The Dodoes' tribal lands were apparently in the sky above Ul'dah, near the Hustings Strip. One grand tower rose with five towers equidistant around it, but the towers themselves weren't the commune. The commune began on the roof of the central tower, and was the fifth through eighth floors of the others. The only part of the towers below that which the Dodoes claimed as tribal land was the isolated stairwell in the central tower, which led from Husting's strip directly to the rood of the central tower. There were no other connections with the ground or with the lower floors.
This division, this hard-lined separation between the Dodoes and the city they were a part of, was the very first thing that they wanted outsiders to perceive. They were like an exclusive club, or a secret organization, or a privileged fraternity, or a bunch of kids gathered in a treehouse or hiding in an attack or something like that.
D'hein thought it was stupid, which is why he didn't even live in the commune. But he still went there frequently. He was a Dodo after all. The door to the stairwell that led to the commune opened into the red-carpeted roadways of the Hustings Strip, and D'hein idled there with his black robes around him, hood fallen back to show off his hair. His head was unadorned unless one counted his golden fleece hair and his inset emerald orb (as in, eyes).
He didn't want to overdress too much and make Antimony look bad, after all. He was already so bad about that just as he was.
***
It hadn't taken very long to return to the Quicksand and change into the dress D'hein had so... thoughtfully provided alongside the other various survival necessities he'd gifted her. There had been reluctance on Antimony's part, but it was quickly overcome by her need to speak with D'aijeen, to try and fix what her daughter insisted was broken.
The dress was green, in a color she distantly recognized matched her eyes. The thought would have annoyed her more if she wasn't already so distracted by events soon to come. Putting it on was a fair bit more complicated than any clothing she'd ever thought to wear, and she quickly realized the necessity of pants once she noticed the way it opened up on one side. Still, at least it fit decently, if a little too snug in the waist (he must have been imagining her as someone much younger).
She felt distinctly unlike herself as she made her way to the Dodo's commune with Ulanan. It left her off-kilter, and she approached D'hein and the entrance up to the commune with visible unease.
The lalafell was still wearing the plain white cowl she had brought to the Ossuary. She looked like a giant snowflake. Underneath, though, she took the time to place something nicer: a typical leather lalafellin vest with a white shirt and skirt. And a long silver wand that looked like it had been ripped off some terrible monster.
She was a dangerous snowflake, she thought while following Antimony.
When Antimony walked into view, before he even noticed the tiny snowflake, D'hein was struck with a deep confusion, his brow and lips dropping. He said to her, "I thought you weren't permitted to leave your apartment currently."
The miqo'te's steps paused, the hesitation and worry in her features shifting to confusion. "What are you talking about...? No one has done such a thing."
The snowflake just watched.
Over the next few seconds, one of D'hein's ears moved back on his head, slowly turning to listen to the wall behind him. His eyes got a bit wider, glanced down at the snowflake, then back up to Antimony. "Oh. I... mistook you for..." He cleared his throat. "You're wearing the dress incorrectly but it will do for now." He turned towards the stairwell that would lead to the commune.
Antimony frowned and muttered, "I know how to wear a dress," before giving Ulanan a nervous look and following after D'hein.
"How far up do we have to go?" Ulanan asked with the very obvious intention of changing the subject.
"Five stories," D'hein answered, moving in to the well-lit but otherwise unadorned stairwell. There would be no doors on the way up. There would be no watchmen, attendants or receptionists.
Wincing, Antimony recalled the trek she had taken to get up to the commune the first time and did not relish doing it a second. It was, however, a miniscule price for potentially saving her daughter. "I don't know what I will do if she doesn't listen..."
The snowflake opened her mouth to say something but quickly shut it again. She thought better, and then said something else: "What can we expect from this D'hal person, if she's there?"
"I'm honestly not sure what to expect from her anymore," D'hein said, climbing the stairs as easily as if he was walking across flat ground.
Furrowing her brow, Antimony lost herself in an unhappy thought for a moment before speaking hesitantly, "I don't recall you ever explaining her... relation with Aijeen."
The snowflake climbed the stairs and had many mean thoughts about the architecture of the city. "Close friend can mean many things." she ventured.
"D'ahl is many things. It's complicated. I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to explain it. Just a few more floors!"
"Do I not have a right to understand who the woman my daughter trusts more than me is...?" Antimony's expression turned down as she continued to climb the stairs, holding up the hem of the dress so as not to trip.
Ulanan wondered what could be the worst possible scenario for that woman. "Is she a Somnus smuggler?"
Antimony's eyes went wide. "No, never! Aijeen wouldn't.."
"No, no, it's not that!" D'hein looked down the stairs at the two, "It's simply that I'm not sure how to answer the question, or that it's even my place to. I suppose it's no secret that the two are physically intimate, but a gentleman does not speak of such things! Now then, upwards!" He quickened his pace, an evidently easy feat.
Antimony choked on nothing, her steps faltering. Immediately she recalled the way D'aijeen had first greeted her in that forsaken lichyard outside Drybone, calling her an unfamiliar name, with an unfamiliar attitude. Her stomach churned both with a sudden nausea and anger, and she glared at D'hein's back, "It was her? This D'ahl woman taught my Aijeen how to think that--twisted her thoughts so that she thinks she wants that from me?"
The lalafell didn't speed up to match D'hein's speed, instead lingering slightly behind, cursing Ul'dahn stairs under her breath.
In a low, slow tone from where he was gaining height and distance, D'hein responded, "No one has twisted Aijeen. I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I think you shouldn't assume anything."
"I'm assuming nothing, D'hein," Antimony snapped as she hurried to catch up with the tia. "When my daughter comes to me demanding attention that should only be shared between mates, there is little to assume!" She felt herself flushing at actually discussing such a thing aloud, and a twinge of guilt for bringing into public what was most certainly an extremely private matter. She let out a distressed sigh, eyes searching past D'hein towards the door she could make out not far above them.
There was a pause between Ulanan's steps. There was also a grimace. "Surely she didn't mean it. Only a trick to get you disgusted and make you run away."
D'hein paused against the door, turning back to look down the stairwell, "She... what? You... certainly must have... misinterpreted!"
"I have not," Antimony replied, her voice wavering with anxiety. "That woman has... has taken advantage of my baby girl. I'm certain of it!"
"The woman initiated romantic overtures based on mutual, respectable attraction and there were no grounds for objection," the gold-coifed man's tail flipped about behind him in agitation, whacking the door. It sounded as though someone were knocking on it from the outside. "Furthermore, knowing Aijeen as I do, I doubt anyone could take advantage of her. If anyone has been twisted, it has been D'ahl, by D'aijeen!"
He ended his tyrade by turning to answer the door, throwing it open and proclaiming "What!" to the white-armored huntress that stood in the courtyard on the other side. The woman flinched.
Ulanan caught up to them, standing next to Antimony like a snowflake that was lost in summer.
"Knowing Aijeen as you--" Antimony cut herself off sharply, for surely if she'd continued, she might have said some very unsavory things. That and the sudden appearance of the guard startled her. She spent a few seconds nervously squinting at the woman to see if she recognized her from before.
The huntress turned to consider D'hein, crossing her arms over her chest. Her ears lay down in her puffball blonde hair, completely hidden within, lance sticking up behind her head like an errant limb from a tiny yellow bush. "D'hein Tia. You still remember where you live, huh?" The Tia nodded a nervous greeting to her, but the woman had already looked past him to Antimony, her head flopping to the side, "And what's with you and the glasses? And- Hey! Why aren't you in your room? I have to report that!"
Pursing her lips, Antimony set her ears back against her head. "I'm not who you think I am."
As soon as Antimony spook, the huntress's head snapped back and her eyes widened, "What-"
D'hein took hold of Antimony's hand to pull her past the huntress saying quickly, "Well D'ahl got into the somnus and thinks she's someone else now so I'm just going to take her back to her apartment and you're not going to tell anyone about this!"
The reaction was so unexpected that Antimony allowed herself to be dragged forward, a bewildered look on her face.
Ulanan found the scene amusing, limiting herself to look like a part of the stairs for the moment.
"That is not D'ahl! And where are you going with that Lalafel?" The huntress shouted after D'hein, who was already making his way around the fountain in the middle of the square and towards the bridge that would take him off towards D'ahl's apartment, gathering strange looks from well-groomed and over-decorated miqo'te as he went. The dandelion-headed huntress let her shoulder slump, pursed her lips for a moment, and then shouted, "Don't get caught!"
"Let's just go quickly and not talk to anyone," D'hein warned his companions as he went.
