Abandi

This can't be the same girl from before.

" But, you're not safe!" He watched in awe as she effortlessly played with magic, both defending and attacking in almost the same motion without breaking a sweat. "Or...you are," he mused, "and you are indeed special." He let out a breathless exclamation as she was the pitchfork entered her shoulder, anger boiling quickly inside him. The energy that had been concentrated in his hand manifested itself and shot forth, striking the man in the jaw and sending him sailing in the wall on the opposite side of the room.

He returned a coy smile to Abandi before craning his head back to the other woman. Seeing as she had already boarded his poorly constructed platform, he stepped across the threshold. Once atop it, he bent down, laying one knee down on the boards and balancing himself with a hand. Waving the other hand in the air, he lowered the boards so that they were just above ground level and began to direct the makeshift platform down the dirt road leading out of town.

Turning to his female companion, he forced a smile. Through gasping breaths he squeezed out, "You never told me your name." Before she could answer the platform began to falter, hitting the ground a couple times before completely breaking apart and sending the three of them crashing to the ground. Aki hit the ground hard and rolled a few dozen feet, skidding to a halt away from the once-platform-now-debris that was strewn about their mini crash site.

Slowly he manged to sit himself upright and then stand. His breaths were heavy and often as he stood, doubled over, hand on his knee to support himself. His free hand fumbled in the pouch on his side, withdrawing one of the two orbs he had previously stashed away and holding it tight in his fist. He stood himself upright and closed his eyes, focusing on the sphere. In moments it began to visually disappear, falling apart in to chunks and pieces that were fully disintegrated before they reached the ground. Spiritually, the energy flowed back in to him. It swirled around his hand and his arm at first, before expanding to overtake every part of his body. It filled his lungs, invaded his nostrils and flowed through every synapse in his mind. All at once he was no longer tired, exhaling a contented sigh.

He stretched a hand out to Ryogen, once more levitating him over his shoulder. Head flicked towards the woman, an apologetic frown coming over his face. "I'm sorry, breakfast was awful and I ran out of energy too quickly! We're going to have to make the rest of our escape on foot." Glancing up the road he saw villagers literally pouring out of the homes and businesses, wielding whatever heavy or sharp thing was within arms reach and storming up the path. Aki stretched out both hands, palms faced down, and closed his eyes. He concentrated on the air in front of them, on shifting the pressure of it. A wind kicked up from behind them, rushing forward toward the villagers. "Hah!" he exclaimed as he flipped his palms upwards, the visible columns of air traveling skywards before reaching the villagers. The resulting shift in winds sent dust flying high in to the air, blocking the angry villagers' view of their escape.

He turned his attention once more to the woman, pointing at a hill beyond the town. "Come! If we can crest that hill, we can get out of view and probably reach the nearby forest's treeline before anyone can catch sight of us!" Without waiting for her to respond, he took off, Ryogen still hovering just inches above his shoulder. Fully recharged, carrying him in this manner would barely drain any of his strength.
 
Gemini tumbled off of the makeshift float, catching herself halfway through the fall and running a bit to get her balance back. When she turned and saw the mass of people coming towards them she unsheathed her weapons, only to nearly immediately sheath them once again as a giant gust of wind came from behind her to distort the vision of the villagers. She looked to Aki when he told her to start moving, and began running towards him and the hill he mentioned.

"Are you sure you can carry him?" She asked him, totally amazed that he could carry a man of Ryogen's assumed weight, which had to be much more than someone as thin as Aki could carry. Thats when she noticed that Ryogen was actually hovering over Aki's shoulder. She shook her head. 'Magic. More magic has come into my life in the last week than ever before in my life.' She kept moving, keeping pace with Aki. He didn't seem to get winded, which was good. The last thing she needed was two men who couldn't keep up with her.

"We should lose them in this wood, and maybe Abandi will distract them as well..." She trailed off, unsure what the "new" Abandi would do to these people. "Follow me, there is a lake we can get to once we lose them. Will you have enough energy to get there now that you used your ball ... of magic..?" She had no idea what he had done but she saw the globe in his hand and then had watched it dissapear. "I'll not pretend to understand magic, but I do know everyone can run out of energy. Just let me know if you need me to carry him." After a brief pause she looked to Aki once more. "Oh, my name is Gemini." She turned back to watch where she was going. Picking her way as lightly as she could through the foliage.

