to have humanitarian inklings? Such a world would be truly twisted!"
"Look. Antimony wants nothing to do with me, so just go deal with her." Luha scoffed irritably at D'hein, slowly seating herself on the bed and rubbing at her hip.
Working her jaw around words that refused to find a way out of her chest, Antimony hugged herself and breathed to no one, "I didn't know."
"Deal with her," D'hein said, pondering. "And she doesn't know. Well, I don't think I'll be able to do anything about that. But it seems to me, just from looking, and guessing, that the problem isn't about either of you not caring enough, or not wanting help."
K'luha was too tired to give a shit about this man or the aunt that abandoned her and then didn't care. She just lay back on the bed and pressed her hands to her face, hoping if she ignored them they would just go away.
Antimony could not find the strength in her to deal with this in a healthy way. She may have owed it to K'airos, but perhaps her daughter would forgive her. Rather than speak or do more, the older, worn woman stood still as a statue, several steps from and facing away from the doorway.
"I see," D'hein said. "Very well, then. Goodnight, miss Antimony," D'hein stepped away from the door and began his way down the hallway, leaving the door open and moving around Antimony.
The grey-haired woman didn't seem to notice D'hein; at least she made no sound or motion to suggest such.
And so D'hein, wordlessly, exited the scene.
Luha was grateful for the one's exit, and simply waited for the second to leave.
As Antimony was well outside the door still, not even within visual range, she didn't so much as leave as continue being gone. She didn't move from her spot in the hall though, staring down to where the wall met with the wooden paneling of the floor with a distant look. Her tail shivered and curled.
Eventually, Luha got up off the bed and struggled terribly to get to the door so she might close it. In her struggle to make it to the door, Luha collapsed near the door and hissed. She braced the floor, her hip agonizing her entire body. Luha glanced up hazily towards Anti, only to turn her head away.
The thunk of a body hitting the floor shifted Antimony's ears, and she hunched her shoulders as though in physical pain before spinning around and taking quick, stumbling steps to Luha's room. She paused only a moment before bending down to move the woman by the shoulders, saying nothing as she acted.
Luha winced, feeling rather delirious and lightheaded as she vaguely felt something touch her shoulders. All of this nonsense just wasn't something her body could keep handling. Even with all of the rest she was trying to get, it never seemed to be enough. Almost as if there was something else wrong, preventing the healing process from taking hold like it should. Whether it was in insane family or something else, was still unclear.Â
Still, Luha weakly opened her eyes and looked at her Aunt. "Don't do it if you're just doing it on instinct K'piru." Luha warned hoarsly.
That was a stupid demand. K'piru would have chastised K'luha for it, but Antimony only set her jaw as she hooked her arms around the younger woman's shoulders and moved her as carefully as she could away from the door, into the room. Lifting K'luha to the bed would take more strength than she had, so instead she took the pillows and blankets from it and wordlessly began to cushion the woman's hips so as to not strain her spine.
"I'm too old for all of this dramatic shit..." Luha mumbled half-heartedly as she was dragged over to a better resting spot. She faded in and out of complete consciousness most of the time, but she at least was able to pick up on a slight more comfort around her hips.
When she'd managed to construct a supportive "nest" of sorts for K'luha's hips, Antimony let out a slight breath and sat down on her knees, ignoring the way the position left her joints aching. If K'luha had said anything to her, she hadn't heard; she couldn't allow herself to focus on anything other than helping the woman physically. It was the only apology her mind seemed willing to allow.
Gaze lowered, she forced her thoughts to K'luha's hips, tried to recall the nature of the injury, what she'd done to assist it previously, what might have happened over the course of days to reduce it to such poor condition. She knew there was little she could do for such an injury that she hadn't already. It needed rest. Antimony wasn't certain K'luha would listen to her if she told her so; she wouldn't blame her for not.
Bending forward slightly, Antimony fought back an ache in her chest. When she'd run, she'd never imagined what she might find. She hadn't thought she'd ever catch up to her past again. But then her beautiful daughter...
A thick cough forced its way from her throat, and Antimony set her hands lightly on K'luha's hips. Her ears and tail shivered, the low set of them communicating apology, submission, fear. Then she shut her eyes, pulled her focus inward, and began an attempt to ease the twisted aether in the younger woman's ruined bones.
K'luha failed to understand her aunt in pretty much every way. She ran away from their family when K'ile practically obsessed, and still did, over her every whim and desire. She came supposedly to the cities and did something with money. And now, after those long five years, the moment she saw Luha she couldn't function. She wouldn't talk, she wouldn't do anything but apparently silently force herself to heal Luha's hip.Â
And certainly although she had been rather dark about it earlier, Luha did not want to die. Luha only wanted the dramatics to die down so she could get back to a more normal life. But it seemed they had only increased in severity and frequency leaving her, once again, unable to do much but lay there.Â
Luha had to fight down a bitter taste in her mouth that threatened to make actions against K'piru. Why would her aunt, that loathed her so much she couldn't look at her, continue to help heal her? The question slipped past her lips in her delirium before she even realized she said it out loud, "Why do you keep healing me when you hate me?"
K'luha's voice reached her from a great distance, the concentration the ancient technique required keeping Antimony from responding for a long time. Her hands moved just above K'luha's hips, tracing patterns in the air that even after five years took little thought, they had been so ingrained into her being over the decades. She did not have any of the supplies she'd brought to bear on K'luha's injury before, but even without them she could soothe the tangled, angry mass of aether, pulsing like an infected cyst about K'luha's pelvis. It was no cure, but it was all she could do.
She owed K'luha that much. She owed K'luha so much more.
'I don't hate you,' she wanted to say, but her voice remained locked behind the iron wall that had slammed down to ward against the other woman's angry rejection. She didn't hate K'luha. But K'luha should hate her - for leaving, for staying, for grieving, for thinking of no one but herself, for fracturing remnants of family into nothing. Antimony bore her shame in silence, just as she continued to cling to that fear of memory, that fear of family long dead.
The silence was deafening. There was only nothing. A void that her leaving had opened, and the void that remained. For all her aunt's 'living', she might as well have been dead to K'luha. For all the things she could do or say to her aunt. It was like talking to K'ailia. Or a brick wall. Or K'hai. They all resembled walls of one sort or another.Â
K'luha let out a short hollow laugh, delirum getting the better of her as she stared upwards at the ceiling. "I don't think I'm going to make it through this..." Although they were said with a weak laugh, they were genuine. With the severity of the injury and such frequent re-injury, it was really only a matter of time until it simply killed her.
In deceptive silence, K'ile Tia walked through the still-open door into the room, actually closing the door behind him. His bright red ears lay back against his head, his lips in a frown, though the expression on his face was controlled. The blueness of his eyes seemed darkened, almost gray, as he paced over to the side of K'luha opposite where K'piru was and dropped to his knees.
"Stop that," he said, having heard K'luha's previous statement. He doesn't look at K'piru at all, instead watching K'luha. "Seriously. Why are you in the floor again?"
K'luha heard K'ile before she saw him. Not the sound of his feet moving across the hallway and into the room, as she was too far delirious to really listen or acknowledge those sounds. Instead she heard his voice chastising her for being on the floor and saying her fears aloud. For a moment, she thought only to have hallucinated hearing him somewhere in her mind, but then she realized she didn't care if she only hallucinated him.Â
Luha blindly groped a hand out towards K'ile and found his leg, or what she thought was his leg. She left her hand on him and shivered faintly. "K'ile?" She called quietly, letting her eyes half open hazily and search for the color of his hair or eyes if nothing else could be seen.
Antimony might have predicted K'ile's appearance eventually, but that didn't change the way she shrunk before him, hunching down by K'luha's hips as though she could hide behind the woman, hide in her meager offer of assistance. Her tail tucked between her feet and she told herself that it was good he hadn't acknowledged her. It was better than listening to anger.
She didn't look at him, kept her attention glued to K'luha's body.
Leaning his face down close to K'luha's, he said, "Yeah, it's me. One of these days when your hip is better you and I need to team up and kick K'hai's ass, okay?"
Luha smiled faintly, and then frowned. She couldn't tell what emotion she was feeling more of. Angry because K'ile left her and ignored her again, Angry at K'hai for hitting her in the firstplace, Angry at K'piru for being a dead body walking; and yet she was also relieved K'ile was seemingly okay and had returned. And this time without dead people, not counting K'piru. Part of Luha was tempted to tell K'ile her fear that she wasn't going to make it through this injury, but instead she decided to be angry and scared later and just accept his return for now.Â
"You've got to stop ditching me K'ile... dead people keep showing up and throwing me around..." Luha mumbled half-heartedly.
Putting a hand on the side of K'luha's face, noticing the bruise there and avoiding it, K'ile said, "I didn't ditch you. I just wanted to find the food and get that taking care fo so we could go home."
K'luha faintly turned her head towards K'ile's hand. It was comforting to feel him there. Even if it was a hallucination, if she could feel and hear him, for now she accepted the comfort it brought. "You could've gotten in a lot of trouble just going to get it. You don't know hardly anything about the Ul'dahns. I told you to take me with you or just leave it...."
"Yeah, well, K'hai found me and had some dumbass plan. And you know me: all kinds of trusting." Finally, K'ile lifted his gaze and set it on K'piru, noting her withdrawal. He reached out to put a hand on her arm, but didn't know what to say to her.
Her ears flinched down, sought to bury themselves in her grey hair at K'ile's light touch. For a moment, Antimony almost wished D'hein would return and pull her away from K'luha and K'ile, two markers of the past she'd wronged. There was no forgiveness for outsiders, especially after she'd abandoned them a second time.
The twisted knot of aether about K'luha's pelvis had smoothed somewhat, though she could sense points where its flow remained obstructed, where it turned in on itself with an infected fury. She couldn't do anything about that here. K'luha's instincts to go home were rightly placed; a healer could help her better, family could help her.
She let her hands drop to her knees and muttered, "She shouldn't be here."
Nodding, K'ile said, "I don't know how to move her."
Antimony had no immediate answer save to twist her thin fingers into the loose cloth of her borrowed pants. Her thoughts kept wanting to twist about, return to reasons K'ile should be telling her to leave, telling her she was not welcome. Instead she managed, "A flat board. Padding. Ties to minimize movement."
"Tie her down to a board? I'd had that thought a few times actually." He gave K'luha a strained smirk, "If the healer says so, I might have no choice."
Luha frowned again. K'hai came up with some stupid plan? How had her brother become so... Luha didn't have a word for the anger she felt at him. He suddenly just appears after five years and dunks her head in water and criticizes her and tries to tell her K'ile didn't care about K'ailia and then abandons K'ile to K'hai's very own stupid plan? Â Luha didn't much pay attention to the conversation between K'piru and K'ile, as she was too busy delirious being furious with K'hai. And then after another moment, angry with K'ile for telling K'aila to go back to the tribe. And then at K'aila for being stupid enough to do it without waiting for K'ile!
