Dichotomy

[DotCom]

Tai gave her sister a sincere, if distracted smile, the classic sort that all her family and friends recognized as Tai trying her very best to be good, to pay attention...but hadn't heard even the last two words of whatever they said.

"Hm?" Tai muttered, her gaze already floating back to their Ashkerai host. "S'okay, 'setta, I'm not hungry." Then, without realizing her sister had said nothing of the sort, she went on, her brow furrowed, her gaze equal parts fascinated and concerned, as she always was, by the Ashkerai. Any Ashkerai, but Eliko in particular.

"He's so gentle with them," she said, unaware she was even speaking aloud. "That little one, the one that's about to have...um...houndlings? She's hurting, she's tired, and still, when she sees him, she just..." Tai shrugged, a bemused sort of smirk on her face. "They all adore him. I can feel it. He's not bad, 'setta, he just needs help."

And it was true. Tai still didn't trust the Ashkerai. She could feel what this place did to her sister, to both of them, and she didn't like it. She could feel the fear and hate and anger that seemed to follow them everywhere they went. Tai went to sleep shivering each night and woke shaken and pale from nightmares more often than she was willing to admit. But each and every time she thought about running, taking Kohe from this place back to where everything was warmth and light and she could be her usual naive, too-trusting self, she got a glimpse of insight. This woman who had just shoved by her in a narrow hallway that made her feel anxious and cold -- her youngest was sick, hurting. Tai was certain she could help, if only that woman would trust her...but of course, they weren't there for that...though it hadn't stopped Tai from trying to sneak away. It was when she'd nearly fallen down the hole too narrow to spread her wings, when darkness had closed over her head, and she'd felt close to panic...and then Eliko, not Kohe, had been the one to leap forward.

They were all of them afraid, and Tai could not blame them, living in a world of hatred and misunderstanding as they did. It ate through to Tai's bones, making her feel tired and sore all the time. But she only poured herself into a better understanding. Who were these creatures who seemed to thrive on darkness and cold and hate? For once, Tai was quiet, not nearly so outgoing as she might have been anywhere else, but following her sister in silence everywhere they went, watching closely, understanding, seeing far more than anyone else might have guessed.

And she tried to soothe. More than anything, she tried to ease the cold and fear she saw everywhere. Most of the time, she was too tired to do much, and she saved most of her energy for keeping herself and Kohe warm at night. But as afraid as she was herself, she was beginning to find fear in the Ashkerai, too, and her heart ached for them.

"He loves them," Tai said, still thinking, still digging through layers she was only beginning to understand. She wanted to understand more, faster, but none of them would let her near, and she didn't like being away from Kohe too long. Without her sister, her lifeline, the darkness burned too close, too quickly. And Tai would have borne it in silence if she knew it was doing any good. But in the three days she'd been there, she'd seen no change, and she was beginning to get desperate.

"He loves them with everything he is," she added, uncertain as to whether she meant his hounds or his people. "'Setta, there's something there inside him none of them can see." She frowned, chewed her lip, and her expression softened a bit, somewhere between pity and concern. "I don't think he sees it..."

It only then occurred to her she had seen Kohe smile for the first time in days and turned to her sister beaming.

"Sorry, were you saying something?"

 

[Kaisaan]

Hungry?

Kohe blinked at her sibling and then had to stifle a laugh behind her hand, shoulders shaking with it and her tail curling in the most erratic of patterns in the strongest amusement the Demisan had felt in days. It was telling to how absorbed Tai was that she didn't look over just to see what had made her twin's emotions swell with such a good feeling....and that served to entertain Kohe even more, her tail having to curl around her waist she was trying so hard not to laugh, needing the thing close so she didn't accidently smack someone with it as she tried to control herself.

But even as she did, the elder twin listened to the younger and when Kohe felt she could move her hand without bursting into helpless giggles, she did so, smiling, head tilted as she observed Tai. For someone who was so worried about losing Kohe to a mate - yes, Kohe knew about that, knowing her twin far better than Tai thought sometimes - she was well on her way to at least having a crush on Eliko.

And THAT amused Kohe, too.

Still, it wasn't giggles she gave her sister when Tai finally looked to her, but a raised brow and crossed arms. There was nothing upset about Kohe, but it was slight admonishment for not listening in the first place and she rolled her eyes at Tai finally and shook her head, smile escaping. "Well, I certainly said nothing about food!" Now the grin broke out and she reached out and ruffled Tai's hair, sending it into an even wilder mess than it already was.

She let Tai have a moment of sheepish embarrassment maybe or just pure joy that Kohe was so happy - most likely the latter - and then she spoke, glancing from Eliko to Tai and settling her gaze exclusively on her sister, though, she was always attuned to where the Ashkerai was in the cavern until he left.

She didn't trust him either.

"I was telling you, Pejkia, that if you want to reach Eliko, you have to stop approaching him with Midlight." Seeing her sister's instant confusion, Kohe went on, knowing she now had Tai's attention. Anything pertaining to Eliko usually garnered that these days and once again, Kohe was glad for that....even as it worried her. "Midlight is what the Ashkerai call the brightest part of the day. You are like that, Tai. You are bright and full of so much warmth and you radiate so much kindness that it nearly hurts them, sister. And it's not your fault, anymore than it is their fault for being what they are, but Eliko is even more so wary of Midlight. He is the Prince of Midnight. The darkest part of the day. You are on completely opposite ends of a spectrum and you have to find a middle ground."

Of course, she wasn't actually talking about light and times of the day and the Demisan was sure her sister would know that, but Kohe was not about to try and explain what Midnight or Midlight was unless Tai expressed interest. Right now it was enough to simply have her sister's attention and perhaps give Tai the keys to unlocking the puzzle that was Eliko.

Kohe drew a circle in the silt on the ground then, marking one point as Midlight and the other as Midnight before she went to a halfway point on the circle and looked up at Tai. "This is Sunrise. This is when you will be stronger than him, but still able to communicate, still interact with each other. And this," Kohe went to the other side of the circle, a midway point. "is Sunset, where he will be stronger, but still able to meet you halfway. If you can find a way to temper your power, your very presence to Sunrise or Sunset instead of Midlight, you will have better luck in discovering how to help Eliko and his people."

The elder Demisan touched her sister's hand then, smiling softly. "And Tai, I know. I sense what it is in him, too. It is that part of him, so dormant and buried that you will come to love. You just have to help him find his way back."

 

[DotCom]

It was the happiest she'd seen Kohe in days, and that alone was enough to make Tai lift the temperature around them by a few degrees, though, as usual, she didn't notice. It was not her naively oblivious nature that hindered her sight here, though, so much as that same lack of understanding that made her so doubt Kohe's continued assertions that her younger sister 'was' Hope, with a big H. Tai still didn't understand what that meant, nor did she believe it was true. But Kohe seemed to have move onto other things, so she supposed it didn't matter for the moment.

Now, one of those things was Eliko, and how Kohe kept saying he would be her mate. Tai made a face, somewhere between humor and disgust. She still hadn't adjusted to the idea of anyone as a mate, and while she knew what it meant for others, Kohe included, she was altogether put off by the idea that some day, someone, anyone, might mean more to her than her sister.

It was somehow even more impossible than the idea of her becoming Hope.

"I don't love him, 'Setta," Tai scolded gently, skipping over the part about sunrises and daysets and midtimes and stuff. It made her head hurt. "I love you. I just want to help him...not be scared anymore."

But she had listened to what Kohe had said, even if it didn't make any sense, and as she went back to watching Eliko with his Icehounds, a faint, if confused smile on her face, she frowned and tried to sort through what Kohe had said.

Her first thought was somehow making herself smaller. It was one of Tai's greatest strengths and weaknesses both, that she was so willing and so able to jeopardize her own safety if she sensed someone, anyone at all, in danger or need. Kohe superseded everyone else, followed by her parents, Lyra and Rask, little Sero, and the rest of her family. But Kohe had once sprained her wrist as a young child trying to fetch a ball for a boy not much younger than herself. Rora had been first upset, then understanding, seeing her own rashness in her daughter Mori had seen in their younger years. But unlike Rora, Tai's shirt-off-her-back attitude extended to everyone from the smallest insect to even the Canaris that had chased them through the forest...though she still wasn't keen on letting it chew on her sister.

If Kohe said she had to be less...shiny? for Eliko to let her help him, she would do it by any means necessary. If it meant dunking herself in the darkness until she couldn't find her light, she would. She might have gone and done it then, seeking out the cavern she'd nearly fallen into...except she sensed Kohe wouldn't like that, and she wanted to help the Ashkerai, not distance her sister. Especially not with the threat of mates looming so close.

Tai hadn't realized how deep she'd gotten into the strange circle of thought until she felt the tip of her tongue poke out the corner of her mouth.