"Is there any way for you to cover our trail with your magic? I doubt they have good trackers, but better safe than sorry."
 
Abandi had no trouble deflecting the attacks of the raging villagers. To her it was a game, a sparring match that she would imbue fear and loathing in men who could not comprehend her power. She bounced off the walls, weightlessly hovering herself above their heads.</SPAN></SPAN>

"Witch!" They called, as if completely unaware that they were losing. </SPAN></SPAN>

"You offend me…" Abandi said confidently, knowing that they could never fathom her true being. The young, innocent Abandi watched from inside her own body, not used to fighting or having a clear sense of self. She cringed within her mind as her body pulsed with magic, slamming the remaining men against one another to knock them unconscious. The battle was obviously not challenging enough, and she grew tired very easily. </SPAN></SPAN>

"Let us go then…" She sighed, her smooth voice following her as she walked toward a group of shadows, clustered together in the corner of the room. The men watched terrified as she seemed to phase into the shade, disappearing from sight and her magic releasing them instantaneously. </SPAN></SPAN>

"good riddance!" One of the men spat, touching the shadows where she had gone. They celebrated as if in victory, but their bodies were bruised and bleeding. A lesson was completely lost on them, that was for sure.</SPAN></SPAN>

Did we kill anyone? </SPAN>The child-like voice whispered in Abandi' s head. </SPAN></SPAN>
"No child, we did not kill anyone, You are not ready for that yet…" </SPAN></SPAN>
Yet? </SPAN> She asked, stubbornness in her voice. Abandi travelled through the darkness as if it were a connection of tunnels, spider-webbing through a void-like world. She would find her friends eventually, and they would have to talk.</SPAN></SPAN>
 
"That ball, Gemini," he began, almost boastfully, "is concentrated energy. Or rather, it was concentrated energy." He glanced over his right shoulder as they cleared the top of the hill, noticing the dust had just barely began to settle. No bodies had yet exited the dust cloud so it seemed as though they'd get away without a hitch. His vision was returned one more to the path before him, carefully choosing his footfalls down the hill so as to not slip and risk losing the floating man. If it had been only he fleeing down this slope, he'd have like used some sort of magic to stylishly slide down it. Of course, this was not his usual demeanor. After absorbing energy of any kind he felt invigorated. Absorbing the entirety of the orb gave him a rush of confidence, of arrogance. It made him momentarily brash and borderline dangerous.

He decided to begin making good on his promise of 'everything will be revealed!' "Your body naturally contains some amount of energy." He spoke to her without looking at her, raising his voice but keeping his vision forward. "Most people, like yourself, have such a small amount that it's unable to be manipulated. Others, like myself and like Abandi - your sister, or daughter, or whatever she is - have large quantities of the stuff and can use it to manipulate objects, people, elements, and many other things. I have been trained to use my body as a conduit. I can sense magical energies in things and in environments. By condensing it all in my body, or concentrating it in, say, my hand, I can create a tangible form of the stuff." He finally shot a glance to her. "In the same way that I can condense it, I can also expand it and absorb it back in to my body." His sight returned once more to the path in front of them, the treeline looming just ahead. "It's exhilarating, a rush that can't be compared to anything that humankind has ever produced."

"And no, I don't think I should try to cover our trail. If I do I'm likely to just make the trail more obvious." His head turned for a third time back to Gemini. "Do you know where you're going in here?"
 
Gemini nodded as he spoke, understanding what he was saying in the loosest definition of the word.

"Abandi is Ryogen's sister. I just met them a few days ago, they are of no relation to me." She simply stated as he continued on with his explanation of magic. She didn't want to say it out loud but there were certainly some things she could think of that sound more exhilarating to being bombarded with a bunch of energy, so she kept her mouth shut and smiled to herself.

"Fair enough." She said when he told her his help may just make their trail more obvious. "Yes I do know where we are going. That lake is not that far away, but I do want to make sure that the people are no longer following us before we head there. Let us take a meandering path so I can continue to check our back trail and keep us safe."
 
His sister? And yet, he showed no signs of the same strength that exploded from her back in that building. Even my master, at his wildest times, never displayed anything on that level...