That was at least one thing Antimony could agree with D'hein on, and she ducked her head as he hurried them along, hoping to avoid the curious gazes of the other Dodos around them. "I did not imagine you intended to sneak us in," she muttered, but the protest was weak.
"I reckon it worked. Somehow." Ulanan pointed out.
"It would have to be my plan in order for it to work. I didn't not expect you to look so like D'ahl. She's under house arrest, remember? They're liable to try and mistakenly get hold of you and send you to the Nunh!"
"Didn't not... what?" She shook her head, and then shook her tail behind her in frustration, and then just sighed. A small part of her thought she would very much like to have a long chat with said nunh, and not just about his apparent financial proclivities. But she was smart enough to understand that wouldn't exactly be wise this moment. And D'aijeen was more important anyway. "Let's just get to my daughter, please. Where...?"
"In this tower over here," D'hein said, leading them onto one of the precarious bridges, thin and low-railed enough to make even the most meager of Limsan pathways look like a broad lane.
The passed a pair of huntresses as they went, neither of whom tried to stop them. One of them muttered, "Is that...?"
Ulanan just did what years of being educated to be an Ul'dahn lady taught her: looking like she was supposed to be there, slightly behind Antimony and D'hein.
Antimony cast a look at the lalafell over her shoulder, grateful at least that no one had yet thought to toss Ulanan out in the same manner they had her a few days past. Reassured that her friend was following, she shifted her eyes first to the bridge beneath their feet and then, upon nearly staggering at the dizzying drop below them, snapped them sharply to the tower that was quickly overtaking their field of view. She tried to imagine her daughter living in this place but came up short. It was simply too far removed from anything she had ever experienced.
Past the great doors the fronted the tower and a few meters into a hallway that seemed to pierce through to the center of the building, D'hein paused before a door. The door he chose had no ornamentation, a fact unique to it among all the other doors that bore tapestry and labeling and potted flora on either side. "Here, this will be it." He lifted his hand to know on the door hard. A bit too hard. His knuckles went a bit numb from the effort.
Antimony couldn't decide between a firm, determined expression or one of worry and concern, but her body chose for her. Drawing in a slow breath, she clasped her hands in front of her as her ears drooped in anticipation.
Ulanan tried to transmit confidence to Antimony by tapping her leg and smiling.
When there was no answer, D'hein knocked again, a bit harder, and frowned at his hand afterward. No answer again, and D'hein called out, "It's D'hein! You should let me in and we should talk! I'm not upset over you trying to hurt me!"
Again, a long period of no answer.
Antimony's tail shivered wildly behind her, her thoughts immediately jumping to the worst: "She's gone," she breathed faintly. "Already gone. I'm too late. My girls.."
"Don't alarm yourself. The guard outside thought you were D'hal, so at least she couldn't leave." the lalafell said, raising one hand. "Maybe she's sleeping."
"Or just being stubborn," D'hein said, putting his hand to the door and turning the knob. It opened easily. "The door is only locked from the inside," he explained, pushing the door inward and stepping in with a shout, "D'ahl! I've brought company! Let-" he cringed after he realized the tingling sensation in his eyes was something he needed to care about. He ducked his head against the light that the mirrors were collecting from the far room and throwing into his face. It was far bright than the outdoors had been.
Antimony brought up a hand to shield her eyes, pupils contracting until they nearly disappeared. She couldn't keep herself quiet any longer and called out pleadingly, "Aijeen? Are you in there?"
Squinting, Ulanan commented jokingly: "I was wondering where all the funds for this door had gone to."
From inside of the apartment, a gravely, bitter woman's voice said, "In what small wisdom Nald invested in you, D'hein, tell me you did not bring the crone to my home."
"No, just some friends," D'hein answered, stepping in and gesturing for Antimony and Ulanan to follow him, "Come along. If she hasn't told us to leave yet then it's good as an invitation!"
Wincing at the choice of words and having no doubt as to whom the woman referred, Antimony hesitated at the door a moment before anxiously stepping after D'hein. She found her voice failing her in that moment and so simply followed in silence.
Ulanan did the same.
"Silence is not  synonymous with an invitation, D'hein!"
"And yet you still did not tell us to leave," D'hein said happily, pointing playfully at a random mirror he imagined D'ahl was watching him through. His finger bounced off of it.
"Watch the mirrors!"
He walked down the main hallway, knowing it turned left at some point and hoping he would be able to judge it, even with the blinding light and the mirrors positioned to deliberately confuse. "I think you're curious about my friends and want to meet them!"
The woman growled from deep in the apartment, "I request that you all leave immediately."
Following D'hein proved more difficult than Antimony had initially expected; she had to keep almost on top of him so as not to lose him in the confusion of mirrors. Her ears gave an unhappy shake at the disembodied voice, but she forced herself to straighten in the chaos of light and reflection and call out, "I am not leaving until I have spoken with my daughter."
"We apology for the offense, irrupting in your chamber is rather unsavory." Ulanan said, gazing across the mirrors. "But as you might imagine, our purpose is quite urgent."
"Left here," muttered D'hein, turning and finding himself face-to-face with himself, remembering D'ahl's earlier advice to not walk into one's own face. "Actually," he turned and walked on a few more steps and tried again, "Left here." Success! He was looking down a hallway that was glowing like the surface of water on all sides, but there was a definite openness and mirrors that showed slightly less confusing images down a ways.
In many of the mirrors he could see himself, and Ulanan. In twice as many mirrors he could see Antimony, though half the time she was wearing her dress properly and the other half she seemed old and unadorned. Trick of the mirrors.
D'ahl's voice came from the ethereal openness at the end of the mirrored hall, "Do you suddenly want your daughter, crone? D'aijeen isn't here."
"Not here?" She breathed out, "Not here??" And spun around, found herself staring at a dozen or more fragmented images, the path they'd taken in lost completely. "No... no, no, she can't--Aijeen! Please, listen to me!"
Ulanan felt the sudden urge to explain things to the unsympathetic disembodied voice at the end of the hall. "D'aijeen thretened to run away with her sister if her mother didn't comply with a certain demand." She blinked at the well-dressed Antimony in one of the mirrors, and then at the one who was actually at her side. "She's come to speak with her daughter, and you can't deny her that."
"I can't provide that, either. The girl isn't here."
D'hein kept up the pace, "Then you know where she's gone!" Reaching the end of the hall, he looked around, but all he saw were Ulanans, D'heins, older Antimonys and young well-dressed Antimonys, some more realized than others.
The most realized image of the well-dressed Antimony suddenly stepped forward and smacked D'hein across the face with very un-Antimony strength, "I'm tired of you butting in to my relationships! Aijeen's an adult!"
"When--when did she leave?" Antimony spun back around, found it somewhat easier to distinguish reflection from reality in this new hall but still no less headache inducing. The slap she saw replicated a dozen times over and winced at it before snapping, "She is not an adult! She never even passed her trial!" Drawing up her courage, she marched forward, hoping her assessment of the hallway was correct, and glared at what she hoped was the real D'ahl. It was a little disconcerting looking at herself but not. "Tell me where my daughter is."
Donning an unkind smile, D'ahl mimicked Antimony's voice with uncanny accuracy, "My baby girl passed the Dodo tribe's test with no problems. She's all grown up now and can whatever she wants! I'm so proud."
D'hein snapped at her, "D'ahl, stop that!"
Antimony's hands balled into fists at her sides, her ears lying flat against the sides of her head. "You are not her mother. You're an evil that has burrowed its way into her mind! Tell me where she is."
There was a mocking noise coming from Ulanan. Her lalafellin hearing was better at distinguishing the voices of the two women apart, though the reminiscence had confused her at first. She tried to not look impressed. "That settles the matter of where D'aijeen got that kind of ideas." she added.
"No it does not," said D'hein, stepping between D'ahl and Antimony. "If you both go into this assuming the other is evil we're not going to get along very well, are we?"
"I'm not her mother," the fake Antimony said, continuing to imitate the other's voice and ignoring the Tia, "As much as I'd like the job, it seems there's no opening. She's using me for a game, and yet, I'm still a better mother."
"Don't you dare," Antimony hissed, flinching at the words nonetheless. She did not want to believe them; they couldn't possibly be true. Even if D'aijeen hated her, this other woman was not... could not just... replace her. Right?
Ulanan huffed. She was standing beside Antimony. "D'aijeen has threatened to leave with her sister and never let her see their real mother again, despite what that one wishes." she tried again. "Who is the best mother or not is hardly the issue."
"Of course it's the issue," D'ahl turned her back on them and meandered into the room, where satin furniture, red by shining almost white, was visible. "If half of what I've heard about the witch of the Sagolii is true, I wouldn't want to be her daughter either."