Thinking about stuff, she quickly decided, was boring and took far too long. Instead, she leapt up and shoved all of the lightness she could manage behind her, shielding Kohe on instinct even as she dragged Kohe forward, toward the Icehounds and the lone Ashkerai.

Kohe had said she was supposed to be different when she talked to him. But she'd never mentioned what they were supposed to talk about.

"Eliko, hi!" she said brightly, then remembering herself, she stopped and made herself try to frown and started again. "I mean, hey. What are your pets' names?"

 

[Kaisaan]

Annnnd once again it was clear to Kohe that Tai didn't understand.

It made her smile a bit this time, shaking her head as she sighed silently and watched her sister, glancing from Eliko to the younger Demisan. Speculation of a deep kind was in Kohe's eyes, but that was nothing uncommon with her and she kept her thoughts to herself, able to understand that Tai wasn't ready - or willing - to hear them. Her sister would just have to try and fail a few times before she would be willing to try it Kohe's way and truly learn how. That's how father had often taught Tai whereas mother had been more prone to frustration. That was where Rora had actually done VERY well with Kohe because Kohe was attentive and eager to learn, and follow all the steps in doing so.

But Tai...she needed a REASON to want to listen, to follow instruction. Her heart tended to lead before her head and while that was admirable and so wonderfully TAI....it was also something that got her twin in trouble sometimes....and that was where Kohe came in to get her out of it. And she'd been doing that Tai's whole life, starting with the river accident and onward.

Kohe didn't resent it in the slightest, though, and she knew Tai's habits well enough to know that her sister would listen to her eventually. She just had to be patient and make sure Tai didn't stir up any hornets' nest with her goodwill that should not be poked quite yet.

Simple enough.

She let a smile twitch as Tai pulled her forward, dragging her feet just on principle, but rather amused to see how this would play out. She could sense that the Midnight within Eliko was fluctuating today, something having disrupted it, and so this was actually a perfect time for Tai to make her presence known. So Kohe would let her sister make her blunders, knowing she was safe enough to make them this time around. It would truly be interesting to see how the Ashkerai handled the bubbly Tai when his shields were not so strong.

A Sunrise setting....if only Tai knew how to meet him there.

Oh well, she'd learn.

As it was, Eliko nearly flinched - would have if it not for all his training - at the sheer amount of warmth, light and presence that Tai exuded. The Icehound by his side sensed it, though, even if he didn't act on the desire, and the creature lunged, teeth gleaming as it shrieked. The Ashkerai's arm came out even before Kohe could react and the Icehounds fangs sank into his flesh instead of Tai's throat. The animal released almost immediately, keening and whimpering as it sank down to the ground under Eliko's eerie silence and hard brown eyes.

He was bleeding, puncture marks ringing his entire forearm, deep and ugly, but a layer of ice was coming to cover each hole, stopping the flow of red and the Ashkerai barely reacted to the pain, not having made a sound, nor said a word through the entire event. Tai would sense the pain deep within, but Eliko didn't show it and he spoke one word to the Icehound that had it whining further, but sinking further into the stone as if it wanted to melt away.

"Stay."

It wasn't so much the word as the tone, showing nothing more than an extreme displeasure, and the Ashkerai looked to Tai and Kohe - who strangely had not moved and looked almost calm, like she knew something neither he nor her sister did and that was unnerving - and then back to Tai again, annoyance in his gaze. "They aren't pets and you can't shove so much light at them at once unless you're looking for a death sentence." he spat before crouching, more concerned for the state of the pregnant Icehound who'd shrunk against the wall during everything than how the twins had taken the almost-attack.

They were alive and unharmed. The Icehound was scared and carrying about eight houndlings. He had far more sympathy for her....but after a moment, his hands and voice, low and soft, coaxing the pregnant creature back to him, Eliko finally answered Tai's question. But only because he knew she wouldn't leave until he did.

That was the only reason.

He gestured to the Icehound lying on the ground with his blood-streaked arm, the creature watching everything with four anxious eyes, but staying where he'd been told. "He's Torquo. He's a male so he has brighter colors." And indeed the Icehound had bright blue fur surrounding his neck and head. Hands ran over the white fur on the pregnant female. "This is Nesinia. She is Torquo's mate. Her young are due any day."

Eliko stood then and he gave Tai a sharp look. "Don't touch her. She needs Midnight, not Midlight. You'll hurt her." His warning was nothing less than promising pain if she disobeyed, but the Ashkerai's demeanor didn't stay like that for long as he moved away from Nesinia and instead whistled for another Icehound, this one with tan fur and looking younger. Something seemed to soften just a bit in Eliko's icy brown eyes as his hand made contact with her spade-shaped head and when he looked to Tai again, it was with some resignation.

After all, she wasn't going to keep away until her curiosity was satisfied.

"This is Nefkarya. You can touch her. She's far more resilient to the light."

As if she could understand - and perhaps she could - Nefkarya's ears perked forward and one set of eyes looked to the Demisan while the other pair waited for any kind of signal from Eliko, but he gave none, merely waiting for Tai to make up her mind about what she wanted to do.

And honestly wondering what the hell HE was doing.

 

[DotCom]

It was several moments before Tai realized how close she was suddenly standing to the Ashkerai, her insides twisting in real concern. In that time, in those few seconds, she had heard a growl, and seen a flash of teeth, and felt no fear, though somehow automatically planted herself in front of her sister. And yet when she felt a flash of pain, it was not to herself or to Kohe she looked. It was to the Ashkerai, concern written all over her face.

"Are you alright?" she blurted, before remembering where she was -- and with whom. "I can -- "

But he was already healing himself, impassive, though his arm throbbed. Satisfied, and a little confused, Tai looked from him then back to Kohe, then to Eliko again.

"Are you okay?" she asked tentatively. Anyone who knew Tai knew she had a far lower tolerance for other's pain than for her own. "I didn't mean to scare him...don't be mad at him, it was my fault, I didn't know..."

In fact, she still didn't know what he meant, or what Kohe meant by Midnight or Light or whatever it was. She would certainly try to reach Eliko, because it unsettled her to see him so alone...but if she had to learn what Kohe meant first, it was going to take a while.

What bothered her was that the concern that had come with the dull flash of pain radiating up her arm hadn't been the sort she was used to. It had been closer to what she felt when Kohe was in trouble. Not the same, of course. Kohe was her twin sister and her best friend. There was no one in the world more important.

But she felt that same desperate, jumpy need to heal, to fix. It was that same pain that twisted inside her, the sort that made her want to be reckless just to fix it, while simultaneously making her want to cry and try and cheer Kohe...or Eliko, in this case. up.

For a second, Tai was confused. Then she remembered the sort of half bond she'd built between herself and Kohe and Eliko and the other one, when they were all hurting. She'd wanted to stop it again. But again, that was Kohe. Not the Ashkerai, and not the one Kohe thought was her mate.

That settled, she started to step back, because Rora had told her once not everyone like people as much as Tai did...until Eliko started naming his Icehounds.

She didn't know or care whether Kohe had told, or if he was guessing, or if he didn't know at all, but there was very little else Eliko could have done right to win Tai's attention so swiftly and completely. She dropped Kohe's hand at once, and while she was always keenly aware of what her sister was doing -- especially here -- for once, she did not look to Kohe first for direction. It was only by great effort she did not squeal in excitement, having seen what the creatures could do, not just to her, but to Kohe, or Eliko, if he interfered again.

Tai shook her head once. "I won't hurt her," she said quietly, violet eyes dancing from the male to his mate, smiling as she remembered how tense Rask had been when Lyra was carrying Sero.

And she was watching Eliko, too, her eyes studying his every expression as he walked between the creatures-that-weren't-pets, his affection for them clear as day, marking the first touch of warmth Tai had felt in days that hadn't come from her sister. She almost missed the rest of what he said, so fascinated was she by the sudden change in demeanor. And then he introduced the third Icehound, and Tai's interest faded away.

It was clear nothing else was on Tai's mind as she beamed at Eliko, then at Kohe, still oblivious to whatever it was they said she was exuding, then dropped to her knees, folding her wings behind her as she put out first one, then the other hand to the youngest Icehound, giggling as it stepped forward to sniff at her.

She threw purple and white locks over her shoulder as she looked up at Kohe, grinning. As ever, that thick lock of dark purple dangled in her eyes, unnoticed for the moment.

"'Setta, look, she's nice! Come see!"

 

[Kaisaan]

Eliko simply stared at Tai for a long moment. Just stared. Nothing showing on his face, nothing in his eyes. He just watched her, unreadable outwardly, but his thoughts a tangled web within his head. He didn't know what to make of Tai....and that in and of itself was concerning because he wasn't supposed to be making anything of her! He was to kill her and her sister, nothing more. He WANTED to kill them. Their existence would bring nothing but suffering and loss to his people. They were a curse, sworn enemies of the Ashkerai and the Venatori. And in the future they were even divided between the Cerebrae and Aavan. Members on both sides of the species thought their birth had been a mistake as their deaths resulted in an all-out-war.