As they broke the treeline his full-on sprint slowed down to a quick trot. He could feel his body stabilizing, the intensely electric feeling of before slowly giving way and relegating his fibers to normalcy. He exhaled loudly, as if to disperse the previous static buildup in his chest, then called out to Gemini. "You lead and I'll follow. I've no idea how to navigate this terrain, nor of the water body of which you speak."

Though his body as a whole had slowed down tremendously, his mind was still moving at lightning speed. What exactly had he stumbled upon? Moreover, why could he not erase this woman from his head? That immense energy she hinted at back at the Inn was so enticing. Could she be what he's chased after for these past few weeks? Surely a vibrancy of that magnitude could eliminate an entire field without so much as sweating. And what of Gemini? She had immediately jumped on him with a question about a man, which was safely assumed to be a significant other. She had only been traveling with them for a few days and it was doubtful that she had seen such a display as before in that short time.

"Gemini," he mused, "were you frightened by that girl back there? I assume you've never encountered that...side of her before." Before she could answer, he figured it was only polite to add a caveat. "I'll admit that I was terrified. If not for the threat of death from those angry idiots, I'd have been nigh paralyzed with fear. She wielded such magic as I've never seen, and with grace to match."
 
Abandi wandered around in her shadowy world. Letting her fingers glide along the wavering walls of blackness that formed hallways, leading her forward. She closed her purple eyes, trying to focus on the magicians power. He was using her own essence, the leftover; residual magic left by the purge of her energy. The chance of someone being able to harvest her energy couldn't have been by chance. Kollidan must have sent that magician for a reason.

"Funny, how fate works..." Abandi spoke to herself quietly, dipping her fingers in the cold swirling nothingness.
She turned, tiptoeing as the pathway got narrower and more defined. A glimmer of light danced at the end of the tunnel, showing her the way to what she eventually saw as the magician and the assassin, running through a wooded area, toward a small lake. Her surroundings broke into shredded strips of blackness, separated by the beams of sunlight let in by the tree tops. The dense shadows were enough to sustain her hiding, but eventually she found a clump of trees casting a large enough shadow that she could wait for them to arrive.
 
Gemini, for all her relentlessness of earlier, had grown silent with his question. She had either not heard him or chose to ignore him and either way he felt it was best that he didn't pose the question again. So much for their mild heart-to-heart he had hoped for.

She led him on a winding path, constantly checking over her shoulder for signs of a chase. Aki followed without so much as a murmur. Eventually the two of them jogged their way to the lake that Gemini had mentioned and she found a more open area, away from the danger of the treeline. The lake had a small bend, with an outcropping that extended over the water. Aki followed her the entire way, stopping near a few lonely trees to drop off Ryogen. Gemini turned towards him, barking out words. "It'll be dark before we know it. Go gather some wood. You can start a fire, can't you?" To which Aki nodded solemnly. Gemini dashed off in to the forest to fulfill her half of the quota and Aki went the other way, though it was likely that her half of the firewood collected would be something more like eighty percent of the total wood gathered.

His mind continued to churn as he bumbled along on his search for dry, combustible materials. The same questions from before fluttered up and down his brain stem, each confusing quip becoming an in-depth conversation that happened expediently between he and himself. He bent down to grab a piece of wood, scooping it up and holding it gingerly under his arm. His eyes shifted towards the treetops, following shafts of sunlight back down in to the brush. Most of the dead fauna looked clean and moist, like it had rained not too long ago. Where was he going to find dry firewood?
 
Abandi couldn't help but watch the blonde man for a while, eyeing him as he searched for what looked to be kindling and roughage. Her illuminating eyes observed the magical aura that derived from him feeding off her magic. She smiled wondering how long he had been practicing that art. Abandi tucked her long black hair behind her ear, stepping out from the blackened realm and into the forest, still shading herself within the trees. She kept her eyes closed, as if to not give away her location. Within her mind she could still feel his presence. Her fingers wrapped around the soft linen fabric of her dress, enjoying the familiarity of the essence.

You need to explain everything to him... The child Abandi whispered to herself, her worried words echoing in her own mind. She nodded agreeably with herself and released her clothing from her grip. A twig snapped as she stepped out into the open, opening her eyes and smiling at Aki, who was yet to notice her.