Ulanan hurried to object to that. "If that is so, then why is her other daughter happy with it?"
The words still hurt, no matter how much she did or did not believe in them. Antimony looked away briefly, but found herself blinking at her own reflection and so forced herself to turn back to D'ahl. "You have no reason to think any of it true. You know nothing of what you speak," she managed in a low tone. "If you had any care at all for Aijeen, you would tell me where she's gone."
Her voice giving way to its gravely, low default, D'ahl looked over her shoulder and said, "I've not met K'airos so I can't say about her motivation. But I know that if you're getting between them, you have no heart for D'aijeen at all. Me, I just want you to go away forever, so I can continue filling this role in D'aijeen's life."
"D'ahl, you’re being immature. Nobody here is deliberately hurting anyone." D'hein turned to Antimony and said, "Tell D'ahl what happened. I'm sure she has no idea."
"What happened... when?" Antimony's tail flicked behind her in confusion. Her expression twisted back into a glare at D'ahl, "This sick trick you've been playing on my daughter - it must stop! She came to me yesterday and--and almost... she said I did not love her if I wouldn't do inappropriate things with her! This is your fault, so you will tell me where my daughter has gone!"
"That, yes! Exactly!" D'hein said, nodding, forgetting for a moment to be somber. When he remembered, he shrank back.
"I have done nothing!" D'ahl countered, spinning around and cutting the air with a gesture that highlighted her intimidating strength. "This was never my intention! I would... what? She what?"
"You heard me," her voice shook. "You cannot play games with my daughter and expect... nothing to come of... tell me where she is! Please." And then, in a smaller voice, "Before I lose them both."
Ulanan looked between the three miqo'te, settling her eyes on D'hal. She said nothing, though.
D'ahl looked at the mirrors around her, to either side, above, as if searching for some queue, quiet.
D'hein chose this time to speak up, managing a heard by sympathetic tone. "D'ahl, I warned you that you couldn't go on like this. Aijeen is so emotionally turned around that she can't manage her relationships, and so are you."
"Be silent, D'hein Tia!" D'ahl pulled the fake glasses from her face and through them at the floor, where the glass cracked audibly, "This is a deception! Aijeen would not... It's just a game between she and I! She said that! She wouldn't just... try to replace me!"
Antimony's tail bristled and her voice took on a shrill pitch, "That doesn't matter right now! What matters is where my daughter has gone!"
"And you will be silent in my home as well!" D'ahl snapped at Antimony, then turning away from her and walking to a nearby chair, where she sat down and leaned her hands on her forehead. "Do not lie. That is not something Aijeen would do. That's between she and I. She and I and no one else."
For several moments, Antimony practically vibrated with pent up, distressed energy. Then in a sudden burst, she pushed past D'hein and stomped right up to where D'ahl sat, taking ahold of one of the woman's wrists to pull it down from her face. The grip was firm but not painful. "I would never lie about my own children! You've broken something in my Aijeen and I demand you help me fix it!"
D'ahl replied swiftly, "It was D'aijeen's idea for me to pretend to be you. I found the idea disturbing until I noticed how sad she was. I'm already fixing what I can."
"You are not." Ulanan interjected with her grumpy voice. "You are perpetuating it. I will not speculate why, but if you truly want to help you must let them both meet and settle this matter."
"You don't know where she is, do you," Antimony whispered, dropping her hand from D'ahl's wrist to let it dangle limp at her side.
Huffing at the insistence of those who beset her, D'ahl muttered, "You know, I asked if I could be her mother. She said no. She said D'hein could be her dad because her real dad was dead, but her mom was still alive, so, no little girl for D'ahl. Just some stupid sex game."
The woman sat forward, "But when said that -- she said that she still had a mom -- all I heard was her telling me as best she could: if I ever want a daughter, I need to kill the Sagolii witch."
In all the flickering light of the mirrors, the flick of the knife was like a drop of water in a rainstorm. D'ahl was rusty to have let even that much slip, the retired assassin of the Dodoes flipping the four-inch blade out of her pocket and throwing it at Antimony's chest with the same casual slight-of-hand someone might use to cheat at a card game.
D'ahl's words didn't make much sense to Antimony at first, though they tolled ominously in her skull. She managed a step back in uncertainty before the hidden blade was let loose and the words' meaning chased the color from her skin. She made to stumble back further, as though that would do any good - and luckily for Antimony, it actually did. Rather than bury itself into her chest to tear through lung or, even worse, heart, Antimony felt a very sudden and sharp pressure in her shoulder, followed by a cold, lancing numbness down her arm. She blinked rapidly in shock at the sensation.
Ulanan was already reaching for her wand as soon as the word "kill" had been uttered. Her reaction to the hostility was equally violent: she let loose a quick concussive clump of unaspected aether that, she hoped, would hit D'hal's head and not her shoulder.
D'hein Tia had, once or twice in his life, encountered a situation of incredible violence. Never before, though, had he been unsure of how to feel or react. Intellectually, he knew that the situation was simple. Shamefully, his hand did not move to his scepter, though, even as he felt an eager fire spell flick to his fingertips with a dull warmth.
Ulanan saved him from the indecision. No sooner had D'hein realized the need to act then the mirrors around him were suddenly alight with the Lalafel's spell.
It seemed D'ahl had underestimated the Lalafel's abilities as well. The aether knocked her back, chair clattering to one side and slamming into the mirrored wall. D'ahl hit the ground and rolled to her feet, her shoulder blades landing against mirrors that in the next moment were shattered by the overflow of the Lalafel's attack.
D'ahl clutched at her head and hung as though from string against the wall, fragments of glass falling about her.
Antimony could see the hilt of the knife out of the corner of her vision, and that was more than enough to make her weak-kneed. Instinctively, she turned away from the ripple of heat from Ulanan's blast, but the action shifted the blade in her shoulder, so very quickly she went very still. Then she was on the floor, on her knees, unsure how she got there but D'ahl didn't look like she was about to throw anymore knives at people. At least she hoped not; she didn't want Ulanan to get hurt.
The lalafel did not waste time to prepare another spell, the air chilling swiftly around her before she let it loose. This time the purpose was to hold the miqo'te against the wall.
With a clatter of glass, D'ahl launched herself to one side. She hit the side wall with enough force to clack the mirrors there, and the ice of Ulanan's spell, rushing in to fill the spot on the wall that she'd vacated, broke the mirror's all the more. As the reflective network that D'ahl had assembled crumbled, the confusing veil of it did as well. In a transition so brief as to have been an instant, the ephemeral tunnels were just walls and rooms with cheap mirrors on the walls, no more confusing than simple decorations.
D'ahl did throw more knives, two at Ulanan while she skirted the room with incredible speed, heading behind them.
D'hein flicked his fingers and the warmth of the waiting spell was gone. He wanted to yell at D'ahl, to yell at everyone, but what could he say to convey his meaning? No, he dashed forward to Antimony and dropped over her, lending her support. His skills were not medicinal or healing, though, so he could take no useful action.
She could feel a wetness seeping into and down the fabric around her shoulder, which Antimony knew would be blood, but the woman found herself far more captivated - or was that horrified? Yes, probably horrified - by the combat between Ulanan and D'ahl, who wasn't as subdued as she'd previously thought. She sagged a bit against D'hein's arms. D'ahl had tried to kill her. D'ahl was trying to kill Ulanan? "Help her!"
Two pieces of paper flew off from the inside of Ulanan's white robe and intercepted the daggers. At the same time they were hit, they inflated to the size and shape of a round small head and promptly burned down, their purpose done. The daggers fell to a few ilms before the lalafell, who raised her wand and shaped the aether in front of her like a wall, facing D'hal.
"I'm sorry," D'hein said in answer to Antimony. "I can't hurt D'ahl."
The homicidal doppleganger did not linger, turning instead and shooting for the door with the same speed she'd boasted a moment before. Apparently being locked in wasn't much an impediment to her, as every mechanism on the door -- hinges, lock, and even the latch itself -- collapsed under her hands within moments. The door was thrown outward, falling into the hall, and D'ahl was gone.
Ulanan released her magic wall, reforming the remaining aether into various but very weak shards of ice that propelled uselessly towards the exit and outside the room. "What kind of woman has MORE THAN A DAGGER In HER CLOTHES?" she shouted even more uselessly. Then she turned to Antimony, then to D'hein and grimaced. "Your tribe is horrible!"
Antimony first tried to twist to watch D'ahl's exit, but went limp as the action transformed the icy numbness down her arm into a biting pain. She could feel more blood than she remembered a moment ago and muttered a low, "Needs pressure." Tears came inexplicable and unbidden to her eyes. "Aijeen's gone.."
