Azure Moon: Cerulean Tears

by skywolf666

Ancient conspiraces and enemies, clashing ideology and allegiances, and the burning embers of a war long stoked by shadows was not the world they knew, but it was the world they had been drawn into, and forced to live in against their will. They stood shoulder to shoulder with the future king of Faerghus now, and would see it through to the end... The total end. (AM, B!Sibling AU)

36. Roslyn Eisner

Genres/Rating: History, Secrets, Family, Angst. (M)

Characters: Raine, Warin, Dimitri, Shamir, Seteth, Rhea.

Summary: The time for secrecy had finally come to an end. As had been previously agreed, all who were involved had gathered in the early morning darkness, tense and quiet for the tales that they were owed after so many moons of pain and warfare. There was no more patience for excuses, of half-truths. This time they would come away with every secret that had been kept from them, even if it meant tearing them word from word from the Archbishop's mouth with their bare hands. There was no more empathy left in either of the Eisner siblings, and even if one feared the truth and the other was ready to unleash their wrath... The truth they'd have, at sword or lance-point now that they had their chance.

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Wyvern Moon

Garreg Mach (Chapel Bridge)

Before Dawn

The glade before the bridge was silent, full of crackling tension as the foursome that had gathered waited for the arrival of the two Nabateans who had agreed to the arranged meeting the day prior. All healing that could be done had been done to all the parties involved, and though the sun had yet to rise over the trees, no one seemed to be overly bothered by the cold or the dark. They remained huddled together, each fully equipped for battle despite the repeated assurances that there would be no need for violence, but none of them had any faith left in such a concept. They were treading in unfamiliar territory, pushing the last of the walls over, and no one was sure of what to expect... The mercenaries did not wish to be caught off guard by anything, and the lone noble involved hadn't thought of arguing at all when he had watched his lover slip into her armour when she had pushed herself from their shared bed an hour earlier.

They were not the only ones aware of this confrontation, as word had already been sent out amongst the Blue Lions that Rhea was responding to the call from the Eisner siblings, but at Raine's command she had barred them all from participating. Instead, each of her students were on standby inside of the monastery, awaiting a call if they were needed, but most who were there doubted that they would be. The quartet of soldiers were well aware of their own skills, and though Rhea had told them that she was now well enough for such an emotionally taxing conversation... They didn't entirely believe her. It didn't matter much, though, as Warin had flatly stated that well or not, all four of them would be more than enough to restrain her should violence break out, and if it did, the rest of Raine's students would be quick to leap to their aid if the call was sent out.

No one had forgotten that the frail-looking woman who had the title of Archbishop had the power of a dragon at her fingertips, and with Raine's explanation of what she had seen that day of the storming of the monastery, they all had decided as a unit to not underestimate her for a moment. If, for some reason, she chose to transform, they would be ready for it, and with three Crest-bearers and an expert sniper, they were relatively confident in their ability to bide enough time for reinforcements, should it prove necessary. And should she not choose to bare her fangs at them, then at least they had come in prepared, and that was more than enough to settle most of their anxiety. All of them were ready for a fight, and some were itching for an excuse to begin one, but all knew that unless they were baited, or unless a command was given... Their weapons were to remain leashed.

Footsteps, quiet and anxious from the direction of the centre building had all four heads turning, and Warin was the first to spot Seteth and Rhea appearing from the dark and into the well-lit entrance to the bridge that led into the chapel. Rhea was holding Seteth's arm for support, and each step she took seemed to take more effort than the last. Her eyes were downcast and her garb was light, though Seteth had thrown his cloak over her slim shoulders as he escorted her with calm, but still somewhat tight eyes. He was the first to take pause at the sight of the others, and he came to a full stop, eyebrows furrowing as he took in their weapons and their grim expressions, and he pulled Rhea to a stop, too, a good stone's throw away from them before he remarked somewhat tensely, "Is this all necessary...? I understand that there is a great amount of tension, but to be armed to the teeth... Rhea is still quite unwell. She, and I, pose no danger to you."

"We'll be the judges of that, if you don't mind." Warin spoke for the rest of them crisply, and a quick glance about at his comrades proved that no one was about to argue with him. Dimitri and Shamir were standing at their respective lovers' shoulders, chins raised and eyes narrowed, and only Raine seemed to be avoiding looking at anyone. Still, her hand was laying on the hilt of her blade, even if it was loose, and her tension was clear in every line of her body. She looked ready to either leap or flee at a moment's notice, and he could not blame her, even though the two that had arrived were not bearing weapons of any sort, and one of the two looked ready to fall over if she wasn't leaning so heavily on her sibling. "As much as we appreciate your willingness to come speak to us... You haven't earned our full trust. Don't blame any of us for being ready for anything when it comes to the two of you."

"Seteth is unarmed, Warin. Point your lance in the right direction, and leave the man alone." Raine spoke softly, but her words seemed made of iron as she scolded her brother for his choice of words. Both men turned to look at her with some fair degree of surprise, but she fully ignored her brother's stare, and instead looked to Seteth, boring him through with a tired, but non-judgemental stare as she continued in that same quiet tone, "For however he enabled her in the past, he had and has his own reservations about Rhea's actions... and he wasn't in Garreg Mach at the same time as Father was. I know you're angry, but don't forget the plain facts of the situation at hand. Seteth isn't to be blamed here, and I won't have anyone attacking him unnecessarily. Do you understand?"

Warin cocked his head, wondering where the sudden surge of mercy came from after so much tension had been built between her and her former co-commander, but he knew better than to question his sister's orders. She was playing a pragmatic hand, and a cold one, but she also was making sure that everyone present was fully aware of what she wished to happen, and he admitted that he couldn't entirely blame her for that. As much as he wanted to tar them all with the same brush, that was clearly not the right way to go about this, and he sighed heavily as he felt Shamir's shoulder gently brushing against his own in a comforting gesture. He would be grateful for her prudence later, and he nodded, allowing for Raine to lead as he answered her tiredly, "As you wish."

"I won't drag this out. There's no point in it. So let's get right to what we all wish to know." Raine soldiered on ahead with her brother's tacit permission, and she turned the force of her stare onto Rhea, who instinctively seemed to quail at the pressure. She gripped down on Seteth's arm, and her brother placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, but no more as Raine crossed her arms and watched her coldly. There seemed to be a crackling again in the air as her voice whipped out in the faint candlelit glade, and it was sharp and deadly even though the volume of her voice never once rose even a little, "What have you done to my family, Rhea? Why were my parents, and my brother and I, dragged here? What plans did you have for us? What plans did you have for them? I want the truth. My brother and I are owed the truth. You'll tell us everything, from the very beginning, and you won't be permitted to leave until we're fully satisfied."