She wondered where Gemini was, but knowing her, she was doing something resourceful. Though the child in her enjoyed to jest, the true Abandi was mature enough to recognize the true heart of someone, possibly even more than a regular human. That was the reason she was able to tell Aki's profession and the reason she was righfully nervous of the townsfolk.

"You handled yourself well back there, a true magician." She outstretched her hand to him, sparks of magic flitting between her fingertips. "Need a recharge?"
 
The single snapped twig did not instantly draw his attention, for to fear every little noise was to invite paranoia and insanity. He continued his saunter for only a couple more steps before his entire body froze. A voice filtered in to ears and wrapped itself around his mind, a voice he had heard so far few times but was so easily able to recognize. He spun around, returning to a rigid stance as the girl...no, the woman, panned in to his field of vision.

Without thinking his hand rose towards hers. There was no mistaking it; hers was the same energy that he had been filling himself with for weeks now. Even at nearly full capacity his entire body craved it. He could feel his muscles becoming electrified once more, every part of him coming alive in the presence of this version of Abandi. Yet, even bristling from head to toe with want and anticipation, he could not bring himself to do more than extend his hand.

Summoning up whatever strength of will was left he clenched his hand into a tight fist and brought it back to his chest. "I'm full up, thank you." He nibbled on his lower lip, staring at her for a few moments before opening his mouth again. "Back there, you said that I was special like you. You were right and you were wrong. We can both wield magic, yes, but I am nothing like you. I can't perform so many actions in such a short time frame...embarrassing as it is to admit, our escape didn't make it far before I ran out of juice and we came crashing down. You, however...you could destroy an entire army. I've seen your work, outside of Cyngi." His voice had started to go raspy and intermittent as he recalled the scene. "Such destruction and loss of life with no obvious provocateur. What are you?" He ran his tongue along his lips, which had dried out from his nervousness. His eyes narrowed as he stared at her, still on an extremely fleeting and nervous tilt.
 
Abandi laughed at his timidness, her voice much more mature and alluring than her previous mentality. As a child, her voice was impulsive and high pitched, but in her true, full powered form; her voice was as it should be. She lowered her hand as he did, letting her energy crackle off into the air, diminishing quickly into nothingness. She reached her hand up, entangling her fingers in her glossy hair, wrapping the tendrils between her knuckles to keep her hands busy.

"You recognize my magic, I am honored" She bowed her head, honestly happy to be in the presence of another person trained in magic. She could smell the nervousness on him and a part of her wanted to tempt him with her magic, feed him to keep him around. She held herself back, deciding she would only charge him if he asked. She knew better than he that taking her residual-left over magic was nothing in comparison to getting it from the source.

"I will admit that I am not proud of that crater. Though, you cannot point blame at anyone in specific for the deaths, i can assure you. My brother, Ryogen, does not trust my true self, so I am forced to lock my power away to keep what little of his trust I do have. My body cannot handle all the power I generate; it is a great curse. The devastation you saw...was the result of a well needed purge of my essence, an explosion caused by months of backed up power stored within my body." She lowered her head as if ashamed. She leaned her body against a sunlit tree, keeping herself out of the security of the shadows. "When I am distressed or afraid the backed up energy finds its way to the surface...You can see how that does not work in survivals favor?" She smirked playfully at Aki, her charming laugh resonating from her chest. A sadness seemed to fall over her, making her sigh and roll her eyes in annoyance.

"Ryogen sees me as the enemy, but my power will do more wrong if I do not use it."
 
"It's not something I could easily forget."

He pulled his closed fist to his mouth, resting it just under his nose as he listened to her. He turned his back to her, finally able to move after she pulled her energy back to herself, pacing slightly as he processed what she was saying. His master had warned him that there were adverse effects to attempting to contain such vast stores of energy in one body, but nothing compared to...that. At most it would merit the localized disfiguring of whatever room you were in, never the complete obliteration of the entire building and the surrounding terrain.

He snapped back towards her as a thought popped in his mind, his fist flinging down to his side in a physical accent of his query. "Why does he see you as an enemy? You two have seen many seasons but he's never come to know this side of you?" He took a few more aimless steps, gaze cast down at the ground, before shifting back to her and stopping in his place. "And what's more, how did you know I could absorb energies? I've never gotten myself in to a situation where I had to reveal that to another, and even then I still didn't show it to you." He knew the answer to that, but he was probing for something more. "You've still not told me what you are, only what caused you. I am not interested in causalities, I want to know origins. What gives you this boundless strength?" His mind was surfing through the sea of knowledge that lay in his head, trying to flip through every archaic page he had ever laid eyes on. Nothing was ringing a bell, not a single memory seemed to fit this woman.

