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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 3:50 pm
And now she had a tagalong. Reaching down, she lifted the little elf into her arms and pressed a finger to her lips to signal for silence. "Shh, Dhairiss, we're playing a game." It always worked with the younger Inthara girl and children seemed to really like games.
Before he could respond to his friend, Malik was in his face and Zykariel merely glared. Resentment sparked to life in his eyes and he shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant, uncaring way. "Fine." Yes, he was still having issues with authority. Heading down the basement steps slowly, he waited to see what was going on next.
"Really?" Her face lit up at that prospect and she gave her father a grin as she hugged the book tighter to her chest. He had no idea how much that meant to her, to have one of her father's books that she'd looked at hundreds of times, carefully turning the pages lest one be ripped or dirtied. "I practiced everyday just like I was supposed to. Well, except for a few times when something else was going on. But Master Tyy said I'm doing very well and he said I must have a really good teacher, too." Giving him a shy little grin. "Daddy, boys are silly. Mykorian and I saw lots of really cool things, though. Do you think....he could come live with us, maybe?"
"But the truth of it is, he deserves a pretty bad fate, Piper. I know Malik will always take it easy on him but I also know how protective he is of his family. Zykariel was willing to give yours up to protect his own. Malik is not likely to react too kindly to that knowledge." She'd already spoken to him about the past events and seen him after his father had wiped the floor with him. Sevilin hadn't been the same since then and she had seen the beginnings of true rebellion brimming in her son's heated gaze. "I'm supposed to stay in bed for a bit." Shaking her head. "The elf that came and tried to invade...he killed my baby."
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 4:48 pm
A few blinks at her and twitching his ears he covered his mouth with his hands and nodded. Another blink though and his whispered quietly. "What we playing?"
Well, if he wasn't happy before he wasn't now indeed. His father upon coming home had gone dictator mode. Perhaps trips away from home weren't good for the man at all, thus he frowned and trudged his way downstairs as Zykariel relented and stalked down them.
"You have the best teacher." Yes he thought highly of himself in that regard, it was his one area of himself he perhaps did. He grinned lightly as she decided this week that boys were silly. He did miss his girls and he was glad to have them home...admittedly he was going to use them as a distraction as well from boy troubles though a blink down at her. "Faatallon, he's not like some animal you find in the underdark."
She held up a hand defensively, "He's your son Zahara, you're the one who decides when too far is too far." Nodding though, she understood the severity but at the same time...children never understood the type of loyalty they were all entwined in here. They looked out for their families. Though it was a sheer look of horror and sympathy that cross her features at the news Zahara gave her. "He...killed Kelligrin?" That was not nice news to come home to. It made eveything that much worse.
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 4:57 pm
Malik walked them down past the study, and further down to the cells that housed those that were probably better off dead or wishing they were. And marching down to room twelve, and turning to both boys.
"I know what has gone on in my absence, Zykariel. So I think you need to see what happens to those that betray my house and home. Malikhai, this is more for you to understand the severity of your friends actions. This is a place that I don't want to see either of you coming to. either as enforcer, or the one to suffer the punishment."
glancing at them both, before opening the door, to squishing sounds that malik knew all to well, but the boys probably weren't familiar with.
"Broog, come out of there."
Broog grunted and stepped out...and looked nothing like the Broog the boys knew. this was a dangerous, violently angry broog. and he looked as is someone had thrown blood at him in buckets. he moved to the wall, and turned around, standing in lpace with his breaker hammer at the ready.
Malik motioned to both boys.
"Meet Gizdean Kix."
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:16 pm
Kaelin thought for a moment and then whispered back. "The Secret game. Your mommy is telling your aunt a secret and we have to find out what it is so we have to listen really closely and be real quiet, okay?" Her arms tightened on him slightly at the words that were coming through the door. Obviously it was Zykariel who was in the most trouble.
"Well, I know that but it's nice to know that he does, too." She returned his smile and gave him a hug then stepped back and frowned. "I know that, Daddy. But he's lost his parents and Galesen is moving back to Andal. He doesn't have anywhere else to go."
He was wishing for any attempt whatsoever to flee. He didn't want to be down here, didn't want to see anything that was going on. Sure, it wasn't quite the stigma from his youth when they were forbidden but this time he was coming down here with a different mindset. Frowning at Malik, he followed and then averted his eyes. Nope, not wanting to see this. He stepped a bit closer to Malikhai in old habit as well.
"I'm just afraid if we're too lenient on him this time, he won't understand the severity and end up getting himself killed next time. Or worse." Taking a deep breath, she glanced up into the pitying eyes of her best friend and shook her head, trying to keep the tears at bay. "No, but I wouldn't put it past the b*****d. Shortly after you left....I found out I was pregnant. Then he showed up and used some kind of magic and it..." Another shake of her head. "My baby boy...we had just communed with him."