But that was what the Ashkerai and Venatori wanted.

In war, they could win back their lands, their homes, their rights to power, to rule. If the twins were alive...the two allied races didn't want to contemplate what that would mean. Eliko had been told since he was young, since before he could even understand what was truly going on, that if the twins lived, his people died.

Plain and simple, and there had been nothing to combat that truth in his mind. There still wasn't anything.

Except perhaps Tai.

It didn't make sense, this image of her that had been drilled into his head and what he was seeing now. Kohe...yes, she was correct, for the most part, but Tai....she didn't fit. And it was nagging at something deep down within him, something the Midnight could not remove, could not harm or destroy, but something that Eliko didn't like because it confused him, made him conflicted. It broke up his thoughts and uncentered him. In the future, he'd known his place, his duty, his people and his world. This place, this time, these people, now the twins and even his own mind was becoming increasingly unfamiliar.

And nothing was clear anymore, everything starting to haze up like a few drops of milk spilled into a cup of water, spreading out further and faster than he could contain.

It had started with Tai and it was continuing with Tai, and Eliko could merely stare at her, knowing that her enthusiasm, the very flare of joy and happiness, brighter than the sun, should have disgusted him, made him angry and want to lash out, to get away - and he did flinch, backing up a step at the intensity - but...her reaction made him far more curious than anything else.

He knew that was bad.

But still, he didn't yet knew what he wanted to do about it, and so the Ashkerai merely watched as the Demisan was greeted by the Icehound, merely giving Nefkarya the signal for 'calm, at ease' when she looked to him with her top-set of eyes again. The creature complied, interested in Tai anyway even if she was a bit tense at the Demisan's touch, filled with so much light as it was.

Kohe sensed that - knew far more than she'd say - and she came over slowly at Tai's request, crouching with her tail out a bit for balance. She held her hand out to the Icehound and Nefkarya's ears perked sharply, all four eyes focused on the elder Demisan...and the neutral vibe she gave off. Kohe spoke quietly even as the creature nosed at some of her fingers, a whistling kind of sound being made that signified some sort of acceptance.

"Calm yourself a bit, Pejkia. If you want her to relax with you, then you need to be more tranquil." the elder twin advised, giving her sister a smile even as she glanced to Eliko. His arms were crossed, merely watching even now, and Kohe's smile turned into just a hint of a smirk. "This one is yours, I take it?"

"They're all mine." The reply was cold, factual, but Kohe raised a brow, pressing. "But this one is special. Even as your future self, you accept her, are fond of her. Now is that because there is still part of your present-self here or because she reminds you of a hound you had in the future?"

Eliko's eyes had narrowed, his entire demeanor stiff. "My present-self is gone. Those emotions, pathetic all of them, do not affect me."

"And your past-self? The self you were truly born as? What about that?" Now Kohe's smile was in her eyes and a sharp edge of uncertainty flickered in the Ashkerai's brown gaze before he shook it off and smiled coldly. "I won't hesitate to kill either of you, if that's what you're hoping."

Kohe merely chuckled, looking away because they both knew he'd not answered the question, not truly.

 

[DotCom]

"I am calm, 'Setta" Tai said aloud, too distracted by the Icehound Eliko had called Nefkarya to be truly annoyed. That, and she knew her sister was right. She still didn't know how to fix what Kohe, and now Eliko, were talking about, but she tried, doing precisely what her father had taught her in her younger years when she got overexcited, making herself sit still and breathe some before reaching back out to pet Nefkarya.

She didn't look at her sister or the Ashkerai as they spoke over her head, knowing it was important, somehow, but not understanding. She could guess what Kohe meant in referencing Eliko's past and futures 'selves', and wasn't surprised that she seemed to know them, only that Eliko did, too. Some part of her mind began to wander, as it always did, only not into daydreams and fantasies, for once, but into what Kohe saw, and what she had seen, of this place, and these people. Of Eliko and the one they were still supposed to meet. She had seemed insistent on meeting them, not just to prevent their own downfall, but a different kind of cataclysm entirely.

As her mind wandered, the Icehoundling before her seemed to calm slightly as she was no longer exuding so much of that toxic, ineffable joy. Tai settled back on her haunches, her wings trailing on the floor behind her as her mind wandered, her fingers errantly brushing tan fur.

It was only vaguely she heard Eliko's response to her sister's questions, but her mind snapped to it instantly, and it took her a long moment to figure out why. She didn't doubt the truth in his words...and yet she could feel that poke of uncertainty lingering behind them.

Violet eyes snapped up to brown, her expression somewhere between bemusement and curiosity.

"Yes, you will," she said slowly. "You already have." She frowned, probing further without realizing. "What do you think killing us will accomplish?"

 

[Kaisaan]

Brown eyes were hard, edged with a layer of coldness that could have rivaled ice itself and Kohe looked to her sister with a twinkle of pride in her eyes that she knew Tai would feel. It would combat Eliko's bitter hatred well enough, especially since the Ashkerai's emotions were broad, uncentered as if he didn't really know who to hate at all. He KNEW it should have been them, but something within him was preventing his mind from completely targeting the twins.

Kohe's emotion stemmed from the fact that she knew her sister had asked the right question. A very right question that was already making the wheels turn in Eliko's mind whether he wanted them to or not - and he definitely did not.

"It will bring salvation to my people." The line sounded rehearsed even as he said it, hollow, but there rang some hope in his tone - a desperation for the very thing he was uncertain about to be the saving grace his kin needed, to not fail them. He wanted to believe that ignoring the voice inside him that said this was wrong - that past-self who never seemed to have gone away and was now stronger in this present time than in the future - was the right course of action and would bring about the safety and strength for his people that he wanted to give them.

He'd been raised believing that killing Kohe and Tai would accomplish this.

"The only reason I haven't killed you already is because it's not yet time." the Ashkerai added, tone biting and Nefkarya's ears perked, a small shriek in her throat as one pair of eyes moved to Tai, wondering if she was going to receive a signal to tear into the person petting her so gently. The Icehound liked the caress, but she would obey her master above all else. Her loyalty was to her master and anything her master said was his.

He'd not claimed these two strange things that smelled so different and did not possess the Midnight. But neither had he said to cause them harm, so the Icehound relaxed herself again, every ready to jump up at a moment's notice, but not showing it outwardly, not obviously anyway.

Kohe snorted, standing, her scarlet and sapphire eyes regarding the Ashkerai with amusement, knowing it wasn't her job to soothe him, to make him like her, but to get him doubting so that TAI could come in and plant her little seeds of hope. So that her SISTER could change Eliko's heart."But you could have let Tai die of a natural cause with that pit she nearly stumbled into. Or she would have gone insane in the crushing darkness and she would have been weak while your power grew, easier, swifter to kill her. But you didn't."

"These things have a time and a place. I have my orders." Eliko insisted coldly and the Demisan folded her arms, ignoring the headache she was starting to get, the sick feeling building in her stomach as the Ashkerai before her started to grow angry, the Midnight within him intensifying, colliding with the power she wielded, even if those forces couldn't be seen as of yet.

"From who? The Ashkerai who's not even your father?" The elder twin's eyes narrowed. "Do you even remember your real father? Would he approve of this?"

Eliko's fists clenched and there were dark swirls in his brown eyes. He didn't answer Kohe, too confused and furious to do so and hating that more than anything.

 

[DotCom]

Tai had honestly never meant to upset anyone, not even Eliko, and she cocked her head to the side, confused and apologetic, at the wave of anger -- no, hatred -- she felt wash over him.

"I'm sorry," she blurted, almost before he was finished speaking. "I didn't mean -- " And then he was talking again, and she let him finish, because she sensed he needed to. Kohe was like that, too. They had ideas, sprawling theories that generally went over their head. But it was important to them to solidify them, to make them mean something, if only to themselves. She let them speak because they were ambitious, so much more than Tai herself would ever be, and while she didn't possess or understand it, she Empathized. She didn't know Eliko. She was wary around him, moreso than she'd been with anyone she'd ever met. She didn't want to be his mate, like Kohe kept purporting.

But she didn't want him to suffer hatred, either. Kohe remembered hatred. She remembered it from the night Kohe had come back from that first jump. It was the first the Empath had ever dealt with it directly, and it had consumed her quickly. It was colder than dark, colder than ice, colder than the river she'd fallen into as a child. And it ate away at her like a living thing, making her feel helpless, afraid, desperately angry. It controlled her every move and emotion, even for that short time. It gave her frightening thoughts that were not her own, telling her who to be and how to think. She'd not been herself. She'd been something smaller, lesser. A slave.

She didn't know the Ashkerai. But he was a person. And no person should be made a slave.

She watched him quietly for a moment until she felt the emnity and tension begin to grow between him and Kohe again and automatically combatted it. It made her shiver, sending herself outside herself like that, here in the darkness. But it seemed worth it. And beyond that, it seemed right.

