Darkness Unknown

Did Tirizan really know so little about his kind? Somehow that actually surprised Moridryn, but then again, perhaps he shouldn't have been. If the ways of his people had been known, chances were they would have either been treated better or treated worse depending on the Tirizan they ended up with and surely less of his species would have died. Still, the fact that she didn't know how even the simplest bond worked with an Aavan truly did make him look at her twice and Mori tilted his head, thoughtful before he answered.

"I can connect my mind with any living thing on this world that I choose to, be they a monolith or the smallest Venari." A squirrel-like creature that swam in the dark blue seas and liked to hang in the trees above the lagoons. "I have been able to do so since I was an Aavanis and mind-spoke with my siblings and parents. My species, we speak with our minds far more often than we do with our tongues. It is easier that way."

The Aavan stood then and his body shrank down again, back to his smaller form. His skin was far paler now and everything about his appearance was sick. Mori wrapped a hand around his stomach without really think about how it would look - vulnerable - and he met amber eyes again with his violet, chains clinking as he moved. The black one against his neck stood out starkly. "I am not vulnerable when I open my mind. It is only when I let someone in that I can be harmed. I can search and reach out without letting another consciousness into my own." He didn't understand why he was telling her this at all and the Aavan shivered, sinking down to the ground as his body told him it was extremely unhappy right now. He put his arms around his legs and put his chin on his knees, looking exhausted.

He didn't know why he was trying to help this female. The chances of him finding his bond-mate were slim at best and then what? Was she going to let him go? Keep him hidden away for her amusement? Exploit him? Experiment on him? He had no way of knowing and didn't want to ask. But he was accepting her help. It was odd. The male sighed again, looking up through his black hair. "It's not an Aavan. We can sense each other even when we can not see each other. None of them are drawn to me and I am not drawn to them. Unless you have some other poor exotic pet in this house, then logically, it's a Tirizan we are searching for."

And the thought made him far more scared than he wanted to be.
 
All of them could use their minds that way. It wasn't just him. It made her wonder what about her race had been able to conquer his. Then again, at the time, all of them had the blocking ability. It was only in recent years that some had begun to lose it. What was the extent of their ability? Did they, like the Tirizan, have a hive-mind? Or could they only make connections one-to-one?

It could be your fault if the Aavan uprise. But he is sick.

It was impossible to watch the Aavan and not realize how badly the sickness was grabbing hold of him. But the consequences of what she was about to do ate at her. By all rights, she ought to let him die or set him free. She didn't have to tell him how it was she was presenting the others. Perhaps he would simply think she happened to be carrying a lot of presence around. But it might be possible for him to somehow he would find the rest of the hive-mind. No one had tried to allow an outside mind read any information from them before. It was true that the Tirizans living here could block out an unwelcome mind, including the hive-mind, and without a Tirizan acting as a door, the Aavan wouldn't be able to read it. Senzra was certain of that. But the risk.

It would be your fault. Senzra tugged on her hair vine, wrapping it around her hand out of nervous habit. The poison. She could lace her hair-vine using the Aavan scramble. It wouldn't harm her, but her hair-vine could reach through. If everything went south, she could go for that, but given the state he was in, she doubted he would recover well even if she decided immediately after to give him the cure.

She let go of her hair vine and checked her mental barriers again, ensuring that bar any complete anomalies, the Aavan would only be able to read for presence. It should be enough. She wouldn't be able to sense any of the Tirizan if their mind wasn't at least slightly open to the hive-mind. If this didn't work, probably nothing short of a complete mind-meld would work. And as she made the last checks, she approached slowly, stepping through the shield and up to the mesh, but ready at any point to sprint out.

Once by the gate, she crouched, meeting him eye-to-eye if he would look up. "I know," she replied, entirely without knowing, the way one did when slightly preoccupied with larger thoughts. She exhaled before continuing. "Before I suggest anything, you should know that I am a Princess first, and a doctor second. If you at any point use anything you learn from me against me or mine, I will see to the protection of my people over your health. That said, I hope it is a Tirizan." If he tried to press his luck, she'd bounce him hard with the bioc and strike with the poison. And if all went as played, well, she didn't have a concrete plan for that, but presumably it would be a better situation.

"If you want your chance to survive, touch my mind and tell me if you can find your bond-mate."
 
She hoped it was a Tirizan. Why? More control over him that way he figured. A Princess? Huh. He'd not known that. It explained the extravagance, though...and told him he'd never be going to another master. That....he wasn't sure about what he felt about that. It meant every decision about his life was now in her hands with no hope for anyone changing their minds. But it also meant he could start knowing what to expect. Or he could just die. That was an option, too. He actually had control of that now. He could let himself die, escape all this and the Tirizan would be able to do nothing about it. It was power....but a sad sort of one.

Mori met her eyes then, violet ones having gone pale as she moved closer and those eyes studied her, judging. She spoke of him harming her, but the truth was that her kind had harmed him far more already. He had far more reason to be wary and unsure of her motives than she did his. He was trying to survive. Why was she doing this? Did it matter? What was the chance of him finding his bond-mate anyway just be connecting to her mind and therefore sensing the presence of everyone else just at the edge of her mind, too? Oh, he knew about the hive-mind. Not all, but bits and pieces because Tirizan who thought he was only an animal didn't curb their tongues when in his presence.

Still, it was his best chance right now, no matter how far-fetched.

The Aavan slowly extended his hand and for the first time in his life, he touched a Tirizan willingly, just a graze of the fingers on her arm, but it was enough. His mind touched her own, recoiling at first, circling, as wild and unsure as the Aavan himself was but the opening inside Senzra's mind still stayed that way and Mori cautiously slipped through it, his presence containing a feral nature, but a strangely polite one, too as he tried his best not to touch anything, brush up against any thoughts or memories he wasn't supposed to. It was like he was winding his way through a minefield and the Aavan did it rather well.