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:33 pm
The further they went of course the more uncomfortable he was feeling. A look to his friend though as they walked...he wasn't quite in the know of what was going on or how it had something to do with Zykariel...had he gone and done something stupid? Of course eyes widened slightly at the sight of Broog and of course he looked to where his father motioned. Only to promptly avert his eyes and step toward Zykariel as he was doing hte same, the two bumping into each other and staying as thus in old habits of comfort. Ugh, he suddenly felt nauseous.
He rested his head against the door at her words, listening as well or at least trying to. He wasn't quite sure what was going on but he was trying to play as best as he could.
"Malik will probably want him to stay here then. Why do you think he should live with us?" Shifting his weight to one side as he stood there watching his daughter, knowing quite well that she was about ot make a case of some sorts.
"Zahara, I'm so sorry..." Well she did have a sorry to say in the matter, seeing as her House was the immediate cause of such a thing. Pulling her friend into a hug, she pet at the woman's hair some in comforting fashion as she knew well it hurt Zahara much more than it appeared. And now with that was happening with Zykariel, she couldn't be feeling too well. "But everyone else was okay?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:25 pm
Malik grabbed Zykariel by the arm, adn drug him inside the cell, at what looked like an elf in some form but was whimpering lightly, bloody broken but still hadn't said a word since being thrown in.
"Look at him!"
holding Zykariel.
"You betrayed my House, my family, by giving away information. I understand your reasons, I know what you were trying to do. But the outcome coudl have been much worse then it was."
turning the boy to look at him, lifting his face to lock eyes with him.
"you cost your family a son. Not becuase you didn't think about your actions, but because you didn't think about whom you were dealing with. If anything like this occurs again. if I hear anything about you giving information out that can be used like this, You'll be the one looking like him."
letting Zykariel go, and looking at his oldest.
"I'm showing this to you becuase these are decision you will have to make someday. And I want you to see the type of person that I condemn to this fate. I want you to see what they go through, so that you won't use this judgment lightly."
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:42 pm
That resentment was steadily building and he took a swing at Malik as he was grabbed. He was sick and tired of being manhandled and his nose rubbed in his mistake. "I didn't tell them anything they couldn't have gotten from another source." Shoving the other elf off and glancing down at the elf before him. "Do you honestly think that this is going to mean more to me than my mom's pain? Then you don't know me at all." Another shake of his head. "This is your fault! These people are from your ******** homeland. And because you ******** up back there my mom was hurt. So I handled it wrong. But you weren't here to handle it."
She knew he didn't understand, but she hadn't intended for him to. It was important that he didn't know what was going on. She listened in, heard what she needed, and stood back up. "I got it, Dhairiss. We won. Come on, let's go play in your room."
Because Mykorian wants to be with people that he knows care about him. And I do. Lyssie does, too. And Mama will..."
That hug communicated more to Zahara than a thousand apologies ever could. "Everyone else is fine. I was going crazy hoping that the girls were alright because if they weren't, I really think I would have lost it. As far as I know, the elf responsible is downstairs. Or what's left of him..." Because Sevilin had been down there and she knew how angry he was over the miscarriage. "I feel awful, though. I should have died instead, Piper. Sevilin forced me to stop. The magical guards just weren't strong enough."
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:57 pm
He almost fell over when Zykariel was pulled away but a little stumbling made him stay on his feet and he was left to try to quickly piece together what had been going on. None of it sounded good either, and he wasn't sure how to take it all. He certinaly didn't like where his father was going with this, he knew that much.
Malikhai puffed himself up a little as his father turned his attention back to him. "You've made me kill people, you've made me see things I've never wanted, learn things I probably shouldn't know. You're too afraid of what you used to be to even commune with me...and yet you drag me down here to show me this, to speak as you want. How can you possibly be more afraid to show your son your past than what you set as an example in the present."
He respected his father, yes. He emulated his father, he strove to be like his father in aspects....but his father had also told him that he couldn't walk in his shadow forever. Malikhai was having one of those moments. "Don't be so sure I'll follow and use all that you leave to me." This is the part where he should walk off...but he wasn't going to leave Zykariel there and Zykariel apparently had a lot to say on the subject.
He blinked. "I didn't....does that mean I lose?" Pouting as he was carried off and he more or less directed her to the nursery.
"He barely knows us." But that would be a weak opinion in her eyes. "Look...I'll talk to your mother, alright?" Placating her for now, trying to ignore bond twinges at the same time. What with things were at the moment, he didn't know if he wanted anyone new in his space.
Piper sighed lightly and pulled away, brushing Zahara's hair out of her face. "Do you know what me and Malik have talked about. If I ever got pregnant again...and it caused more harm than good that if he had to choose, he would always choose me over the baby. That's how men think Zahara, when they truly love you and can't stand to lose you. A child, while that specific one can never be truly replaced...you can have another child. But they can never replace you if you are lost to them. It may sound wrong in some way...but at the same time you have to accept that it makes sense." Shaking her head lightly, "Sevilin would be lost without you."