"And what sort of power that is so feared can do good?" Good is subjective, anyways.
 
The more she thought about it, the harder it seemed to describe. Abandi looked up toward the sky in an attempt to find some sort of muse in the retreating clouds.

"My parents were killed when I was just a toddler, my brother has raised me and this life is all I know. I am no demon or sorceress...This I know for fact" She laughed, thinking about the moments of struggle she had in the past, learning to trust herself and now finally being allowed out of her shell.

"My brother has never met this side of me, I have been reluctant to give in to what originally seemed to be..." She paused for a moment, realizing how insane she sounded. " Let me explain" She allowed her magic to illuminate her skin, glowing her veins and iris'. She looked at her arms as she spoke, following her veins around with her eyes and trying her best to explain.

"This power originated as dreams, thoughts and voices in my head. I would wake at night, crying like a child though i was already in my fourteenth year of life. My body was weak for a long period of time, then miraculously better than ever before. What seemed like a strange voice to me for so long was actually my own voice, calling out to what I thought was my only self. My brother did not know what to think of my behavior, but everywhere we went-this voice caused us turmoil. He thought me insane; i'm sure..." She shrugged her shoulders plainly. "I don't expect you to understand"

Abandi walked closer to him, reaching out and gently touching his arm, letting her fingers trail down his forearm and observing his reaction. The residual magic lingering in his body seemed to surface, glow and pool toward her touch, making her laugh.
"I know you absorb magic because this is magic of my own creation. In laymen terms...it's like smelling myself on you." She removed her fingers from him, taking a step back as to not overwhelm herself or him for that matter.
 
Her words and actions entered his mind but only stayed as quick moving snapshots. These snapshots got backed up as he lingered on each phrase or signal, and he sort of stared wide eyed at her. He watched the map of her veins illuminate her body, peeking out from the hems of her dress and disappearing back under them. Most intriguing was her face, the magic illuminating her face in a particularly ghastly manner.

As she neared him he took two delicate steps backwards, but he couldn't resist her once she made her final move towards him. His forearm was instantly electrified, both physical and spiritual elements responding to her touch. He could almost feel as though the energy wanted to leap off his skin, to escape his form. Being attuned to such events, he could perceive his blue beginning to spiral up her arm, mixing with her purple as though it were a natural event. Surely, if he had tried, there would have been a tug-of-war at that very spot on his arm for control of the energy swirling between them. He stood still, mystified that even in its assimilated form the aura still held traces of her in it and sought to regain its wholeness.

"Oh!" He exclaimed as she backed away and he came back to his senses. "Absorbing magic is not all that I can do." He pulled his pack from his side to his front, resting it over his belly, flipped it open and fished around inside. After a brief moment and some audible ruffling he retrieved the last orb he had collected from the crater. The outer edges of the sphere were completely clear, getting progressively closer to the color of her spirit. It began as a pale purple, quickly becoming a royal color, then getting darker and darker until it was a few shades from black at its very core. "This is something I collected from your...mishap. It's a condensed form of the energies I found there. Not only can I create these, but I can also consume them. Think of it as a tangible second wind once I'm exhausted. I had more, originally enough for five of these but I've been burning the candle at both ends recently." His face reddened slightly and his pupils shot sheepishly to the corner of his eye. "I suppose you could say I've been feeding off you for the past few days. It's much cheaper than an Inn or a Tavern and much safer as well. As you know, people don't take kindly to arcane practitioners." Those sapphire circles returned to her face, his left check pressing in against his teeth, pulling the corner of his lip back in to a half-frown.
 