He kept his own thoughts to himself, his own memories caged and simply focused. He found the link to the hive-mind rather easily. He could see it, feel its presence even if he couldn't access it without Senzra's mind as a door. His consciousness hovered over it, though, studying, curious and when he found just the slightest sliver of an opening, Mori let just enough of his own presence slip in to sense those around him. He didn't know how long he stayed there, not moving, not pushing or prodding or calling out. Drawing no attention to himself. He just 'listened' and then he withdrew, his entire consciousness seeming to frown as he started to withdraw from Senzra's mind.

He wasn't sure how it happened - he was still trying to be careful - but he ran into a thought. It wasn't his own and it was recent. "It could be your fault if the Aavan uprise. But he is sick." The words rang through Senzra's head, let loose for both of them to hear and Mori's mind within her own froze, a thought coming unbidden to his own, coming through the small connection they had.

"I wouldn't do that. Do you creatures honestly believe that my kind have no honor? Even an animal knows respect."

Mori clamped down on the opening he'd given to his own mind, but he didn't move from Senzra's, didn't leave as he suddenly felt something like warmth wash over him. He looked around, searching and it came again, a drawing tendril of energy that made him follow without hesitation. He somehow knew he didn't need to fear this. He could trust it. And so he did. More warmth swarmed him then and Mori relaxed into it, seeing a brightness ahead of him, far deeper in the Princess' mind. He couldn't access it, but he could see it somehow and that's when he understood.

The Aavan's mind left Senzra's far more hurriedly than he'd entered and his violet eyes - that had noticeably seeped darker - focused and then widened as he looked at her, hand snatching back. His skin was darker, not so pale and the black color had started to leech back into his hair. He trembled, but it wasn't in fear or pain, it was with the effort not to dive back into her mind and feel that warmth again, feel the connection he'd almost been able to touch. It was so hard not to go back for the cure.

"I..I found her. I...it's you." And that was something he'd not seen coming.
 
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She could feel the extra presence in her mind, but it was different from anything she had ever felt before. It wasn't so much that he was not Tirizan so much as he was tip-toeing, careful, it seemed, of even bumping into any thoughts even though she would bounce him back up. She was used to sharing her mind with her family. It usually was a flood of information both ways. This was different.

And when he found the opening, Senzra carefully guarded the place. Focusing on letting the opening get no wider and him no deeper. It was almost surprising that he didn't try to overstep his bounds as if he were trying to prove her worries were unfounded. Maybe it was then that she slipped up, and they both knew it. But rather than react over-cautiously like she had planned, she stayed herself. His words echoed in the way the words of children echoed when they said something unknowingly beyond their years. And there was something about his presence that made her trust the words he said. It wasn't just a deep manipulation and a trick of the mind.

But that moment of almost trust passed as he left abruptly both mentally and physically, jarring her back to the present. She could see the answer in his eyes almost before the words even came out of his mouth. He had been getting sicker almost immediately upon arrive and always seemed to get worse whenever she had visited. As an individual, she was willing to give him what he needed. She trusted the Nuathal's words, and from what she had already experienced, she had the feeling that she could trust him. Unfortunately, her station in life didn't allow her to make arbitrary decisions.

Her family wouldn't be an issue -- she hoped -- sharing the raw experience with them should be enough. It was the rest of the hive-mind she was worried about. There was only so much shifting of thought a hive-mind could withstand at once. Too much, and she would find herself ostracized rather than leading it down a better line of reasoning and thought. But definitely, without a doubt, if she wanted to go through with this, it would be to go through with it now and explain herself later.

There was just a mountain of questions she'd like to ask. She had a feeling she could ask for hours on end or find out all the answer in minutes if not seconds. "If I ... If we were to go through with this, how does it all work? Do we simply open our minds to each other?" Share all our thoughts all the time? Or will it just be sharing what we want? "And afterwards, what happens? Will others be able to tell that you are there?" This was very much the Princess speaking, the one they had trained into her gut at a young age. Were it up to her and her instincts, she would have already opened her mind to him, but here she had to judge her actions for her people.
 
Moridryn kept curled in on himself for a long moment, still shaking and feeling incredibly scared. He'd not really expected to find the person he needed and he definitely had not expected it to be the Tirizan before him, the person who OWNED him. A Princess no less. It was just as overwhelming for him as it was for her, maybe more-so because whereas she could make the decision to not go through with any of this, to go on with her life and forget about him until the next rare, exotic creature came along - until she got distracted by a new shiny as it were - this was the only chance he had. And as much as he'd sometimes wished to die instead of endure one more day in captivity, in pain and fear, he'd never actually been this close to dying. He still wanted to accomplish his goal; he still wanted to find his sister.

He couldn't do that if he was dead and Senzra held his life in her hands, far more than she ever had before.

The Aavan looked away at her questions and while he stayed still and silent for a moment, thoughtful, it didn't last long as his restless nature won over and he stood. Mori paced then, stepping over his chains when they got in the way in an absentminded manner, so used to them after seven years that he felt like they were an unwanted part of his body. His back kept twitching, rippling muscle under his shirt as if he were flexing wings in his agitation.

"I don't know how it works. I've never bonded that deeply with anyone. I would assume it happens the same way a bond with a Nuathal happens; we open our minds and...see what happens. I can't tell you about something I've never done. I know that when bonds happen, memories are shared, thoughts, emotions, sometimes even physical awareness if the bond is strong enough, but I can't tell you what we might share" He glanced at her, violet eyes unsure and therefore frustrated, both longing and wary. "I know that bond-mate's don't always feel or know what the other is going through. There are ways to tone it down, but I don't know them." It would have to be something they'd learn.