She waited patiently, offering warmth, trying not to hurt the Icehounds, feeling tension now, even from Nefkarya, then a trill of fear at Kohe's mention of what would have happened to her if Eliko had let her fall. She was about to offer a brief reminder to Kohe to be gentler with her words, because she could feel Eliko growing more and more angry...and then she felt something else entirely.

Something that brought her attention from trying to mediate, away from the Icehound pup and even from her sister. To Eliko.

She frowned, her gaze halfway between concern and pity, and her eyes softened before she even realized what she herself was feeling.

No. Right then, she could only feel him.

He wore the weight of the world -- maybe even two worlds -- on his shoulders.

Oh, he tried to hide it behind these masks of cynicism and hatred. But Kohe was right. His loyalty to his people drove him completely. To the point where he forgot himself, pushed himself too hard, expected too much. It would not have mattered in the slightest whether or not he wanted to kill Tai and Kohe. He would do it because he felt he had to. There was a fear in him, and beneath that, a desperation so powerful, it made Tai's chest hurt. She stood slowly, forgetting the Icehound for a moment, and moved closer to Eliko without evening think about it. Her guard was down entirely. For the first time since they'd met, there was no caution in her stance or her eyes, only pity.

He was going to kill himself trying to meet these expectations he only barely understood. Granted, she didn't understand them, either. But she didn't need to. She had Kohe. Her life was simple as that, and a drive to help people that gave her direction -- or many directions at once.

But Eliko was driven by fear. Desperation. He so badly needed this thing, was so afraid of failing, for him, there was nothing else.

Tai had to stifle the sudden desire to hug him, to try and soothe that uncontrollable need within him.

It was only when she felt Kohe's headache that she stopped walking and realized how close she was. They stood less than a foot apart, and she had to look up to meet his eyes. She could feel whatever Kohe had been talking about now, there differences in their strength. It made Kohe sick, and it made Tai feel tired, like her legs were going to go out from beneath her.

But she couldn't walk away. Because she could still feel that fear, and like him or not, she was compelled to help.

"You don't have to be afraid," she said very quietly, forgetting entirely who she was speaking to. That there could be any negative repercussions at all.

She tilted her head to the side again, studying him, ignoring the hank of dark purple hair that fell into her eyes. She wasn't really looking at him with her eyes, anyway.

"You're hurting my sister," she said. Then, after a long pause, "We're here to help. We want to help. You don't have to do everything on your own, Eliko. You'll kill yourself trying."

 

[Kaisaan]

She drew nearer and Eliko's eyes snapped to Tai, the black rings about his iris bleeding into the brown like streaks of slow, consuming lightning. He could feel the power that had suddenly wrapped not only around the Demisan, but within her, but watching her, the Ashkerai didn't think she was truly aware of what she was doing, the part of herself she'd called up. But he did. The Midnight did and it screeched rage within him, hardening Eliko's gaze, bringing forward the coldness he'd been taught in the most thorough of ways to shield him from the warmth Tai offered.

Warmth was weakness.

To trust her words, to even consider them, was betrayal.

Fear? There was no fear in him. He was Ashkerai. Fear was weakness and he was not weak. The Midnight was shoving away the doubt, the pathetic part of him that came from the past. The part Kohe had trying to lure out of him. It would not work. That part of him had NO place here and Eliko would suffocate, kill it, if he had to consume three times the amount of Midnight he already was to do so.

He would kill the twins and their tricks would not work on him. He'd been trained for this.

Cold, ruthless eyes regarded Tai, unmoved by her words - or at least none of him that she'd be able to see, barely sense - and Eliko only briefly glanced to Kohe. She'd paled, tension at her mouth, a rigidness in her body as the sheer Darkness inside him increased, shoving against the Light Tai was offering and he Ashkerai smirked to see it, looking back to the younger twin, down at her. His words were low and colder than the stone around them.

"I don't need your help. I need you dead and I will kill you when the time comes. Don't ever presume otherwise."

He moved away then, giving a sharp whistle to Nefkarya to follow and the Icehound did so without hesitation, leaving the twins alone as master and hound disappeared into the tunnels.

Kohe gave a low snarl in the back of her throat when he did, her tail lashing behind her and claws nearly tearing into her own hands she kept them so tightly clenched, anger seething in her chest. Oh, she'd known - knew - this was not going to be easy and that trials awaited, but seeing Eliko treat Tai that way....well, no amount of 'time-logic' could temper a big sister's fierce protectiveness. And right now, Kohe wanted to thrash the arrogant, stubborn, cruel, Ashkerai male, Tai's future mate or no. She didn't care!

He'd hurt her sister!

He'd hurt her sister.

Kohe's mismatched gaze immediately snapped to Tai, anger draining away in a wave of concern and she quickly, but gently pulled Tai into a hug, hands soothing her sister's unruly hair. "It's all right, Pejkia. It's going to be all right. He's...he didn't use to be like this. He doesn't have to be like this. He's just...ill. They hurt him, like they did Uncle Rask, and he just needs to get better. It's all right. I'm here. It's all right."

The older Demisan wasn't sure if she was trying to convince herself or Tai.

 

[DotCom]

Tai watched Eliko walk away with a strange and unfamiliar feeling of heaviness settled in her gut. She wrapped her arms around her stomach without really realizing it, and dropped wide violet eyes to the Icehound pup, Nefkarya, whose sudden departure somehow made the Ashkerai's sting all the more.

And it shouldn't have, she knew. She was nothing but a tragedy to Eliko, at the very best, and she had only just met him. They owed each other nothing. And yet on feeling that same sort of directionless desperation in him, she had wanted to help. She had thought she could help. Maybe it was her own inherent naivety. Or worse, arrogance. Tai knew she could be childish at times -- most times. She had an aggravating, dangerous tendency to believe the very best of people, even when they showed the worst of themselves. It was her blessing and her curse, and she knew, though she didn't like to acknowledge it, she had probably gotten herself and Kohe into danger more than once because of her unwavering tendency to trust in everything and everyone.

Most of the time, it worked out for her. Most of the time, when she spread that warmth and calm and trust, it made people better, happier.

It had not been so with Eliko, and as he left, she found herself trembling suddenly very, very cold. Kohe had felt the Midnight, too, she knew, feeling it in the tension in her sister's body, which soon faded under anger, and then concern.

But Tai was still standing there, trembling quietly, staring after Eliko, trying to figure out what she had done wrong, and whether she would ever be able to do anything right with him.

It was only when Kohe was there, hugging her, lending some warmth just by the love she held for her twin, that Tai realized she felt very close to tears. It was annoying and embarrassing and confusing.

"Setta?" she said slowly, still staring into the black, but now resting her read on her sister's shoulder. "I don't think he likes me."

The realization hurt far more than it should have.

--

They had called the ceremony the Knowing, but the only thing Jack really knew about it was that it would not be pleasant.

His father had been, as he always was, vague on the details, believing sharing any more of his strange and convoluted plans than necessary would ruin them. It was why it has always been Jack, and never his adopted 'brother', Ash, to have the prophecy settled on his shoulders. It was why Briar often disappeared for stretches at a time, into the toxic forests, only to return days or weeks later, half starved, hallucinating and feverish from the toxins, but claiming to have seen visions of the future.

Today, Jack would be subjected to a slightly augmented version that had as much a chance of killing him as it did revealing his future and the future of the Venatori.

Jack was not afraid. For two and a half decades, he had trained again such useless, weak binds as pain and fear. There was more to life than that -- for Jack, it was carrying out his ancestors' revenge. That was all that mattered. And what were pain and death and love to that?

His father circled him, both in their Lupus form. Jack, all black fur, save for a perfect triangle with it's apex pointing downward at his throat, yellow-green eyes gleaming in the haze of fire before him. Briar Blackfang, grey fur, red eyes burning like hot coals.

You know what you must do.

Yes, Father.

You know who you will become.

I will become our destiny. I will become better, greater. I will become he who will fulfill the prophecy.

Or you may die.

Death does not frighten me, Jack recited, still staring into the flames. I am one of many. I am what is to come.

And you know what you are to look for in the poison mists?

A jet of burning acid shot forth from the earth and caught fire. Jack hardly flinched. He could still remember the pain of the last geyser he'd been caught in, and this one was meant to produced vivid hallucinations.

No. Not hallucinations. Visions. Visions of the future. Of his destiny.

I will seek out our brethren in the Dark Ones.

Briar Blackfang snarled. Do not be a fool. The Ashkerai are a small part of our plans. They are weak. That is why the rely on our strength, our muscle.

Who do you truly seek?

I seek...I seek the remnants of our sister race. Those who betrayed us.

Another snarl. They are no more our sisters than the and calls the anteater brother. Why?

Vengeance for our people. Power. Restoration. The Venatori will become greater than they once were when they allowed the Cerebrae to dominate them.