The orbs entranced her, making her grow closer to him in order to observe them closer. The idea that she was feeding him, sustaining his life, was very intriguing to Abandi. Her vibrant eyes sparkled with curiosity, daring her to experiment with his powers. She knew of the possibility, but she herself was never capable of such things. The best she could do was to store the energy up within her being, but that was a dangerous process. Aki was capable of taking recycled energy and actually living off it, the notion left her mouth agape. She reached out and lightly hovered her hand above the orb, causing what looked to be tiny flashes of lighting, attempting to free itself from its condensed form.</SPAN></SPAN>

She frowned when he commented on the unkindness of certain peoples, knowing all too well that normal humans shunned what they themselves could not accomplish. </SPAN></SPAN>

"Worry not about what they think. You are a stronger force!" Her hands balled into tightly compacted fists, her veins pulsating with anger. Her whole life was filled with ignorant souls. People who forced her brother and herself to hide or pretend, simply because they didn't understand. </SPAN></SPAN>

"The potential we have is enormous" She cut herself off, realizing she had clumped them together as a team already, though she was not sure what the magician planned to do. She stopped playing with her hair, pushing the ribbons of darkness behind her stunning face. As she watched him, she changed the topic, curios again about experimenting with his abilities. </SPAN></SPAN>

"I've heard that those who live of Arcane magic grow addicted, is that true?" The obvious trouble he had resisting her so far seemed to answer her own question, but she wanted to know for sure. If so, it would just be another person with whom she could never grow close. " I've heard stories of plenty of wizards who fall prey to their own addictions…" </SPAN></SPAN>
 
Noticing her vision trained on the orb, he held it out towards her, elevating it to eye level. It shone ever-so-slightly in the dim light of the forest, reflecting soft shades of purple on the trees and the brush beneath their feet. He let her hand hover for mere moments above the thing before wrapping his fingers around it and pulling it back in to his body. It was only fair that he take a chance to tease her.

Her next comment dismayed him. He took a cautionary step back, sliding the orb back down in to his pack as her anger flared up. His eyes danced over her frame, still not familiar with the biological map that was playing out over her skin. His voice came out only as a whisper, to himself more than her. "...a stronger force?" He had never thought of himself as stronger than others, nor really as an outsider, though he appreciated societal norms. Magic users tended to foment entropy and entropy was the polar opposite of the goal of organized society. If anything, he thought himself doing the work of the people, preventing the destabilization of the world by silencing and removing magic from places where it was not accepted. If the men stationed to protect each town were considered guards, he was also a guard of each town, preventing the places he went from falling in to chaos at the hands of rogue magicians.

This thought was immediately truncated and replaced by another; was he addicted to the stuff? Chin came down to chest as he probed his mind, seeking an answer. He lifted his head back towards her, quickly coming to a conclusion. "Addicted? I'd say yes and no. I can sustain myself, though at a much slower rate than consuming the essence of others. That's not to say I don't prefer one method, because I do." He shifted on foot, bring his hands together and tapping his fingertips together in a nervous manner. "Like I said, it is much easier and safer to consume magic than to replenish my own. When I wait for natural rates of replenishment, I tend to not be full when it's needed." More nervous fidgeting followed as he shifted stances, putting his weight on his right leg. "I was warned about exactly that, about becoming addicted. I have so few other magicians that I could count them on one hand, and of those others I've met two that had become addicted." His gaze shifted down to his stomach as his hands moved there, playing at the hem of his pants and scratching lightly over his belly. "I had to, well, deal with them. If you've been a ghost because people feared you, well, I've been a ghost too." His tell came out when he was nervous or anxious, not only when he was lying. It just so happens that lying also made him nervous and anxious.

He balled both hands and brought them to his side, straightening his stance and squaring his shoulders. "But that doesn't mean I think myself stronger, or better as you're implying. I believe that mode of thought to be wrong and unjustified." His sapphire eyes shone with a fire that he hadn't showed since he met the girl. A deep, intense reaction to what he perceived as her likeliness to injustice. "If you show off your strength, your enormous power to these people, you'll never change what they think of you. Only if you do what is right and avoid contact with them will their attitudes change." He smiled now, the fire in his eyes dialing back a bit. "And when you've done something right, they won't be sure you've done anything at all."
 
"then perhaps you should have a conversation with my brother about that when he awakens-whenever that might be." her voice trailed off into a wisp of nothingness, her mind burdened by words. "Because he is the one that thinks my power should be suppressed and raw…" Her eyes burned with a certain distaste for her brother that she would never voice. For all those years he raised her, neither of them knowing what to expect.