The Aavan stopped and ran his hand back through his hair, flinching slightly when the chain on his wrist touched his cheek. "Afterward....I..I know that I won't...I wont' leave you. I won't be able to." The part was quiet and he refused to look at Senzra, hair obscuring his face, refused to give further thought to the implications of that even as they clamored in his mind like shrieks. "With Aavan, we don't always know if they are bonded. It's a private thing. I don't think anyone would know you were bonded to a pet unless you wanted them to."
 
She stood when he did, but didn't otherwise move away. It was strange to think her life was no longer in danger even if she stood inside of the rods she had set up, at least, no more than his life was in danger. It was painful to look at him -- to know that she alone could help and she was hesitating. There was a time once when she wanted to be doctor and researcher before princess, and here was this chance her. There was a time once when she had done everything in her power to justify her choices to others after she had made them. Were it any other Tirizan, would she have already commanded them to bond? To save her Aavan and to the winds with the consequences? Pet. The way he said it held all the feelings of confinement and slavery. And in some ways, this bond would be even stronger chains that she could have ever bought. It was hard not to feel sorry for him.

But there were boundaries to be drawn when it came to the two of them. "Then let me just say one more time that my duty as princess comes first." The words were hard to get out, but they were as much for her as for him. "Whatever changes between us, you cannot be my equal. Pet, yes, is what you will have to be. I will do my best to help you -- I'd do that even just as an owner -- but whatever more happens here, I cannot promise you an easier life." She sighed, and let go of the edge she had been holding in her voice.

"I know that I and what I represent is not exactly what you want in your life, but if life is what you want, I welcome you to it. Life here won't be that bad; I'll see to that."

And even as he refused to look at her, she refused to look away. Because likely, he didn't believe her, but Senzra, as an individual, really did want him to leave. And if he did decide this life wasn't what he wanted, she kenw there would be that part in her which would always regret her decision. Even then, she knew that regret could easily be replaced by justification -- that it was for her people's sake, and that if this one Aavan died, they could keep pretending the others weren't intelligent.

"Senz!" she heard called across the courtyard, recognizing the voice as Katrise, her eldest sister, and the second child in the family. "Senz, what are you doing? Do you have any idea? Senzra! I thought you put that there to ..."

"I know what I'm doing," she shouted back as she placed her hands on the wire mesh. To Thunder she added more quietly, "I doubt you want my family's decision to weigh in on this, so if this is what you want, let it be done."
 
Not an equal.

Mori wanted to snort at that, but he refrained. She had no idea what a bond did. It made everything equal - he knew that at least. It made his grief her grief and her duty his duty. It would make their desires mingle and mix until they found common ground or it wouldn't let them rest otherwise. She'd know his fear, the anger he felt, the despair that had plagued him for years and he'd know of her love for her family, her ambitions, her feelings about all around her. A bond equalized everything, that's what it was - it was a partnership, teamwork, one not surviving without the other, one not complete without the other. He would be loyal, bonded, bound to her, but so would she to him and she would want to make sure he was happy because it would affect her own state of mind if he wasn't. It was a symbiotic relationship that had more to do than just keeping him alive - that was the PUSH the bond gave to be formed, but it wasn't the goal.

He didn't explain that to her, though. Maybe that was wrong of him, maybe he did it out of a hint of spite, but he didn't care.

Violet eyes looked up then, meeting her amber and the Aavan didn't hesitate so much as he made his decision in a slow way. He approached the mesh fence then until the chain on his neck brought him up short and then he reached out, looking from Senzra's hand to her face, deep into her eyes before his palm met her own. He knew there was no going back then as his mind flooded into hers. It wasn't like last time with the hesitant merge and the carefully maneuvering. It was wild and overwhelming, but not painful and not aggressive. It was simply Aavan in its purest form, all power and nobility, feral and yet intelligent all at once.

His consciousness touched her own, touched the light that drew him and Mori felt wrapped in warmth, in trust and a brightness that rivaled the sun. Strength shuddered into his body and his mind sharpened as he became aware of the mind around him and aware of the fact that he was drawing Senzra into his own. It was a loop neverending; her within him and him within her, becoming one at the most primal levels, simplified first before more complicated attachments would be formed. He could feel her heartbeat, feel her lungs expanding, sense her emotions and he could feel her thoughts even if he had to focus to hear them. This was just the beginning, but it was something that was already powerful to Mori. He could feel his spirit tethering to hers, feel instant loyalty wash over him and in that moment it didn't feel like a chain.

It felt right.

His own emotions were nothing but wondering, curious and something verging on happy, relieved. His thoughts were chaotic, though, having no order whatsoever and hard to grasp a hold of. That would be something they'd have to work on.

"Your mind is warm, and bright. I like it." It was a strong thought, one he'd not really even been aware he'd actually 'say', but once he had, Mori laughed, the sound rich and deep and making him sound, feel much younger than he was. It was a sound he hadn't made in seven years and that impression would be strong enough for Senzra to pick up. The other knowledge she'd be aware of so strongly, as if the bond itself was trying to tell her something that she HAD to listen to, was his name.

Moridryn'aKyno. Not Thunder. Not monster. Not Aavan. Not pet. Moridryn. Mori.
 
Well, maybe she didn't know what she was doing, but she knew it was the right decision. Hesitation or uncertainty melted away before his presence. She couldn't harm him anymore than she could harm herself and vice versa. It wasn't so much he was filling a hole in her life so much as he wasn't a stranger. She could feel him wrapping himself up in her mind, getting stronger, and even at the same time, felt herself pulled into his.