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:15 pm
A look between both boys.
"You don't know what your talking about, Zykariel. So I'll let your insults slide. You know nothing of Norrath, or how Neriak works. This was a warning to you, nothing more or less, and I want it to sink in. Your father, and your mother, owe thier allegiance to my House. as do you. which means if this happens again, and I decide to throw you in one of these rooms, there's nothing that they will do to stop me."
before looking at his oldest.
"'And you...you don't know what you speak of either. You don't know how I got the title that was thrown at you by that koada'dal at the tournament, and I don't want you to know it. And I told you on Andal you would get what you ask for. back upstairs, the both of you. Broog...take care of this. keep it alive, I believe Zahara has the right to see him for herself."
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:35 pm
And there they went treating him like an ignorant child once again. Just because he'd screwed up didn't mean he needed to be given milk and cookies and patted on the head. "You think. I already know what you think." Shrugging both of them off in a symbolic gesture and taking the stairs two at a time. He didn't want to think about the piece of flesh lying down there or what it meant. He just wanted....something. Twisting around the corner, he hit a brick wall and was knocked back on his a**.
"Okay." It might or might not work but that was better than a flat out "no." She was counting on her mom's sympathetic gene to allow Mykorian to stay with them. But then she jerked as something popped up and hit her father. Glancing down, she recognized her brother and immediately mauled him with hugs. "Kariel! I missed you!"
She gently swept his hair out of his eyes and shook her head. "We were on the same team. Did you hear any secrets, Dhairiss?"
"But that doesn't mean the same thing to us. We who have the baby inside of us and feel him move and share our life energy, our food, and our reverie. It's different for us and they don't understand that. I'd give my life in an instant for any of my children or Sevilin. And he would do the same thing." Sighing and resting her head on Piper's shoulder. "I want my sons back. Both of them. Zykariel hasn't been the same and Sevilin doesn't know how to deal with this."
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:59 pm
And Zykariel was even shrugging him off, great. Here he thought coming home was going to be a good thing and he was half tempted to go find his mother and curl up in her lap like he was three again. He didn't like it at all when things were like this with his father. It hurt. "There's no point in doing it, if you don't want me to know it anyway. You know how those things work...if you can't trust each other to know it all, it doesn't even work." Part of him wanted to beat the crap out of his pseudo-brother who seemed to be the center of all of this, but that wouldn't help solve anything either. Giving a frustrated noise and he headed back upstairs as well but not all the way as he detoured into the arena area.
Faate, don't hug on him too much, he hasn't been feeling well." He meanwhile was watching his son sprawled on the floor...he hadn't seen the boy much at all in the last week. It was quite the common knowledge that they were avoiding each other. And yet...as guilty as he felt, as angry as he was, there was that something in the boy's eyes at this moment that read more than anger to Sevilin. Left over from childish days of tantrums with reasons that ran far deeper than just being angry. "Faate, why don't you go put that book in my room, and find your sister. She hasn't mauled my ankles yet." Said as he was reaching down to help Zykariel up.
He opened his mouth as if he had something to say then swiftly closed it and shook his head back and forth. "But I still win." Beaming happily at that before pointing to a tub of clay on a nearby shelf. "Open please?"
"That's true, but we can't be them and they can't be us...so we both have to just try and compensate and compromise in unspoken ways." Such was the complicated way of such relationships. "I'm not surprised neither of them are themselves. Zykariel has to deal with what he's done and Sevilin has to act in Malik's stead when we're away. Which means he has to do all the hard things. But...everything can only get so bad before it gets better, right?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 8:16 pm
She blinked up at her father and then down at her brother and caught that unspoken communication going on between them. "Okay..." Obviously this as another of those grown up talk times that she wasn't allowed to be present for. Releasing her brother, she held the book and scampered off.
He took the hand, regaining his feet and then simply stood there glancing down at them. The urge to cry was almost overwhelming but he couldn't do it in front of his father. Or maybe he could. He didn't know where he stood with the older elf anymore. Without his normal control, a wet spot appeared on his father's boot. "I know it's cowardly but I don't want to end up like him."
"You sure do." She gave him a smile and took the tub, tugging it open for him and then handing him a nice mound of it. "What are you going to make, Dhairiss?" Taking a bit for herself and rolling it into a ball while she tried to think of what she wanted to sculpt.
"It just makes things hard and I know he feels guilty about taking the choice away. Just like he feels guilty over what he did to Zykariel." Sighing. "I just wish things could go back to the way they were when he was little and that boy believed his father could do no wrong. These days...it seems like all we ever do is wrong." Things getting worse, even knowing they'd eventually get better, did not appeal to Zahara right now at all. "Tell me when that is, Piper. I don't know how much more of this I can take."