And whose blood will buy us that freedom we are owed?

Briar felt a ripple of hatred go through his body. He could feel warm blood on his tongue, flooding his mouth and filling his throat. He did not yet know who he was going to kill. But he would relish the moment when it came. He growled, long and low, and the earth, he thought, trembled with him. It was time.

I will end the Shaman of the Light Cycle, and She Who Would Oppose. I will end the Lightbringers.

What might have been called a smile had it not been so cold, so toothy, crossed Briar's muzzle.

Go.

Jack stepped forward as the geyser surrounded him. Before a howl of agony could rip free from his throat, he opened his eyes and saw a face.

--

Five days later, just over a week after she and Kohe had arrived at the Black Canyons, Tai woke with a whimper in her throat and a knot in her belly. She was covered all over in a cold sweat and shaking slightly, so that for a few moments, she thought she was sick and shut her eyes as a wave of nausea passed over her.

She looked around and beside her. Kohe slept on, apparently undisturbed, but Tai wasn't feeling quite herself, and it was hard to tell. And Tai had been quieter than usual lately, making her feel sort of funny, anyway. There was still a shield up around them, as there was ever night when Tai went to sleep in the cave. It was thin, as per usual. Tai was too tired, and there wasn't enough light to make much. But that much was normal. What was not normal was the way it seemed to shimmer and shiver before her eyes.

Tai frowned and tried to figure out what had woken her up. Her jaw was sore, as though she'd been grinding her teeth, and her stomach was all in knots, making her feel fit to throw up her dinner from the night before. After a week with the Ashkerai, she had more or less adjusted to the constant darkness, learning roughly to make due, though her strength and energy was never stable, as she still couldn't control her "Midlight" as Kohe called it, when she got overexcited.

And then there was Eliko. She had not spoken to him since his dismissal of her a few days early, and could no longer even look at him without blushing, feeling equal parts curious and guilty and ashamed. Never angry, strangely enough. But she went out of her way to avoid him, and that alone was enough to make Tai feel uncomfortable. She'd never actively not tried to help someone before. But what else could she do? It had taken Kohe almost fifteen minutes to stop Tai's shaking after Eliko had left them last, and even then, the younger twin had not slept well that night.

Why did his dismissal bother her so much?

And why wouldn't he let her help?

Whatever answers might or might not have come were suddenly overwhelmed by a sudden pressure in her head. Without knowing why, Tai's mind suddenly jumped to the strange colored bonds in her head, the ones she'd created when Kohe had first begun to sense Eliko and the other. Black, yellow, pink, all struck through with dark strands of purple, writhed, tense in her mind's eye.

Something was happening.

And somehow, Tai knew it would not be good.

"'Setta?" Tai put a hand out to gentle wake her sister.

Two inches from Kohe's shoulder, the pain swept over them all, originating in the yellow, pulsing through the gentle knots Tai had made.

Two inches from Kohe's shoulder, Tai's fingers stopped, and the screaming started.

 

[Kaisaan]

Kohe couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She was not asleep, but nor was she awake and the Demisan didn't know how long she'd been that way. Had it been mere minutes or hours? In the darkness, no one was there to see that her eyes were open, unblinking. Not even Tai would take note and Kohe was strangely glad of that. She had no desire to scare her sister.

But then Tai was already becoming aware that something was wrong, too.

The elder twin had felt it building upon her mind all day, a tug, a twist, a pinch that she could not soothe, could not make sense of quite yet. Not even being Time itself could tell her what this was. No, the only thing she knew was that it was a choice, a great and powerful choice....like the one that Eliko had made. It was her own mate and Kohe knew she was powerless to stop it, just as she'd been unable to stop Eliko. This was a choice that would open a hundred paths in either direction and Time knew it could not interfere. It could only watch.

She could only watch and did, even before the pain hit.

Tai's scream hit her ears and Kohe felt like glass; about to shatter into a million pieces as the inability to move, to do anything but watch the events unfolding within her mind, left her and she was able to surge toward her sister. She shook terribly as her arms wrapped around her twin, but Kohe did not scream as the agony seared through her mind, through her body. She did not scream because she had not the voice to. Her throat constricted, her breathing became ragged with the pain, her skin pale with it and eyes dilated, but she could not scream, could not speak, not out loud, not mentally and Kohe had not the knowledge of why.

And yet that did not matter because she knew what she had to do instead.

--

He had been unable to sleep.

Such should not have concerned Eliko as he'd been having trouble sleeping for days now. His dreams were plagued with a voice, with images that he did not understand and did not WANT to understand. He'd tried consuming more Midnight before sleeping, but that had only kept the dreams away for two or three hours before they were shoving through again, persistent and growing more impatient and demanding by the day. And it had all started after his talk with the twins.

But it was only Tai's wounded face that came into his mind when he thought of them.

The Prince didn't like it and he vowed to do everything he could to make sure it stopped happening. He didn't WANT it happening. She was nothing more than a target. She was the enemy. She was as good as dead already. She was not one of his people and she would see no mercy from him, no matter what the voice insisted. It was weak and he would not be weak. He would not betray his people.

So then why was he running toward the sound of screams that he somehow knew belonged to the one person he wanted nothing to do with?

He would smother this infernal voice.

It had the audacity to laugh even as he came into the cavern, Nefkarya beside him, to discover that, yes, it as Tai who was screaming in what would appear to be pain. And Eliko was moving forward before he could think about it, something stronger than his hatred coming over him for a moment, something foreign, strange, something his conscious mind was so incredibly startled by that it recoiled for a moment, giving the new thing free reign.

It was compassion.

His hands reached out, finding Tai in her silent sister's embrace and for a moment his brown eyes were different, completely so and there was WORRY there. "Tai? Demisan, what ails you?"

--

Eliko - or whoever was speaking through Eliko - would not get his answer as only moments after speaking, after touching Tai, Kohe touched him.

He was here, the pieces were together and Kohe knew it was time to go. She did not hesitate or wonder how it was she would have the strength or the skill to do this. She just did it. The world tilted around her, a roaring in her ears like the sound of a wolf's agonized cry and Kohe saw him. Her mismatched eyes of sapphire and scarlet stared into a pair of pale chartreuse that seared through her. There were other details, like black, shaggy hair and light skin, short facial hair on the face and a strong face that was utterly captivating as it was wild. There were details but Kohe didn't see them.

She just saw him.

And then he was vanishing as the world went dark and pressure built around her as she pulled the other two with her to a destination only Kohe knew...even as she had no idea at all.

 

[DotCom]

In their travels across their home planet, Tai had learned, if only subconsciously, to exercise a part of her Empathy her mother had only used preliminarily, and not at all after she'd met her father. It was Empathy only in the tangential sense, but tangent had always been more than enough for intuitive Tai, daydreamer that she was. If you told her to find a connection, however enigmatic, between a stone and a childhood pet, she could do it.

That same ability let her explore and understand her surroundings almost instantly, as if she were able not only to place herself in the minds of her friends and family, but become the essence of the trees themselves. There was not much to do with it, aside from explore new landscapes, but even the subliminal knowledge that had been with her all her life was enough to know immediately: they had landed not just in a different time, but in a different world altogether.

For a moment, Tai was more her sister than she had ever been, understanding very much in very little time, without even opening her eyes.

The first three came quickly, clearly, loudly:

She knew this place, down in her bones, to the very core of her being.

She had never been her before.

This place, this planet, was dying, and taking its people, few in number, with it.

The soil beneath her fingers, her belly, her cheek, it was dead and dry, the nutrients have dissolved to choke the air or be forced into boiling hot fissures to break out like bleeding wounds over the face of the planet. Trees dropped molding leaves and then limbs and themselves. The water killed creatures both living within and without itself. Sunsets were painted red from the toxins in the air. The planet had become hard, and the people who lived here had had to become harder.

Tai felt it all, and even as the remembered pain of the three lux she now carried within her began to fade, a new pain began to take its place.

The pain of a place dying was different, not as sharp, nor as keen as a person. But it was more pervasive, sinking into her as if the draw the strength from her very bones.

Tai shivered and came awake.

She first thing she saw was Kohe's back, facing away and alarmingly still, Eliko prone somewhere beyond her. But she first thing she felt was a new presence, the yellow lux in her mind, throbbing with pain and something else she recognized but couldn't name. A moan rose to her lips unbidden, and she found herself rolling over, cringing under a sore wing, to face a mound of dark fur lying some ten feet off.

He was alive. She knew he was alive because she could feel his pain, his exhaustion and frustration and confusion. But the sight of him still started a panic in her.

She rolled again, glancing at Kohe, feeling her chest tighten in worry and guilt. She let herself waver over Kohe, over her sister, and Eliko, too -- had he asked her something back in the caves? How far had they come, and how had he come with them? Would the light be as ill-meaning for him as the darkness had been for her? -- and then decided, throwing a shield, all but impenetrable, down over both of them, careful not to hurt Eliko as she did, before scrabling to her feet and over to the furry creature.