Luha shifted and took note of the conversation when K'piru mentioned something about a board. She hazily lifted her eyes to look at K'ile before frowning again. "K'ailia went back to the tribe without us."
"I heard," he replied to K'luha, "And we'll do something about that. Both of us. As soon as we can." He stood, then, "First I think I'm going to break this bed into boards, though."
"No, don't." K'luha frowned immediately and grabbed tightly at K'ile's leg. "I can't pay for you to break it. Don't. Just use the blankets or something. Don't break anything."
"Do not bother yourself with it," Antimony murmured to K'luha, green eyes shift towards the woman's face for a brief moment. Then to K'ile, "Do what you need to."
"You need to be completely immobilized, K'luha," K'ile said as he walked over to the bed, "I'm not going to do this half-way. You're getting tied down to a board and staying there until your hip's completely healed."
K'luha grabbed at K'ile's leg again to try and stop him from leaving, but it didn't seem to even remotely help as he walked off to the bed. Tied down to a board for what could be something like a year? How could she be anything but a burden to the tribe unable to even sit up?Â
"No I... stop. Stop!" K'luha called loudly, turning her head in K'ile's direction and weakly reaching for him again. "I'll go. To a healer. A proper one. If you just... can you promise not to leave me that day?"
There was a certain insult, or perhaps just plain hurt to K'luha's words than Antimony winced at. A proper one. What could she mean by that? Were her recommendations no longer sufficent? But then, she wasn't family now, so of course they weren't. "You'll find proper healing at home," she stated flatly.
Luha looked sharply at K'piru, frowning. "Not like that. A conjurer. Or a white mage. One of those ones. Not at home. I can't go home like this."
Applying a foot to the flat footboard of the bed and laying his weight against it until it creaked, K'ile glanced towards K'piru, "Could a magical healer do better than the shaman back home?"
"No," the answer was easy, though truthfully Antimony hadn't seen conjury in practice. She had seen conjurers the few times she'd been to Gridania, however, and what she'd seen had been rife with pitiless racism. She couldn't imagine a healing practice that employed such tactics would ever come close to the methods she'd learned and taught for years.
K'ile's reply was to press down on the footboard until it cracked free of the frame with the sound of splintering wood and metal bindings tearing out of place.
K'luha opened her mouth to protest but K'ile was already breaking off the board. How could she remain tied to a board for so long? How could she go back to the tribe like that? K'ailia had said she could heal it, and K'ailia was at the tribe right? What did K'piru even know anymore? "Don't tie me up if you're just going to haul me back and then dump me there again! You asked me to trust you but you keep blatantly ignoring me!" Luha pleaded with K'ile, fair well knowing she wasn't going to get an answer she liked.
"I'm not dumping you or ignoring you," he continued to pry the pieces of wood apart, hauling on the footboard with his hands and kicking off the supports. "And I'm not tying you up. I'm trying you down. So you don't hurt yourself. So relax."
Frowning slightly, Antimony looked away as she worried her fingers into the loose cloth of her pants. She had no place in this argument, not after delivering medical advice.
"You dropped me on the ground and vanished for two weeks!" Luha protested frantically. "Without a damn word! What am I supposed to do if I'm tied down and you just figure you'll fucking vanish again, huh!?"
Freeing the footboard and laying it down so that the unblemished side was facing up, K'ile spoke calmly, "You don't get to be mad at me twice for the same thing. That means you were either lying when you forgave me the first time or you don't have anything to actually be mad at me for now." He rose and looked at K'piru, saying, "How's her hip for now?"
Antimony flinched at K'ile's voice before processing his words and even when she replied, her tail tucked further between her feet, "Likely infected again. Or... heading that way. Scar tissue has started to develop, I think, which... it's going to make it heal wrong."
"I'm mad because I forgave you and then you turned around and did the same fucking thing!" Luha fumed, waving a hand somewhat dangerously and very uncoordinatedly around before it flopped back onto the floor. "First K'hai shows up after five years of being dead. Then your exiled brother K'zhuzu's kid shows up and then freaking K'airos AND K'hai show up and K'hai tells me you've abandoned K'ailia and don't care about her! And THEN HE SLAPS ME IN THE FACE! I. Can't. Do. This. Shit. Anymore."
"Then don't do shit," K'ile said, his tone rather on the pitiless side, "Obviously I don't not care about K'ailia or I wouldn't have talked to her at all, and I've only been gone a few hours. The only person you should be angry at is K'hai and we can gut him as soon as you're up to it."
Antimony looked up sharply, a worried look crossing her face at K'ile's words, but then she was ducking her head again, away from the quarreling pair.
"Well obviously I already know that he was wrong to begin with." Luha replied her voice dying down as she felt suddenly dizzy from yelling and flailing about with her arms. Her arms dropped over her chest and she looked up hazily at the ceiling. "K'hai has suddenly somehow become obbessed with K'ailia now. And far more violent than I remember him ever being... I don't want him near K'ailia. Not that I can stop them but.... " Luha trailed off for a few moments because she could open her eyes again. "K'ile, is it so much to ask that after you sudden vanished for two weeks, that I could keep you close for a day?"
"K'hai's alive...?" Antimony murmured, words barely over a whisper and more to herself than anything. She bit down on her tongue the moment they escaped.
"The tribe is starving," K'ile answered, leaving the board where it is and returning to near K'luha and K'piru, "We can be all emotional later. Right now I need to make sure I get you and the food home as soon as I can."
"I went back to the tribe you know." Luha mumbled, again closing her eyes. "We're going to move to Eastern Thalan."
"That's nice. I'm glad you decided to come back and get stranded in Ul'dah again. You need to be more careful, but I guess that's what the board is going to be for, now." The tone of his voice dropped to something more somber, "K'piru, is there anything else you can do for her here?"
Move? They were going to... Antimony struggled with a moment of breathlessness until K'ile's tone addressing her dragged her back to the present. She dipped her gaze and ears in apology. "No. Not... not without--they will be able to do more at.. home."
"Can you help me rig up the board, then?" K'ile turned back to it, "I'm sure she won't actually be on it all the time, but still. It should be comfortable."
"I came to give K'ailia her things in the first place... and to look for you K'ile. I took responsibility for your disappearance... among other things... I cannot return without you and your bracelet unless you want K'yohko to come looking for you." K'luha mumbled half-heartedly.
Wordlessly, Antimony stood and after a moment stepped over to the now broken bed. The blankets that remained on it weren't the nicest - the Quicksand wasn't going to splurge on amenities for its usual clientele - but they would have to do. She took one corner of them in hand and began to pull them off the bed.
"Why are you taking responsibility for random things?" K'ile said to K'luha, annoyed, "That makes everything worse and nothing better!"
"Because you were already in trouble and if I hadn't they would have sent K'yohko to drag you home!" Luha protested. "Isn't me coming better than sending K'yohko!?"
"I don't know. Is K'yohko going to run out in the desert, break his hip and die?" K'ile paused at that, looking at the ceiling and thinking, "Actually, that would be kind of great."
Antimony's grip tightened around the blankets and she forced out in a strained voice, "What has become of--wishing death on your own...!" She tore the blankets from the bed and moved stiffly to the board K'ile had laid out.
"I don't... K'ile I..." K'luha paused, whimpering in a moment of despair. But only for a moment before she frowned. "You know what? No. Fuck that. I made some bad decisions, but I am not going to sit here half dead and feel bad. You were wrong K'ile. Take some resonsibility for that."
"Okay! Awesome! We're all on the same page." He then flinched at K'piru's growl and the violence she inflicted on the blanket, "I'm just joking! I don't want anyone to die or anything."
Antimony didn't reply. Her hands shook slightly as she laid one of the blankets over the board and said only, "Lift her onto it now."
"Okay!" K'ile said, clasping his hands together in front of his face and turning to K'luha, "How?"
K'luha sighed heavily and pressed her hands to her face to as to cover her eyes. "Painfully."
A few, silent moments passed while Antimony took the board and dragged it with some effort alongside K'luha. Straightening, Antimony said in a flat tone, "Take her shoulders and support her back," and then moved to one side of K'luha's legs, bending so that she could hook her forearms beneath them. "Do not lift her high."
K'ile moved accordingly, pulling K'luha up so that her shoulders rested on his upper arms and his hands extended down to her lower back. Putting his face against the top of her head, he said, "You can bit me if you want. I can't do anything to stop you right now. You smell like alcohol."
"One, two," Antimony breathed in and strained her muscles as she made to lift K'luha's legs, "three." She would then move the woman swiftly, and as gently as possible, onto the board with K'ile's assistance.
K'ile did the thing.
K'luha inhaled shakily, preparing to be moved and for the extreme pain that was going to go along with moving. At least K'ile was kind enough to distract her with his suggestion and pointing out of the obvious.Â
"I would do so many things to you right now if I could." Luha muttered back in a hushed whisper. "And I was drinking earlier. Although K'hai and your exiled brother's son decided to interrupt me." Luha spat the words out before inhaling sharply again as they lifted her as gently as possible and moved her over onto the board. Luha tried not to howl, instead biting down on her lower hip and hissing in a surprising display of self-control.
Thoroughly confused, K'ile said, "My exiled who's what?" As he settled K'luha onto the board.
"K'zhuzu. That kid. I was really little when it was exiled. I thought he was your brother." Luha replied after a few moments of regaining her breath.
"What? I don't know. Whatever. Just relax so we can get you strapped in all comfy."
Antimony refrained from comment, forcing herself to focus on adjusting blankets and pillows over and around K'luha's hips. After a moment she sighed and spoke reluctantly, "I've... nothing to hold her in place."
K'luha dropped the subject, not really caring about the stranger in the first place anyway. She instead whined softly at being tied up. "Can't we wait until we're about to leave to do that part?"
Leaning back, K'ile pulled the leather ties from his shoulders and back, which would normally hold his lance or bow. He offers them to K'piru, "Use this for now. We'll get some rope and cloth and tie her down more firmly before we load her up to head home."
She took the straps without looking at K'ile, found his talk of home more distressing than it should have been. Did he know yet? Should she...?
The first strap she stretched across K'luha's waist. With the width of the board, it was just barely long enough, but she managed to tie it with some effort. "I--K'ile, I found--" She tried to start, head ducked low as she worked to arrange K'luha's body in a way that was both comfortable and secure. Distract her hands. Distract her thoughts. He deserved to know, didn't he?
K'ile watched K'piru working patiently. "Found...?"
K'luha frowned at the feeling of bindings going across her waist. This... this was not... What if she needed to use the bathroom before they left? Under normal circumstances, K'luha had always been a little heavier than most of the girls. She had curves and a small tummy, but lately with all of the starvation and her intense lack of food she had all but lost most of her weight and was starting to look a little gaunt. She let them work, albeit obviously uncomfortable with it and frowning. Looking to keep herself occupied, she reached a hand out towards K'ile.