"The very... beginning..." Rhea echoed in a voice that seemed almost hallow, and her eyes flickered from Raine's face and to the sword that lay sheathed, but still so bright and deadly on her waist. It called to her, just as it had all those centuries ago on the Tailtean Plains, but a part of her cringed away from it now. She shook her head slowly, her arm tightening on Seteth's, and she was glad for his support as a full-body shiver went through her and reminded her to take caution. She felt the tension as clearly as she could the crisp morn air, and the weight of their blood-thirst, their mistrust, was like a stone about her neck. Her eyes remained on that empty socket of the Sword of the Creator, and her lips moved without her input, her voice speaking from seemingly far away as she mused, "The tale you demand... It begins far, far before your family was even born... It begins with the Tragedy of Zanado, when Sothis was slain, and her body and heart were tortured into their current forms... The Sword of the Creator was retrieved after the death of Nemesis, as you know, and it was sealed away underneath the monastery grounds."

"And the Crest Stone? Was it too retrieved, or was it lost in the battle?"

"No... The Crest Stone was also retrieved... but I had no intention of sealing it away, as I did with the blade... My mother's body was no more, but her heart... Her heart still remained, and that gave me hope that perhaps it was not too late for her." Rhea answered with a slow shake of her head, and instinctively her hand lifted, pressing itself to her chest as the memories of faces flickered through her mind's eye with slow and painful reminder of her repeated failures. She shook her head again, lips curling wryly, and her eyes focussed once more on that empty socket that had once blazed with crimson light, and had given her hope all those centuries ago. Then, slowly, her eyes rose, moving from the hilt of the blade to look up into Raine's tense face, and she spoke quietly, achingly, "The Crest Stone's current location... is right here. It lies within you, my child."

"It's what?!" The words whipped out like a cold, thorny lash, and Warin was yanked hard to a stop by Dimitri's hand as he felt his feet carrying him forward on sheer instinct. His eyes blazed, and a quick glance over his shoulder proved that Dimitri was as shocked and incensed as he was, but his control was far better, and he looked sharply over his shoulder to Raine in reminder of where he needed to place his priorities. Gritting his teeth as he struggled to swallow his rage, Warin, too, looked to Raine, only to see her staring at Rhea, her expression completely wiped clean of emotion even as her knuckles turned white on the hilt of her blade. Baring his teeth, Warin growled, unable to help himself as Raine did not speak, "You put a Crest Stone into my sister?! How?! When?! Why?! What in the seven hells possessed you to do such a thing?!"

"My mother dwells in that stone... The stone of the progenitor god... and even if it meant doing that which was forbidden... I did not care how much blood I needed to cover my hands with, if it meant that I could see her again..." Rhea answered in that same quietly aching voice, and she fully ignored the rage that Warin lashed out with as she held Raine's painfully empty stare. She could almost see her mind feverishly working, trying to understand and put together the pieces of the puzzle she was being presented, and she continued, ignoring all who were present and focussing only on the figure who had been her last hope, her last chance, when she murmured, "This world needed her... I needed her... and again and again, I tried to bring her back to us by creating a body to carry that Crest Stone within it. Twelve times I tried... and twelve times I failed... Though, with the twelfth... With my last failure... Hope sprung unexpected to me. Like all the others, she lacked the conscience of the progenitor god, and yet... She was more alive than any I had ever seen. Alive enough to fall in love, to marry, and to eventually carry a child, all of her own will, and her own wish... She bore a son, and anew came the line of the Crest of Seiros, in a baby boy who never should have existed. A miracle child, untainted by the lineage of the Elites, of Nemesis, and a new hope for a Crest long since dwindled away by war and darkness."

Raine went cold as she felt Warin suddenly tense, and on instinct more than anything else, she reached out to grab at his shoulder as she saw the muscles in his back clench as if he was about to leap forward. He struggled against her only for a moment, but the look on his face was one of white-hot rage that she had only seen a handful of times in her youth. His navy eyes were on fire, his expression drawn back into a killer's scowl, and she could feel him shaking with wrath as Rhea's words crashed onto him like the weight of the world entire. She, too, was stumbling, trying to understand, but Warin didn't need logic or sense to know what to do with his anger. His hands curled into fists, and his voice was venom incarnate as he hissed, body tensing still further in warning, "You were playing god...?! Twelve lives you created and ruined, and you have the audacity to call my birth a miracle for the Crest of Seiros?!"

"Roslyn should never have been able to give birth. The fact that she conceived you, that she birthed you safely was a miracle-"

"DON'T SPEAK HER NAME TO ME!" Warin's roar was that a lion, and Dimitri was the first to react again, grabbing roughly at his arms to stop him from leaping head-on and at Rhea without thought of the consequences. He struggled vainly against the greater strength of the future king of Faerghus, but he was blind in his wrath as his mother's name drilled deep into his heart and cracked it wide open for the still-bleeding wound to again seep through. The fury made his tongue taste like iron, and he wondered numbly if perhaps he had bit it in his anger, but he didn't care, as every inch of him yearned to rip and tear the damned woman who stood in front of him, proud and without remorse as she spoke his mother's name and called her an experiment, and him a miracle. "I'll kill you, damn you! My family was an experiment so you could bring back a long dead woman, a long dead false goddess, and you have the gall to call me a miracle?! Your twisted experiments weren't the creation of life, it was you playing god to suit your own needs, and you still have the audacity to name her to my face!? Your mother is dead, and you took mine from me for what?! FOR WHAT?!"

"To save your sister! I had no intention of interfering in Roslyn's life once I knew that she could not do as I wished, and I did nothing until your sister was born still and not breathing! It was your mother who demanded I save her by removing the Crest Stone she bore, and I did as she commanded, even though it killed me to do so!" Rhea's reply was as sharp and angry, and it was Seteth who had to tighten his hold as he felt her reacting to Warin's rage, as well as his words. Energy was flowing again through her veins, bringing back those whispers of power he had felt in the throes of her worst moments of madness, but still he held on tight despite his fears. Rhea's outrage almost seemed to match Warin's tit for tat, something he had not expected at all, but she continued, seemingly blind to the fact that the young man's ability to kill her was only being held back by Dimitri and nothing else as she took an unconscious step forward in her own anger, "She was as a child to me, and I wished her no harm, and only happiness regardless of the fact that she failed me! I had no choice, as both she and the baby were in grave danger! Had I done nothing, both would have been lost that day! It was Roslyn's wish that I remove the Crest Stone to save her child, and that is the only reason your sister stands beside you today!"

