Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nix giggled, covering her mouth with her hands, "unicorns aren't extinct silly! their's just in hiding!" she shook her head and looked back to the forest, "The majority of the race live within the forest. they were given a large section of it so they could live freely and protected. my mother is one eight so that makes me one sixteenth. they say that's why i'm so strong telepathically. there are a few more of the race who wanted to live out with the humans and try to help them, being healers and such. but they are in disguise. you wouldn't be able to tell what they are unless you already knew." she shrugged, "they used to live freely among humans, but the humans became greedy. they began to slaughter the unicorns by the hundred and take their horns, or they would kill the herd and sell the babies. it's little wonder they went into hiding. the unicorn that purified the water did it as a sign of the trust and friendship between our two peoples when the remnants were gathered into the forest and put under our protection. they are our most prized aspect."

she leaned back against the doe. "council, i promise i'll talk about it if i can focus." she laughed again. "So-i don't know how yours is like because i'm trying to stay out of your head, but ours is more like a group of ambassadors than anything else. two Representative from each race attend and live within the city. some are ambassadors their whole lives while other races switch out duty every couple of years. it's up to them, but at the head of the council is my family. they were the first to settle this forest and the first to place the magical barriers that keep it safe. they were also first to be able to commune with the trees. slowly as the years went by more and more races came to the forest seaking shelter in a world being dominated by humans. there simply wasn't a safe place for them anymore and so they came to the forest and settled here, much like the unicorns. the council can come to a desicion but our family can overrule it. however in chances of corruption in the leader, the council can take them out of power and place someone else from the blood line who is more worthy. same with replacing council members. all are tested by the trees before becoming a member so it almost never happens. the trees-" she smiled and looked back at the forest. "you can't hide anything from them. they see your soul, see everything that makes you and everything you are capable of and decide your worthiness to serve on that. make sense?"

Nix looked a little sad herself, but she nodded to Ipo. "yes, the trees know that Elliot and my brother are mates. they also know of you, but they can't really take a good look unless you commune. first communes are big deals. each person reacts differently. no one speaks of what happens within the trees their first time. i heard that Leo went into isolation for a week because of the impact it had on him, but it's not something to be feared. some people have actually entered into the aeternam colloqui, the eternal commune. they become a part of the trees themselves, forsaking the outside world. there are many of our strongest leaders who have been accepted into the trees a moment before their deaths as well so they can continue to guide the future generations." she sighed, "i can't wait for my first commune. but the trees were closed off until last night and they would let me commune unless i am specifically summoned. how unfair is that?"

Nix shook her head, "there is no set age. you simply are ready or you aren't. that's why the trees send for you. there are some people who are never ready. Leo was summoned when he was three years old, he was extremely young, even for a member of our family, but i'm told he was almost too intelligent. did you know he was doing trigonometry by the time he was eight? and calculus? he'd already mastered the earth sciences as well as the basics of our elemental powers before he was taken, and that's something that most people don't accomplish until they are in their late teens!" she shook her head, "i'm smart. i know i'm smart because my lessons are with kids who are five years older than me and yet he makes me look like a toddler drooling in the corner and eating colored wax!" she threw her hands up in frustration, "and to see-to see him like this? to see his mind all batter and bruised and torn up? his body didn't scar but his soul did, his soul still bares the marks."

her eyes turned toward Reta, "i wish i was more elemental. i wish i had a power that could effect people's minds instead of just read them. i'd destroy the people who did this to my brother." her tiny fists were shaking, and much like her hands,t he words were that of a child. "I hate him, i hate uncle for what he did to my brother." a single tear slide down her cheek, but she didn't bother to wipe it away, her focus was still on the Retan border.