D'hein met Ulanan's grimace apologetically, groaning, "I'm trying to make it better," and then looking down at Antimony, he cringed, "Pressure? On what? I'm not putting pressure on the knife. It'll just go further in."
"Mom!" The unexpected voice of D'aijeen was suddenly nearby.
One of D'hein's ears perked up, and then his head snapped up. As he watched, a mirrored panel that had been set off near a corner, like a piece of art on display, swung to one side and a green-swathed form emerged from what seemed like a reflective doorway. Actually, it was a doorway. It was a door made of mirrors. D'ahl's apartment was just very confusing.
The girl moved quickly and decisively towards the injured woman. "Get away from my mother, D'hein Tia!"
Ulanan was confused by the green haired girl that was suddenly in the room. She did not let go her wand and suddenly she had to worry about daggers and spells. She chose not to say anything, instead getting closer to them, but not much.
The familiar voice brought both wrenching pain and incomparable joy to Antimony - though at least some of that pain was due to her body jerking up in a desperate need to search for that voice's source. She didn't have to go far, or go anywhere at all, though, and the relieved, almost giddy smile she gave her daughter was drawn tight with pain. "Aijeen. Aijeen, you're... you're here. You're not gone. You're here...!"
D'aijeen literally kicked D'hein. "I said move, Tia!"
"But your mother is-"
"I can help and you cannot! And you do not have my blessing to touch her!"
"Let her." the lalafel said, eyes half-closed. "Keep an eye at the door in case your friend decides to turn around and come back."
"Aijeen," Antimony repeated shakily and reached out with the arm that wasn't a disturbing combination of numb and on fire. "I thought you'd gone. I thought you'd left me forever."
D'hein finally letting himself be essentially knocked out of the way, D'aijeen dropped down next to her mother and said, "I was just hiding. Now stop expelling energy and lay on your back so that I can close your wound. I will be using magic and you will not be objecting, understand?"
"Magic. How...?" For half a second, she thought of the kinds of magic she'd caught her daughter practicing in the past, and that was a terrifying thought. But no. She could no more fathom the thought of her daughter trying to kill her (hadn't she already though, even if only for a minute?) than she could stop seeking her out. Green eyes wide, pupils dilated from more than just the diminished light in the room, Antimony complied and laid on her back. She couldn't hold back the grimace as the blade jostled in her shoulder, but she kept her gaze on D'aijeen as though transfixed.
"I've studied conjury, thaumaturgy, and the shamanic arts of the Sagolii, if you might recall. Now, please understand that I'm only doing this out of kindness." She leaned over her mother, pressed down on her with one hand and with the other ripped the knife from her shoulder.
Antimony had dealt with a number of huntresses returning as victims of hunting accidents over her lifetime, but injuries to other people hadn’t quite prepared her for the flash of excruciating pain as D'aijeen removed the knife. She gave a rather embarrassing shout, squeezing her eyes shut as her limbs flexed in a whole body response to the fire radiating from her shoulder. Without the blade serving as a minimal but still present block, blood began to seep freely, and the sensation was a strange overlay to the pain. "I never questioned your talent, Aijeen," she managed after a moment. "Always... always so smart."
At Antimony's cry, D'hein cringed where he stood in the hallway
While mother and daughter exchanged words, Ulanan had time to think and conclude that if D'aijeen wished to kill Antimony, she would have done so before announcing herself in the room. She was about to turn to face the door, but then a new suspicion grew in her mind. She looked at D'hein, to make sure he was watching the door, then at D'aijeen, this time to make sure she was really curing her mother.
The cry didn't help her impression.
D'aijeen paused with the bloodied knife in her hand, took a quick breath and exhaled indignation, "Well perhaps if you had said things such as that a bit more often and spent less time criticizing, you could have learned something from me."
Reaching into her green robe, the quintessential white clothes worn beneath, D'aijeen produced a simple want between them and forefinger and a number of small tribal fetishes that dangled from her other fingers. "We'll take care of the pain and bleeding first and then put your body to work on the hard part."
Antimony felt very faint then, as though she were floating, and when she spoke her lips tingled but she managed the words, "It was only ever about what you used your talent for, Aijeen."
"I think there should be more healing and less remembering the past at this moment." Ulanan urged.
"I am working on it, Lalafel," D'aijeen said. She worked quickly once she'd begun, holding the fetishes over the wound to draw out the pain as though she were drawing out poison. She cringed slightly as she did so, the small items bleeding pain into her fingers, and the pain quickly found its place in D'aijeen's shoulder to mirror what her mother was feeling. Carrying dolls and crafting idols was not something D'aijeen had ever had patience for; her own body would suffice for most practical uses that conjury could not supplement.
Before she'd pulled out too much pain to compromise her own concentration and dexterity, D'aijeen whipped the fetishes away and called up a spell of healing through her wand. The energy of the spell supplemented that of her mother's body, stimulating the clotting that would close the wound and knitting it shut on its surface. It was quick work, but it would stop the bleeding.
Finally, she gave Antimony's body a head-start on deep healing, closing the gaps in blood vessels damaged nerves and helping the tattered halves of frayed tissue find one another, giving them enough to just barely hold themselves together.
"There. It is nothing special. Do not mistake me for a miracle-worker merely because I am wise."
As D'aijeen's magic leeched back out of her body, leaving behind only a significantly dulled ache, Antimony breathed an unsteady sigh and sought her daughter with her opposite arm once more. She rested her hand on the closest part of D'aijeen she could reach and then just shut her eyes, breathing in the scent of her through the lingering copper of blood.
Closer to what once had been a confusing mirror corridor, Ulanan poked D'hein. "Do you think D'hal will interrupt this meeting by coming back soon or sending other tribe members here?"
"I really don't have any idea," D'hein answered the Lalafel. "I've never seen this behavior from D'ahl before. I don't know what she'll do."
Taking enough time to pocket the fetishes and wand, and D'ahl's knife, D'aijeen stood away from Antimony and turned to walk towards the hall that led out, "Please take respectable care of my mother, D'hein Tia. I need to find D'ahl."
When her daughter stepped away, Antimony's eyes shot open and she made to force herself up, ignoring the protest from her shoulder. "Aijeen, no--please... please don't go! Please don't leave, don't... take Airos away."
Ulanan figured getting in the way of D'aijeen currently was a bad idea. She stepped back to give her enough space to go by her.
D'hein stepped forward, "D'aijeen, we came here to talk to you. You can't run away from how you've been behaving."
"Neither can D'ahl," the green-haired girl ran into D'hein shoulder-first, then rotated and slipped her tiny body around him to continue towards the exit. "She hurt my mother. I'm going to find her and make sure she knows where she stands. This will never happen again."
"Just tell me you're not going to disappear," Antimony begged.
"I don't think I could if I wanted to!" D'aijeen called as she slipped out the doorway, her shivering green tail the last thing to vanish.
Antimony slumped at that, head bowed, and just went silent.
"We should leave." Ulanan said once the green girl was out of the room. "Can you walk, Antimony?"
There was a few seconds' pause and then the older woman nodded, speaking quietly, "With... some assistance. I feel a bit woozy."
"I feel a bit like a failure as a man and a father," D'hein said, looking at himself in a mirror across the hall. "Maybe I should go find D'ahl as well. Or Aijeen. Or... K'airos?"
Ulanan punched D'hein in the leg, in a weird playful yet-not-really way. "One step at a time, sir. Help Antimony get out of the commune and to the inn."
"Ah! Alright. I suppose that would be the gentlemanly thing to do." He took a half-second to shake his hair out and straighten his ears, neither attempt at grooming doing any good. He then went to help Antimony, standing on her non-wounded side and putting his hand around her waist.
Antimony stood with his help, looking rather pale but at least no longer bleeding and supposedly on the mend. She casts a strained but apologetic look to Ulanan.
"Should I follow D'aijeen?" Ulanan asked. "I don't know how attentive your tribe is to lone lalafells roaming in their gardens."
"I don't want you getting hurt," D'hein answered, urging Antimony towards the door. "Both D'ahl and D'aijeen are capable of being dangerous, and at least one of them is dangerous right now, for whatever mad reason got into her head!"
"I will carefully circumvent confrontation. I will strictly stalk them to see if they steer me into K'airos."
"Just be careful, Ulanan," Antimony sighed, glancing towards the door her daughter had fled through. "I... think I trust her not to leave, for now."
The lalafell nodded. "Oschon will guide my steps away from loud things." She adjusted her cowl and quickly left the room in what had to be the sneakiest pursuit she would ever do.