"Move another step, and I'll put an arrow between your eyes."

The quiet, icy command froze the entire glade over, and Rhea's eyes flickered to the left to see Shamir standing at attention, her bow drawn and arrow aimed directly for her head. The sniper's expression was one of completely controlled fury, but her wine-coloured eyes were flat and empty. Her hands were perfectly still, her body under total control, and for a moment, Rhea could not believe what she was seeing. Her own eyes flared with anger, her body demanding she move to face the threat, but Seteth's hand grasped roughly at her shoulder and stopped her before she could test the sniper's warning. She shot him a vicious look, ignoring the worry and the fear that creased his brow, and she turned back, snapping without thought at the woman she had saved and employed all those years ago, "You would threaten me, Shamir? You would dare turn your bow on me, after the debt that you owe me?"

"I'd do far more than that after what I just heard... And as for debts, I owe you nothing." Shamir answered in a frighteningly calm voice, and she inched her bow upwards, following her target with perfect expertise as no one dared to even draw breath about her. Her heart was racing in her ears, blood purring with anger for all she had heard and understood, and she had reached for her bow without thought when Rhea had taken that one single step forward. She didn't need more evidence to know that she and Warin would come to blows if she took another, and so she had acted first, and her fingers were iron on her taut bowstring as she aimed her arrow dead-centre between those raging seafoam-coloured eyes, "But for the man I love and his family, I'd do anything... So take heed, and step back. I won't hesitate to shoot if you step forward again in threat of them. They won't need to dirty their hands. I'll do it for them happily."

"Enough!" Raine's order was a snarl, breaking the sudden tension as she looked over at her brother and Dimitri, who had gone still at her sharp command. Warin's eyes were wild, almost completely alien, but she saw the sanity returning to them as she glared at him sternly in reproach. His body relaxed, slowly, begrudgingly, and only after a curt nod was given by Raine did Dimitri loosen his hold on the man. He still stood close, ready to leap if needed, but Raine didn't care as she instead turned to Shamir next. She spoke in a low, fierce voice, showing calm but also a simmering anger as she commanded her sharply, "Drop your bow. It's not needed yet. I'd love to see you do it, and that's all the more reason for you to stay your hand. She's foolish, and suicidal, but she hasn't told us everything I want to hear yet. When you're needed, you can act. For now, hold off. This isn't over, and I deserve to say my piece before anyone puts a hand on her."

Silence fell over the glade, both from shock and wrath, and Raine now was the one to turn the force her stare on Rhea. The woman seemed stunned, clearly having not anticipated such anger to be turned on her, but it didn't matter. Raine could feel it herself, the white-hot purring of wrath that she had been caging in cold for moons upon moons, but still she closed it off and refused to allow it to reach her head. It wasn't yet time, it wasn't yet the place, and so she affixed her mask and forced her hand to still on the hilt of the blade she hadn't yet released. She spoke with deceptive calm that she didn't feel, and but her words were thorns on a whip all the same when she demanded, "I want you to clarify what you just said to my brother. If I understood you correctly, I was born dead... and it was my mother's sacrifice that brought me back? The Crest Stone she bore, the one you implanted in her, was then implanted in me, in order to bring me back to life? Is that the way of it? Is that why I am the way I am?"

Rhea said nothing for a long moment, looking over at the four fiery pairs of eyes that were glaring at her with varying levels of hatred and wrath. She was not surprised that Warin's bloodlust shone the brightest and hottest, as she had always known when he learned the truth that his hands would immediately fly for her neck, but to see that Dimitri and Shamir both looked ready to kill her if Raine dropped a hand was something she had not anticipated. Both the noble and the mercenary were holding their weapons in tight, professional grips, clearly aching to do battle, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in response to the threat. She was surrounded and completely outmatched, and the knowledge that should have cowed her only made some deep, instinctual part of her roar in defiance.

She had done nothing wrong. Her actions had been at the behest of a woman in panic and desperation, and all that had happened before that moment had been righteous. She would not allow anyone, not a single soul, to tell her that her crusade to return the goddess to this war-torn continent had been folly. The humans needed her guidance, needed her patience and her gifts in order to thrive, or else they simply fell amongst each other like wild beasts in pursuit of power. She had seen it all before, unfolding again and again like some macabre stage play, and she was long exhausted of her charge of caring for them. But Raine's questions pressed against her, demanding answers, and so she spoke, quietly but angrily, her temper flaring despite itself as she replied, "Yes... It is exactly as you say. The fact that Roslyn could carry your brother safely, and birth him safely, had been a miracle. But when she fell pregnant with you, and the birth went so wrong... I understood why. Your brother took after your father, with my Crest to keep him healthy and strong. But you... You were born without the Crest of Seiros in your blood, and Roslyn could not naturally pass the Crest of Flames to you. The only way to save you was to implant the Crest inside of you as I had done to Roslyn upon her own creation... and Roslyn knew that. She knew the cost she would pay... and she paid it gladly, if it meant saving her baby."

"And after...? My mother sacrificed her life for mine, and then you... chose to use me as her replacement?" Raine pressed, with that same cold look further freezing her eyes and keeping her mask firmly attached to her face. Something was roaring distantly in her ears, though she did not know what it was, but she didn't dare try to look lest she lose her focus. Her head was spinning, and the emptiness in her chest seemed to be like a canyon, stretching far and wide and silent with loss and gratitude and grief. She believed every word, though she knew she had more than enough reason to distrust what she was being told, and it made her eyes narrow as Rhea stepped back as if she had been struck when she spoke. Her head tilted, catlike and deadly, and she repeated herself, cool and calculated despite that thrumming deep inside her head, "I had both your blood, through my father, and the Crest Stone of Flames within my body after her sacrifice. I was more than my mother, or any of your experiments, could have ever hoped to be in terms of being a vassal for Sothis... Did you formulate your plan before or after you buried her? Is that why you lied to my father about what happened that day? Is that why he ran, because already you were plotting to use an infant you had just saved at the pleas of her mother, and he knew it even if he couldn't prove it?"

"My mother gifted you her powers, unlike all the others before, and that was not my doing... I knew what your potential was, but it wasn't until that day in the Sealed Forest that I knew for certain that you had made a connection..." Rhea shook her head again, though her argument felt weak even to herself as she felt Raine's stare like dagger-points in her skin. She spoke so coldly, so factually and calmly, but underneath she could sense that primal wrath that had spurred her brother into action. Still, she was holding herself back, as if she was seeking more, and Rhea could not help but give it, needing her to understand as she explained raggedly, "When I realized that... Realized how close I had truly come... The chance to bring her back to bring order to this chaotic world... It was one I could not turn a blind eye towards. This world needs the goddess... This world needs my mother to return to it."