"I am glad, Moridryn'aKyno." she responded. Glad that she had made this choice, glad he was alive, and hopeful for the future. Many Tirizan had been hurt by Aavans in the past and perhaps many more Aavans had been hurt by Tirizan, but she could envision a future where it wasn't so. It seemed barbaric to ever have enjoyed the arenas, though it was unlikely she alone could shut it down. But now she knew, and with that knowledge the Tirizan could perhaps move forward. There was still much of this world they had not explored even in their hundred years.

She had felt a tad sheepish for not realizing that was his name before, but the past could be forgiven by the future. Mori easily replaced Thunder. It was more him and who he was as an individual. Thunder was a name given by others who didn't care. Beneath his wonder, she could a driving purpose. His capture wasn't arbitrary; he had endured for a reason. She almost dove deeper, but backed off when one thought seemed to echo: sister. Sister. Her's was waiting. Senzra pulled herself out slowly, still aware of Mori's presence, but also realizing her sister's hair-vines had wrapped around her arms and were tugging her backwards even as other vines were reaching out toward the cage.

"Katrise!" Her own hair-vines went to pull her sister's back even as she spun around to wave her sister back. "I said I knew what I was doing!" Senzra came close to simply punching her sister, but luckily, Katrise pulled back in time.

"Your were -- are -- closed," Katrise defended, eyes never leaving the Black Aavan.

"I know. I'll explain it after lunch."

"Right, I came to retrieve you for lunch. If you had been listening, you would have known."

Senzra glanced back to Mori once more with a look that promised she'd be back. There was much to learn between the two of them. For now, though, she had a family to deal with.
 
When his name passed through her mind, Mori felt a jolt of something that could only be described as pleasure. It caused a flash of light and happiness and well-being in his entire spirit and he relaxed into it, no longer feeling scared. How could he when this Tirizan was now part of him and he of her? Should one fear themselves? It was a strange concept because at the same time he could distinguish their differences too, the things that made them who they were; individuals. They were yin and yang and yet one not complete without the other. Two sides of a coin sharing the same plain. He had no reason to fear her. She understood now.

And he understood, too. Her mind was fascinating, full of ideas and plans and vision. He found himself chasing one thought and then another like a kitten after multiple balls of yarn. The future. She was thinking about the future and that intrigued him. Aavan...didn't think about the future. They lived in the here and now and made decisions based off what what they knew from the past and the present. The future was a foreign concept and that had been part of the reason, a major one, that they'd lost the war with the Tirizan. Mori was different, though. He'd always been different. Not only in coloring and power, but in mind. He could think ahead, plan, make decisions based on what could happen and not on what was happening. It was something that his kin didn't understand but they'd respected it.

If anyone was going to be a voice for his kind, it was him...and he was now bonded to the Tirizan Princess. Fate did work in funny ways.

He felt her pull away and let her without fighting, feeling a bit overwhelmed himself. Their minds didn't completely part from one another, though, and they never would now. Only in death would there by a void where the other used to be. There were varying degrees of feeling each other, though, and right now, with both of them pulled back and the connection not so strong yet, it was just a blimp in their mind where the other was and that was fine.

Still, at Senzra's look, Mori gave just the slightest indication of a smile, the first she would have ever seen from him directed at her. "I know." It was in reply to her silent message, something he could feel more than hear and the Aavan shifted up to his larger form, shaking his body, scales rippling and chains rattling as he got comfortable in his skin again and moved back to lay down. His scales gleamed a rich, shining ebony, even more so than they'd done at the auction and the lightning that rippled over his form in small spurts seemed calmer as he stretched out to sleep, absorbing the triple suns' rays, another healing agent.

A Nuathal would bring him more food later, but right now he'd gotten all the sustenance he'd needed.
 
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The sisters didn't mention the topic again as they made their way to the dining hall, but went along in companionable silence instead. They knew, as much as any Tirizan knew, that there was no use arguing when it had already been agreed upon that all information would be shared. Opinions could be formed and discussed and diced after that, but for Tirizans, the promise to explain marked a truce.

It was only after the dishes had been cleared away and the royal family had retreated to a more comfortable location that they broached any serious subjects -- not with speech, but with their minds. They sat in a circle touching palms to palms. Information flowed without any real order or direction.

Senzra shared with the others what she had learned of the Aavan, their intelligence, their needs, how she had bonded, and how his name Moridryn'aKyno. Unsurprisingly, there was the backlash for not waiting until after the meeting, but the resolution of that was delayed in favor of sharing with her what she had missed while she had been away.

Tirizans were spreading out farther away from the Crystal Castle at the center Estiell. For the most part, they encountered no troubles, but the area they thought they would have the least issues with had actually be the source of most issues. It was an area the wild Aavans avoided, so it naturally seemed a good place to expand to. But that effort soon stopped. There were rumors that a darkness grew there that stole away people even midday when the suns still shone. People who went there seemed to contract an illness that in many cases took their lives. Mindor, a rather prominent crystalogist, had developed crystals in attempt to prevent the illness, but any such crystals lost power or otherwise were destroyed rather quickly. It was as though the place itself rejected life. Further requests to move there had been denied, but the area of influence seemed to be growing. Those who had been safe nearby were starting to see crop failings. Homes had crumbled almost spontaneously. While the threat was still quite a distance from the Crystal Castle, it was still a threat to their people. It was, well, unsettling. They had been attempting to find any information related to it, taking in more wild-caught Aavans in attempt to find out what they knew, but such attempts had been rather futile. The Black Aavan had been another such attempt.