She reached him and dropped to her knees, hand trembling over a slow-moving flank, afraid to touch him, afraid not to.

"Hey...hey! Are you alright? Please wake up. Please..."

She felt a ripple of muscle and a surge of cold realization, and then the furry thing was no longer a thing, but an animal, a wolf larger than a horse leaning over her, one heavy black paw on her chest. There was still pain in his pale yellow eyes, but there was duty there, too. No anger. No hate. Only a thoughtless apathy.

Greetings, young Shaman, he rumbled into her mind. He growled and white fangs shown from the near-perfect darkness of his fur. I had planned to kill your sister first, but it seems now I won't have to.

--

The first thing he was aware of was the pain.

It ebbed through him like the slow departure of an ice-cold tide, leaving its touch behind as it burned down to his bones.

This was normal, he knew, but it made him no less aware of the ache in his muscles, the rawness of a scream-turned-howl having torn through his throat. This time, though, the geyser had not burned through his fur, leaving limp patches of hair on his back and flanks. This time, her had walked through a veritable gas chamber -- the dyer helmues, his people called it -- the Toxic Portal Elias Blackfang had sworn brought him clarity and visions of the future. There, he had seen the face, heard the name of the one he must kill.

And yet the face he saw in the shadows was not the one he had expected to see. It was not the one he had dreamt of, seeing strange, shadowy images in his head since that night he had last been subjected to the geyser.

This, he knew, was the Crucible, the part that came after the Knowing, that promised clarity to clean the information that came with the Knowing. At the end of this mission, when he returned to his people, he would be able to lead them back to glory, to their vengeance, with all the knowledge he needed to bring the Cerebrae to their knees.

Only he was not alone.

Only he was being presented with an opportunity for more. When he'd entered the dyer helmues, it was with the expectation that, like his father and his grandfather before him, he would return days or weeks later with some small fragment of knowledge to move his people's dream forward. There should not have been anyone -- or no one real -- to wake to.

And yet he could feel a presence...no, two...no, three behind him. And one was moving closer.

With an agility that betrayed none of the pain of the Knowing, and a speed that came of years of training under his father, Jack rolled to his feet just as he felt a small hand touch his flank. In an instant, the Venatorus had the young Shaman pinned beneath a heavy paw, a snarl of cold satisfaction sounding in the back of his throat. He did not yet understand what had happened, but it seemed the gods had seen fit to accelerate his mission.

Greetings, young Shaman, he said, leaning down over her. Her face betrayed no fear, only a concerned sort of curiosity as she stared up into his eyes with large violet orbs of her own.

Snarling, Jack bore down harder, hatred washing over his features, until at last the calm curiosity on the Shaman's face ceded to a wince as his paw threatened to crack her sternum. The Demisan cringed and whimpered, shifting futilely under her paw as she tried to right her wings beneath her. A brief flare of pain spasmed across his back, but he ignored it.

Give me one reason why I shouldn't simply kill you now, Shaman. Your blood alone would soothe my people for centuries to come.

The Shaman squirmed again. Then she whimpered a single word. He wasn't sure whether it was an answer or a plea, but he knew it was a name.

"Kohe."

Unbidden, his eyes followed and the face that he saw stopped him.

This was the face he had expected to see in the mists of the poison geyser. This was the face that had been haunting his dreams for weeks, months, perhaps years now. Strange and wonderful to behold, it filled him with a cold sense of dread and a burning sense of something wider, greater than anger. He did not understand it. He did not want to.

But his distraction was his downfall -- he would be punished for that later -- and in a moment there was a pressure greater than he could manage around him as the Shaman struggled beneath him once more. He looked down just in time to see a pale golden light attach itself to his limbs, prying his paw off her chest.

In an instant, the Shaman was rolling free, and the light was expanding, growing arms to become a cage around him. Angry at his own ineptitude, Jack lunged forward...but the golden bars of the cage held strong, even as the Shaman winced.

"No," said she, her voice, her limbs shaking, but her eyes hard as she stood beside her sister -- this was her sister, Jack knew. What he did not know was why her face was so familiar to him. "You can't hurt her. She saved you. You have to calm down."

Jack stared at the Shaman's sister a moment longer before turning his pale yellow gaze back to the Shaman herself. She was rubbing her chest with one hand; the other was outstretched protectively in front of her sister. He could see in her eyes she was afraid, uncertain. But he had touched a nerve in threatening her sister, and it was clear the Shaman had no intention of backing down unopposed.

Good. Jack had always enjoyed a challenge.

Your cage cannot hold me, he broadcast to all three figures, without knowing precisely how he managed to do so. I have trained my entire life for this, Shaman. Your blood will be mine if I have to kill the both of you to make it so.

 

[Kaisaan]

There was pain.

It was all she was, all she had been, all she would ever be. Pain. Her own, his, Eliko's, Tai's. Pain was all she knew. There was no darkness, no light, no cold, no warmth, no soft, no hard. Just pain. It washed over her in waves even as she was already submerged in it. Kohe was vaguely aware that she had a body, that the pain was radiating from her head primarily, but also from her back - or maybe his back - her skin and now her chest.

That pain was new, though.

It all blended together and yet stood out separately each pain from the other. The pain in her chest was new and it wasn't hers. Which meant it belonged to someone she cared about. New pain. New threat.

The Demisan was waking almost instantly after that thought, the pain ignored entirely as she surged to her feet. In fact, every bodily function was ignored from the weakness of her legs, the ache in her arms, ribs, the nausea churning in her stomach and the sheer agony in her head. All Kohe was focused on was figuring out which one of the three was hurting and which one of the three was doing the hurting, and dealing with it accordingly.

Tai was the one hurt. And HE was the one hurting.

He was meant to be her mate. He was in pain. He was confused, misguided, angry. He was only doing what he thought was right. Kohe knew all this. Knew it better than he did.

It didn't matter.

He'd hurt her sister and he didn't yet know his place. He was a pack-member now and he didn't know the rules. Kohe was going to give a crash course. She didn't know where those thoughts came from and didn't care as she moved right through Tai's shield, knowing it wasn't meant to keep her in but others out and then marched right up to the wolf's light-cage and then right through that as well. It was meant to keep him in, not her out.

There was no fear in Kohe and it was a fierce fire that burned in her mismatched eyes as they met the pale yellow she'd been so fascinated by earlier. There was none of that now. There was only the look of a predator challenging another, but there was only pure warning in Kohe's roar. It was far louder, far more powerful and dangerous than the one she'd released on the Canaris and Kohe crouched just slightly, clawed hands curled, tail lashing and a snarl rumbling constantly from her throat, fangs bared and jaw trembling with the intensity of how coiled her body was, how ready to spring into action.

Even without words, there would be no mistaking her 'message'. Whether he understood what an Aavan was or not - because that was the part of her that Kohe was drawing off of - wouldn't matter. As one powerful predator to another, he'd understand.

If he so much as made one wrong move toward Tai, she'd make him pay for it. No matter what he was supposed to or going to be to her.

--

It was the roar that woke Eliko.

He'd heard that sound too often to not wake rapidly when he did hear it, no matter how his head throbbed and his skin burned - why did his skin burn? - for he knew that to not wake was asking for death. Those roars belonged to Aavan in Battle Rage, when they were at their most powerful and even Ashkerai were wary of them even with all their dark numbers. When an Aavan was in such a mindset, they were a complete match for a Venatorus.

It was a roar he'd not expected to hear and when it woke him now, the Prince had to blink in the blasted sunlight that wanted to blind him even as it slowly burned at his skin. He soon adjusted, though, extending some Midnight like a shield around him, making the light shield he just now noticed shrink away. Such a thing led his brown eyes to Tai and for a moment that he attributed to the knock he'd sustained to the head, he almost felt...relief that she was all right.

But that couldn't have been right and he shoved the feeling away, ignoring it, pretending it hadn't existed at all as his attention moved to the scene before him as he stood. The face-off between the wolf - ah, so the Prince of the Venatori (as the Ashkerai called him, though, mostly behind the Venatoris' backs) had decided to show up. Good - and the older Demisan had him raising a brow and moving forward, but only until he was level with Tai, though, a few feet from her. Eliko crossed his arms, a grin coming to his face.

It faded, though, as did the words on his lips as he took note of something the others perhaps had not take note of.

Every rock for a span of several hundred feet...was floating about eight feet in the air in a circle...with Kohe and Jack at the epicenter. And if that wasn't bad enough, Eliko realized something else that he wished he didn't have to acknowledge but also knew was the truth. Knowing it was, though, didn't negate the sudden fury he felt at once again being thwarted in his mission.

They weren't on their world anymore.

Kohe had brought them here.

So only Kohe could get them back.

 

[DotCom]

It took Tai only a moment to realize she loved all of them.