"People like Aijeen and K'airos can't just quit their lives, so I'm sure you're right." D'hein's tone turned quiet, and he muttered to himself, "Hopefully D'ahl cannot either."
This division, this hard-lined separation between the Dodoes and the city they were a part of, was the very first thing that they wanted outsiders to perceive. They were like an exclusive club, or a secret organization, or a privileged fraternity, or a bunch of kids gathered in a treehouse or hiding in an attack or something like that.
D'hein thought it was stupid, which is why he didn't even live in the commune. But he still went there frequently. He was a Dodo after all. The door to the stairwell that led to the commune opened into the red-carpeted roadways of the Hustings Strip, and D'hein idled there with his black robes around him, hood fallen back to show off his hair. His head was unadorned unless one counted his golden fleece hair and his inset emerald orb (as in, eyes).
He didn't want to overdress too much and make Antimony look bad, after all. He was already so bad about that just as he was.
***
It hadn't taken very long to return to the Quicksand and change into the dress D'hein had so... thoughtfully provided alongside the other various survival necessities he'd gifted her. There had been reluctance on Antimony's part, but it was quickly overcome by her need to speak with D'aijeen, to try and fix what her daughter insisted was broken.
The dress was green, in a color she distantly recognized matched her eyes. The thought would have annoyed her more if she wasn't already so distracted by events soon to come. Putting it on was a fair bit more complicated than any clothing she'd ever thought to wear, and she quickly realized the necessity of pants once she noticed the way it opened up on one side. Still, at least it fit decently, if a little too snug in the waist (he must have been imagining her as someone much younger).
She felt distinctly unlike herself as she made her way to the Dodo's commune with Ulanan. It left her off-kilter, and she approached D'hein and the entrance up to the commune with visible unease.
The lalafell was still wearing the plain white cowl she had brought to the Ossuary. She looked like a giant snowflake. Underneath, though, she took the time to place something nicer: a typical leather lalafellin vest with a white shirt and skirt. And a long silver wand that looked like it had been ripped off some terrible monster.
She was a dangerous snowflake, she thought while following Antimony.
When Antimony walked into view, before he even noticed the tiny snowflake, D'hein was struck with a deep confusion, his brow and lips dropping. He said to her, "I thought you weren't permitted to leave your apartment currently."
The miqo'te's steps paused, the hesitation and worry in her features shifting to confusion. "What are you talking about...? No one has done such a thing."
The snowflake just watched.
Over the next few seconds, one of D'hein's ears moved back on his head, slowly turning to listen to the wall behind him. His eyes got a bit wider, glanced down at the snowflake, then back up to Antimony. "Oh. I... mistook you for..." He cleared his throat. "You're wearing the dress incorrectly but it will do for now." He turned towards the stairwell that would lead to the commune.
Antimony frowned and muttered, "I know how to wear a dress," before giving Ulanan a nervous look and following after D'hein.
"How far up do we have to go?" Ulanan asked with the very obvious intention of changing the subject.
"Five stories," D'hein answered, moving in to the well-lit but otherwise unadorned stairwell. There would be no doors on the way up. There would be no watchmen, attendants or receptionists.
Wincing, Antimony recalled the trek she had taken to get up to the commune the first time and did not relish doing it a second. It was, however, a miniscule price for potentially saving her daughter. "I don't know what I will do if she doesn't listen..."
The snowflake opened her mouth to say something but quickly shut it again. She thought better, and then said something else: "What can we expect from this D'hal person, if she's there?"
"I'm honestly not sure what to expect from her anymore," D'hein said, climbing the stairs as easily as if he was walking across flat ground.
Furrowing her brow, Antimony lost herself in an unhappy thought for a moment before speaking hesitantly, "I don't recall you ever explaining her... relation with Aijeen."
The snowflake climbed the stairs and had many mean thoughts about the architecture of the city. "Close friend can mean many things." she ventured.
"D'ahl is many things. It's complicated. I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to explain it. Just a few more floors!"
"Do I not have a right to understand who the woman my daughter trusts more than me is...?" Antimony's expression turned down as she continued to climb the stairs, holding up the hem of the dress so as not to trip.
Ulanan wondered what could be the worst possible scenario for that woman. "Is she a Somnus smuggler?"
Antimony's eyes went wide. "No, never! Aijeen wouldn't.."
"No, no, it's not that!" D'hein looked down the stairs at the two, "It's simply that I'm not sure how to answer the question, or that it's even my place to. I suppose it's no secret that the two are physically intimate, but a gentleman does not speak of such things! Now then, upwards!" He quickened his pace, an evidently easy feat.
Antimony choked on nothing, her steps faltering. Immediately she recalled the way D'aijeen had first greeted her in that forsaken lichyard outside Drybone, calling her an unfamiliar name, with an unfamiliar attitude. Her stomach churned both with a sudden nausea and anger, and she glared at D'hein's back, "It was her? This D'ahl woman taught my Aijeen how to think that--twisted her thoughts so that she thinks she wants that from me?"
The lalafell didn't speed up to match D'hein's speed, instead lingering slightly behind, cursing Ul'dahn stairs under her breath.
In a low, slow tone from where he was gaining height and distance, D'hein responded, "No one has twisted Aijeen. I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I think you shouldn't assume anything."
"I'm assuming nothing, D'hein," Antimony snapped as she hurried to catch up with the tia. "When my daughter comes to me demanding attention that should only be shared between mates, there is little to assume!" She felt herself flushing at actually discussing such a thing aloud, and a twinge of guilt for bringing into public what was most certainly an extremely private matter. She let out a distressed sigh, eyes searching past D'hein towards the door she could make out not far above them.
There was a pause between Ulanan's steps. There was also a grimace. "Surely she didn't mean it. Only a trick to get you disgusted and make you run away."
D'hein paused against the door, turning back to look down the stairwell, "She... what? You... certainly must have... misinterpreted!"
"I have not," Antimony replied, her voice wavering with anxiety. "That woman has... has taken advantage of my baby girl. I'm certain of it!"
"The woman initiated romantic overtures based on mutual, respectable attraction and there were no grounds for objection," the gold-coifed man's tail flipped about behind him in agitation, whacking the door. It sounded as though someone were knocking on it from the outside. "Furthermore, knowing Aijeen as I do, I doubt anyone could take advantage of her. If anyone has been twisted, it has been D'ahl, by D'aijeen!"
He ended his tyrade by turning to answer the door, throwing it open and proclaiming "What!" to the white-armored huntress that stood in the courtyard on the other side. The woman flinched.
Ulanan caught up to them, standing next to Antimony like a snowflake that was lost in summer.
"Knowing Aijeen as you--" Antimony cut herself off sharply, for surely if she'd continued, she might have said some very unsavory things. That and the sudden appearance of the guard startled her. She spent a few seconds nervously squinting at the woman to see if she recognized her from before.
The huntress turned to consider D'hein, crossing her arms over her chest. Her ears lay down in her puffball blonde hair, completely hidden within, lance sticking up behind her head like an errant limb from a tiny yellow bush. "D'hein Tia. You still remember where you live, huh?" The Tia nodded a nervous greeting to her, but the woman had already looked past him to Antimony, her head flopping to the side, "And what's with you and the glasses? And- Hey! Why aren't you in your room? I have to report that!"
Pursing her lips, Antimony set her ears back against her head. "I'm not who you think I am."
As soon as Antimony spook, the huntress's head snapped back and her eyes widened, "What-"
D'hein took hold of Antimony's hand to pull her past the huntress saying quickly, "Well D'ahl got into the somnus and thinks she's someone else now so I'm just going to take her back to her apartment and you're not going to tell anyone about this!"
The reaction was so unexpected that Antimony allowed herself to be dragged forward, a bewildered look on her face.
Ulanan found the scene amusing, limiting herself to look like a part of the stairs for the moment.
"That is not D'ahl! And where are you going with that Lalafel?" The huntress shouted after D'hein, who was already making his way around the fountain in the middle of the square and towards the bridge that would take him off towards D'ahl's apartment, gathering strange looks from well-groomed and over-decorated miqo'te as he went. The dandelion-headed huntress let her shoulder slump, pursed her lips for a moment, and then shouted, "Don't get caught!"
"Let's just go quickly and not talk to anyone," D'hein warned his companions as he went.
That was at least one thing Antimony could agree with D'hein on, and she ducked her head as he hurried them along, hoping to avoid the curious gazes of the other Dodos around them. "I did not imagine you intended to sneak us in," she muttered, but the protest was weak.
"I reckon it worked. Somehow." Ulanan pointed out.