Other topics were also visited: the day-to-day politics, who was to be expected, who was currently living at the castle, and other such tidbits. But when they all opened their eyes, Senzra found that everyone was looking at her. She should have waited and consulted. The thought pounded in her head from all directions, but she pushed them out.

"He was in pain and dying, but let me not defend myself. What do you think of it now? Had I asked? Would you have agreed? He cannot hurt me any more than I can hurt myself."

"A different way could have been found. You could have ..." The voice was their's collective, though it was led by her mother.

"... I know what could have happened. I shared that with you. But that chance is past. I have done what I have done, and it was not wrong. You would have me submit him for scrutiny, wouldn't you? To see if he is safe. To see if he knows anything more of the darkness."

"Yes."

"I will not allow it."

"He is an Aavan, Senzra. His kind ..."

"Yes, and mine. And if you will not respect him, then respect my wishes. I will, if you think it proper, to ask him directly. But if you approach him, do so as you would approach one of our own."

"Ask him then, but before you go. Senzra, you are home and perhaps need to remember you no longer act alone but as one of the family again. Minds are watching you, and you more closely since you have just returned. And if he does do anything strange or shows strange influence over you. There will be no hesitation in action."

"I understand." She had made that same threat. "But one more thing -- I want to move him out of the cage."

"Absolutely not. Now is not the time. You may make amends to his new cage, though." She could tell they still were weary of him, and uncertain of what his intelligence meant for the rest of the Aavan. It was perhaps not the best time to push the topic.

As one, they all stood and left the room each to their tasks. Of course there was a reason her father had agreed so readily to an Aavan that was clearly trouble. There was always a reason. She briefly visited the site of Mori's new cage. It was well underway with two walls of lightning rods, but those were hidden between the walls, which in turn were placed inside the cage shield. Inside was empty, comfortless, but she wasn't entirely sure what he would need quite yet. The ceiling had not been modified at all, though, and while it would be possible for him to stay in his larger form in the new space, it wouldn't do. She would have them remove the ceiling and replace it with a shield. They all wanted to know whether or not it would be safe. Senzra assured them it would be as best she could. But honestly, she had seen him at his unstable point, and if that happened, she couldn't say for certain.

It was clear where she was going next -- back to Mori -- what she would speak to him of first was not. There was much to learn about each other, but there was also the matter of her people. Him first, she decided. The darkness had taken it's time so far, and even though they had this bond now, she suspected it might become stronger with time and that eventually they wouldn't need to touch physically to touch minds. In many ways, it was like the Tirizan hive-mind, differing in that it had started much later in life and perhaps for the Aavan, it was only ever between two individuals.

Him first, yes, and his sister. That had been a strong current in his mind. "Mori," she tried saying when she saw him in sight, though she was uncertain if he would hear.
 
Mori had eaten - not throwing up this time - and had gone back to sleep. He woke periodically, almost sure he'd heard voices in his head, voices he did not know and yet...did. Or maybe it was Senzra who knew them. Which would mean he was hearing echoes of her thoughts, but nothing he could grasp on to firmly yet and he didn't try, dozing back off. He almost sensed her before he heard her and he didn't hear her with his ears, but he responded all the same, raising his massive head to view her approach before he stood. Black scales gleamed in the late afternoon suns and lightning crackled down his neck to play among the feathered scales running across his back. It was an intimidating, impressive sight, but there was no threat in it. The lightning did not arc, didn't even try to leave his body to strike out and his tail swung and curled lazily as he stretched his wings and approached the fence. Even as he walked, his form shrank down until he was as far as the chains would allow.

The Aavan smiled then, a small expression on his face, but welcoming and that was more than he'd ever given her before. She wouldn't see any true happiness or joy in his eyes again though until he was allowed more freedom. The chains coming off would be a start.

"Senzra." he greeted back and then tilted his head, black hair falling over his eyes and partly down his shoulder as he frowned and his violet eyes grew slightly cloudy. His mind was already inside her own but it seemed to expand for a moment as he caught a thought, a strong one in her whether she realized it or not. It only a took a moment for his eyes to snap back to reality and the Aavan hissed, stepping back with bared fangs and wide eyes that had gone slitted at the pupil.

"The darkness. You know of the Ashkerai? You woke them! You went to the Canyons!" His voice was a low rumbling growl, snarls in her head, but it wasn't her he was angry and distressed toward and that was clear too in his emotions, something she would feel if she was paying attention. Mori paced and ran his hands through his hair, growling out loud to himself and mumbling in his own tongue words she would not know, not even with the bond. It would take a different kind of mind-meld for that and for Moridryn to give her that gift of understanding the Aavanian tongue.

He stopped suddenly and looked back to Senzra, the only emotions rippling off him now being both a fear so deep it went beyond terror and determination enough to rival that dark emotion. "If your family wishes to speak with me, I will tell them all I know. You have my word. This is not just a danger to the Tirizan but the Aavan and Nuathal as well. It always has been."
 
So he had picked up on that thought. If that was so, then that must be what he thought was the more important topic. She fought off his rumbles with defensiveness. How could they have known of the Ashkerai if no one bothered to alert them! But underneath it, she sensed that he wasn't being accusatory, and let her defensiveness slide.

"They do," she confirmed, "And I'm sure they still do." The words were laced with a slight venom, though, knowing that without her, her family would have treated him as an animal to be harassed. But who was she to judge them? Likely she would have done the same just a day ago if there was a chance the Aavan knew something that would help her people. It felt much better to not have to, though, to know that he was willing to talk to them.