She had thought, for twenty years, that she would never be able to care for anyone like she cared for Kohe, and while she knew it was true, she knew she was irrevocably bonded -- Bonded, even -- to these two strangers. A creature she had no name for who wanted to kill her. Eliko, an Ashkerai, who seemed to loathe her. She did not know them. She only barely understood them. And yet she knew in that moment, she would gladly give her life for either of them. For all of them. She held their lux within her. She would help them find their luxima if she lived long enough. Tai loved, had always loved, everyone. But those emotions paled in comparison to these.

These were no less than her friends, her family, her charges. And they were, all of them, under her protection.

She saw it like she might have just learned about her own nose. It had been there forever and a day, plain, simple knowledge. But she was only understanding it now. And in that moment, she knew Kohe had been right. Eliko was her mate, or would be, and Jack -- she knew his name, somehow -- Jack would be Kohe's. And she had linked them all together on the night she'd saved Kohe -- and Jack and Eliko -- from the pain. The others would feel the Bond too, perhaps, on some lesser level. But it was Tai's to protect. She had never had a greater responsibility in her life, and while the realization filled her with a keen terror, it gave her peace, too. This was what she had been born for, the protection and love of these three who would become her family -- and more besides.

It was this sudden realization that had tai first stumbling, then running forward, throwing herself between Jack and Kohe, hands raised, demanding, as gently as she could, their attention away from each other. Tai had never been soft-spoken, but neither was the the quiet, powerful, natural-born leader Kohe had always been. Tai was charismatic, a natural people person. But Kohe was commanding. She gave people an assurance of safety and knowledge Tai had never been able to manage. And yet as the younger Demisan stood there, it was with an unfamiliar air, one not even Kohe would have seen before -- though perhaps she had always known it was dormant in her little sister.

"Don't," she said gently. "We're all fighting for the same thing." She turned to Jack, who stood crouched and snarling, but cautious. "We just can't see it yet."

Tai turned to Kohe and beamed at her sister. "'Setta, you can be the bigger person. I know you can." Tai gestured down at herself, then back to her sister. "See? I'm alright. You can feel me now, can't you? You know I'm okay. 'Setta, you need to relax." She could feel her sister's exhaustion over having moved three people to a new time and place, even5900b3if Kohe couldn't yet. The stones floating in the air around them didn't so much as waver, but she knew they would. She readied another light shield without evening thinking about it. "It's alright. I know you're tired and angry and scared. But I'm okay. Really. You can let go.

"And you -- Jack, right?" Tai turned to the Venatori with a calm that made him growl all the louder, but Tai just smiled and shook her head. "I know you want to kill me. I don't know why, and I won't look. Not yet. I'll give you a chance to get to know me, first. And you will know me. Because the only way you can save your people is with Kohe. And if you hurt me, Kohe won't be able to help." She paused. "You know that. I can feel you knowing it. I know it's hard now. But it'll get easier. Just let me help."

Jack didn't back down, but neither did he move forward. He didn't like that the Shaman seemed to be able to see inside her head. His grandfather had told him tales of much the same, how the Cerebrae had used their powers to manipulate and corrupt his people. The Shaman was young and arrogant, far too assured in her powers, and it would have been a relief to feel her throat between his teeth...but he also knew she was right. If there was one thing Jack was, it was logical. He needed the elder Demisan alive to truly save his people. And even if he only killed the Shaman, he knew he would not be able to complete his task.

Jack growled once, loudly, then sat back on his haunches, hesitating only a moment before shifting up into his more humanoid form, black hair, pale eyes, his expression hard.

"Well," he said aloud. "It seems we are at an impasse."

 

[Kaisaan]

This was not about being the bigger person. This was about knowing just exactly what Jack would have done to Tai had he been given the chance. This was about protecting Tai....and yet something so much more, too, that she couldn't explain to her sister. Kohe could barely explain it to herself. This was not about being Time. It wasn't about knowing what would happen or understanding what was happening around her. It was something deeper, something emotional and she didn't yet know how to decipher it.

Emotions were not Kohe's strongest point. That was Tai...when she chose to acknowledge them.

Still, understanding what was happening or not, Kodi could acknowledge that her younger sister did seem to have a handle on things, taking charge in a way that the elder Demisan had never witnessed but did not find herself surprised by. There was far more to her twin than Tai herself would let show, didn't even know about yet and refused to consider when Kohe tried to explain.

It was only a matter of time before it started showing itself, with or without Tai's approval. Kohe was just glad that Tai seemed to be accepting it right now. Even so, she didn't back down until Jack did. She knew Tai had wanted her to, but Kohe had been unable to grant that request and she didn't feel any remorse over that, none at all. She hadn't WANTED to back down first. Now that the Venatorus had, though, she did the same, the power that had crackled about her coming back to her body and the rocks around them simply fell, creating a thunderous sound across the expanse of dry and dying land about them.

Kohe didn't so much as flinch, but she did finally look away from Jack's yellow eyes and now humanoid face to her sister's instead. Her mismatched eyes studied Tai carefully, looking for further injury, but she found none, knowing she wouldn't and then her gaze went to Eliko, but the Ashkerai was looking to Jack.

The Ashkerai smirked. "Of course we're at an impasse. We were always meant to be, but then I suppose Briar Blackfang was always too obsessed with the killing part to explain that much, wasn't he? That's why my people dealt with you. At least you had some brains." Of course, Jack might not remember those meetings. They'd been initiated by the Ashkerai, not the Venatori and their poison vapors, so perhaps Jack would have mild memories or even ideas that he didn't know the origin of, but Eliko knew Jack as well as one could know a business partner. The wolf Prince would remember soon enough.

The Prince of Midnight swept his hand out. "How else does Briar think you and your people get off this dying rock if not for her? We don't have the means to transport that many Venatori. Only she does." His finger pointed to Kohe and she said nothing in return, but the edge of a smile played about her lips.

Eliko caught it easily, brown eyes glittering with dislike. "She knows it, too. Don't you, Koheera?"

A brow rose, nothing more and the Ashkerai's eyes narrowed before he looked to Tai, suspicious. "What's wrong with her? She never shut up before."

Kohe released a soft growl at that, but her fingers curled into fists and she swallowed somewhat convulsively, avoiding Tai's eyes. She'd been hoping to explain that to her sister when things were...calmer.

 

[DotCom]

Jack watched Eliko, watched the Ashkerai move -- no, slide about, like a snake or an eel -- watched his lips, heard his words, and regarded him with a cool impassivity, saying nothing. In his mind, his mission was clear: kill the Shaman, ride her sister back to their new home planet. Kill her, too, if necessary. There, with the help of the Ashkerai, the Venatori would have their final revenge. Jack knew Tai wasn't the current Shaman, but she was near enough. The old woman now serving their people was crippled, half blind, and nearing the end of her thousand-year life span. Tai would have been the youngest Shaman in Cerebrae history...if she lived to tell the tale. And if it was up to Jack, she would not.

There was no room for petty ripostes, pissing matches with the Ashkerai or the Shaman's sister. Tai was weak. He had seen that much in just a few moments. In his distraction with Kohe, she might have gutted him half a dozen times, and she hadn't. She was naive, this young Shaman. She was no threat at all. And the Ashkerai was all arrogance and vindictive anger.

No, Kohe was the danger here, and he could not kill her -- not yet -- if he wanted his mission to succeed. There had been something in her eyes, though, as they'd faced each other down. If Jack had been in his smallest form, the way he was no, she might have seen something like a sneer cross his face, equal parts interest and irritation.

She was a flea, he reminded himself. Little more than an insect. An insect who represented the final stage of his people's vengeance, but an insect none the less.

Tai could feel Jack's thoughts swirling with a cold and calculated distance. He was nothing like Eliko in that regard. They were both driven by duty, but the Ashkerai's mind was awhilre with more, a paradoxically fiery passion that made Jack seem detached, almost robotic by comparison. She could feel the residual ache leaving them all, and her own cautious curiosity.

But more than that, she could feel something was wrong with Kohe. She hardly heard Eliko's words as she turned to her sister, a frown of confusion and concern on her face. She closed the space between them quickly, violet eyes searching for an answer as her hands found either side of her sister's face.

"'Setta?" she asked quietly, for now oblivious to Jack and Eliko both, though Jack circled closer, still lupine in his movements. "Kohe? What is it? What's wrong? Are you alright?"

 

[Kaisaan]

Tai might have been oblivious, but Kohe was not and she reached up, gently moving her sister's hand from her, allowing the Demisan to turn her head and offer up a deep, warning growl to the Venatorus. She knew he was there and he would not catch her with her guard down. The message, the way her tail lashed about, tense and rigid, would give him enough of a clue to keep back lest he had a burning desire to feel her claws biting into his flesh.

And Kohe wouldn't hesitate to do so.