"It would have to be my plan in order for it to work. I didn't not expect you to look so like D'ahl. She's under house arrest, remember? They're liable to try and mistakenly get hold of you and send you to the Nunh!"
"Didn't not... what?" She shook her head, and then shook her tail behind her in frustration, and then just sighed. A small part of her thought she would very much like to have a long chat with said nunh, and not just about his apparent financial proclivities. But she was smart enough to understand that wouldn't exactly be wise this moment. And D'aijeen was more important anyway. "Let's just get to my daughter, please. Where...?"
"In this tower over here," D'hein said, leading them onto one of the precarious bridges, thin and low-railed enough to make even the most meager of Limsan pathways look like a broad lane.
The passed a pair of huntresses as they went, neither of whom tried to stop them. One of them muttered, "Is that...?"
Ulanan just did what years of being educated to be an Ul'dahn lady taught her: looking like she was supposed to be there, slightly behind Antimony and D'hein.
Antimony cast a look at the lalafell over her shoulder, grateful at least that no one had yet thought to toss Ulanan out in the same manner they had her a few days past. Reassured that her friend was following, she shifted her eyes first to the bridge beneath their feet and then, upon nearly staggering at the dizzying drop below them, snapped them sharply to the tower that was quickly overtaking their field of view. She tried to imagine her daughter living in this place but came up short. It was simply too far removed from anything she had ever experienced.
Past the great doors the fronted the tower and a few meters into a hallway that seemed to pierce through to the center of the building, D'hein paused before a door. The door he chose had no ornamentation, a fact unique to it among all the other doors that bore tapestry and labeling and potted flora on either side. "Here, this will be it." He lifted his hand to know on the door hard. A bit too hard. His knuckles went a bit numb from the effort.
Antimony couldn't decide between a firm, determined expression or one of worry and concern, but her body chose for her. Drawing in a slow breath, she clasped her hands in front of her as her ears drooped in anticipation.
Ulanan tried to transmit confidence to Antimony by tapping her leg and smiling.
When there was no answer, D'hein knocked again, a bit harder, and frowned at his hand afterward. No answer again, and D'hein called out, "It's D'hein! You should let me in and we should talk! I'm not upset over you trying to hurt me!"
Again, a long period of no answer.
Antimony's tail shivered wildly behind her, her thoughts immediately jumping to the worst: "She's gone," she breathed faintly. "Already gone. I'm too late. My girls.."
"Don't alarm yourself. The guard outside thought you were D'hal, so at least she couldn't leave." the lalafell said, raising one hand. "Maybe she's sleeping."
"Or just being stubborn," D'hein said, putting his hand to the door and turning the knob. It opened easily. "The door is only locked from the inside," he explained, pushing the door inward and stepping in with a shout, "D'ahl! I've brought company! Let-" he cringed after he realized the tingling sensation in his eyes was something he needed to care about. He ducked his head against the light that the mirrors were collecting from the far room and throwing into his face. It was far bright than the outdoors had been.
Antimony brought up a hand to shield her eyes, pupils contracting until they nearly disappeared. She couldn't keep herself quiet any longer and called out pleadingly, "Aijeen? Are you in there?"
Squinting, Ulanan commented jokingly: "I was wondering where all the funds for this door had gone to."
From inside of the apartment, a gravely, bitter woman's voice said, "In what small wisdom Nald invested in you, D'hein, tell me you did not bring the crone to my home."
"No, just some friends," D'hein answered, stepping in and gesturing for Antimony and Ulanan to follow him, "Come along. If she hasn't told us to leave yet then it's good as an invitation!"
Wincing at the choice of words and having no doubt as to whom the woman referred, Antimony hesitated at the door a moment before anxiously stepping after D'hein. She found her voice failing her in that moment and so simply followed in silence.
Ulanan did the same.
"Silence is not  synonymous with an invitation, D'hein!"
"And yet you still did not tell us to leave," D'hein said happily, pointing playfully at a random mirror he imagined D'ahl was watching him through. His finger bounced off of it.
"Watch the mirrors!"
He walked down the main hallway, knowing it turned left at some point and hoping he would be able to judge it, even with the blinding light and the mirrors positioned to deliberately confuse. "I think you're curious about my friends and want to meet them!"
The woman growled from deep in the apartment, "I request that you all leave immediately."
Following D'hein proved more difficult than Antimony had initially expected; she had to keep almost on top of him so as not to lose him in the confusion of mirrors. Her ears gave an unhappy shake at the disembodied voice, but she forced herself to straighten in the chaos of light and reflection and call out, "I am not leaving until I have spoken with my daughter."
"We apology for the offense, irrupting in your chamber is rather unsavory." Ulanan said, gazing across the mirrors. "But as you might imagine, our purpose is quite urgent."
"Left here," muttered D'hein, turning and finding himself face-to-face with himself, remembering D'ahl's earlier advice to not walk into one's own face. "Actually," he turned and walked on a few more steps and tried again, "Left here." Success! He was looking down a hallway that was glowing like the surface of water on all sides, but there was a definite openness and mirrors that showed slightly less confusing images down a ways.
In many of the mirrors he could see himself, and Ulanan. In twice as many mirrors he could see Antimony, though half the time she was wearing her dress properly and the other half she seemed old and unadorned. Trick of the mirrors.
D'ahl's voice came from the ethereal openness at the end of the mirrored hall, "Do you suddenly want your daughter, crone? D'aijeen isn't here."
"Not here?" She breathed out, "Not here??" And spun around, found herself staring at a dozen or more fragmented images, the path they'd taken in lost completely. "No... no, no, she can't--Aijeen! Please, listen to me!"
Ulanan felt the sudden urge to explain things to the unsympathetic disembodied voice at the end of the hall. "D'aijeen thretened to run away with her sister if her mother didn't comply with a certain demand." She blinked at the well-dressed Antimony in one of the mirrors, and then at the one who was actually at her side. "She's come to speak with her daughter, and you can't deny her that."
"I can't provide that, either. The girl isn't here."
D'hein kept up the pace, "Then you know where she's gone!" Reaching the end of the hall, he looked around, but all he saw were Ulanans, D'heins, older Antimonys and young well-dressed Antimonys, some more realized than others.
The most realized image of the well-dressed Antimony suddenly stepped forward and smacked D'hein across the face with very un-Antimony strength, "I'm tired of you butting in to my relationships! Aijeen's an adult!"
"When--when did she leave?" Antimony spun back around, found it somewhat easier to distinguish reflection from reality in this new hall but still no less headache inducing. The slap she saw replicated a dozen times over and winced at it before snapping, "She is not an adult! She never even passed her trial!" Drawing up her courage, she marched forward, hoping her assessment of the hallway was correct, and glared at what she hoped was the real D'ahl. It was a little disconcerting looking at herself but not. "Tell me where my daughter is."
Donning an unkind smile, D'ahl mimicked Antimony's voice with uncanny accuracy, "My baby girl passed the Dodo tribe's test with no problems. She's all grown up now and can whatever she wants! I'm so proud."
D'hein snapped at her, "D'ahl, stop that!"
Antimony's hands balled into fists at her sides, her ears lying flat against the sides of her head. "You are not her mother. You're an evil that has burrowed its way into her mind! Tell me where she is."
There was a mocking noise coming from Ulanan. Her lalafellin hearing was better at distinguishing the voices of the two women apart, though the reminiscence had confused her at first. She tried to not look impressed. "That settles the matter of where D'aijeen got that kind of ideas." she added.
"No it does not," said D'hein, stepping between D'ahl and Antimony. "If you both go into this assuming the other is evil we're not going to get along very well, are we?"
"I'm not her mother," the fake Antimony said, continuing to imitate the other's voice and ignoring the Tia, "As much as I'd like the job, it seems there's no opening. She's using me for a game, and yet, I'm still a better mother."
"Don't you dare," Antimony hissed, flinching at the words nonetheless. She did not want to believe them; they couldn't possibly be true. Even if D'aijeen hated her, this other woman was not... could not just... replace her. Right?
Ulanan huffed. She was standing beside Antimony. "D'aijeen has threatened to leave with her sister and never let her see their real mother again, despite what that one wishes." she tried again. "Who is the best mother or not is hardly the issue."
"Of course it's the issue," D'ahl turned her back on them and meandered into the room, where satin furniture, red by shining almost white, was visible. "If half of what I've heard about the witch of the Sagolii is true, I wouldn't want to be her daughter either."
Ulanan hurried to object to that. "If that is so, then why is her other daughter happy with it?"