Antimony choked, working at the second strap, this one just below K'luha's hips to prevent the joints from rotating overmuch. "Found--" She blinked hard, her hands and the leather strap they worked blurring. Why was this so difficult? Sharing this should bring her so much joy, she should just-- "--Airos!" she blurted suddenly.
Rolling his jaw in thought, K'ile said, "I saw her. I'm still trying to decide if it's real or not. It doesn't feel like it can be."
"It's real," Antimony breathed and sagged over K'luha's legs, her shoulders shaking. "Real. She--she must be--she's real, and here and--and--" Her hands had forgotten K'luha's straps at this point, though luckily both had already been secured.
K'ile reached out and put a hand on K'piru's shoulder.
"Where is Airos now? She came to the door with K'hai earlier." Luha remarked, dropping her hand in front of K'ile's leg and giving up.
Antimony just shook her head and muttered, "She's real. My baby girl."
"She's with K'hai still," K'ile answered K'luha. "I guess K'airos is one of those sword people? She thought she could get the food."
"A Brass Blade?" Luha questioned.
"I asked her to--to help you," Antimony whispered in strained explanation.
"Then she's doing so." He moved his hand to test the straps on K'luha's legs, "How does it feel, Luha? Good?"
Luha glanced down to the straps K'ile was testing and grunted. "Tight enough I think."
Antimony sat back on her heels, tail still tucked between her legs, and rested her hands on her knees once more.
"Is it comfortable?"
"Sort of...." Luha grumbled, her ears flattening. "As comfortable as being strapped down can be I suppose."
"Well you're going to have to get used to it." K'ile said, standing, "Because it's going to take a good bit until your hip heals up and I'm not showing you any mercy this time."
"Can you at least stick around then? I'd feel better strapped to a board if you aren't running off getting into trouble and getting yourself hurt."
"I'm not going anywhere. The only thing I care about out there is K'airos and K'hai getting that food, and there's nothing I can do about that for now."
K'luha looked incredulously at K'ile for a moment before giving up and just staring back up at the ceiling.
As the two spoke back and forth, Antimony found the anxious desperation to share her news fleeing, leaving behind an exhausted isolation. K'ile and K'luha were family, she told herself. She had done all she could here. Her joints ached when she stood, tail tucked close to the inside of one leg still.
As K'piru stood, K'ile silently walked around K'luha and then pulled K'piru into a very sudden, very firm hug.
Grey ears pressed back as K'ile's arms locked around her in an entirely unexpected gesture. Several seconds passed where Antimony simply stood stiffly in the hug, until her lungs burned and her throat ached, and then she drew in a short gasp of air before turning to him and clutching at his shoulders. "My baby girl," her voice shook. "She's real. She's--she's my... I am so sorry--"
"It's okay," K'ile said. "I get it. I don't understand how she's..."
"She's alive," Antimony said with vehemence, hands shaking against K'ile's shoulders. "I don't--I don't care if she won't--if she can't accept me as--she's my--K'ile, she's alive! By the tw--By all that is good..."
"I'm afraid she's going to disappear."
Antimony stilled, his words like ice down her spine, all the more terrifying for the truth they struck in her. K'aijeen's threat loomed like a malicious cloud over her thoughts then and she forced herself to look at K'ile. Her eyes shook. "She--she won't. She's real. She must b--she's real. She'll stay. I won't lose her again. I can't lose her again. She's real."
Giving K'piru a renewed squeeze and nuzzling her a little bit, K'ile said, "There's enough people coming back to life. About time the Twelve gave you back one of your girls." With that, he let go of her, stepping back. Almost onto K'luha, but not quite.
'I am RIGHT HERE YOU FUCKER. IF YOU STEP ON ME I WILL SIDE WITH K'AILIA ON THAT FUCKING ROCK NEXT TIME!' That would be what K'luha would have screamed out, if she wasn't so burning furious and completely dedicated now to giving all of these idiots her absolute hatred and silence.
"The Twelve had nothing to do with it," Antimony forced out suddenly, with unprecedented venom, feeling like an island suddenly when K'ile stepped away. "Only D'hein and Ai--Aijeen. The Twelve will not take her from me again."
Looking more confused than anything at K'piru's first protest, his expression suddenly dropped into a frown and a squint afterward. "Aijeen? You mean K'aijeen is...?"
The older woman flinched violently then, visibly shrinking under K'ile's words. "She--" A flash of fear churned her gut. What if K'ile sought out K'aijeen? What if she took that as another excuse to take her daughter away? Antimony froze.
"Is she here? Does she know?"
Her thoughts danced back to those terrifying moments in the lichyard, her youngest daughter looking at her with such an impossibly cold gaze, speaking words she never should have been able to speak. "Aijeen," she choked and then spun on K'ile with a desperate look, "You must not let her know you're here! You--you must stay away! If she knew, she--she'd take my--she'd take Airos away...!"
K'ile immediately raised his hands, "I'm not telling her. K'aijeen scares me." He looked around then, noted K'luha behind him and then turned towards her and dropped down into a crouch. He still addressed K'piru, though, "I'd rather K'luha and I get out of here without running into her."
She watched his back with wide eyes for a moment before drooping and half turning away, going quiet.
K'luha bitterly turned her head away from K'ile and K'piru when he finally decided to acknowledge her still being alive. She didn't forget to cross her arms over her chest either.
Frowning at K'luha's behavior, he glanced back at K'piru and noticed she was truend away as well. He turned forward and stared at a wall, looking confused.
The relief that K'ile was not about to trigger a devastating reaction from K'aijeen was short-lived. Her thoughts returned to K'airos, to the one connection with family that she still had a right to maintain, to the family in the room she no longer had a right to. Her hands worried at the too long sleeves of her borrowed shirt. "Airos is--she will return... soon...?"
"They were just going to get the food and then come back," K'ile said, glancing down to watch K'luha ignore him. "I wonder if K'airos will want to go back to the tribe with us."
Antimony's breath caught in her throat, her face paling as she flicked her eyes towards K'ile. "She... my girl--she... misses everyone," she managed faintly.
"But she does have a job, right? She appeared very much an Ul'dahn when I saw her."
"A Brass B--" Antimony choked, coughed and murmured, "In Drybone."
His ears perk up. "Oh! That's... good..." He looked down at K'luha, "Do you think K'airos counts as having left the tribe?"
Luha took a long moment of silence before looking towards K'ile. "No. She died. She didn't leave it because she wanted to. She was separated. Have her come and at least find out from the elders if she wants to come back."
"And what if she can't? Because of the Blade thing?"
Antimony listened to this exchange with a frail expression, as though she were about to blow away on the slightest of winds.
"Ask the elders for a special permission to come and go as needed. It's not her fault about what happened after all." Luha suggested with a small shrug.
"That could work!" K'ile nodded, "I'm sure the Elders won't be able to say not to her. It's Airos, after all!"
"She could go home," Antimony murmured faintly.
"You could come back as well K'piru. In light of the dead returning, I doubt they would much begrudge a few wandering tribe members at this point."
K'ile's tail flipped and shivered, but he didn't speak.
Antimony seemed to lose all color at that and her tail sought to hide further against the inside of one leg. "I--"
K'luha let out an annoyed sigh and tightened the arms across her chest. "No one's going to kill you or get angry after five years. If you want to stay with K'airos, go back with us. You want an excuse just to see everyone? Just say you're coming to keep me stable while we travel. You don't even have to stay."
For a long moment, Antimony remained frozen, pale features locked into an odd terror. Then, she shuddered and bowed her head, murmuring in a low tone, "Ai--Aijeen would never allow such a thing. I know it."
"Aijeen doesn't control you or Airos. What's she' going to do? Track you down and try to kill you? If she does, she's out numered and dead." Luha huffed again, interjecting before K'ile could say anything else.
Clearing his throat, K'ile leaned down and whispered very quietly into K'luha's ear, "K'yohko threatened to hurt K'piru. So, she might be afraid of that."
Luha glanced over at K'ile at the whisper. K'yohko? Really? "Yohko won't hurt her. Not if she's supposed to be keeping me alive. And he would never disobey K'takka. If she says K'piru can stay and is family again, he will begrudgingly accept it. Of that, I am absolutely sure."
Though K'ile's words may have held truth to them - and no small amount of it - Antimony found her primary concern for one other: "You don't--you don't understand," Antimony all but whimpered. "Aijeen... it--it must be some sort of... d-demon magic...! Airos won't--she won't--"
K'ile sat up straight and turned to look at K'piru
Antimony just quailed and brought her hands to her face.
"She won't what?"
"She won't call me her mother!" Antimony forced out with a half sob. "Aijeen won't--won't let her... I--I tried.."
"If there is anything I have learned about having my hip shattered by my daughter, it’s that there is a limit to even the bond of a mother and a child. If Aijeen is threatening your life and refusing to acknowledge you're her mother, it's time to painfully cut some ties." K'luha insisted, frowning at K'piru.
"Don't say such things!" Antimony breathed raggedly.
K'ile wasn't going to go anywhere near that. Nope.
"K'piru, look at me! I'm DYING because my kid broke my hip and tried to maim K'ile! There are limits! There our boundaries! Do you want Aijeen to kill you and Airos? Because that's what it sounds like she's going to do. You can't just run away from this unless you want to endanger Airos. We're going to be here for you to stand up to Aijeen. And it's going to be painful. And you're going to think you're doing the wrong thing, but it's not. Because even though you abandoned us, you're still my aunt and I still love you and I don't wanna see your own daughter hurt you anymore!"
"Stop," Antimony whispered. "I will fix this. I--Airos will be able to go home. I won't--"
Putting a hand on K'luha, K'ile says, "Maybe it's a bit soon to be calling it quits on any daughters."
"If she's already threatened your life, you take backup with you when you go to fix it then." K'luha demanded sharply. "Take K'yohko or K'ailia or someone with you."
"I'm not--" What - hunting her daughter? She wasn't even sure she could risk seeing K'aijeen again. She didn't know how she would get her K'airos back completely, but she had to try something. Anything.
An old Duskwight's voice echoed in the back of her thoughts and she shut her eyes. Not that. Just, not that. "You don't understand," she managed in a small voice.
"Hell, get that Mitari guy to go with you! He sound strong whatever he is." Luha waved a had somewhat dismissively and frowned.
"Uhm. No, I don't like that suggestion," K'ile put, frowning down at K'luha, "Why aren't you suggesting she take me?"
"No." Luha sharply put the idea down and looked to K'ile. "You stay with me."
Shaking her head, Antimony shut her eyes, kept her hands shielding her face.
"Don't encourage my family members to start conflicts and then forbid me from interfering," K'ile said, dryly, to K'luha.
"Don't ignore me and almost step on me when you tie me to a board with a broken hip." Luah shot back in an equally dry tone.
"Don't break you hip and make me tie you to a board!"