Warning given, she turned half her attention to her sister and the feral light in her eyes slowly tampered down. It did not leave, did not fully fade, but it grew gentler and she sighed, bringing the hand that was not holding Tai's up to brush at her own throat. Kohe shook her head just slightly and then tapped her temple, shaking her head then, too.

She couldn't speak. Not mentally, not physically. The Demisan highly suspected it was due to time traveling so far back into the past, so far away from their own timeline and timestreams that wrapped around their planet. This was a safety insurance; to make sure she didn't change too much. Words were the most powerful forms of influence in the universe. If she could not speak, she could impact less change. Kohe didn't think it was permanent, but she couldn't explain that to Tai.

Kohe couldn't explain any of this to Tai and she knew it would worry her sister like nothing else.

She brought her hand up to Tai's face and mouthed her words very slowly, hoping her sister would understand. 'It's all right. It will go away.' She promised it, hoping she was not wrong and Kohe looked around again, finally truly taking in the landscape around them, how barren and desolate it was and how very hopeless to look upon. She could not imagine living here and yet had been here more times than she could count. Her sapphire and scarlet eyes once more looked to Jack.

She'd seen him too many times to count, too. Knowing who he was and yet knowing nothing about him. Kohe had thought she'd feel different, seeing him face to face for the first time, but all she felt was hostility, a wariness that went deep through her and...and something else she could not pinpoint. It was...strange, new, unlike anything she'd ever felt before and THAT made Kohe uneasy.

The Demisan looked away from him once more and back to Tai with a reassuring smile before Eliko speaking once more made her roll her eyes upward with irritation before she turned to him.

"So, you can't speak anymore?"

A growl was his answer and the Ashkerai chuckled, looking back over the barren land, too and then back at the sisters. "But you can get us back, right?"

Nothing but a hard look answered that question and Eliko's brown eyes seeped black, but the Midnight that had been so powerful in his home was less willing to come now, to waste itself on unneeded violence, especially when there was sunlight to be protected from...and a past-self that had never stopped trying to break free.

 

[DotCom]

Tai was, if possible, a more powerful Empath than her mother before her, and she knew precisely what was wrong with Kohe -- though not how or why -- almost before her sister even 'spoke'. But for all Tai was, for all she would be, and was about to become, she was still very much herself, naive in a way that was almost dangerous, and as soon as her rational mind offered up the answer, Tai was backing up, reeling away from it, terrified, desperate. Refusing it, just like she had refused Kohe's insistences that she was somehow more than she was all those weeks ago.

Tai wanted to take that back now.

"Kohe? 'Setta, what? What is it? What's wrong?" She was speaking aloud without realizing it, an unconscious plea on her part, a desperate whim for everything to be alright, proving to everyone but Tai herself she knew exactly what was wrong.

Kohe didn't answer, just giving her sister a smile somewhere between patience and knowing while Tai felt her chest constrict and her heart began to beat out of control. She forgot Eliko, forgot Jack even as he drew closer, more curious than dangerous, unperturbed by the elder Demisan's 'warning'.

Tai pulled back, yanking her hand out of her sister's to settle both on Kohe's shoulders and shake her gently. "'Setta, what is it? Why won't you talk to me?!? Are you hurt?"

Tai dropped her hands abruptly to circle Kohe, looking her up and down, extending her Empathy, feeling for injuries in her sister's lungs and throat, coming up with nothing. She felt tears spring to her eyes and brushed them away, panicked, frustrated. No. She wouldn't cry. Kohe was fine, she was just confused.

"Do you need water? I can find you water, Kohe, just say the word, okay?" She shut her eyes again, sending new waves of Empathy into the dying earth, ignoring the waves of nausea rising in her as she felt the sensation of a dying planet seep into her bones again. She felt a stream not far away, silty and brackish, and the idea of being anywhere near it made her heart seize in terror, but she ignored it, because the greater fear was here before her. Kohe couldn't be mute, she couldn't. She was her sister, her big sister, her guide and protector, and her best friend. Better than any family, any mate could ever be. Tai had been wrong to think these newcomers could mean anywhere near as much as Kohe did to her. She was paying for that stupidity now.

"Okay, 'Setta, it's okay. You don't have to say anything. I'll go get you some water, and you'll be fine, alright? I promise. Everything is going to be okay, and then you can sit down and tell me what's wrong, okay, Kohe? You can tell me."

Jack watched the whole thing quietly, pale eyes glittering with curiosity and something else. Fascinating. It seemed the Shaman's sister had injured herself in her passing to this place. Perhaps he wouldn't have to kill her at all, so long as she stayed alive long enough to move his people home.

That said, the Shaman's panicked whimpering was doing nothing but wasting time, and there was little else Jack hated more.

"Shut up," he said impatiently, a snarl at the back of his throat. He caught Kohe's eyes and gave her a cold smile. "She can't speak. She's fi -- "

"Go away," Tai snarled suddenly, tears streaming down her face. Only her fear did nothing to tamp her power, and as she swept out a hand behind her, a ring of light, a single pulse of golden sunshine emanated from her body, knocking both Jack and Eliko to the ground.

They had no sooner hit the earth than Tai was turning to stare at them, eyes wide and horrified at what she had done. She had never attacked anyone in her life, not with the intention to hurt, not even when Kohe had been attacked on the night of her first jump.

Her hands flew up to cover her mouth and she nearly started crying all over again as she turned first to Eliko, then Jack...though the latter noticed she never left her sister's side.

"Sorry!" she blurted. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean...are you alright?" Her words were for both of them, but again Jack couldn't help but notice she was staring at Eliko, eyes wide and uncertain.

And Tai...Tai felt like she was spiraling. In a matter of moments, she'd all but lost Kohe and then attacked two people she'd just claimed to love. She held their lux inside her, pink, yellow, black, all depending on her for protection, for guidance...and instead, she'd led them astray.

She had only been in this place a few minutes...but already, Tai was ready to go home.

 

[Kaisaan]

Tai's panic stabbed into her like a hot bolt of lightning and Kohe opened her mouth to say something, to calm her twin, but nothing came out. It was frustrating and it angered her...and that anger only grew as Jack spoke and her little sister consequently lashed out. Couldn't they see they weren't helping anything?! She growled, feeling pain streak through her temples and moved toward Tai to try and soothe her sister. Kohe never reached her destination, though, as the hairs on her arms and neck rose on end and she turned to see Eliko rising, surrounded by a pitch-black power that was writhing with fury.

The Midnight had been threatened and it would destroy that which had harmed it. This wasn't Eliko per say, but something far more ancient, a power not even he knew how to control. It didn't care for reason or logic.

The dark streaks of lightning-like shadow, deep as the blackest sky and darker still, shot toward Tai...and Kohe moved just as quickly, pushing her sister out of the way. The black hit her squarely and Kohe released an inhumane scream as it soaked into her, seeking to consume, to tear asunder and destroy. She arched, clawing at the ground as it writhed within her, crawling through her veins, leaving black all over her skin in tendrils, following her bloodlines like the roots of trees. Black liquid poured from her mouth, nose, ears and eyes, though, starting to be expelled as Kohe fought the invasion and her eyes glowed a dark, eerie purple even as she continued to scream.

Eliko, weaving on his feet, slightly disoriented with the enormous release of power, was now moving toward the Demisan with a muttered curse. He crouched swiftly, touching Kohe and trying to draw the Midnight back, but it would not heed him...and then he found himself unable to remove his hand from Kohe's skin, an invisible force holding him there.

The same was true of Tai, her hand fastened wherever she'd placed it and then....Kohe's glowing eyes were snapping to Jack and he'd suddenly find himself being dragged, willing or not, toward the Demisan. Her head stretched toward him at the last moment, making contact and Kohe released another scream of agony even as the world started to grow black and dizzying around them.

--

They all landed rather violently, though, not enough to cause serious harm, on the hard-packed earth. The sky was dark above them, a whole day having passed, though, only Kodi would know that. And right now the Demisan was rolling away from all of them, vomiting black 'tar', bile and blood. Even in the amount of agony she'd been in, Time had known that to survive, she had to act. Jumping ahead a day had killed the Midnight within her and now all that was left was the chill and the nausea, the pain of having gone through time yet again and with three people dragging behind her.

She trembled violently, but snarled inbetween retching when Eliko moved. It was just to get up, but Kohe wasn't ready to forgive him what he'd done - even if HE hadn't meant to do it, and the only reason he wouldn't have was because they needed her.

No, Kohe wasn't feeling forgiving in the slightest as she coughed up more black, more blood. Her head was spitting itself in two. She'd done too much, too soon. The two males would be lucky if she could take even one of them an hour into the future for at least a week if not more. Kohe knew they wouldn't like that - and right now such gave her satisfaction to know.

This was their fault.

Kohe grit her teeth as she rolled to the side and curled, her tail wrapped around her and her clawed hands clutching her head. She hated being this vulnerable, especially with the company she and Tai kept, but there was no helping it now and she would have to trust her sister. Her emotional, distraught, terrified sister.