The words still hurt, no matter how much she did or did not believe in them. Antimony looked away briefly, but found herself blinking at her own reflection and so forced herself to turn back to D'ahl. "You have no reason to think any of it true. You know nothing of what you speak," she managed in a low tone. "If you had any care at all for Aijeen, you would tell me where she's gone."
Her voice giving way to its gravely, low default, D'ahl looked over her shoulder and said, "I've not met K'airos so I can't say about her motivation. But I know that if you're getting between them, you have no heart for D'aijeen at all. Me, I just want you to go away forever, so I can continue filling this role in D'aijeen's life."
"D'ahl, you’re being immature. Nobody here is deliberately hurting anyone." D'hein turned to Antimony and said, "Tell D'ahl what happened. I'm sure she has no idea."
"What happened... when?" Antimony's tail flicked behind her in confusion. Her expression twisted back into a glare at D'ahl, "This sick trick you've been playing on my daughter - it must stop! She came to me yesterday and--and almost... she said I did not love her if I wouldn't do inappropriate things with her! This is your fault, so you will tell me where my daughter has gone!"
"That, yes! Exactly!" D'hein said, nodding, forgetting for a moment to be somber. When he remembered, he shrank back.
"I have done nothing!" D'ahl countered, spinning around and cutting the air with a gesture that highlighted her intimidating strength. "This was never my intention! I would... what? She what?"
"You heard me," her voice shook. "You cannot play games with my daughter and expect... nothing to come of... tell me where she is! Please." And then, in a smaller voice, "Before I lose them both."
Ulanan looked between the three miqo'te, settling her eyes on D'hal. She said nothing, though.
D'ahl looked at the mirrors around her, to either side, above, as if searching for some queue, quiet.
D'hein chose this time to speak up, managing a heard by sympathetic tone. "D'ahl, I warned you that you couldn't go on like this. Aijeen is so emotionally turned around that she can't manage her relationships, and so are you."
"Be silent, D'hein Tia!" D'ahl pulled the fake glasses from her face and through them at the floor, where the glass cracked audibly, "This is a deception! Aijeen would not... It's just a game between she and I! She said that! She wouldn't just... try to replace me!"
Antimony's tail bristled and her voice took on a shrill pitch, "That doesn't matter right now! What matters is where my daughter has gone!"
"And you will be silent in my home as well!" D'ahl snapped at Antimony, then turning away from her and walking to a nearby chair, where she sat down and leaned her hands on her forehead. "Do not lie. That is not something Aijeen would do. That's between she and I. She and I and no one else."
For several moments, Antimony practically vibrated with pent up, distressed energy. Then in a sudden burst, she pushed past D'hein and stomped right up to where D'ahl sat, taking ahold of one of the woman's wrists to pull it down from her face. The grip was firm but not painful. "I would never lie about my own children! You've broken something in my Aijeen and I demand you help me fix it!"
D'ahl replied swiftly, "It was D'aijeen's idea for me to pretend to be you. I found the idea disturbing until I noticed how sad she was. I'm already fixing what I can."
"You are not." Ulanan interjected with her grumpy voice. "You are perpetuating it. I will not speculate why, but if you truly want to help you must let them both meet and settle this matter."
"You don't know where she is, do you," Antimony whispered, dropping her hand from D'ahl's wrist to let it dangle limp at her side.
Huffing at the insistence of those who beset her, D'ahl muttered, "You know, I asked if I could be her mother. She said no. She said D'hein could be her dad because her real dad was dead, but her mom was still alive, so, no little girl for D'ahl. Just some stupid sex game."
The woman sat forward, "But when said that -- she said that she still had a mom -- all I heard was her telling me as best she could: if I ever want a daughter, I need to kill the Sagolii witch."
In all the flickering light of the mirrors, the flick of the knife was like a drop of water in a rainstorm. D'ahl was rusty to have let even that much slip, the retired assassin of the Dodoes flipping the four-inch blade out of her pocket and throwing it at Antimony's chest with the same casual slight-of-hand someone might use to cheat at a card game.
D'ahl's words didn't make much sense to Antimony at first, though they tolled ominously in her skull. She managed a step back in uncertainty before the hidden blade was let loose and the words' meaning chased the color from her skin. She made to stumble back further, as though that would do any good - and luckily for Antimony, it actually did. Rather than bury itself into her chest to tear through lung or, even worse, heart, Antimony felt a very sudden and sharp pressure in her shoulder, followed by a cold, lancing numbness down her arm. She blinked rapidly in shock at the sensation.
Ulanan was already reaching for her wand as soon as the word "kill" had been uttered. Her reaction to the hostility was equally violent: she let loose a quick concussive clump of unaspected aether that, she hoped, would hit D'hal's head and not her shoulder.
D'hein Tia had, once or twice in his life, encountered a situation of incredible violence. Never before, though, had he been unsure of how to feel or react. Intellectually, he knew that the situation was simple. Shamefully, his hand did not move to his scepter, though, even as he felt an eager fire spell flick to his fingertips with a dull warmth.
Ulanan saved him from the indecision. No sooner had D'hein realized the need to act then the mirrors around him were suddenly alight with the Lalafel's spell.
It seemed D'ahl had underestimated the Lalafel's abilities as well. The aether knocked her back, chair clattering to one side and slamming into the mirrored wall. D'ahl hit the ground and rolled to her feet, her shoulder blades landing against mirrors that in the next moment were shattered by the overflow of the Lalafel's attack.
D'ahl clutched at her head and hung as though from string against the wall, fragments of glass falling about her.
Antimony could see the hilt of the knife out of the corner of her vision, and that was more than enough to make her weak-kneed. Instinctively, she turned away from the ripple of heat from Ulanan's blast, but the action shifted the blade in her shoulder, so very quickly she went very still. Then she was on the floor, on her knees, unsure how she got there but D'ahl didn't look like she was about to throw anymore knives at people. At least she hoped not; she didn't want Ulanan to get hurt.
The lalafel did not waste time to prepare another spell, the air chilling swiftly around her before she let it loose. This time the purpose was to hold the miqo'te against the wall.
With a clatter of glass, D'ahl launched herself to one side. She hit the side wall with enough force to clack the mirrors there, and the ice of Ulanan's spell, rushing in to fill the spot on the wall that she'd vacated, broke the mirror's all the more. As the reflective network that D'ahl had assembled crumbled, the confusing veil of it did as well. In a transition so brief as to have been an instant, the ephemeral tunnels were just walls and rooms with cheap mirrors on the walls, no more confusing than simple decorations.
D'ahl did throw more knives, two at Ulanan while she skirted the room with incredible speed, heading behind them.
D'hein flicked his fingers and the warmth of the waiting spell was gone. He wanted to yell at D'ahl, to yell at everyone, but what could he say to convey his meaning? No, he dashed forward to Antimony and dropped over her, lending her support. His skills were not medicinal or healing, though, so he could take no useful action.
She could feel a wetness seeping into and down the fabric around her shoulder, which Antimony knew would be blood, but the woman found herself far more captivated - or was that horrified? Yes, probably horrified - by the combat between Ulanan and D'ahl, who wasn't as subdued as she'd previously thought. She sagged a bit against D'hein's arms. D'ahl had tried to kill her. D'ahl was trying to kill Ulanan? "Help her!"
Two pieces of paper flew off from the inside of Ulanan's white robe and intercepted the daggers. At the same time they were hit, they inflated to the size and shape of a round small head and promptly burned down, their purpose done. The daggers fell to a few ilms before the lalafell, who raised her wand and shaped the aether in front of her like a wall, facing D'hal.
"I'm sorry," D'hein said in answer to Antimony. "I can't hurt D'ahl."
The homicidal doppleganger did not linger, turning instead and shooting for the door with the same speed she'd boasted a moment before. Apparently being locked in wasn't much an impediment to her, as every mechanism on the door -- hinges, lock, and even the latch itself -- collapsed under her hands within moments. The door was thrown outward, falling into the hall, and D'ahl was gone.
Ulanan released her magic wall, reforming the remaining aether into various but very weak shards of ice that propelled uselessly towards the exit and outside the room. "What kind of woman has MORE THAN A DAGGER In HER CLOTHES?" she shouted even more uselessly. Then she turned to Antimony, then to D'hein and grimaced. "Your tribe is horrible!"
Antimony first tried to twist to watch D'ahl's exit, but went limp as the action transformed the icy numbness down her arm into a biting pain. She could feel more blood than she remembered a moment ago and muttered a low, "Needs pressure." Tears came inexplicable and unbidden to her eyes. "Aijeen's gone.."
D'hein met Ulanan's grimace apologetically, groaning, "I'm trying to make it better," and then looking down at Antimony, he cringed, "Pressure? On what? I'm not putting pressure on the knife. It'll just go further in."