She withdrew from Mori and blocked him out as he relayed his willingness to the rest of the family more out of habit than out of secrecy. Although they had dispersed, none of them were engaged in an activity too important that they could not leave now for knowledge of the Ashkerai.

"Good. Senzra, you swear he will behave outside of the cage?" she heard her father ask.

"Yes." Though she spared a personal thought to add, Only as much as I swear to behave.

"Then bring him to the Council Room. Everyone gather there as soon as you can."

And with that, she returned her attention to Mori and his cage. The shield was easily deactivated, but the wire mesh had been put up as a temporary fixture. No thought had gone into making a door into it for it would be gone in just a little.

"They wish to speak to you now," she confirmed, though that had never really been a question. "If I deactivate the shield, are you well enough to get over yourself?" she asked as she moved to the shield controls to disable them. No doubt before lunch, he couldn't have, but after their bond, he had seemed noticeably healthier. "I hope we'll at least be able to find a way to mitigate the danger."
 
He caught the venom and wondered at it, but didn't question and by that point she was already blocking him out as much as she was able, to contact her family he would presume. He felt a streak of nervousness he'd not felt in a long, long time go through him though at the thought of speaking to so many Tirizan and Mori only sent affirmation along his bond with Senzra to her question, finding that his body shivered with an anticipation he didn't quite know what to do with as she deactivated the shields. It didn't take long to command a few Nuathal to remove his chains and suddenly Mori found himself free of any physical restraints.

His fingers found his wrists, rubbing gently where the shackles used to be and then found his neck, the weight gone. It was a sense of freedom that came over him then, something so overwhelming that Senzra would have to feel it. She'd certainly see it as an outright grin broke over the Aavan's face, one of pure joy and excitement as he looked up at the sky and jumped. His form shifted rapidly until wings exploded from his back and the large creature soared upward, taking to the skies. He had no plans to leave, only to once again feel the wind that brought a freedom unlike any other and his black body soon twisted and started to come back down hardly a minute after he'd gone up. As he came closer to the courtyard, his wings opened, slowing his descent and when he landed, it was with nary a tremble beneath him. He landed far from the cage and the feeling that radiated off of him would make it clear he had no plans of returning to it. Just as he had no intention of leaving completely or harming anyone.

Violet eyes found Senzra then and the Aavan's great, black head moved down to her level, his nose not three inches from her face and chest. Warm breath moved across her, stirring her hair-vines and clothes and Mori rumbled in a way that could only be described as fond. "Thank you, Senzra." She had earned far more than his loyalty with her actions in the last five minutes and all it had taken was the removal of all that had made him a slave. A bond...was not a slave's shackle. Shields and power suppressors and chains were.

Mori's form stayed large for the moment as he watched the Tirizan before him, wondering if she might be brave enough to touch him and what she might think if she did.
 
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Senzra found she couldn't take her eyes off him as his captivity was shed. Even without the bond, she could feel his emotion just by watching him in the way he found flesh where shackles used to be and lept off the ground and into the air. Flight. To gain tremendous height without fear of falling. She couldn't fly, but while at school, she had taken up the past time of climbing. At first it was within safe bounds with ropes and harnesses. But she had biocs made to allow her to climb on her own and learned how to fall safely from relatively great heights. Flying, though, was climbing without walls. There were no limits, and the falls were much safer. Some day, perhaps, they would develop the biocs necessary for flight, but for now they had their platforms.

As he came back toward the ground, Senzra raced for him with an extra bounce in her legs. She didn't have to look to know there were Tirizans in the windows around the courtyard if they were inside or standing back away if they were outside. There was a sort of wonder radiating which she combated with calmness. This would be a new normal, and it was okay.

She smiled as he breathed on her with laughter in her eyes. She reached a hair-vine out to touch him. Some part of her cautioned of the lightning dancing across him, but she knew she did not need to fear it. She felt his nose, scaly, and started tracing up to forehead, gliding over and ingraining his texture in her mind. Even with just that light touch, though, she could feel the pull to fall into his mind and feel her own wanting to open. But the time for that wasn't now. She stayed the urge to wrap her arms around his nose and instead took a step back and faced the way they needed to go.

"We should go," she said instead. "They'll be waiting for us." And she couldn't help but think about how much better it was to be bonded with an Aavan than to hold one down in chains. There was a magnificence about him that cages stole away. A hover disk zoomed toward them, and stopped precisely before her. "Do you want to hover there? Or walk?" She'd give him the choice. Yes, the cage she had made for him was larger than that at the auction, but walking free was different. Yes, he had already taken wing, but legs were different, too.
 
Her touch was like an electricity he'd never felt before. The sensation rippled down his scales, seeped in, made his entire body tingle with energy and the Aavan had to consciously still a purr that threatened to start in his chest. Just as he felt her resisting an action that was almost second-nature. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew it wouldn't have been harmful and therefore he was curious. Now wasn't the time for that, though, and when she pulled away, he felt a sense of loss, but not so great as it could have been as their minds were melded. He shook the feeling off and instead watched the device that came to still before the Tirizan.

She offered him a choice, something he'd not been given in a long time and Mori's form shrank down so that he was only standing a few inches taller than she was, their forms similar in most ways barring a few details. He smiled past his black hair and gave her a mischievous look. "I think I'll run." He took off then and if Senzra had ever been to the arena, she would know that Aavan were much faster than they looked. The only way she was keeping up with him was on the hover disk and sure enough, when he looked back, he wasn't surprised to see her following and then catching up. He paced himself then, following where she led. His body, despite nothing having done this in years, didn't seem to mind the strenuous activity in the least and when they finally came to Council Room, Mori skid to an abrupt halt, not even breathing hard.