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 8:44 pm
Malik followed after his son, and stopped him in the arena, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"It's not that I don't trust you, Malikhai. I'd trust you with my life, and I have, when I took you into that fight. I just...I don't want to shatter the way you see me. I don't want to see the look in your eyes, the pride that you show for me, to fade away if you see what I have done in my life."
A frown to his son.
"I've worked hard, with your mother's help, to close that chapter of my life. it's come back to haunt us once. I don't want to see it haunt you, and marr what you think of me."
A slight grin.
"But I promised you, that if you really wanted it, that I would do this with you. and I keep my promises. So it's up to you, son. do you want to or not?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:08 pm
A look down to the leather of his boot that was splashed with tears that the boy probably didn't want to shed them. He knew what Zykariel was talking about, seeing he had been down there and presumably with Malik. And no matter how much the boy may have hated him, or how guilty he felt about it all...what they had did run deep. They were all each other had for what had seemed like the longest time and some understandings came out clearer he supposed. "Come on." Resting a hand against the boy's back and leading him off to an unoccupied room, closing the door behind them. "I don't want you to end up like him either. I've been there." After all, he had gotten his share of such for stepping on the tail of loyalty and respect so to speak.
"Loyalty is a fine line, Zykariel...especially when you give yours to someone else's family other than just your own. It gets complicated...you have to learn to protect your family, and whomever you've pleadged your loyalty to. Being loyal to your family is never anything to be ashamed of...but when you're in a situation such as we are, you can't compromise one for the other. You can't save one because they are yours and in turn hand whom you're pledged to on a silver platter. You have to figure out how to serve both loyalties. Then you don't have to worry about ending up like him."
He didn't even know if the boy was listening but these days Sevilin didn't care if he was listening or not, the words were still put into the air for consideration. That said, he merely stepped out of the boy's way and opened the door, silently telling the boy he could huff off now if he wanted.
"Ever think you're doing a good job of shattering that image yourself with some of the things you do now?" His voice still tainted with defensiveness as he was trying to recover from his own hurt he was feeling. Far as Malikhai was concerned, his father was so concerned with his past messing up how his son regarded him that he didn't pay attention to what he was doing now. His mother lived with the demons of her husbands past but it seemed she was the only one allowed to even see those.
"No." That was all he said and he wasn't smiling despite his father's smile. It wasn't worth it in his opinon now...he had thrown a tantrum and gotten exactly what he wanted...but older now he understood that getting what you wanted from a tantrum was no way to earn something. "Don't worry about it, I won't ask anymore." His father was perfectly happy with him and Dhairiss without communion things. He was bonding with them, just at a slower pace. Malikhai was just afraid he was missing out on something. But not having everything never killed anybody.
"Tree Rat." Or that's what daddy called them. They were the furry things that ran up adn down the trees with a fluffy tail. And he was going about his best to recreate said creature to the best of his ability. Which was looking odd as he tried.
"What did he do to Zykariel?" This was just getting worse and worse the more they talked. "Someone has to make decisions though." But a light sigh, "That's what teenagers do, they rebel. They think they know everything and we're the one who are always wrong." Petting through her friend's hair though she smiled lightly. "It's different. Believe me, you'll know though."
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:19 pm
He was more grateful than he could ever express to his father for not making him feel worse for letting that tear escape and understanding the need for privacy to deal with his feelings. They didn't just go away; they festered. When he was finished, Zykariel slowly walked to that door and pushed it closed then paced back to the middle and lifted his hands in a helpless gesture.
"I didn't even know who she was at first. She was just a woman...different but not who I thought. Then there was this threat and I thought...I was doing the right thing. I thought I could trick them, give them what they would have found out if they'd gone anywhere and started asking but nothing that could really hurt the D'vinn's." Glancing at his father. "I never wanted anybody to get hurt. But it got out of hand and I couldn't stop it from doing so." His shoulders slumped again and he shook his head. "I really am sorry..."
"I think I'm going to make a flutterby." Her fingers took to molding the clay in a way that felt completely natural to her. She knew right where to shave and right where to plump, right where to round off an edge or a corner and how to create what she wanted. She didn't know how she knew...but she did. Glancing up at the attempt the child was making, she nodded. "Don't forget his tail, Dhairiss. Any good Tree Rat has to have a tail, right?"
"Beat him. It was harsh but it was needed. Zykariel has been walking around here acting as if he was one of the gods so Sevilin challenged him to a fight if he thought he was so big and bad. He lost, which we all knew he would and has been licking his wounds ever since. Meanwhile, Sevilin wanders around with this martyred look in his eyes and I know he's drowning in his guilt. With the miscarriage, I haven't been really up to doing anything and everything is just going wrong at every possible turn."
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