"No. It doesn't." Raine's answer was like a swordstroke, and Rhea heard rather than felt herself gasp as her words, her pleas, were discarded with all the care of a piece of tattered parchment being thrown away into a wastebin. Raine's eyes were no longer cold but were now flaming, alive and bright and harsh, and she was the one to shake her head, almost as if in disappointment as she corrected her harshly, firmly, "Sothis has been dead for centuries, and this world has continued on without her just as it did before she came to it. Don't hide your true intent behind altruism now, after what you said earlier. You didn't do this for the good of the world... You did this for yourself. You wanted your mother back, regardless of what costs you, or anyone else, had to pay. Sothis knew this, in the end... Why else would she have chosen to give me her gifts, and return to the ether, rather than take me over, as you had intended for her to do? She knew full well that this world had long since learned to survive without her... You are the only one who is not convinced of this, and you destroyed my family in your attempt to bring your own back."

"You do not understand! You are but a child, and have not seen the horrors this world has faced! You have only lived through a singular war! We have suffered through dozens!" Rhea felt the words explode out of her without consent or reason, and again she felt that fever, that red-hot heat burning in her veins at Raine's callous dismissal. She was young and ignorant, they all were, and they could not fathom the world she had come from and the peace that her mother had brought to the continent the way that she could. They would never understand, and it made her voice hot as she threw out a hand in desperation, "This world, this continent, has fractured over and over again without the strength of the goddess to keep it together...! To keep you humans at peace! The world needs her to bring the order back! It needs you to keep it safe! The gifts you have, the gifts she gave to you, they-"

"Did I ever once ask for these gifts?! Did I ever once ask for any of the responsibilities and obligations you shoved upon me, before I even took my first breath?!" It was Raine's turn to explode, and her words were a roar, both of anguish and wrath, and her eyes shone with unshed tears as she was the one to advance this time with deadly intent. Only now, no one dared to try to intervene, caught off guard by her show of anger, and she did not care for their stunned silence and shocked looks as she met Rhea's widening eyes with a glare of her own. That feeling she had been suffocating was now running free and wild in her veins, unlocking moons upon moons of emotions, and all of it bubbled and screeched in freedom as she roared into the silence of the glade, "You call them gifts, but they're nothing but curses! I never asked for any of this! Had I been able to express my own wishes, I would have stayed dead at birth and allowed my family to continue to live in peace and happiness without me! I never asked for your gifts, Rhea, and I would happily return them all, every single one, just for a chance to hear my own heartbeat before I die again! You have given me nothing, and took away EVERYTHING!"

There was enough time for a warning cry as Seteth abruptly felt Rhea's arm being ripped from his grasp, but no more as suddenly the frail-seeming woman burst across the neutral ground with one powerful step. Her speed was met with Raine's, who met her grasping claws with the Sword of the Creator, and bone screeched on bone as Raine held her at bay, keeping those half-formed talons from reaching into her chest and wrenching out her still heart. There was malice and hate burning in those slitted seafoam-coloured eyes, and her lips were drawn back into a snarl, animalistic and deadly, but Raine held her ground nonetheless even as Rhea struggled to close.

For an instant, no one dared to move, uncertain of what they were seeing in the split instant that it had taken for them to blink. The frail, demure-looking woman had changed, though in what way was difficult to classify. Her irises were catlike, faintly pulsing with a seafoam-coloured glint, and her hands had manifested long, sharp claws that resembled a wyvern's battle-ready talons. From her wrists were a smattering of scales, appearing and disappearing underneath her tattered sleeves, and her sandals had disappeared to prove her feet now matched the shape of her hands, likewise showing that strange scale-like pattern on her ankles before disappearing further up into her knees.

Her gossamer gown had torn and frayed at the back and sleeves, and from her back were sharp, long studs of wings without skin, feather, or scale to decorate them. Each one seemed to match the length of her arm, arching upward into a sharp point before curling back down, but there was no leather or skin to be seen. Only white and silver bone, cracked with age and seemingly painful to bear, but if she was truly in suffering, her body language did not show it. Her body was tense in anger and sudden energy, and gone was the weakness and weariness from her face and eyes. Now there was only adrenaline and bloodlust, and her talons screeched as they tore against the sword that was holding them back, and a feral growl let loose from deep within Rhea's throat as she failed to find purchase against the ancient Relic.

"Rhea! Stop this, you have nothing left in you!" Seteth's shout was hoarse and desperate, and even as he tried to approach, Warin cast out an arm to keep him from stepping into the line of sight of the two women. Raine was doing nothing but standing her ground, adjusting her footing to each and every movement that Rhea made, but it was obvious that she was exerting herself in order to do it. She was not fighting against another human, testing her strength against someone even remotely on her level, and the thought only made Seteth all the more panicked as he turned to Warin and spoke frantically, "You must stop this! She lacks the energy to transform into her true self, but she doesn't lack the power she needs to tear your sister to shreds! Her blood, her power, it not only will effect her, but the others in the monastery will be in danger if she isn't subdued!"

"Explain it to the others then, and quell the trouble before it gets out of hand." Warin answered him coldly, and he shoved the older man in Dimitri's direction as he watched his sister calmly, mechanically, holding Rhea at bay. Her expression was one of stone, completely calm and unshaken, but her eyes were on fire in a way that was eerily similar to Rhea's. But her wrath was a sane one, and he rolled his shoulders back as he flexed his fingers, pressing the triggers inside of his gauntlets as he instructed to the two who were at his back, "Go on with him. Get the rest of the brats, and get everything under control... This fight is for us. You're not needed here."

"Understood." Dimitri spoke first, his tone blunt and calm despite the wild pounding in his chest, and he turned with Shamir towards the main hall where the rest of his house had gathered. He could feel Seteth resisting despite his hold on his shoulder, but he steered him forward nonetheless, and none too gently. Shamir followed him without a word to either Warin or him, clearly deciding to swallow her emotions and steel herself for the present, and Dimitri wished he had her control. It went against every instinct he had, leaving Raine behind and not stepping in to join her, but pragmatism, and experience told him he was not needed.

"Dimitri, you cannot agree to this, you do not understand-"

"No, Seteth... You do not understand. Have you never once wondered why it was that even during all these moons, that not once did those siblings ever join at the front of the rebellion? Not once did they fight side by side, because they knew their strength was better separated for the prongs of our forces." Dimitri replied firmly as Seteth protested his choice to leave, and his explanation came flat and calm, and even all these years later old wounds and bruises were whining in pain from the lesson that had been beaten so fiercely into him. He had learned much in that one day of sparring, more than he ever could have learned in the entirety of his schooling in the monastery, and it made him calm, made him confident despite Seteth's fear as he told him flatly, "There isn't a foe on this continent that is capable of dividing the Eisner siblings when they choose to fight as a pair. You've no need to fear for them. It's Rhea that should concern you now."