"Mom!" The unexpected voice of D'aijeen was suddenly nearby.
One of D'hein's ears perked up, and then his head snapped up. As he watched, a mirrored panel that had been set off near a corner, like a piece of art on display, swung to one side and a green-swathed form emerged from what seemed like a reflective doorway. Actually, it was a doorway. It was a door made of mirrors. D'ahl's apartment was just very confusing.
The girl moved quickly and decisively towards the injured woman. "Get away from my mother, D'hein Tia!"
Ulanan was confused by the green haired girl that was suddenly in the room. She did not let go her wand and suddenly she had to worry about daggers and spells. She chose not to say anything, instead getting closer to them, but not much.
The familiar voice brought both wrenching pain and incomparable joy to Antimony - though at least some of that pain was due to her body jerking up in a desperate need to search for that voice's source. She didn't have to go far, or go anywhere at all, though, and the relieved, almost giddy smile she gave her daughter was drawn tight with pain. "Aijeen. Aijeen, you're... you're here. You're not gone. You're here...!"
D'aijeen literally kicked D'hein. "I said move, Tia!"
"But your mother is-"
"I can help and you cannot! And you do not have my blessing to touch her!"
"Let her." the lalafel said, eyes half-closed. "Keep an eye at the door in case your friend decides to turn around and come back."
"Aijeen," Antimony repeated shakily and reached out with the arm that wasn't a disturbing combination of numb and on fire. "I thought you'd gone. I thought you'd left me forever."
D'hein finally letting himself be essentially knocked out of the way, D'aijeen dropped down next to her mother and said, "I was just hiding. Now stop expelling energy and lay on your back so that I can close your wound. I will be using magic and you will not be objecting, understand?"
"Magic. How...?" For half a second, she thought of the kinds of magic she'd caught her daughter practicing in the past, and that was a terrifying thought. But no. She could no more fathom the thought of her daughter trying to kill her (hadn't she already though, even if only for a minute?) than she could stop seeking her out. Green eyes wide, pupils dilated from more than just the diminished light in the room, Antimony complied and laid on her back. She couldn't hold back the grimace as the blade jostled in her shoulder, but she kept her gaze on D'aijeen as though transfixed.
"I've studied conjury, thaumaturgy, and the shamanic arts of the Sagolii, if you might recall. Now, please understand that I'm only doing this out of kindness." She leaned over her mother, pressed down on her with one hand and with the other ripped the knife from her shoulder.
Antimony had dealt with a number of huntresses returning as victims of hunting accidents over her lifetime, but injuries to other people hadn’t quite prepared her for the flash of excruciating pain as D'aijeen removed the knife. She gave a rather embarrassing shout, squeezing her eyes shut as her limbs flexed in a whole body response to the fire radiating from her shoulder. Without the blade serving as a minimal but still present block, blood began to seep freely, and the sensation was a strange overlay to the pain. "I never questioned your talent, Aijeen," she managed after a moment. "Always... always so smart."
At Antimony's cry, D'hein cringed where he stood in the hallway
While mother and daughter exchanged words, Ulanan had time to think and conclude that if D'aijeen wished to kill Antimony, she would have done so before announcing herself in the room. She was about to turn to face the door, but then a new suspicion grew in her mind. She looked at D'hein, to make sure he was watching the door, then at D'aijeen, this time to make sure she was really curing her mother.
The cry didn't help her impression.
D'aijeen paused with the bloodied knife in her hand, took a quick breath and exhaled indignation, "Well perhaps if you had said things such as that a bit more often and spent less time criticizing, you could have learned something from me."
Reaching into her green robe, the quintessential white clothes worn beneath, D'aijeen produced a simple want between them and forefinger and a number of small tribal fetishes that dangled from her other fingers. "We'll take care of the pain and bleeding first and then put your body to work on the hard part."
Antimony felt very faint then, as though she were floating, and when she spoke her lips tingled but she managed the words, "It was only ever about what you used your talent for, Aijeen."
"I think there should be more healing and less remembering the past at this moment." Ulanan urged.
"I am working on it, Lalafel," D'aijeen said. She worked quickly once she'd begun, holding the fetishes over the wound to draw out the pain as though she were drawing out poison. She cringed slightly as she did so, the small items bleeding pain into her fingers, and the pain quickly found its place in D'aijeen's shoulder to mirror what her mother was feeling. Carrying dolls and crafting idols was not something D'aijeen had ever had patience for; her own body would suffice for most practical uses that conjury could not supplement.
Before she'd pulled out too much pain to compromise her own concentration and dexterity, D'aijeen whipped the fetishes away and called up a spell of healing through her wand. The energy of the spell supplemented that of her mother's body, stimulating the clotting that would close the wound and knitting it shut on its surface. It was quick work, but it would stop the bleeding.
Finally, she gave Antimony's body a head-start on deep healing, closing the gaps in blood vessels damaged nerves and helping the tattered halves of frayed tissue find one another, giving them enough to just barely hold themselves together.
"There. It is nothing special. Do not mistake me for a miracle-worker merely because I am wise."
As D'aijeen's magic leeched back out of her body, leaving behind only a significantly dulled ache, Antimony breathed an unsteady sigh and sought her daughter with her opposite arm once more. She rested her hand on the closest part of D'aijeen she could reach and then just shut her eyes, breathing in the scent of her through the lingering copper of blood.
Closer to what once had been a confusing mirror corridor, Ulanan poked D'hein. "Do you think D'hal will interrupt this meeting by coming back soon or sending other tribe members here?"
"I really don't have any idea," D'hein answered the Lalafel. "I've never seen this behavior from D'ahl before. I don't know what she'll do."
Taking enough time to pocket the fetishes and wand, and D'ahl's knife, D'aijeen stood away from Antimony and turned to walk towards the hall that led out, "Please take respectable care of my mother, D'hein Tia. I need to find D'ahl."
When her daughter stepped away, Antimony's eyes shot open and she made to force herself up, ignoring the protest from her shoulder. "Aijeen, no--please... please don't go! Please don't leave, don't... take Airos away."
Ulanan figured getting in the way of D'aijeen currently was a bad idea. She stepped back to give her enough space to go by her.
D'hein stepped forward, "D'aijeen, we came here to talk to you. You can't run away from how you've been behaving."
"Neither can D'ahl," the green-haired girl ran into D'hein shoulder-first, then rotated and slipped her tiny body around him to continue towards the exit. "She hurt my mother. I'm going to find her and make sure she knows where she stands. This will never happen again."
"Just tell me you're not going to disappear," Antimony begged.
"I don't think I could if I wanted to!" D'aijeen called as she slipped out the doorway, her shivering green tail the last thing to vanish.
Antimony slumped at that, head bowed, and just went silent.
"We should leave." Ulanan said once the green girl was out of the room. "Can you walk, Antimony?"
There was a few seconds' pause and then the older woman nodded, speaking quietly, "With... some assistance. I feel a bit woozy."
"I feel a bit like a failure as a man and a father," D'hein said, looking at himself in a mirror across the hall. "Maybe I should go find D'ahl as well. Or Aijeen. Or... K'airos?"
Ulanan punched D'hein in the leg, in a weird playful yet-not-really way. "One step at a time, sir. Help Antimony get out of the commune and to the inn."
"Ah! Alright. I suppose that would be the gentlemanly thing to do." He took a half-second to shake his hair out and straighten his ears, neither attempt at grooming doing any good. He then went to help Antimony, standing on her non-wounded side and putting his hand around her waist.
Antimony stood with his help, looking rather pale but at least no longer bleeding and supposedly on the mend. She casts a strained but apologetic look to Ulanan.
"Should I follow D'aijeen?" Ulanan asked. "I don't know how attentive your tribe is to lone lalafells roaming in their gardens."
"I don't want you getting hurt," D'hein answered, urging Antimony towards the door. "Both D'ahl and D'aijeen are capable of being dangerous, and at least one of them is dangerous right now, for whatever mad reason got into her head!"
"I will carefully circumvent confrontation. I will strictly stalk them to see if they steer me into K'airos."
"Just be careful, Ulanan," Antimony sighed, glancing towards the door her daughter had fled through. "I... think I trust her not to leave, for now."
The lalafell nodded. "Oschon will guide my steps away from loud things." She adjusted her cowl and quickly left the room in what had to be the sneakiest pursuit she would ever do.
"People like Aijeen and K'airos can't just quit their lives, so I'm sure you're right." D'hein's tone turned quiet, and he muttered to himself, "Hopefully D'ahl cannot either."
![[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
