Welcome to Gaia! ::

Inside, n'Barit did not resurface for a long time, almost as long as he could stand, but Kirkcaldy was used to this. At least she could make herself more comfortable now. She laid down an the towel with her head on her arms and bit her lip. Sometimes she hated being patient, but with n'Barit, it was the most important virtue.

N'Barit finally came up with a gasp of air, splashing ungracefully, and went to the side of the tub. From here he could reach Kirkcaldy. He ran a wet hand over her hair. Kirkcaldy shivered at the warm water. "You're fine," he said. "No crying."

"Dyadiin," whined Kirkcaldy. She really did want to be crying. Only weeks of being trained not to held her back.

"Two minutes," he said, pushing back into the center of the tub. He quickly set about cleaning everything he had on him, the clothes he was wearing and himself. He didn't bother with the soaps yet. The important thing was spiritual cleansing. Once he was satisfied with his own purity, he set about taking care of Kirkcaldy.

N'Barit worked quickly and efficiently, if a bit roughly. Baths were not supposed to be relaxing in Yuulani culture. They were something strictly utilitarian, serving an important spiritual and practical purpose. Still, he enjoyed them. Before he could really relax, though, he needed to do something about his clothes.

The room was devoid of any clotheslines or drying racks. Gathering his and Kirkcaldy's wet things, he reattached his prosthetic leg (easy without pants on) and carefully hobbled to the door, opening it. "Hey, these need hanging--"

N'Barit just stood there, staring, shocked. Not only were the clothes dry, so was he. His shock was not at the fact that Lixxie possessed powers. He had grown up round people with powers. A girl at the Academy had air powers just like that. N'Barit had trained with her until she graduated a rotation before him. He was shocked because... Lixxie possessed powers.

Since leaving Yuul, n'Barit had met a lot of people with powers, humans among them, but none he identified as having a Tuulan nature. These powers did. It was like meeting a complete stranger wearing a t-shirt with the mascot of your high school. It was eerie.

And really, really cool. "Thanks," said n'Barit, not realizing Lixxie could not hear it, and went to go get dressed. There was no reason not to now that he was completely dry. It was a bit of a shame that this meant no further bath, but this was not the sort of divine opportunity he passed up. Sometimes it was possibly for the heathens to do something right, accidentally.

Kirkcaldy was still dripping wet. She looked tired, too. Past time for a nap. N'Barit gathered her up in one of the clean towels, grabbed his crutch, and went back to the hall.

Lixxie had not moved. N'Barit frowned and poked her with his crutch. "Hey."

"Air her," said n'Barit, holding out the tired-looking Kirkcaldy. It was such a strange combination of words (n'Barit's occasionally bizarre way with language on display) that it took a moment to work out what in fact he had said.

N'Barit was further shocked at that. Here was someone with a Tuulani-grade skill begging. It was an affront to his belief system. "Don't beg," he said, nestling Kirkcaldy against his arm. The little Illusionary sighed and closed her eyes, settling down to a nap as n'Barit continued, "Having the ability is a divine gift and marks you as chosen. It is your duty to realize that potential and lead your people." Then he hesitated. No matter how familiar her powers were, she was not a Yuulani.

"Yes?" prompted n'Barit dryly, staring at her. He wanted to goad her into doing something to prove she had a spine. Whoever was responsible for raising this girl had done a truly terrible job of it. She had a gift and n'Barit had spent the past hour treating her like a commoner because, clearly, she had no idea what she possessed. It was divinely screwed up that this world had no respect for pure powers. The fact that someone possessing such a skill would cower and hide it was offensive.

N'Barit listened with what was surprising patience for him, all the while wondering if the divine path had been leading to him to this person, to this moment. It was a profoundly heavy feeling. The precise sequence of events seemed preposterous, everything leading up to him finding Kirkcaldy and now meeting Lixxie, including his unlikely extraction from the world of his origin by false deities.

The teaching was strong, stronger than his own dimension, stronger than all the dimensions of the many universes, because clearly it had somehow sent him here to this moment. It was giving him a chance. Somehow his path was leading him towards some great honor for the divine. In suffering he might find redemption, perhaps not for his broken self, but certainly for others.

"That's ridiculous," n'Barit said to Lixxie. "Of all the elements, air is the second purest. Any so-called religion that tells you otherwise is completely false, but then, every time I run into the word religion it ends up representing a set of falsehoods that is substantiated only by the fact it contains some truths distorted beyond the point of usefulness by the thoughts and fears of its practitioners.

Hi face hardened with that sort of divine inspiration he had been trained to convey. "The only reason to forbid your powers is to control and repress you and prevent you from taking your rightful place as a leader. Clearly they've clouded your mind to the possibility, you don't even see it. A clouded mind is a powerful barrier to both earthly and divine success."

And finally the hard part. With difficulty, n'Barit admitted, "Your air powers are even purer than my luminary akinetics." He averted his eyes and frowned. Like any good Yuul he hated admitting there was anything better, but he could no more lie to Lixxie than he could lie to anyone lost from the path, especially one so like a Tuulani.

In his mind, n'Barit had a clear idea of what Lixxie's society might be. The powerless masses, resenting the abilities of the sacred few, scared of the truth, twisting things so as to relegate people with sacred powers to a position of shame. He had long realized the possibility of such a world existing through his interactions with humans. They feared what they did not understand, and the only way to understand energy gifts was to have them.

N'Barit glanced at his stuff in the room and then at Lixxie's retreating form. He made a decision. "Hey!" he called after her, following. He was really much faster with the crutch under his arm, able to take risky steps without worrying about his prosthetic. "Stop being scared of other people!" Instead of the heartfelt pleading anyone else would have made, n'Barit's line was a gruff command, as if he could bully her into being less scared.

In his arm, Kirkcaldy was stirred awake by all the motion, and not happily so. She let out a little wail of upset. No more, she seemed to say. This day was too much already! "Naaaap!"