It was only when the trio disappeared from sight that Raine let her guard drop, and she hit the dirt hard, rolling to the side before regaining her feet as Rhea turned on her with the speed of a lion, snarling all the while. Peeking from under her curled lips were the hint of fangs, and Raine tilted her head, wondering as she took in the strange physical changes that had taken form. It was true, Rhea didn't have the strength left to transform fully into the form she had taken that day defending Garreg Mach, but she still had some power left to her, and it was warping her human body and giving her draconic traits and strength that she clearly had been lacking just minutes ago. Her pallor was no longer sickly, and though she stood in a crouch, claws extended and lips curled in a show of intimidation, it was hard to say if she looked more woman or dragon despite it all.

"Is this the remnants of what she has left...?" Warin asked slowly as he adjusted the gauntlets on his arms, and he eyed his opponent with a steely calm that he did not feel as she glared back at him with what felt like centuries of deeply buried hatred. He felt nothing in reply to such a look, if anything it actually made his lips quirk upwards in a wry sort of smile, and he too tilted his head to the side as he continued to look at her with both interest, and a slow, quietly burning wrath. Whatever he had expected at the end of this, it certainly had not been this half-feral creature that still looked more woman than beast, and he couldn't help himself as he remarked idly to his sister on his right, "I'd have preferred to take her on at her best."

"She was twenty times your size at her best." Raine replied, and she circled slowly, watching her opponent with careful, wary eyes. Rhea's glare fixed on her like an arrow waiting in the bow, and her tense body only grew more tense each time she sidestepped. She was following after her every movement, adjusting herself in preparation to either leap or defend, and Raine noted that so long as Warin did not move, Rhea was far more eager to put her focus on her than on him. The thought gave her a bitter pleasure, and she adjusted her grip on her sword, carefully moving step by step as she reminded her brother almost casually, "It took several Demonic Beasts to even stymie her movement, if you remember our little talk in the library. Are you really so sure that's the fight you want?"

"All the better to make a trophy out of." Warin's answer was clipped and darkly amused, and she could feel the anger wafting off of him despite the distance she had put between them. Still, Rhea was watching her, and Warin was doing nothing, knowing exactly what his sister was planning, and content to wait for her signal in the interim. They needed no words to communicate at this point. They had spent the majority of their lives fighting side by side, and no opponent, be it human, Demonic Beast, or dragon, was something that could make them balk.

Raine moved without warning, and as she had anticipated, Rhea was just as quick in reacting as she dodged the first oncoming slash, and took the second with those claws of hers without seemingly any effort. The sound of bone scraping on bone echoed like a ghastly wail, making Raine wince, but she held her ground even as Rhea added her second hand behind her first. Despite her earlier appearance the brute force behind those lithe-looking limbs was staggering, and Raine had to adjust her footing as those claws curled about her blade in an effort to gain purchase against her. Their eyes locked, again sparking with hate and anger, and Rhea's low growl emanated from somewhere in her chest before it was spat out between her sharpened teeth, "Give it... back...!"

The words surprised her, and Rhea took that moment to push even harder and yank simultaneously. Raine felt her grip loosen for a heart-stopping moment on the hilt of her blade, but almost immediately as her fingers lost their purchase, she heard the air cry out as a lance came slicing through it. The long weapon missed both women, but its sudden entry in their struggle was enough of a surprise for Raine to kick her feet to the ground and leap backwards, leaving her foe snarling in anger and pain as her hands were cut from the sharpened edges of the blade she had been formerly handling with her claws. Raine glanced to her left, watching as Warin cracked his knuckles and strolled forward, and she was unsurprised when Rhea immediately shifted her target.

Warin met the swipe of claws with an easy raise of his wrist, deflecting the blow without flinching, and when the second hand rose, he surrendered all his weight to hit the ground. His left leg swept out, aiming for the bare, clawed feet of his opponent, but he was not at all surprised when Rhea leapt up to clear his kick with ease. She was much faster than he was, and acting on an instinct that almost felt more like precognition than anything animalistic. She seemed to know what he was about to do before he could do it, and he rose up as she jumped for him again, catching her claws on his gauntlets once more as he gritted out, "So, there's still some sense in you, huh...? But I imagine talking you down won't exactly be an option, now, will it...?"

"Give... it back to me...!" The growl had turned into a snarl as she and Warin struggled, but the gauntlets he wore protected him well from her grasping talons no matter how she tried to turn them on the metal. He jostled with her gamely, adjusting his wrists each time she pushed, and Raine watched with a macabre sense of fascination as she understood exactly what it was he was trying to do. Rhea continued to struggle with him, her claws screeching on the metal as she tried desperately to find purchase on him, and her eyes were wild, barely sane as Warin held her stare and his footing with surprising ease. There was a quiet clicking sound as the claws fell between the gaps of his blades, and then there was a screech as the gauntlets were pulled back with the force of a wyvern slamming itself bodily against a foe.

Three talons fell useless and clipped to the stone, and Rhea's scream of pain was interrupted as Warin spun expertly on one foot and slammed the back of his hand directly into the side of her face. The woman went sprawling, caught off guard, but the moment she tried to raise she was once again put down as Raine slid in smoothly after her brother's movement. Her sword flashed golden, parrying the slashing efforts of her remaining claws with ease, and she remarked with quiet intensity as Rhea again howled with fury at her, "She wants the Crest Stone...? Good. That makes this much easier, then..."

Leaping back as Rhea moved forward, Raine gamely danced about those wild reaching hands as she studied the pattern of her foe's movements. Every movement was rough and feral, unplanned and reactive, but each and every time she raised a clawed hand, its aim was ever the same. She was seeking to sink it deep into her chest, to wrench out the Crest Stone that had been placed there, and the thought brought that bubbling anger roaring back to the surface with a vengeance. She thought of her students, of the orphans Dorothea had cared for, and the refugees the monastery had opened its doors to, and she heard rather than felt herself snarling, "You think you're the only one who's suffered loss...?! I don't care how many generations old you are, you aren't the sole person here to have lost their family...! You and your pain is nothing special! You're not the only orphan war has created! Everyone has lost someone, what gives you the right to ruin more lives to resurrect just one of the many victims out there?! Sothis didn't even want to return!"