Nix shook her head, "he wasn't afraid. i cans sense him sometimes. it feels like this all consuming blackness creeping up before i force it away, but he wasn't scared. he hates my father, hated his kind heart. he thinks him weak." she laughed bitterly, "he thinks that torturing the weak makes you strong. he loves pain. influcting it, watching it, even feeling it. he's sick." her eyes were filled with tears when she looked at the old man, "he was the one who took my brother's virginity. he raped him and made my father watch as his only son was beaten and tortured by his own brother." she had seen it in Leo's mind, it wan't on purpose, but she'd seen what had been done to him the night they had been taken. "And then he made our father rape him too-"

"Nix!" Leo's voice was soft and filled with horror. his face was pure white as he looked at his sister, having heard what she was saying. "enough. please. no more." he was shaking, shaking so hard he felt like he was going to fall, but he walked to the group and knelt behind the girl, pulling her into his arms and holding her. "i'm sorry, i'm sorry you saw-" he closed his eyes. he'd forced himself to forget what had happened that night, but she had still seen it so clearly. "i'm sorry." this time he was speaking to everyone else in the small circle. they didn't need to know that, they should have never known that. he felt shame and humiliation crawling up inside of him, but he kept his face as neutral as possible. "The council is finished, now they are with their people and speaking. certain representatives will commune tonight and we will meet again tomorrow." he needed to talk about something else, needed to draw everyone's minds away from the horror they had heard from his past

Leo took a small breath and in that second he took on the mask and persona of the bentien once more. "yes, very much so. it was almost a fight to see who would commune first." he laughed daintily, his smile coming easily. "they wanted to all at once, but we don't have enough trees. you can double up per tree but then it would be a less personal experience." he shrugged a little, "they are already starting. i am interested to find out what they learn while within the trees, aren't you master?" the title was once more used in place of the name. he couldn't do it, couldn't call the man by his name and stay in control.

Nix just turned into him and held onto his front, crying silently. but her tears soon stopped and she was lulled into sleep, Leo's magic soothing her.

when he saw she was asleep Leo looked at the Doe, "Take her back into the forest. have them erase her memories. don't allow her to retain what she saw within me." the doe nodded and he lay the girl across her back before she very carefully walked back to the treeline, balancing the girl easily.

Tsume was still standing exactly where he had frozen when he'd heard Nix's words. his eyes were wide, his fists clenched and he was white, pure white in shock and rage. what could he do? how could he make this better? he had no idea. everything that had happened, Leo was keeping blocked away from him. what horrors, what other things had his little fragile prince who had clung to him and cried when he'd accidentally stepped on a bug gone through?

Leo's eyes widened when he was hugged, "master wha-" but the man's words made his own dry. up. he knelt, silent and trembling, trying to hold back the emotions that was flooding over him, but the dam had already cracked and with those strong arms around him and that whispered apology broke it completely. a single hand slide up to grip the prince's sleeve and he hung his head, his entire body shaking as the tears fell down. there were no words, there was nothing he could say to express the pain of looking up and seeing his father's face as the pain ripped through him over and over. of seeing the man who was so strong, so composed, the man he'd never even seen frown break down and sob.

his father had been gagged, but Leo's voice was allowed to be heard. even now he'd hated himself for what he'd said that night.

daddy, daddy help me. why are you hurting me? daddy, stop, please! daddy!

over and over again he;d begged and pleaded with his father to stop hurting him. to help him. how could he have known that his father was being control, how could he have known he had no choice? leo bit down on his lip to keep from sobbing out loud, tasting blood. "i hurt him so badly that night-" he whispered, his voice shaking so much it could barely be understood

Tsume looked at the two before he forced himself to turn away. he walked back to the forest, needing to get away, to let go. he howled and changed to his wolf, running at full speed, not really paying attention to where he was running, just running.

Leo shook his head, "i killed him. i killed my father. he-his body didn't die, but his soul. when he looked at me, his eyes, they were so empty-" he shivered, "they took him to prison and he just stared at me. i couldn't move, i just-i just kept begging him to help. but he was just-gone." Leo turned and buried his face against Elliot's shoulder. "even if he's survived in that prison, even if his body is still breathing the man i knew, the man i loved is gone. my father is dead! i killed him! if i-if i had just been quiet. if i hadn't said anything-" he shook his head, the tears falling harder, "i killed him."

Leo took a slow, shaking breath before he pushed everything away. he wrapped the pain, the self hatred, the grief into a little tiny ball and forced it deep inside his mind. "forgive me, master." he whispered, sounding as he had when first given to the prince. he carefully pulled away and wiped his eyes, clearing his face and wearing a mask once more. "we should head back soon, i don't think they want me away for long at a time like this." he stood and smiled, offering the master his hand, "shall we? or do you wish to stay a little longer?"