"The least you could do is not ignore me! What do I have to do to get your damned attention!" Luha hissed back, ears flattening.
"You have my attention! I was gone for all of five minutes! Do you want me to carry you around everywhere?"
During all this, Antimony remained quiet. Perhaps wishing for a hiding place. Perhaps contemplating fleeing. K'luha and K'ile were frightening.
"You were gone for hours and yes! I do! You were just gone for weeks! I was so worried! The least you could do is let me calm down about that before you run off again!"
"You never calm down! I'm not going to sit around for a week waiting for you to cool off before I do something about the tribe starving. You need to take care of calming down your own damned self, instead of just running off and hurting yourself every single time you're left alone for more than a little bit." He stood, arms crossed over his chest, tail shivering behind him.
"I wanted to go home after it first happened! The thing we can do about the tribe starving is get the hell home so we can move! And this time it wasn't my fucking fault! I had dead people banging on the door demanding to enter or they were going to break it down and then they went and said you were in trouble! And if people would stop breaking my doors down and then getting in my face, I would stop falling over when I try to walk away!" Luha hissed, ears flat in her hair and tail frizzed out to her side. "And where do you get off being cruel to me!? Don't tell me you love me and then constantly go out after K'piru and refuse to be near me! How am I supposed to feel!?"
K'ile just shook his head really hard and said, "What!"
Antimony was quite certain she shouldn't be here anymore, intruding between family, fracturing family. Anxious eyes flicked towards the door.
Luha could practically feel Anti thinking about leaving and sharply turned her head on her aunt. "You sit down! No leaving or so help me I will track you down and drag you back to the Sagolii!" Luha stared K'piru down for a moment, her glare a most frightening and intimidating one for a woman with a broken hip, half delirious, and strapped down to a board she couldn't move.
"Don't yell at her," K'ile chided, his voice cool but heavy, his gaze falling on the woman, "It's not cruel for me to tell you to pull yourself together."
"You'll tell me but you won't tell her!" Luha shot back at K'ile. "I've been trying to pull myself together goddamnit! It's cruel to LIE about something like that!"
"You two aren't the same person, Luha. Sorry."
"That's not what I'm talking about damnit!" She frowned again, losing the anger in her voice. "I'm trying to pull myself together, but I need help. And so far, all you've done is told me you loved me and then ran after K'piru. How is that fair to me? I was there all of those years even when she left and now I need help but you'd sooner leave me for her and tell me to do it myself than... " Luha felt hot tears at the corners of her eyes. She blushed with embarrassment and pushed her hands to her face. "Just forget it... Do what you want. You never listen to me anyway."
Cringing away from both K'luha and K'ile, Antimony couldn't manage a reply to that tirade. Her body leaned as though wanting to move, but her feet remained frozen in place.
"Yeah. Because I didn't spend like two weeks straight trying to hold you together only to be thanked by death-matches with Ventus, broken hips and complete disregard." He turned away, "I'm not having this conversation."
Luha lifted her hands to watch him turn away from her. She felt shattered. Was that it? The end of it all? That was how it ended for her? She wanted to run, but she couldn't. She'd lost that ability now. And now that it was gone, it was all the more precious a thing. Why couldn't she be like K'piru? K'ile loved her properly. Everyone loved K'piru. Even K'ailia loved K'piru more than she loved her own mother. And K'piru could run away and everyone still loved her. Somehow in all of the mess, K'luha had become the bad guy. And the weight of all her decisions fell hard upon her broken head and she cried again.Â
"Can you two please leave the room for a while...?" The request was timid and broken and hoarse, but there was no alternative. As she had always been but now to an extreme, K'luha was at the mercy of people who somehow had come to hate her but at the same time compelled to keep her alive.
"Of course I'm not going to leave," K'ile said, "Just leave you strapped to a peice of wood on the floor and walk off? Really? No."
Antimony's tail quivered with fear and indecision. She wanted desperately to flee through that door, but at the same time... she wasn't sure she could leave them behind willingly a third time. Swallowing, Antimony just kept herself turned away.
Luha could do nothing but keep her hands pressed to her face and try to cry as quietly and subtly as possible. Her once strong and muscular form seemed shrivelled and sickly from only a month or two ago. K'luha both looked and felt frailer than even K'takka and K'deiki.
K'ile just lingered with his arms crossed, not knowing what to do. He gave K'piru a very 'I have no idea what to do' look.
Antimony would not be very helpful, unfortunately. "Perhaps... perhaps I should g--if you want me to, I will go," she murmured down towards her feet.
"She doesn't need to be left alone right now," K'ile said, "Anyway, K'airos is coming back soon, and I won't believe she's actually alive until I see her interacting with someone other than K'hai."
K'airos. Antimony could stay for K'airos, for her daughter. Her tail shivered against her leg and she hugged herself. "Alright." She stood like a statue between K'luha and the door.
"Alright," K'ile said, turning around and pacing back over near K'luha, crouching down next to her. "Does it help to tell women to stop crying or does it not help?"
Luha was far too upset to respond to K'ile question. To which the answer was a, 'Of course it doesn't help you idiot'. Not that she said that, but part of her wanted to. Luha remained crying as quietly as possible, face hidden by her hands.
K'ile just made a face and swung his tail around behind him, looking up at K'piru and saying, "You think K'aijeen is using some of her magic somehow?"
Antimony's ears shifted uncomfortably, echoing her expression which she angled sideways at K'ile. "I... I don't know. She just--when Airos took me to her..."
"I wouldn't put it past her. If she's around there's something to be wary of. Don't trust her. Don't believe what she says and don't let down your guard around her."
Antimony flinched. "She's not--she's not a... a monster!"
"I didn't say that," K'ile said, "But she is dangerous."
"She's my daughter," Antimony half-begged for understanding. K'ile was right, though. K'aijeen terrified her.
For a while, K'ile stayed silent next to K'luha, not speaking at all. Then he just slumped his shoulders and dropped his head, "I'm just going to stop talking."
His tone drew a tightness to Antimony's expression. "... I... am sorry. I know what--I know..." She let out a shuddering sigh. "I know what... she can do. I remember."
As far as Luha knew, and she was pretty sure about this, there were no magical spells making her feel like this. Just the insanity around her and an inability to cope with it all on top of being sick and having a miserable sickening injury that made her more sick. So in the silence K'luha just cried until she ran out of tears and then she just sniffled and choked and coughed every so often.
K'ile eeeeeventually reached out and put an arm around K'luha.
Antimony remained quiet where she stood, body language closed off and apologetic.
K'luha took a long moment after K'ile put an arm around her to drop her hands from her face. She dropped her hands lightly to the board, moving one to weakly grab at K'ile's wrist. Luha looked pale and shaky again, her eyes a bit bloodshot and puffy from the crying.
***
K'luha hobbled with much difficulty back through the streets to her inn room. Her hip was probably back to where it had been before Anti healed her again. She just couldn't keep the damn thing healed. Dead people kept showing up and knocking her over and... K'luha sighed rather heavily, panting a bit as she paused at the door to the Quicksand. She leaned against the door and clenched her fists.Â
K'hai... she used to have a much better relationship with him. But that man that came back? As far as she was concerned, he was not her brother. Brothers did not hit their sisters. Nor did they obsess over their daughters.Â
Luha scowled darkly and pushed off the wall. Struggling to hobble along the wall, she continued down the way towards her inn room.
Keeping her hands folded at her waist in front of her, Antimony walked sedately next to D'hein as they returned from what she could honestly say was the most extravagant meal experience she had ever had. Though she'd stressed herself with worry enough that the main course had grown dry and tasteless in her mouth, by the time D'hein had ordered them dessert, he had managed to distract her such that she'd actually enjoyed the sweet treat. "Ice cream" had been a new concept for her, not only because it represented a level of extravagance in a dessert clime that she'd never had access to but also because of its milk component. Desserts in general were not something she was entirely familiar with, though the concept itself she'd run into a few times in Limsa.
If Antimony hadn't spoken much during the walk back, it was because she dwelled on these things far too much. She hardly noticed as they entered the Quicksand and passed into the halls leading to the inn.
D'hein was talking plenty, however, "Honestly, I think this is something we should make a habit of! What could be more appropriate than your daughters' two primary role models modeling roles for each other? A person as humble and adept as you, I say I could learn a great deal from!" He walked with his arms and tail swinging wide, whacking the walls, big smile on his face. His motions were grand and ceaselessly energetic.
K'luha of course, was pressed tight to the wall. Namely the wall that D'hein and Anti were walking by. Also namely, the one he swung his arm and tail into. K'luha knocked her head against the wall with the push with a loud thud and snarled. Luha gripped the wall and focused on staying upright for the time being.
Grey ears sticking straight up and then flat back, Antimony jumped at the thud and the growl, blinked confusedly at D'hein for several seconds, and then realized the sound had not come from him. At this point she turned to the left - nothing - and then the right - and nearly fainted.
She tried to speak but could only manage a squeak. She tried to move to do something - anything - but could only manage a cringe away from K'luha and a manic fuzzing of her tail.
It took D'hein a few seconds to realize that there was anybody near him, because he honestly had neither felt himself hit the woman nor heard her protest. He'd just continued walking at first, then noticed Antimony's reaction, then looked around him. When he finally did see K'luha, he appeared confused for a moment and then flinched away from her, saying reflexively, "Apologies! I hadn’t realized-!"
K'luha heard a squeak and heard a familiar smell, shortly followed by an apology by some male. She turned her head slowly and observed D'hein and Antimony, but only for a moment. By now, Luha had gripped her claws into the wall to hold herself up and scowled at the both.Â
Luha opened her mouth to speak, something rude and angry and bitter at K'piru, but the words died in her mouth. What was the point? She shook her head and slowly released the wall, getting a better footing beneath her. "Forget it." Luha waved a hand dismissively at D'hein and continued to limp painfully down the hall.
"You appear injured!" D'hein said, holding a hand up in vague protest, before looking at Antimony imploringly.
K'luha proceeded to ignore D'hein and continue hobbling down the hall to the inn room. She already knew that Anti wanted nothing to do with her, and she was all too happy to oblige the woman at this point.
Antimony felt absolutely trapped. She'd not prepared herself to interact with anyone one might consider family except K'airos, and maintaining her composure around her daughter took every ounce of her will (and even then it seemed to fail her half the time). Frozen, she stared with wide, terrified eyes at K'luha's retreating back and then, in a voice forced out through an almost impossibly tight throat, she choked, "Wait," coughed and then quieter, "You don't... look well."
Energized by Antimony's apparent philanthropy, D'hein surged forward ahead of K'luha and declared, in very fast words, "Indeed! You exude strength and fury as the radiant sun burning through a cloudy day, but pause a moment and profess to us that you are pained. I cannot let one pass me in such a state without the hooks of respect and mercy stinging at my heart!"
