Meetings in the Wastes [Closed]

[Twinflame]

Standing very near Cypress, Megiddo spoke in a low tone. "Ulanan has left you in my care again, and I find it necessary to stop you. If you wish, you may think of this as betrayal."

 

"Hell with this!" K'ile sat up and took hold of Thal's collar, pulling himself off the ground and punching the man in the face with one smoldering fist. "I can burn you myself." Heat shot from his beneath the harness on his chest, out over his limbs and to his hands. The air curled around his fingers.

[Illira]

The roegadyn's head turned towards the old man's voice, "You are a fool to interfere," she proclaimed, bringing her hand up to the bindings that surrounded her upper body, flames rose from it, licking at the cloth as they tried to gain purchase.

[Naunet]

Thal's head snapped back from the force of the blow, and he swung out with his own fist in retaliation.

[Twinflame]

K'ile took a step back but hold himself to Thal by the man's shirt.

 

Megiddo then did a thing very rare. He moved, quickly, snapping around Cypress and lifting his leg to kick K'ile's arm upward, hard. An audible crack came from the Tia's bone as his grip broke and he fell backward, tumbling into the dirt. His body pulsed with palpable heat.

 

The Duskwight turned his gaze on Thal, "Take the girl on go," and pointed to where K'aijeen stood, stunned and agawk, limbs close to her broken form.

[Naunet]

Thal didn't bother questioning. He wasted only a moment to stare in frustration at K'ile on the ground before twisting towards D'aijeen and starting to run. He scooped her up on the way.

[Illira]

Cypress wriggled against the cloth binding that refused to catch fire and simply burn away as it should have. As these undead should have. Why it was not the custom in these southern cultures to cremate their dead, she did not understand. Her strong arms were not enough to break that which had wrapped itself around her. "There is no where they can go that I will not find find them," she spat out to the world.

[Twinflame]

The Tia on the ground writhed and clutched at his arm, groaning.

 

"Perhaps, but you will not be finding them again today." Megiddo paced around Cypress again, and the cloth loosened. Once Thal was on his way, Megiddo did not believe the blind woman would be able to catch him on her own. "I apologize, but while your pursuit of the girl has been informational to me, it is rather integral to my interests that you not succeed yet."

 

K'aijeen, curled against Thal as he carried her away, sobbed. She was more burned than ever now, her body seeming on the verge of falling apart. "I told you he'd kill me. She'd kill me. They all want to... I didn't do anything but they don't know."

[Illira]

She could breath easier, without the restriction of the cloth wrapping its way around her torso and arms, "Do not think you will find yourself welcome at my side again, Meggido."

[Twinflame]

"I never had use for welcome at your side, Cypress." The Duskwight smirked. "I sought to help you when it was permitted, but if you wish me gone, then I will leave you alone. Have a pleasant afternoon."

 

K'ile Tia finally sat up, holding one arm fast to his chest, shivering in obvious pain. Still, he glared at Thal's retreating back. "I hope the Amal'jaa... bah." He stood and turned toward Cypress, looking for the Duskwight he'd caught only a glance of. He was prepared to snap at him with words and violence, but the Duskwight was nowhere to be seen. Confused, K'ile turned his gaze about. "Where'd that old elezen go?"

[Naunet]

"Sorry, kiddo," Thal muttered. "I'm gonna get you outta here. Don't worry about that." He ran as fast as his undead legs could carry them, leaving K'ile, the burning roegadyn, and the old man behind.

[Illira]

Smoke escaped from her mouth as Cypress took in a deep breath, recognizing that her wrath served no purpose here now. She pulled her aether back into her center, the cracks and fissures along her skin which served as a manifestation of it slowly retreated back below the surface. Along her arm, where the elezen's knife had cut, there was no blood, only what looked to be a cauterized wound. "He is gone by his own sort of magic."

[Twinflame]

"Great. Everyone just ran off. The Lalafel too? What the heck." K'ile kept his arm pressed to his chest and paced in a circle, ears pinned down. "I ought to chase them down and finish them off. So much for helping the tribe, they're off into the desert! But not before they stole my shirt and broke my arm again."

[Illira]

"They will be found again with time. That does not worry me." Cypress looked out blankly in the man's general direction, "I am glad at least, to have perhaps found someone who understands that those died should stay dead."

[Twinflame]

"That shouldn't be rare." K'ile muttered sternly, his pacing stopping. "I had them chased out of Drybone by just suggesting they were dead. These people defending them must be after something. I don't even get why they're defending themselves."

[Illira]

Cypress shook her, "Its too personal to them. They refuse admit the truth of things themselves so that they may cling harder to the lies." She stopped speaking then, considering what she had heard the man say before, "You said... Your arm is broken, will it be alright?"

[Twinflame]

"I'll be fine if I can get to a healer. The shaman in my tribe can set it." K'ile gazed eastward. "I might need to return anyway. There's a force of Amal'jaa preparing to attack my tribe, and I need to ensure their peaceful surrender."

[Illira]

"I... hope you do not mind if I follow." Cypress says, her jaw tight as her head casts downward.

[Twinflame]

K'ile Tia looked the Roegadyn over. "The tribe hasn't lately taken kindly to outsiders... But I don't know if I'm jerk enough to leave a blind woman alone in the middle of the desert. Just don't tell them about K'aijeen and Thalen. Or the Amal'jaa. Or really anything that's happened."

[Illira]

She nods understanding, "I have no reason to go speak with this tribe of those things. I will warn you, that that may not matter... Most lowlanders do not enjoy my company under any circumstances it seems. I just do not wish to be alone in an unfamiliar place without a guide. It... has not been very long since I lost my sight."

[Twinflame]

"Eh... Sorry. That sounds pretty awful. You... uh... Hey!" K'ile took a quick few steps closer to the Roegadyn. "I'll tell you what. I'll let you follow me back to my tribe, and once my arm's fixed you can teach me that fire thing you were doing. Because I can do some things and I had plans to be able to do even more things but I don't think those plans are happening any more and that thing you were doing was impressive."

[Illira]

Cypress smiled a little bit at his enthusiasm, "What in particular did you wish to know? I will try my best to teach in it. Some of my own tribe liked to keep things close to their chest, but I would like the opportunity to spread our knowledge if I may. I have had little opportunity."

[Twinflame]

"Fireballs!" K'ile answered easily, then he took a few steps back. "My tribe's this way. We should start going so we can reach it before the Amal'jaa wipe it out. Oh, and that thing where you got hit in the face and fire came out of your head? Teach me that, too!"

[Illira]

Cypress shakes her head, chuckling slightly, "We will see." She steps towards his voice, "Do try to keep me from stepping in anything too terrible."