Ryogen knew the whole story, she was positive of it, but he was reluctant to share his memories with her. Aki's eyes captivated her for a moment, making her cheeks flush for a split second before she shook her head and turned it to the side in embarrassment. Perhaps it was their magical link that made her heart beat out of her chest, or maybe it was the fact that he was the first man she spoke to who wasn't her own brother.</SPAN></SPAN>

"I do not mean that our power is for a deadly cause- I am simply saying we should not be ridiculed for it. Trust me, there have been times that I want to destroy everything; but I know as well as everyone that it isn't right. I've only heard stories of corruption, my brother has done an amazing job at keeping me away from other Arcane users…until now." She held her head low, turning her back to him and gently touching the thick, prickly bark of a nearby tree. A sudden gust of wind picked up and swept her hair over her shoulder, the tendrils dancing in the cool breeze. She ran her hands down her forearms, watching as her veins settled again as she calmed down, her naturally milky white skin returning to normalcy. </SPAN></SPAN>
 
In the serene setting of these woods, Abandi looked calm and collected. She seemed to be able to rationalize her thoughts and justify her actions. However, when those villagers attacked, she seemed different. She seemed malicious to him back there and it instilled a fear in his heart that he had not known for some time. This seemed like another, different Abandi. Under his breath he cursed Ryogen for his incredibly long slumber.

Aki stepped forward towards Abandi as she turned her back to him. He took a few more laxidasical steps, bringing himself right behind Abandi. A hand rose, delicately reaching for her shoulder, shakily hovering above it. Images flashed through his mind of the last time they made contact and he quickly curled his fingers back in and brought the hand back to his chest. His hand flattened once more and smooth down the side of his body, finally lifting it away from him at his hip. "Abanadi," he began quietly, nearly speaking in to her ear, "forget for a moment what Ryogen or anyone else thinks of these powers. How do you feel about them?" A hint of a smile played at his lips but he kept his face mostly clean, staring rather intently at the back of her head. He watched her soft hair swaying with the whim of the wind.

Everything about her seems so natural, and yet...she fights what she is, where she came from. She's really no different from me. At this thought the smile he had been hiding crept on to his face.
 
Abandi turned around fast, meeting his eyes with her own. Her face was cold and her words were sharp. She bit at her lip nervously, a small prick of blood popping up on her skin. She held her arms out at her sides, like she would before a warm embrace, instead, she kept her eyes frozen on his, exhaling with frustration.</SPAN></SPAN>

"I cannot have feelings about my powers, I am made of pure power…" She closed her eyes, her body going completely transparent. It seemed, in the dimness of the retreating sunlight, that her dress hovered alone, her skin and hair glittering softly only when the light hit it perfectly. She opened her eyes and her color followed suite. She was aware of her existence, but injury and emotion were strange to her- fleeting in purpose and useless to her life.</SPAN></SPAN>

"Aki, I do not know my purpose, how I came to be…My brother tells me I was born of regular parents-but this cannot be true." Her hands rose to her chest, rubbing directly over her heart. " My feelings toward this existence are worthless when I myself am the embodiment of the power I hold" </SPAN></SPAN>
 
Gemini had heard Aki's question but decided it best to ignore him. Now that she was out in the woods she had time to think. She made sure to stay relatively close to the tree line to keep an eye on Ryogen's passed out form. 'Can we trust this wizard? I feel as if I need to retell my painful story too often lately.. ..I just want answers! Why does no one know of my Leoric? She thought to herslf as she searched for wood. Getting more dismayed as she walked. The pile of wood in her hand seemed large enough so she went back to Ryogen and dropped wood off. There seemed to be some sizeable roks and she began putting the in a circle for their fire. She sighed as she looked down at Ryogen'a form. He looked so peaceful, aside from the large bump growing on his head. She went back into the woods once the circle of stone was put in place. Gathering dead pine needles and branches of live leaves, thinking that they might as well have comfortable pillows while they slept under the stars. Once again she brought the armful back to their makeshift camp, placing some of the leaves and needles under Ryogen's head. Her last foray into the forest would not be for gathering. As she walked in, making sure to go in a direction very opposite from where Aki had gone, she unsheathed her scimitars and began to practice. Both apologizing to the trees and seeing them as enemies as she moved about. Slicing one tree after another, turning left and right, making it seem as if she was simply dancing, save for the deadly blades in each hand .
 
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