K'luha paused, mildly surprised to hear her aunt even address her. With an obvious statement of course, but apparently that was all that was left of her aunt. Fear and obvious statements. Of course, Luha found herself actually looking at a complete stranger who threw up words like so much vomit.Â
Her face remained unimpressed by his rapid vomit of words and she scoffed loudly.Â
"Yeah. I haven't looked well in months." Luha replied in an irritated and deadpan tone before stepping forward, moving around D'hein and continuing to walk.
"Did I not--" What? She wasn't entirely sure what she'd intended to say there, but it refused to come out. The almost relaxed, almost pleasant atmosphere D'hein had managed to cultivate at least superficially around them had shattered and Antimony could not possibly know where to look to gather up the pieces. As the younger woman continued to walk away from her, Antimony's mind flashed back to K'airos - her beautiful smile, her joy, her strength. What did she owe to her daughter? What debt could she possibly pay?
"K'luha, I--" The young woman's movements were stiff, clearly pained. At the very least, she could... "I am sorry. I was--I was wrong. I--don't walk away hurt."
Walking backwards to stay in front of K'luha, D'hein said, "If you've been like this for months, then Nald owes you as many months of comfort and beauty." He paused and one of his ears twitched, pointing at the wall, while his other angled at Antimony. "Especially if you're a friend of my friend's. The voice of holy mercy beckons! Merely pause and collapse into its waiting arms!"
At D'hein's words, Antimony flinched and half-turned away, unable to look at K'luha further.
This man and K'piru were just like the dream team of shit on her nerves now. After being criticized, ignored, slapped, and now knocked into a wall, K'luha was officially done with this shit. She was going to go home. And never leave it again. And if K'ailia wanted to be stupid she could do it elsewhere. Luha was sick of this shit and she was furious that she was probably never going to walk properly again, much less run. She was going to be a burden on the tribe the rest of her damn lift because of this shit.Â
"Limping away K'piru. I am limping away because my hip is back to where it was before you healed it again." K'luha promptly informed her aunt, her voice dry and cold. Her eyes glowered at D'hein and scoffed. "And the only holy voice of mercy is Azyema when I die. Which at this rate, I am hoping for soon." Luha snapped irritably at D'hein and continued to limp to her room.
Her legs would not move, her feet frozen to the floor, an icy chill inching up her spine. Antimony listened to K'luha's door creak open, listened to her footsteps, even listened to her words, but she hid her face. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, likely too quiet for the younger woman to hear, though it was just as well for Antimony wasn't even certain what she would be apologizing for.
"I'm afraid such an attitude does little to show oneself mercy," said D'hein, who really doesn't know when to stop talking, "No matter what occurrence has rendered you this way, dear stranger, you deserve to show yourself every mercy, kindness and comfort. At least admit that much." He positioned himself near K'luha's door, arms crossed, expression stubborn.
If K'luha had one thing, it was excellent hearing. Which was yet to be damaged, but Azyema knew it would be soon enough just like everything else. Luha paused at the door and stepped inside, looking out at D'hein and Anti for a moment. Words died in her mouth again and all Luha could do was shake her head and close the door on D'hein's face.
Ears and tail drooping, Antimony flinched at the sharp crack of the door and fell silent.
More like on D'hein's foot, which caused a tingling up his leg that he frowned down at, seeming confused. "Hrm." The door popped open a moment later. "I think that hurt." He raised his gaze, looking at something inside the doorframe or something, canting his head, "Apologies if I'm being invasive, but it's too far outside my nature to gaze into suffering and distance myself."
K'luha frowned as the door opened again. Just. fucking. Ugh. Luha rubbed her temples and limped back to her bed reguardless. "Leave me alone creeper."
"D'hein," Antimony muttered a bit weakly, not really sure where she was going with that.
Crossing his arms over his chest and putting his fingers to his lips, he muttered the word, "Creeper," to taste it, and then dropped his gaze to Antimony. "Yes? It certainly can't be held against me that I have difficulty not assuaging pain when I perceive it. What kind of uncanny world is it where the suffering refuse treatment and those who would aid are made to feel guilty for daring to have humanitarian inklings? Such a world would be truly twisted!"
"Look. Antimony wants nothing to do with me, so just go deal with her." Luha scoffed irritably at D'hein, slowly seating herself on the bed and rubbing at her hip.
Working her jaw around words that refused to find a way out of her chest, Antimony hugged herself and breathed to no one, "I didn't know."
"Deal with her," D'hein said, pondering. "And she doesn't know. Well, I don't think I'll be able to do anything about that. But it seems to me, just from looking, and guessing, that the problem isn't about either of you not caring enough, or not wanting help."
K'luha was too tired to give a shit about this man or the aunt that abandoned her and then didn't care. She just lay back on the bed and pressed her hands to her face, hoping if she ignored them they would just go away.
Antimony could not find the strength in her to deal with this in a healthy way. She may have owed it to K'airos, but perhaps her daughter would forgive her. Rather than speak or do more, the older, worn woman stood still as a statue, several steps from and facing away from the doorway.
"I see," D'hein said. "Very well, then. Goodnight, miss Antimony," D'hein stepped away from the door and began his way down the hallway, leaving the door open and moving around Antimony.
The grey-haired woman didn't seem to notice D'hein; at least she made no sound or motion to suggest such.
And so D'hein, wordlessly, exited the scene.
Luha was grateful for the one's exit, and simply waited for the second to leave.
As Antimony was well outside the door still, not even within visual range, she didn't so much as leave as continue being gone. She didn't move from her spot in the hall though, staring down to where the wall met with the wooden paneling of the floor with a distant look. Her tail shivered and curled.
Eventually, Luha got up off the bed and struggled terribly to get to the door so she might close it. In her struggle to make it to the door, Luha collapsed near the door and hissed. She braced the floor, her hip agonizing her entire body. Luha glanced up hazily towards Anti, only to turn her head away.
The thunk of a body hitting the floor shifted Antimony's ears, and she hunched her shoulders as though in physical pain before spinning around and taking quick, stumbling steps to Luha's room. She paused only a moment before bending down to move the woman by the shoulders, saying nothing as she acted.
Luha winced, feeling rather delirious and lightheaded as she vaguely felt something touch her shoulders. All of this nonsense just wasn't something her body could keep handling. Even with all of the rest she was trying to get, it never seemed to be enough. Almost as if there was something else wrong, preventing the healing process from taking hold like it should. Whether it was in insane family or something else, was still unclear.Â
Still, Luha weakly opened her eyes and looked at her Aunt. "Don't do it if you're just doing it on instinct K'piru." Luha warned hoarsly.
That was a stupid demand. K'piru would have chastised K'luha for it, but Antimony only set her jaw as she hooked her arms around the younger woman's shoulders and moved her as carefully as she could away from the door, into the room. Lifting K'luha to the bed would take more strength than she had, so instead she took the pillows and blankets from it and wordlessly began to cushion the woman's hips so as to not strain her spine.
"I'm too old for all of this dramatic shit..." Luha mumbled half-heartedly as she was dragged over to a better resting spot. She faded in and out of complete consciousness most of the time, but she at least was able to pick up on a slight more comfort around her hips.
When she'd managed to construct a supportive "nest" of sorts for K'luha's hips, Antimony let out a slight breath and sat down on her knees, ignoring the way the position left her joints aching. If K'luha had said anything to her, she hadn't heard; she couldn't allow herself to focus on anything other than helping the woman physically. It was the only apology her mind seemed willing to allow.
Gaze lowered, she forced her thoughts to K'luha's hips, tried to recall the nature of the injury, what she'd done to assist it previously, what might have happened over the course of days to reduce it to such poor condition. She knew there was little she could do for such an injury that she hadn't already. It needed rest. Antimony wasn't certain K'luha would listen to her if she told her so; she wouldn't blame her for not.
Bending forward slightly, Antimony fought back an ache in her chest. When she'd run, she'd never imagined what she might find. She hadn't thought she'd ever catch up to her past again. But then her beautiful daughter...
A thick cough forced its way from her throat, and Antimony set her hands lightly on K'luha's hips. Her ears and tail shivered, the low set of them communicating apology, submission, fear. Then she shut her eyes, pulled her focus inward, and began an attempt to ease the twisted aether in the younger woman's ruined bones.
K'luha failed to understand her aunt in pretty much every way. She ran away from their family when K'ile practically obsessed, and still did, over her every whim and desire. She came supposedly to the cities and did something with money. And now, after those long five years, the moment she saw Luha she couldn't function. She wouldn't talk, she wouldn't do anything but apparently silently force herself to heal Luha's hip.Â
And certainly although she had been rather dark about it earlier, Luha did not want to die. Luha only wanted the dramatics to die down so she could get back to a more normal life. But it seemed they had only increased in severity and frequency leaving her, once again, unable to do much but lay there.Â
Luha had to fight down a bitter taste in her mouth that threatened to make actions against K'piru. Why would her aunt, that loathed her so much she couldn't look at her, continue to help heal her? The question slipped past her lips in her delirium before she even realized she said it out loud, "Why do you keep healing me when you hate me?"
K'luha's voice reached her from a great distance, the concentration the ancient technique required keeping Antimony from responding for a long time. Her hands moved just above K'luha's hips, tracing patterns in the air that even after five years took little thought, they had been so ingrained into her being over the decades. She did not have any of the supplies she'd brought to bear on K'luha's injury before, but even without them she could soothe the tangled, angry mass of aether, pulsing like an infected cyst about K'luha's pelvis. It was no cure, but it was all she could do.
She owed K'luha that much. She owed K'luha so much more.
'I don't hate you,' she wanted to say, but her voice remained locked behind the iron wall that had slammed down to ward against the other woman's angry rejection. She didn't hate K'luha. But K'luha should hate her - for leaving, for staying, for grieving, for thinking of no one but herself, for fracturing remnants of family into nothing. Antimony bore her shame in silence, just as she continued to cling to that fear of memory, that fear of family long dead.
The silence was deafening. There was only nothing. A void that her leaving had opened, and the void that remained. For all her aunt's 'living', she might as well have been dead to K'luha. For all the things she could do or say to her aunt. It was like talking to K'ailia. Or a brick wall. Or K'hai. They all resembled walls of one sort or another.Â
K'luha let out a short hollow laugh, delirum getting the better of her as she stared upwards at the ceiling. "I don't think I'm going to make it through this..." Although they were said with a weak laugh, they were genuine. With the severity of the injury and such frequent re-injury, it was really only a matter of time until it simply killed her.
In deceptive silence, K'ile Tia walked through the still-open door into the room, actually closing the door behind him. His bright red ears lay back against his head, his lips in a frown, though the expression on his face was controlled. The blueness of his eyes seemed darkened, almost gray, as he paced over to the side of K'luha opposite where K'piru was and dropped to his knees.
"Stop that," he said, having heard K'luha's previous statement. He doesn't look at K'piru at all, instead watching K'luha. "Seriously. Why are you in the floor again?"