The words seemed to be a trigger, and Rhea lashed out all the more viciously as she turned about in a flash and kicked upwards in a smooth, fierce movement. Her taloned feet drew the same reaction from the Sword of the Creator, screeching as bone met bone, and Raine growled with effort as she refused to be pushed back. Warin again moved the moment Rhea's eyes narrowed on his sister, and with all the force he had he slammed his shoulder directly into her back as Raine ducked out of his way. Another loud, ear-piercing screech was given as Rhea tumbled forward, her back laid open as Warin's bladed gauntlets slashed out twice, but too quickly was she recovering and whirling back on them both as if her wounds were more of an annoyance than anything else.

Warin's eyes met his sister's, and she could read his expression as clearly as any book. Rhea leapt for him, her focus once again changed because of her injuries, but it would only last so long as she did not move to attract her attention. They were strong enough to take her, they both were well aware of it, but in a contest of endurance they would never be capable of victory. She simply had too much energy in this half-feral form, and any wounds they had inflicted were only surface level, and apparently easily ignored. Her rage was burying pain, was making her singularly focussed on the battle, and made her far more dangerous than any opponent they had taken on yet.

Loosening her grip on her sword, Raine ran out into the clearing as Warin once again blocked slash after slash of those crippling talons with his gauntlets. The metal was wearing against her strength, and sooner or later it would break if he didn't put them to deadly use, but still he was holding back from delivering a fatal blow. She understood why, but there was no longer time to dance about, as much as she had already decided she didn't want to end this with another corpse to bury. So she stood in the brightening sunlight, sword tossed aside, and raised her voice to catch the attention of the battling woman, "You want the Crest Stone so badly, Rhea?! Come on, then! Pull it out of me, if you can!"

Rhea twitched, turning her head to find her target standing defenceless just a leap away. She had cast her sword aside, arms spread out almost in invitation, and those seafoam-coloured eyes were daring, challenging her in silent mockery. The words drilled through her madness, drilled deep into something far more primal than the rage that was sparking through her entire body, and she reacted to it thoughtlessly. She disengaged from her opponent, noting that he slunk backwards as if he, too, no longer wished to fight, and turned the entirety of her attention on the woman. Deep in her unprotected chest was her goal, and her clawed hands were aching, twitching, with the desire to plunge deep through the flesh and bone to find what she had put there so long ago. If she didn't wish to have it, she did not deserve it. She would take it back... It did not belong to anyone else but her.

It happened in a flash, her leaping like a lightning bolt for the unprotected woman and her claws growing even longer as her wild desire to get her target free from its flesh prison was presented to her with so much ease. Then, in rapid succession, just as her claws were ready to rip and tear, she felt a slam of unprecedented weight straight into the back of her skull, followed by a slashing pain from down below and from the front. She hadn't heard the man move, but she felt his elbow driving deep into the soft spot just behind her head, and in with speed that defied sight, that fallen sword from the ground had been lifted and cut her from hip to hip in one smooth movement.

Screeching with agony and outrage, a pulse of magic exploded from Rhea's hands even as she staggered from the wounds, and she lashed out blindly to force her enemies back and away from her. Numbly she heard heavy thuds, but the pain outweighed the triumph as she reached to cradle the bloody wound in her gut. She staggered forward, hands coated in crimson, and a warning shriek in her head told her that she could not win this fight. She was far outmatched by these two lightning-flashes, and no matter what she did, she could not get her hands on her treasure. It was too dangerous, and instinct took over, demanding flight, and she obeyed it thoughtlessly, and with great revulsion and pain.

Warin spat out a mouthful of blood, pushing himself up onto his elbows just in time to see the shape of the woman they had been fighting making her way in full flight across the bridge and towards the chapel. He grit his teeth, swallowing a loud curse as he forced his aching and battered body up and off of the ground. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, how she had managed to let loose such power without using her real form, but he supposed it didn't matter. She had managed quite effectively to knock both him and his sister away from her long enough to create an opening for an escape, and he cursed again as he shook his head fiercely from side to side to make the ringing in his ears dissipate. Every last ounce of him demanded to give chase, but as he heard a low groan somewhere ahead of him, the thought was gone as quickly as it came as his eyes automatically rose to find his sister.

Raine was half-laying, half-sitting with her back against a tree, and from the broken wood and limbs surrounding her, he realized with a pulse of worry that unlike him, she had been sent flying right into an obstacle rather than out into nothing. He forced himself to move, ignoring the aching and the whining in his muscles, and he placed a careful, firm hand on her shoulder as he watched her blinking rapidly as if she was coming out of a deep sleep. Her eyes were unfocussed, and blood was trickling from somewhere underneath her hair, and he shook her once, voice clipped and curt in his concern, "Raine... Raine! Look at me! Come on, snap out of it!"

"Ugh... Not so loud..." Raine groaned again, and she pushed weakly at the chest in front of her more out of instinct than anything else. She was seeing double of almost everything, and her ears were keening in a high-pitched note that she could barely hear over. Her back felt like it was on fire, as if the scar she had been carrying ever since Grondor had been ripped open, but she could feel no wetness that spoke of an actual wound. The sheer blunt trauma was enough to fool her hazy head, and she winced as she felt the actual gash and the blood trickling down her jaw before she muttered painfully, "Damn that woman... We were so close... Is she really going to make us kill her...?"

"Seems so. She ran off towards the chapel." Warin answered with a shake of his own head, and he forced himself to his feet as he watched Raine looking out across the bridge with a wary glare. He stooped a little, offering his hand, and she took it after a moment and allowed him to haul her gently to her feet. She winced as she stood on her own two feet, bracing her back with firm hands on her hips, and he watched her closely as the blood continued to stream down her cheek and off of her chin, "Are you all right? How are your wounds?"

"Nothing feels broken, but with all the adrenaline, I might not even be aware of it until tomorrow... She sent me flying harder than Nemesis did. I'm not sure if I should be glad that I hit the tree and not something harder." Raine answered after a long moment of introspection, and the wild pulsing of heat and anger in her head made it difficult to think of anything but battle. She was sore all over, and she knew she was bleeding from several wounds, but in truth none of it seemed to be that important. She glanced to her brother, noting the scuffs and nicks he was sporting, and she returned the question wearily, "And you? Can you keep this up?"

"I'm more or less fine... I'll be paying for it with bruises on bruises tomorrow, but I think I'm in better shape than you are. She was far more aggressive with you than me." Warin answered with a shake of his head, and while a part of him wanted to reprimand her for being so reckless... He knew better than to even begin to try. She had created the perfect opening for them both, and only Rhea's flare of power had stopped them from wounding her enough to capture her relatively harmlessly. She was too strong to go down to a thorough head-smashing or a sword-wound to her stomach, but they hadn't expected such a wild counterattack. That was both of their faults, and he wasn't about to take her to task for trying what seemed to be the best way to take her down without killing her. Still...