He saw the Tirizan that waited through his black hair and flipped his head slightly to get it out of the way, violet eyes taking all of them in silently. His gaze went to Senzra then, a myriad of emotions in his own. Unease, fear, determination...and trust. The last was only meant for her, though and it was to her that the Aavan migrated when she came off the hover disk. He didn't speak. It was a habit of sorts, not to speak around Tirizan and it would be a habit difficult to break after seven years.

He had only taken to speaking with Senzra in his mind after all.
 
Run? It was as if he were trying to terrorize the Tirizans. Though honestly, Senzra wasn't sure she could blame him. If she powered a bioc, she probably could've caught up with him on foot, but since the hover disk was there, she took it. That and, she reminded herself, she was back at the castle. She had to be dignified all the time again. At the university, she had had her own time and she was more or less just another student. Here she was princess, and she could never forget that.

The door they stopped in front of didn't look much like a door. It was an opaque red-orange crystal that blended into the walls. If one looked closely, one could see small nubs where techries were embedded at the bottom and top. She reached her hair vines to each of them, and when she placed her hand in the middle, the door shimmered and faded away. Before them sat only her parents and her eldest brother, but she could feel the others mentally.

Senzra could feel Mori's discomfort just as much as she could feel her family's. Conceptually, it seemed so easy: a transfer of knowledge. But even though Mori had already pledged to inform them about the Ashkerai, a common source of darkness, that didn't mean there was trust. She was the only person everyone trusted, but she knew her parents still thought she was full of folly at least half the time.

"This is Moridryn'aKyno," she said by means of introduction. "And these are my parents, Isfandiar and Estari, and my brother, Lavorus." It was more to give all of them a place to start. She had already told her parents of the Aavan, and she had no doubt that Mori could pluck the names out of her mind if he hadn't already known the names of the Tirizan king and queen. But before anyone could demand information or anything else off-topic, Senzra continued, "We're here to talk about the Ashkerai, and Mori," she looked to him and smiled, giving him as much encouragement as she could, "has agreed to tell us what he can." Maybe after this or maybe after the situation with the Ashkerai played out, they could all come to trust one another as she did.
 
Mori relaxed just a little at her mental reassurance and he looked back to the Tirizan royalty and took a deep, but quiet breath. He'd never seen himself in this kind of position even in his wildest dreams, but it almost felt right to be here in this moment, as if somehow everything in his life had led up to these first steps in establishing communication between their kinds. He wasn't a Prince, wasn't nobility as Aavan had no such things, but he wasn't even an elder and they did have those. He wasn't a distinguished Aavan, a veteran of wars....and yet he could do what no other Aavan could.

Speak with the Tirizan.

And now he'd bonded with one, the first of his kind to do that, too. He honestly wasn't sure whether he'd be looked at with respect by his own kind or shunned because he was so very different. Mori also knew it wasn't quite what he should be thinking of now and he brought his attention back to the situation at hand and he dipped his head slightly to each of the royalty, thinking it better to start respectfully even if he wasn't going to act like they still owned him. In his mind, they never really had. You had to break something to own it and he'd never broken. He never would.

"I am sure you already know that the evil you are encountering originates from the deep canyons about three days from here." As he spoke, the Aavan slowly approached the table, equally as wary of the family as they probably were of him and he avoided eye-contact with them at first, but that was only because he was looking at the table, head tilting for a moment before he reached out. His fingers touched an panel and a 3D map sprang up. Mori smiled just slightly and with an ease that was astounding - Aavan did not have advanced technology like the Tirizan, didn't understand it and didn't know how to use it, such was a proven fact - he manipulated the map with a few touches until it showed the canyons he spoke of. It was mostly uncharted territory, though, and there wasn't a great deal of information.

"What you might not know is such evil has been here for thousands of years, long before my species was what they are today. The Ashkerai don't have forms. They are shadows, literally, and every two hundred years or so they emerge again to try and devour this world as they have devoured others. When they came here, the Aavanian ancestors figured out a way to fight them and keep them at bay when the emerged. In this way, we kept the world from being a casualty like the rest before it." As he explained, Moridryn was half focused on what he was doing with the technology. It was created by creatures who used their minds and his own species used theirs as well. It was rather easy to reach out to the technology and start pouring in what he knew of the canyons, updating the information and having it spring up on the hologram. He added depth to the canyons, longer length, caves that were known of and gradually started to input a whole city built into the canyon walls. The next thing added was the radius of the underground tunnels and they were well within the boundary of towns and cities the Tirizan had built above ground. They were in danger and hadn't even known it.

He stopped then and violet eyes finally looked to Isfandiar, Estari and Lavorus before glancing to Senzra. "As our race changed, we lost abilities we'd once had that kept the Ashkerai from expanding. We foolishly thought we had them contained and spread our own cities." He looked to the lost city in the canyons. "We were wrong and paid dearly for it. We've never gotten control of those canyons again, but we did figure out a way to keep them from expanding too quickly from that place. We kept away from that area so as to not provoke them into waking, something you have done now, though you did not know the danger. If they sense life in abundance, it can wake them earlier then what is normal. We should have had another fifty years, but I fear now we have months if that."
 
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Isfandiar frowned. He could his wife and son's discomfort about the Aavan mingling with his own in the family mind, though they were all careful to keep everything locked down tight. Yet at the same time, his own daughter was emanating reassurance. What had happened between the Aavan and her was strange and undocumented, but in any case, he didn't trust it. Touching minds and sharing thoughts could foster trust, but what had occurred between them happened in hours. It disturbed him. The way the Aavan could talk disturbed him. The way he could manipulate the maps was no better.