K'luha heard K'ile before she saw him. Not the sound of his feet moving across the hallway and into the room, as she was too far delirious to really listen or acknowledge those sounds. Instead she heard his voice chastising her for being on the floor and saying her fears aloud. For a moment, she thought only to have hallucinated hearing him somewhere in her mind, but then she realized she didn't care if she only hallucinated him.Â
Luha blindly groped a hand out towards K'ile and found his leg, or what she thought was his leg. She left her hand on him and shivered faintly. "K'ile?" She called quietly, letting her eyes half open hazily and search for the color of his hair or eyes if nothing else could be seen.
Antimony might have predicted K'ile's appearance eventually, but that didn't change the way she shrunk before him, hunching down by K'luha's hips as though she could hide behind the woman, hide in her meager offer of assistance. Her tail tucked between her feet and she told herself that it was good he hadn't acknowledged her. It was better than listening to anger.
She didn't look at him, kept her attention glued to K'luha's body.
Leaning his face down close to K'luha's, he said, "Yeah, it's me. One of these days when your hip is better you and I need to team up and kick K'hai's ass, okay?"
Luha smiled faintly, and then frowned. She couldn't tell what emotion she was feeling more of. Angry because K'ile left her and ignored her again, Angry at K'hai for hitting her in the firstplace, Angry at K'piru for being a dead body walking; and yet she was also relieved K'ile was seemingly okay and had returned. And this time without dead people, not counting K'piru. Part of Luha was tempted to tell K'ile her fear that she wasn't going to make it through this injury, but instead she decided to be angry and scared later and just accept his return for now.Â
"You've got to stop ditching me K'ile... dead people keep showing up and throwing me around..." Luha mumbled half-heartedly.
Putting a hand on the side of K'luha's face, noticing the bruise there and avoiding it, K'ile said, "I didn't ditch you. I just wanted to find the food and get that taking care fo so we could go home."
K'luha faintly turned her head towards K'ile's hand. It was comforting to feel him there. Even if it was a hallucination, if she could feel and hear him, for now she accepted the comfort it brought. "You could've gotten in a lot of trouble just going to get it. You don't know hardly anything about the Ul'dahns. I told you to take me with you or just leave it...."
"Yeah, well, K'hai found me and had some dumbass plan. And you know me: all kinds of trusting." Finally, K'ile lifted his gaze and set it on K'piru, noting her withdrawal. He reached out to put a hand on her arm, but didn't know what to say to her.
Her ears flinched down, sought to bury themselves in her grey hair at K'ile's light touch. For a moment, Antimony almost wished D'hein would return and pull her away from K'luha and K'ile, two markers of the past she'd wronged. There was no forgiveness for outsiders, especially after she'd abandoned them a second time.
The twisted knot of aether about K'luha's pelvis had smoothed somewhat, though she could sense points where its flow remained obstructed, where it turned in on itself with an infected fury. She couldn't do anything about that here. K'luha's instincts to go home were rightly placed; a healer could help her better, family could help her.
She let her hands drop to her knees and muttered, "She shouldn't be here."
Nodding, K'ile said, "I don't know how to move her."
Antimony had no immediate answer save to twist her thin fingers into the loose cloth of her borrowed pants. Her thoughts kept wanting to twist about, return to reasons K'ile should be telling her to leave, telling her she was not welcome. Instead she managed, "A flat board. Padding. Ties to minimize movement."
"Tie her down to a board? I'd had that thought a few times actually." He gave K'luha a strained smirk, "If the healer says so, I might have no choice."
Luha frowned again. K'hai came up with some stupid plan? How had her brother become so... Luha didn't have a word for the anger she felt at him. He suddenly just appears after five years and dunks her head in water and criticizes her and tries to tell her K'ile didn't care about K'ailia and then abandons K'ile to K'hai's very own stupid plan? Â Luha didn't much pay attention to the conversation between K'piru and K'ile, as she was too busy delirious being furious with K'hai. And then after another moment, angry with K'ile for telling K'aila to go back to the tribe. And then at K'aila for being stupid enough to do it without waiting for K'ile!
Luha shifted and took note of the conversation when K'piru mentioned something about a board. She hazily lifted her eyes to look at K'ile before frowning again. "K'ailia went back to the tribe without us."
"I heard," he replied to K'luha, "And we'll do something about that. Both of us. As soon as we can." He stood, then, "First I think I'm going to break this bed into boards, though."
"No, don't." K'luha frowned immediately and grabbed tightly at K'ile's leg. "I can't pay for you to break it. Don't. Just use the blankets or something. Don't break anything."
"Do not bother yourself with it," Antimony murmured to K'luha, green eyes shift towards the woman's face for a brief moment. Then to K'ile, "Do what you need to."
"You need to be completely immobilized, K'luha," K'ile said as he walked over to the bed, "I'm not going to do this half-way. You're getting tied down to a board and staying there until your hip's completely healed."
K'luha grabbed at K'ile's leg again to try and stop him from leaving, but it didn't seem to even remotely help as he walked off to the bed. Tied down to a board for what could be something like a year? How could she be anything but a burden to the tribe unable to even sit up?Â
"No I... stop. Stop!" K'luha called loudly, turning her head in K'ile's direction and weakly reaching for him again. "I'll go. To a healer. A proper one. If you just... can you promise not to leave me that day?"
There was a certain insult, or perhaps just plain hurt to K'luha's words than Antimony winced at. A proper one. What could she mean by that? Were her recommendations no longer sufficent? But then, she wasn't family now, so of course they weren't. "You'll find proper healing at home," she stated flatly.
Luha looked sharply at K'piru, frowning. "Not like that. A conjurer. Or a white mage. One of those ones. Not at home. I can't go home like this."
Applying a foot to the flat footboard of the bed and laying his weight against it until it creaked, K'ile glanced towards K'piru, "Could a magical healer do better than the shaman back home?"
"No," the answer was easy, though truthfully Antimony hadn't seen conjury in practice. She had seen conjurers the few times she'd been to Gridania, however, and what she'd seen had been rife with pitiless racism. She couldn't imagine a healing practice that employed such tactics would ever come close to the methods she'd learned and taught for years.
K'ile's reply was to press down on the footboard until it cracked free of the frame with the sound of splintering wood and metal bindings tearing out of place.
K'luha opened her mouth to protest but K'ile was already breaking off the board. How could she remain tied to a board for so long? How could she go back to the tribe like that? K'ailia had said she could heal it, and K'ailia was at the tribe right? What did K'piru even know anymore? "Don't tie me up if you're just going to haul me back and then dump me there again! You asked me to trust you but you keep blatantly ignoring me!" Luha pleaded with K'ile, fair well knowing she wasn't going to get an answer she liked.
"I'm not dumping you or ignoring you," he continued to pry the pieces of wood apart, hauling on the footboard with his hands and kicking off the supports. "And I'm not tying you up. I'm trying you down. So you don't hurt yourself. So relax."
Frowning slightly, Antimony looked away as she worried her fingers into the loose cloth of her pants. She had no place in this argument, not after delivering medical advice.
"You dropped me on the ground and vanished for two weeks!" Luha protested frantically. "Without a damn word! What am I supposed to do if I'm tied down and you just figure you'll fucking vanish again, huh!?"
Freeing the footboard and laying it down so that the unblemished side was facing up, K'ile spoke calmly, "You don't get to be mad at me twice for the same thing. That means you were either lying when you forgave me the first time or you don't have anything to actually be mad at me for now." He rose and looked at K'piru, saying, "How's her hip for now?"
Antimony flinched at K'ile's voice before processing his words and even when she replied, her tail tucked further between her feet, "Likely infected again. Or... heading that way. Scar tissue has started to develop, I think, which... it's going to make it heal wrong."
"I'm mad because I forgave you and then you turned around and did the same fucking thing!" Luha fumed, waving a hand somewhat dangerously and very uncoordinatedly around before it flopped back onto the floor. "First K'hai shows up after five years of being dead. Then your exiled brother K'zhuzu's kid shows up and then freaking K'airos AND K'hai show up and K'hai tells me you've abandoned K'ailia and don't care about her! And THEN HE SLAPS ME IN THE FACE! I. Can't. Do. This. Shit. Anymore."
"Then don't do shit," K'ile said, his tone rather on the pitiless side, "Obviously I don't not care about K'ailia or I wouldn't have talked to her at all, and I've only been gone a few hours. The only person you should be angry at is K'hai and we can gut him as soon as you're up to it."
Antimony looked up sharply, a worried look crossing her face at K'ile's words, but then she was ducking her head again, away from the quarreling pair.
"Well obviously I already know that he was wrong to begin with." Luha replied her voice dying down as she felt suddenly dizzy from yelling and flailing about with her arms. Her arms dropped over her chest and she looked up hazily at the ceiling. "K'hai has suddenly somehow become obbessed with K'ailia now. And far more violent than I remember him ever being... I don't want him near K'ailia. Not that I can stop them but.... " Luha trailed off for a few moments because she could open her eyes again. "K'ile, is it so much to ask that after you sudden vanished for two weeks, that I could keep you close for a day?"
"K'hai's alive...?" Antimony murmured, words barely over a whisper and more to herself than anything. She bit down on her tongue the moment they escaped.
"The tribe is starving," K'ile answered, leaving the board where it is and returning to near K'luha and K'piru, "We can be all emotional later. Right now I need to make sure I get you and the food home as soon as I can."
"I went back to the tribe you know." Luha mumbled, again closing her eyes. "We're going to move to Eastern Thalan."
"That's nice. I'm glad you decided to come back and get stranded in Ul'dah again. You need to be more careful, but I guess that's what the board is going to be for, now." The tone of his voice dropped to something more somber, "K'piru, is there anything else you can do for her here?"
Move? They were going to... Antimony struggled with a moment of breathlessness until K'ile's tone addressing her dragged her back to the present. She dipped her gaze and ears in apology. "No. Not... not without--they will be able to do more at.. home."
"Can you help me rig up the board, then?" K'ile turned back to it, "I'm sure she won't actually be on it all the time, but still. It should be comfortable."
"I came to give K'ailia her things in the first place... and to look for you K'ile. I took responsibility for your disappearance... among other things... I cannot return without you and your bracelet unless you want K'yohko to come looking for you." K'luha mumbled half-heartedly.
Wordlessly, Antimony stood and after a moment stepped over to the now broken bed. The blankets that remained on it weren't the nicest - the Quicksand wasn't going to splurge on amenities for its usual clientele - but they would have to do. She took one corner of them in hand and began to pull them off the bed.
"Why are you taking responsibility for random things?" K'ile said to K'luha, annoyed, "That makes everything worse and nothing better!"
"Because you were already in trouble and if I hadn't they would have sent K'yohko to drag you home!" Luha protested. "Isn't me coming better than sending K'yohko!?"
"I don't know. Is K'yohko going to run out in the desert, break his hip and die?" K'ile paused at that, looking at the ceiling and thinking, "Actually, that would be kind of great."