His eyes flickered to the bridge, studying the stone that had been painted crimson with each drop of blood that had been shed there. From where they had been sent flying there was already a growing puddle of the liquid, and from where she had ran was a clear and incredibly visible trail for them to follow. He had spent more than enough time tracking to know exactly how much blood a standard human carried inside of them, and he tilted his head, jaw clenching and unclenching as he felt Raine's stare on him, "She's lost a lot of blood... She won't make it far in the state she's in. We can likely catch her, but if she insists on fighting, she'll likely succumb to blood loss within minutes. I know what you want, but you best be prepared for that outcome."

"If she can't regain her sanity, and is stuck like this, perhaps killing her outright would be a mercy... but we don't know if that's the case yet." Raine replied calmly, and her eyes flickered to the bridge, imagining the path their foe had taken with little difficulty, and a growing frown. She shook her head as she felt a warning pulse of concern and wonder go through her stomach, and she mused quietly as she felt Warin's eyes boring holes into her, "She ran for the chapel... I think I know where she's headed. Come on. We won't be able to beat her there, but we can meet her there, if we move fast enough... You are coming?"

"I'll see this through to the end... It's the least I owe to Mother." Warin replied crisply, and he watched as Raine picked up her sword and grasped down on its hilt tightly. She set off almost immediately at a carefully controlled trot, and he followed behind her silently like a wraith. Her expression was one that even he was having difficulty reading, as so many emotions were flickering across her face and in her eyes like a rapidly turning book. Her jaw however was set like an iron trap, and the way her hand trembled on the hilt of her blade spoke far more than anything else did as they moved as quickly as their pained bodies would allow for it.

"Do you believe it? What she said about Mother?"

The words came at the crest of the bridge, and Warin wasn't surprised by her questioning even as she refused to look at him. Her eyes were pointed straight ahead, fixed on her target, but her white-knuckled hands spoke enough of her anger. What had been said was still rattling around in their heads, echoing like far off booms of thunder, and he wished that he had leapt rather than waited for the explanation that damned woman had given them. He felt nauseous even thinking about it, but with a grim shake of his head, he ceded to cold pragmatism as he forced out his answer, "I don't want to... which is how I know it's the truth. Mother always... always put the well-being of others before her own. She was frail in body, but she made up for that in spirit. No one had a stronger heart, or a harder head... Father always told me I wasn't stubborn because of him, I was stubborn because of her. Once she put her mind to something... There was no talking her out of it, and very rarely did she fail at what she tried to get done. There's no question in my mind that if saving you meant laying down her life that she would behave exactly as Rhea says she did."

"Damn it...!" Raine ground her teeth together, hating her brother for confirming her worst fears just as much as she felt an uncontrollable surge of love and gratitude tightening her entire body for the woman she had never known. All of those pages her father had dedicated to Roslyn hadn't been able to connect to her emotionally, even though she had grown fond of the woman that her father had painted for her in his own words. But what Rhea had said, what Warin was confirming... She shook her head, fighting with the conflicting love and anger that was swirling her stomach into an ugly knot, "Why?! She had a husband... A son! I was already dead! Why sacrifice herself when she still could have lived a happy life?!"

"You weren't dead long. How else would you be here now? You must have passed during the birth... There was still time to save you. And from how Rhea spoke, Mother knew exactly what she was, and what had been done to her... She chose to use that to save you." Warin answered with a slow shake of his head, but he felt nothing but a deep, anguishing sympathy for her as he heard her anger and guilt in her every word. He could understand. She was trying desperately to apply logic to a situation that had been created by pure emotion, and there was no rationalizing it. He had tried all his life to understand, and now that the final pieces of the puzzle had been fitted into place... All he felt was a begrudging sense of finality.

Of course everything that Rhea said was the truth, no matter how much he wanted to reject it on sheer anger. It made far too much sense for him to discard it. The woman who would smile during her fevers, scolding her son and husband for worrying over her and neglecting their duties to attend to her during her periods of bed-rest... Of course she wouldn't think twice to sacrifice all she had to give if it meant saving the life she had been dutifully carrying for almost ten long months. She had loved her child from the moment she had learned she was burdened, and there would have been no other option, no other reality, she would have ever lived with when everything had gone so horribly wrong.

"I understand you didn't want what happened to you to happen... but it's over and done with. You're alive, here and now, because of her. Father called you her last gift to us... He meant it. Your life is your own because Mother gave it to you, twice over." The words tasted like bile on his tongue as they cleared the bridge, following the blood splatter on the ground with a wolf's precision, but he forced out the words with each and every step he took. Raine was leading him slightly, clearly already knowing where Rhea was going with or without the trail to follow, and he spoke to her back, words piercing but firm all the same, "What Rhea did to you after... Feel anger and wrath for that, and point it towards her. Not Mother. As much as I love you, I won't let you blame her for how things are now. Had she known what Rhea would have done to you, she would have killed the woman with her own two hands. I promise you that."

"I believe you... which is why I'm glad you're here... but if you're going to tell me to point my wrath at Rhea, then I want full claim to her punishment." Raine answered with quiet, deadly anger, and though Warin could not see her back as they chased the darkness that would lead them down into the great sprawling underground where all had been laid bare so many years ago... He could feel the electricity of her emotions coursing through her as if they themselves were alive. She, in turn, could feel his eyes on her shoulders, carefully regarding her, and she continued flatly, understanding just what she was yanking from his hands but feeling the demand all the same, "This is the one time... The one time that I am going to make the choice... You can either help me, or get out of my way. I know you loved her, Warin, and I don't want to rob you, but... I won't ever be free if I'm not the one who makes the final call."

"I'll give you that. You've suffered more than enough to have earned it. I've spent all my life stewing in anger... but it wasn't me that she took everything from." Warin agreed with a sombre nod as he stepped into the great machine that he had never known existed, and heard the whirring and groaning of the mechanism as it began its long descent into the earth. Raine stood at the opposite end of the giant contraption, eyes narrowed and piercing into the dark, and he felt for her, even as he swallowed down the iron ball that he had been carrying around for as long as his memory stretched back for. "I told you before... I won't take this from you, and I'll follow your lead. Nothing's changed since then. You get to make the decisions."