Still, information was information. After all, the purchase of the black Aavan had been for information's sake. He ought to be relieved it was so easy to communicate with the Aavan, but there was distrust. Only a day ago the beast had tried to break his chains. Why was today any different?

There were cities endangered, and while many had been moving steadily away from the canyons, there were still quite a few cities that were still right above the tunnels. Ought he issue the command to have them resettle? But that might spread more fear than necessary. There was more to be learned, though.

"What abilities were these that allowed you to fight them off? How did you lose them -- the abilities?"

Maybe a few months would be enough time to find a solution. Whatever the Aavans had must have been a natural advantage against the Ashkerai. Fifty years, with enough knowledge, would have been enough time, but a few months? Maybe there were enough Aavans with the ability to hold the shadows back. There was the possibility of taking to space again and letting Aavans deal with the threat again. But that was dangerous. They could come back to a broken planet. Then again, if this threat would keep happening in the future, maybe it meant they ought to find a new planet. On the other hand, if they defeated the threat, maybe the rebelling Aavans would leave them alone.
 
He could smell their unease. His senses were much sharper than theirs could ever be unless they used a bioc and even then might work ten times more reliably. The Aavan had learned to distinguish Tirizan smells, to know what they were thinking by what their scents could tell him alone. Right now the King and his family barring Senzra were nervous about him, unsure and more than likely wanted to see him back in a cage if only so they could feel like they were in control again. Well, he wasn't here to make them feel better.

Mori decided to ignore the tension he could sense in the air and instead he hesitated, looking to each unfriendly face before directing his attention to Senzra, to his bond-mate. Sharing such information...it could be harmful to his own kind if the Tirizan chose to use it against them...and they already had so much control of his kind as it was. They were already suffering and the last thing he wanted was to be the one who increased that misery.

And yet...if he didn't take the chance...they could all be wiped out with no chance for an understanding between their kinds at all.

A growl rumbled from his throat in indecisive frustration before Mori frowned, but sighed and reached up to touch the map above him. He cleared away the canyons and instead brought up something the Tirizan would have never seen, something out of his own memories, something he'd learned about, passed down from generations. It was a species. Walking on legs bent backward with four arms, glowing blue skin and no mouths and three eyes, the creature stood nearly as tall as an Aavan as Mori brought that image up on the screen, too. It wasn't an Aavan like they knew them today, though. They were slightly smaller, thinner, with six legs and without wings. The skull was the same, though, the tail similar, claws and legs the same. The Aavan on the screen was black with a red undertone.

"Once my species was made up of multi-colored black Aavan. Every one possessed the ability of light and lightning. Such were the powers that kept the Ashkerai at bay, but even that wasn't enough. An Aavan could not meet an Ashkerai in battle without being overcome by the shadows. We called it Sucnu; the process of giving in to the darkness that Ashkerai could cast over the mind. It was our bonds with the Neznal that kept us immune. They were made of a hive-mind, like your species, and it was that interconnection of many minds that kept an Aavan's from going under. Together we were able to keep the Ashkerai at bay by fighting terrible battles with them and driving them back, though, we could never fully defeat them."

Mori sighed again and ran a clawed hand back through his black hair as more images came up on the screen. This time it was of the Neznal and it was clear something was wrong with them as they fell ill and died in the hundreds and then thousands. "A plague swept our world. It was brought by the Nuathal when they came to our world. Both Neznal and Aavan died, but the Neznal were annihilated. They couldn't fight it off and we lost them. That's when my own kind started to change. Without the Neznal, we couldn't fight the Ashkerai as effectively and so we stopped trying so hard, retreated. Without the constant use of the powers that had been used for war, we developed different powers and the black Aavan started to disappear."

Violet eyes finally looked the family over again and then met Senzra's amber ones with a wry sort of smile. "There's only one black Aavan born every three hundred years with the power to drive the Ashkerai back to the canyons, but...without the Neznal, they gain more ground every time and the black Aavan who fights them loses their life."​
 
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Senzra knew the mental fight that was happening. The war between trusting the Aavan and not. There were the words the Aavan spoke, and those they took as they took all information -- as the best they had, but always replaceable -- but there was still the matter of trust.

Light and lightning. Like much in the world, the Tirizan had learned to manipulate these to their own whims. Electricity still proved a fickle beast. Though it powered many techries and some models of biocs, even the ones that fed off of a Tirizan's natural metabolism could be disrupted by excess charge. Light, on the other hand, was something mastered to an art. Their artisans had harnessed light and had incorporated lighting into their architecture. Crystals cut in particular ways could scatter or focus light with high precisely.

But then there was Sucnu. When Mori spoke of it, Senzra felt the uncomfortable shift that came with it. There was, on the one hand, a sense of doom, and on the other, a sense of hope. And she couldn't decide if the fact that the determining factor was trust was the worst part or the best. That the Neznal had been a hive-mind and could save an Aavan was promising. They, of all Tirizans and all families, could make it happen.

"Can the Shadows be defeated? For forever?" she heard her father ask. "How long does the fighting usually last?" She could see it -- between his mind and his eyes it was clear -- that very real possibility of taking to space again. But this was home. It might not have been for her forefathers, but they had been forced from theirs. Here, their hand was not yet forced. There was the possibility of saving this place. But any plan hinged on Mori.

"Would you fight them?" she asked him even with her father's question still standing. They stood a chance, perhaps, of using their own technology to drive off the shadows, but it was clear Mori knew more on the subject than they did. "If you weren't here? If this hadn't happened?"

And even if her father did lead a mass expedition out to space to escape the Shadows, she would find a way to fight the Shadows if Mori was. Home was worth fighting for.
 
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