Antimony's grip tightened around the blankets and she forced out in a strained voice, "What has become of--wishing death on your own...!" She tore the blankets from the bed and moved stiffly to the board K'ile had laid out.
"I don't... K'ile I..." K'luha paused, whimpering in a moment of despair. But only for a moment before she frowned. "You know what? No. Fuck that. I made some bad decisions, but I am not going to sit here half dead and feel bad. You were wrong K'ile. Take some resonsibility for that."
"Okay! Awesome! We're all on the same page." He then flinched at K'piru's growl and the violence she inflicted on the blanket, "I'm just joking! I don't want anyone to die or anything."
Antimony didn't reply. Her hands shook slightly as she laid one of the blankets over the board and said only, "Lift her onto it now."
"Okay!" K'ile said, clasping his hands together in front of his face and turning to K'luha, "How?"
K'luha sighed heavily and pressed her hands to her face to as to cover her eyes. "Painfully."
A few, silent moments passed while Antimony took the board and dragged it with some effort alongside K'luha. Straightening, Antimony said in a flat tone, "Take her shoulders and support her back," and then moved to one side of K'luha's legs, bending so that she could hook her forearms beneath them. "Do not lift her high."
K'ile moved accordingly, pulling K'luha up so that her shoulders rested on his upper arms and his hands extended down to her lower back. Putting his face against the top of her head, he said, "You can bit me if you want. I can't do anything to stop you right now. You smell like alcohol."
"One, two," Antimony breathed in and strained her muscles as she made to lift K'luha's legs, "three." She would then move the woman swiftly, and as gently as possible, onto the board with K'ile's assistance.
K'ile did the thing.
K'luha inhaled shakily, preparing to be moved and for the extreme pain that was going to go along with moving. At least K'ile was kind enough to distract her with his suggestion and pointing out of the obvious.Â
"I would do so many things to you right now if I could." Luha muttered back in a hushed whisper. "And I was drinking earlier. Although K'hai and your exiled brother's son decided to interrupt me." Luha spat the words out before inhaling sharply again as they lifted her as gently as possible and moved her over onto the board. Luha tried not to howl, instead biting down on her lower hip and hissing in a surprising display of self-control.
Thoroughly confused, K'ile said, "My exiled who's what?" As he settled K'luha onto the board.
"K'zhuzu. That kid. I was really little when it was exiled. I thought he was your brother." Luha replied after a few moments of regaining her breath.
"What? I don't know. Whatever. Just relax so we can get you strapped in all comfy."
Antimony refrained from comment, forcing herself to focus on adjusting blankets and pillows over and around K'luha's hips. After a moment she sighed and spoke reluctantly, "I've... nothing to hold her in place."
K'luha dropped the subject, not really caring about the stranger in the first place anyway. She instead whined softly at being tied up. "Can't we wait until we're about to leave to do that part?"
Leaning back, K'ile pulled the leather ties from his shoulders and back, which would normally hold his lance or bow. He offers them to K'piru, "Use this for now. We'll get some rope and cloth and tie her down more firmly before we load her up to head home."
She took the straps without looking at K'ile, found his talk of home more distressing than it should have been. Did he know yet? Should she...?
The first strap she stretched across K'luha's waist. With the width of the board, it was just barely long enough, but she managed to tie it with some effort. "I--K'ile, I found--" She tried to start, head ducked low as she worked to arrange K'luha's body in a way that was both comfortable and secure. Distract her hands. Distract her thoughts. He deserved to know, didn't he?
K'ile watched K'piru working patiently. "Found...?"
K'luha frowned at the feeling of bindings going across her waist. This... this was not... What if she needed to use the bathroom before they left? Under normal circumstances, K'luha had always been a little heavier than most of the girls. She had curves and a small tummy, but lately with all of the starvation and her intense lack of food she had all but lost most of her weight and was starting to look a little gaunt. She let them work, albeit obviously uncomfortable with it and frowning. Looking to keep herself occupied, she reached a hand out towards K'ile.
Antimony choked, working at the second strap, this one just below K'luha's hips to prevent the joints from rotating overmuch. "Found--" She blinked hard, her hands and the leather strap they worked blurring. Why was this so difficult? Sharing this should bring her so much joy, she should just-- "--Airos!" she blurted suddenly.
Rolling his jaw in thought, K'ile said, "I saw her. I'm still trying to decide if it's real or not. It doesn't feel like it can be."
"It's real," Antimony breathed and sagged over K'luha's legs, her shoulders shaking. "Real. She--she must be--she's real, and here and--and--" Her hands had forgotten K'luha's straps at this point, though luckily both had already been secured.
K'ile reached out and put a hand on K'piru's shoulder.
"Where is Airos now? She came to the door with K'hai earlier." Luha remarked, dropping her hand in front of K'ile's leg and giving up.
Antimony just shook her head and muttered, "She's real. My baby girl."
"She's with K'hai still," K'ile answered K'luha. "I guess K'airos is one of those sword people? She thought she could get the food."
"A Brass Blade?" Luha questioned.
"I asked her to--to help you," Antimony whispered in strained explanation.
"Then she's doing so." He moved his hand to test the straps on K'luha's legs, "How does it feel, Luha? Good?"
Luha glanced down to the straps K'ile was testing and grunted. "Tight enough I think."
Antimony sat back on her heels, tail still tucked between her legs, and rested her hands on her knees once more.
"Is it comfortable?"
"Sort of...." Luha grumbled, her ears flattening. "As comfortable as being strapped down can be I suppose."
"Well you're going to have to get used to it." K'ile said, standing, "Because it's going to take a good bit until your hip heals up and I'm not showing you any mercy this time."
"Can you at least stick around then? I'd feel better strapped to a board if you aren't running off getting into trouble and getting yourself hurt."
"I'm not going anywhere. The only thing I care about out there is K'airos and K'hai getting that food, and there's nothing I can do about that for now."
K'luha looked incredulously at K'ile for a moment before giving up and just staring back up at the ceiling.
As the two spoke back and forth, Antimony found the anxious desperation to share her news fleeing, leaving behind an exhausted isolation. K'ile and K'luha were family, she told herself. She had done all she could here. Her joints ached when she stood, tail tucked close to the inside of one leg still.
As K'piru stood, K'ile silently walked around K'luha and then pulled K'piru into a very sudden, very firm hug.
Grey ears pressed back as K'ile's arms locked around her in an entirely unexpected gesture. Several seconds passed where Antimony simply stood stiffly in the hug, until her lungs burned and her throat ached, and then she drew in a short gasp of air before turning to him and clutching at his shoulders. "My baby girl," her voice shook. "She's real. She's--she's my... I am so sorry--"
"It's okay," K'ile said. "I get it. I don't understand how she's..."
"She's alive," Antimony said with vehemence, hands shaking against K'ile's shoulders. "I don't--I don't care if she won't--if she can't accept me as--she's my--K'ile, she's alive! By the tw--By all that is good..."
"I'm afraid she's going to disappear."
Antimony stilled, his words like ice down her spine, all the more terrifying for the truth they struck in her. K'aijeen's threat loomed like a malicious cloud over her thoughts then and she forced herself to look at K'ile. Her eyes shook. "She--she won't. She's real. She must b--she's real. She'll stay. I won't lose her again. I can't lose her again. She's real."
Giving K'piru a renewed squeeze and nuzzling her a little bit, K'ile said, "There's enough people coming back to life. About time the Twelve gave you back one of your girls." With that, he let go of her, stepping back. Almost onto K'luha, but not quite.
'I am RIGHT HERE YOU FUCKER. IF YOU STEP ON ME I WILL SIDE WITH K'AILIA ON THAT FUCKING ROCK NEXT TIME!' That would be what K'luha would have screamed out, if she wasn't so burning furious and completely dedicated now to giving all of these idiots her absolute hatred and silence.
"The Twelve had nothing to do with it," Antimony forced out suddenly, with unprecedented venom, feeling like an island suddenly when K'ile stepped away. "Only D'hein and Ai--Aijeen. The Twelve will not take her from me again."
Looking more confused than anything at K'piru's first protest, his expression suddenly dropped into a frown and a squint afterward. "Aijeen? You mean K'aijeen is...?"
The older woman flinched violently then, visibly shrinking under K'ile's words. "She--" A flash of fear churned her gut. What if K'ile sought out K'aijeen? What if she took that as another excuse to take her daughter away? Antimony froze.
"Is she here? Does she know?"
Her thoughts danced back to those terrifying moments in the lichyard, her youngest daughter looking at her with such an impossibly cold gaze, speaking words she never should have been able to speak. "Aijeen," she choked and then spun on K'ile with a desperate look, "You must not let her know you're here! You--you must stay away! If she knew, she--she'd take my--she'd take Airos away...!"
K'ile immediately raised his hands, "I'm not telling her. K'aijeen scares me." He looked around then, noted K'luha behind him and then turned towards her and dropped down into a crouch. He still addressed K'piru, though, "I'd rather K'luha and I get out of here without running into her."
She watched his back with wide eyes for a moment before drooping and half turning away, going quiet.
K'luha bitterly turned her head away from K'ile and K'piru when he finally decided to acknowledge her still being alive. She didn't forget to cross her arms over her chest either.
Frowning at K'luha's behavior, he glanced back at K'piru and noticed she was truend away as well. He turned forward and stared at a wall, looking confused.
The relief that K'ile was not about to trigger a devastating reaction from K'aijeen was short-lived. Her thoughts returned to K'airos, to the one connection with family that she still had a right to maintain, to the family in the room she no longer had a right to. Her hands worried at the too long sleeves of her borrowed shirt. "Airos is--she will return... soon...?"
"They were just going to get the food and then come back," K'ile said, glancing down to watch K'luha ignore him. "I wonder if K'airos will want to go back to the tribe with us."
Antimony's breath caught in her throat, her face paling as she flicked her eyes towards K'ile. "She... my girl--she... misses everyone," she managed faintly.
"But she does have a job, right? She appeared very much an Ul'dahn when I saw her."
"A Brass B--" Antimony choked, coughed and murmured, "In Drybone."
His ears perk up. "Oh! That's... good..." He looked down at K'luha, "Do you think K'airos counts as having left the tribe?"
Luha took a long moment of silence before looking towards K'ile. "No. She died. She didn't leave it because she wanted to. She was separated. Have her come and at least find out from the elders if she wants to come back."
"And what if she can't? Because of the Blade thing?"
Antimony listened to this exchange with a frail expression, as though she were about to blow away on the slightest of winds.
"Ask the elders for a special permission to come and go as needed. It's not her fault about what happened after all." Luha suggested with a small shrug.
"That could work!" K'ile nodded, "I'm sure the Elders won't be able to say not to her. It's Airos, after all!"
"She could go home," Antimony murmured faintly.
"You could come back as well K'piru. In light of the dead returning, I doubt they would much begrudge a few wandering tribe members at this point."
K'ile's tail flipped and shivered, but he didn't speak.
Antimony seemed to lose all color at that and her tail sought to hide further against the inside of one leg. "I--"
K'luha let out an annoyed sigh and tightened the arms across her chest. "No one's going to kill you or get angry after five years. If you want to stay with K'airos, go back with us. You want an excuse just to see everyone? Just say you're coming to keep me stable while we travel. You don't even have to stay."
For a long moment, Antimony remained frozen, pale features locked into an odd terror. Then, she shuddered and bowed her head, murmuring in a low tone, "Ai--Aijeen would never allow such a thing. I know it."
"Aijeen doesn't control you or Airos. What's she' going to do? Track you down and try to kill you? If she does, she's out numered and dead." Luha huffed again, interjecting before K'ile could say anything else.
Clearing his throat, K'ile leaned down and whispered very quietly into K'luha's ear, "K'yohko threatened to hurt K'piru. So, she might be afraid of that."
Luha glanced over at K'ile at the whisper. K'yohko? Really? "Yohko won't hurt her. Not if she's supposed to be keeping me alive. And he would never disobey K'takka. If she says K'piru can stay and is family again, he will begrudgingly accept it. Of that, I am absolutely sure."
Though K'ile's words may have held truth to them - and no small amount of it - Antimony found her primary concern for one other: "You don't--you don't understand," Antimony all but whimpered. "Aijeen... it--it must be some sort of... d-demon magic...! Airos won't--she won't--"
K'ile sat up straight and turned to look at K'piru
Antimony just quailed and brought her hands to her face.
"She won't what?"
"She won't call me her mother!" Antimony forced out with a half sob. "Aijeen won't--won't let her... I--I tried.."
"If there is anything I have learned about having my hip shattered by my daughter, it’s that there is a limit to even the bond of a mother and a child. If Aijeen is threatening your life and refusing to acknowledge you're her mother, it's time to painfully cut some ties." K'luha insisted, frowning at K'piru.
"Don't say such things!" Antimony breathed raggedly.
K'ile wasn't going to go anywhere near that. Nope.
"K'piru, look at me! I'm DYING because my kid broke my hip and tried to maim K'ile! There are limits! There our boundaries! Do you want Aijeen to kill you and Airos? Because that's what it sounds like she's going to do. You can't just run away from this unless you want to endanger Airos. We're going to be here for you to stand up to Aijeen. And it's going to be painful. And you're going to think you're doing the wrong thing, but it's not. Because even though you abandoned us, you're still my aunt and I still love you and I don't wanna see your own daughter hurt you anymore!"
"Stop," Antimony whispered. "I will fix this. I--Airos will be able to go home. I won't--"
Putting a hand on K'luha, K'ile says, "Maybe it's a bit soon to be calling it quits on any daughters."
"If she's already threatened your life, you take backup with you when you go to fix it then." K'luha demanded sharply. "Take K'yohko or K'ailia or someone with you."
"I'm not--" What - hunting her daughter? She wasn't even sure she could risk seeing K'aijeen again. She didn't know how she would get her K'airos back completely, but she had to try something. Anything.
An old Duskwight's voice echoed in the back of her thoughts and she shut her eyes. Not that. Just, not that. "You don't understand," she managed in a small voice.
"Hell, get that Mitari guy to go with you! He sound strong whatever he is." Luha waved a had somewhat dismissively and frowned.
"Uhm. No, I don't like that suggestion," K'ile put, frowning down at K'luha, "Why aren't you suggesting she take me?"
"No." Luha sharply put the idea down and looked to K'ile. "You stay with me."
Shaking her head, Antimony shut her eyes, kept her hands shielding her face.
"Don't encourage my family members to start conflicts and then forbid me from interfering," K'ile said, dryly, to K'luha.
"Don't ignore me and almost step on me when you tie me to a board with a broken hip." Luah shot back in an equally dry tone.
"Don't break you hip and make me tie you to a board!"
"The least you could do is not ignore me! What do I have to do to get your damned attention!" Luha hissed back, ears flattening.
"You have my attention! I was gone for all of five minutes! Do you want me to carry you around everywhere?"
During all this, Antimony remained quiet. Perhaps wishing for a hiding place. Perhaps contemplating fleeing. K'luha and K'ile were frightening.
"You were gone for hours and yes! I do! You were just gone for weeks! I was so worried! The least you could do is let me calm down about that before you run off again!"
"You never calm down! I'm not going to sit around for a week waiting for you to cool off before I do something about the tribe starving. You need to take care of calming down your own damned self, instead of just running off and hurting yourself every single time you're left alone for more than a little bit." He stood, arms crossed over his chest, tail shivering behind him.
"I wanted to go home after it first happened! The thing we can do about the tribe starving is get the hell home so we can move! And this time it wasn't my fucking fault! I had dead people banging on the door demanding to enter or they were going to break it down and then they went and said you were in trouble! And if people would stop breaking my doors down and then getting in my face, I would stop falling over when I try to walk away!" Luha hissed, ears flat in her hair and tail frizzed out to her side. "And where do you get off being cruel to me!? Don't tell me you love me and then constantly go out after K'piru and refuse to be near me! How am I supposed to feel!?"
K'ile just shook his head really hard and said, "What!"
Antimony was quite certain she shouldn't be here anymore, intruding between family, fracturing family. Anxious eyes flicked towards the door.
Luha could practically feel Anti thinking about leaving and sharply turned her head on her aunt. "You sit down! No leaving or so help me I will track you down and drag you back to the Sagolii!" Luha stared K'piru down for a moment, her glare a most frightening and intimidating one for a woman with a broken hip, half delirious, and strapped down to a board she couldn't move.
"Don't yell at her," K'ile chided, his voice cool but heavy, his gaze falling on the woman, "It's not cruel for me to tell you to pull yourself together."
"You'll tell me but you won't tell her!" Luha shot back at K'ile. "I've been trying to pull myself together goddamnit! It's cruel to LIE about something like that!"
"You two aren't the same person, Luha. Sorry."
"That's not what I'm talking about damnit!" She frowned again, losing the anger in her voice. "I'm trying to pull myself together, but I need help. And so far, all you've done is told me you loved me and then ran after K'piru. How is that fair to me? I was there all of those years even when she left and now I need help but you'd sooner leave me for her and tell me to do it myself than... " Luha felt hot tears at the corners of her eyes. She blushed with embarrassment and pushed her hands to her face. "Just forget it... Do what you want. You never listen to me anyway."
Cringing away from both K'luha and K'ile, Antimony couldn't manage a reply to that tirade. Her body leaned as though wanting to move, but her feet remained frozen in place.
"Yeah. Because I didn't spend like two weeks straight trying to hold you together only to be thanked by death-matches with Ventus, broken hips and complete disregard." He turned away, "I'm not having this conversation."
Luha lifted her hands to watch him turn away from her. She felt shattered. Was that it? The end of it all? That was how it ended for her? She wanted to run, but she couldn't. She'd lost that ability now. And now that it was gone, it was all the more precious a thing. Why couldn't she be like K'piru? K'ile loved her properly. Everyone loved K'piru. Even K'ailia loved K'piru more than she loved her own mother. And K'piru could run away and everyone still loved her. Somehow in all of the mess, K'luha had become the bad guy. And the weight of all her decisions fell hard upon her broken head and she cried again.Â
"Can you two please leave the room for a while...?" The request was timid and broken and hoarse, but there was no alternative. As she had always been but now to an extreme, K'luha was at the mercy of people who somehow had come to hate her but at the same time compelled to keep her alive.
"Of course I'm not going to leave," K'ile said, "Just leave you strapped to a peice of wood on the floor and walk off? Really? No."
Antimony's tail quivered with fear and indecision. She wanted desperately to flee through that door, but at the same time... she wasn't sure she could leave them behind willingly a third time. Swallowing, Antimony just kept herself turned away.
Luha could do nothing but keep her hands pressed to her face and try to cry as quietly and subtly as possible. Her once strong and muscular form seemed shrivelled and sickly from only a month or two ago. K'luha both looked and felt frailer than even K'takka and K'deiki.
K'ile just lingered with his arms crossed, not knowing what to do. He gave K'piru a very 'I have no idea what to do' look.
Antimony would not be very helpful, unfortunately. "Perhaps... perhaps I should g--if you want me to, I will go," she murmured down towards her feet.
"She doesn't need to be left alone right now," K'ile said, "Anyway, K'airos is coming back soon, and I won't believe she's actually alive until I see her interacting with someone other than K'hai."
K'airos. Antimony could stay for K'airos, for her daughter. Her tail shivered against her leg and she hugged herself. "Alright." She stood like a statue between K'luha and the door.
"Alright," K'ile said, turning around and pacing back over near K'luha, crouching down next to her. "Does it help to tell women to stop crying or does it not help?"
Luha was far too upset to respond to K'ile question. To which the answer was a, 'Of course it doesn't help you idiot'. Not that she said that, but part of her wanted to. Luha remained crying as quietly as possible, face hidden by her hands.
K'ile just made a face and swung his tail around behind him, looking up at K'piru and saying, "You think K'aijeen is using some of her magic somehow?"
Antimony's ears shifted uncomfortably, echoing her expression which she angled sideways at K'ile. "I... I don't know. She just--when Airos took me to her..."
"I wouldn't put it past her. If she's around there's something to be wary of. Don't trust her. Don't believe what she says and don't let down your guard around her."
Antimony flinched. "She's not--she's not a... a monster!"
"I didn't say that," K'ile said, "But she is dangerous."
"She's my daughter," Antimony half-begged for understanding. K'ile was right, though. K'aijeen terrified her.
For a while, K'ile stayed silent next to K'luha, not speaking at all. Then he just slumped his shoulders and dropped his head, "I'm just going to stop talking."
His tone drew a tightness to Antimony's expression. "... I... am sorry. I know what--I know..." She let out a shuddering sigh. "I know what... she can do. I remember."
As far as Luha knew, and she was pretty sure about this, there were no magical spells making her feel like this. Just the insanity around her and an inability to cope with it all on top of being sick and having a miserable sickening injury that made her more sick. So in the silence K'luha just cried until she ran out of tears and then she just sniffled and choked and coughed every so often.
K'ile eeeeeventually reached out and put an arm around K'luha.
Antimony remained quiet where she stood, body language closed off and apologetic.
K'luha took a long moment after K'ile put an arm around her to drop her hands from her face. She dropped her hands lightly to the board, moving one to weakly grab at K'ile's wrist. Luha looked pale and shaky again, her eyes a bit bloodshot and puffy from the crying.
![[Image: AntiThalSig.png]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/179079766/AntiThalSig.png)
"Song dogs barking at the break of dawn, lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm; and these streets, quiet as a sleeping army, send their battered dreams to heaven."
Hipparion Tribe (Sagolii)Â - Â Antimony Jhanhi's Wiki