A stern nod was his only answer, and as the gears ground to a halt, and the light began to filter in, both siblings almost felt the need to hold their breath as the sight of the Holy Tomb came into view. The numerous graves stood pristine and silent as ever, but there was a trail of blood that wove throughout the headstones and far into the very back where the dais, and the throne, stood. The two were silent as they crept forward, eyeing the widening splashes of blood on the ground that led towards the staircase, and neither of them felt any surprise when the saw their foe, collapsed at the foot of the Throne of Knowledge.

No longer did she look like some half-formed dragon, and she seemed frail and small as she lay unmoving and silent at the foot of the throne. One hand had been raised before she had collapsed, clutching at the stone armrest, but she hadn't had the power to pull herself upwards and into the seat. Instead she lay with her head cushioned on the stone, her body curled up at its foot like a sleeping child, and were it not for the numerous tears and cuts in her dress and body, she might have looked exactly like one, even with the pool of blood that was quickly spreading out from underneath her. Her wounds had finally taken a toll, luring her into unconsciousness and bringing back her human form, though she was still breathing, even if extremely shallowly.

"Even now, you're running to her... I hate that about you..." Raine muttered fiercely under her breath as she forced herself to look long and hard at the sight that Rhea made, almost desperately hugging at the last physical remnant of her mother in the depths of the tomb. How many times had she seen Sothis seated there in her dreams, talking down to her like the little goddess she was, and laughing and jesting over the strange way their souls had come to know one another? It was the last thing she had seen, too, when Sothis had left that throne to come to her, hand extended and a small, lonely smile playing on her face as she surrendered herself and all of her power in a last-ditch attempt to bring her back to the world she knew, and the precious students and family she had been yanked so unceremoniously away from.

Raine moved forward without a word, leaving her brother to follow after her in silence as she climbed the stairs in a swift, cold fashion. She moved with mechanic urgency, pulling her cloak off and throwing it to the side without once looking at it as she grasped her dagger and pulled it free from her belt. She held the weapon between her teeth as she moved Rhea off of the throne, ignoring her soft whimpering moan of pain as she did so before she laid her out flat on the cold stone floor. She was careful even if she was surgical, putting the woman's arms to her side and opening up the front of her dress to reveal the long wound that had cut open her navel. Next, she knelt down beside her, pulling her belt free from her trousers before she cinched it again, and she held her left arm out before slowly, carefully, putting it through the loop and pulling the belt up to the crook of her elbow.

Warin raised his eyebrow as he knelt down next to her, though admittedly, nothing of what she was doing was of a surprise to him. He could tell exactly what she was meaning to do, and she had said nothing throughout all of her preparations, either. Still, he couldn't quite help himself as he watched her take the dagger from her teeth, sliding it into her right hand as she pointed the edge down and towards her forearm, "I'm not about to like what you're about to do, am I?"

"You're free to take my place. You have a matching Crest. Your blood is more than likely to revive her than mine is." Raine answered with a sardonic smile, but she didn't need to look up from her work to see him shaking his head with dark amusement at her reply. She knew, just as he did, that while her actions were her own and that he wasn't about stop her that it didn't mean he was going to willingly participate unless she forced his hand. She had no intention of pushing him in such a manner, and he wasn't about to do the same to her either, which made her bite the inside of her cheek even as she lined up her forearm with the still oozing wound in Rhea's stomach. "At least, that's the only assumption I can make, considering the fact that you inherited her Crest through Father. I'm relying solely on guesswork. You at least have precedent."

"No, I don't think so... I'll lose no sleep, regardless of whether she lives or dies." Warin chuckled lowly, and he felt nothing, not even the slightest hint of guilt as he disregarded Raine's point and sat on his haunches, staring without feeling down at the unconscious woman at Raine's knees. Though he knew it might brand him a monster for saying so, he spoke the absolute truth, and knew that he truly did not care either way if Raine's attempt at saving her life worked or not. It was her choice to make, not his, and while he would not try to stop her... He wouldn't be concerned whatsoever if she failed. "My conscience is in absolutely no danger here, unlike yours. Go ahead. Do what you want... I'm only here to clinch the tourniquet before you pass out from blood loss."

"Good. Then we're on the same page... Get ready." Raine bit down a laugh, completely unsurprised and unimpressed with Warin's offhand remarks, as truthful as they were. She grasped her collar, stuffing as much of the material of her tunic as she could into her mouth before she steadied her dagger-hand. She sliced downwards in one smooth motion, opening up her arm from wrist to elbow, and she was glad for her makeshift gag as it muffled her snarl of pain at the self-inflicted wound. Quickly but carefully she turned her arm over as the blood began to flow, and she pressed it down firmly to make sure that it held over the similar wound she had inflicted on the woman at her knees with her blade.

She pushed down hard, ignoring the flaring in her arm as well as the groaning from Rhea, and for a moment there was deafening silence as she felt the blood from her wound flowing out and directly into Rhea's. She held down, teeth grinding into the fabric in her mouth, and for a brief, mad moment, everything else around her seemed to slow and become foggy. She knew her brother was on her left side, hands ready to grasp the belt and clench it tight to cut off her bloodflow, but she could not see or sense him as she had a moment before. Everything was dull and cloudy, and for a frightening instant she could recall the similar sensations that had haunted her in Grondor, and pulled her down in the bottom of the canyon, beside the rushing river where she had died for the second time.

Closing her eyes, Raine held her breath as the world came to a complete standstill and left her in total silence. She could feel the warmth stirring deep inside of her, answering her call in a sluggish, confused way, and she bit her lip as she forced her thoughts into compliance. She had never prayed in her life, had never known how to, but she forced herself to think, to focus on that laughing, smiling face of the little girl she had loved like a sister as she whispered inwardly, painfully, 'I've never once prayed to you... I don't really even know if I think you're truly a goddess... but I do know that you're still here, inside of me, somewhere... Go to her, and save her life, Sothis. Even if it means taking away everything that bonded us... She has to live. I'm asking you with every fibre of my being... Save your daughter, no matter what you have to take away from me to do so. I'll miss you sorely, but I can't keep living this way... You told me to carve out a path I wouldn't regret... This is my choice. Help me... I'm begging you... Help me.'

"My, my...! How troublesome you are!"

Laughter seemed to flood the Holy Tomb, and looking up sharply, Raine was somehow both surprised, and completely unsurprised to see that Sothis was sitting on the crest of the throne that had once been hers many, many lifetimes ago. She looked down at the two women at the foot of where she had once sat, and her eyes flickered momentarily as they hovered over Rhea's face before she settled her gaze instead on Raine. Her smile was gentle, though also somewhat bittersweet, and she leaned forward, watching Raine intently as the world remained frozen in time all about them, "It has been quite some time, hasn't it, old friend...? And to think, this is how we meet again, after so long... Here, where things for us all started. You have quite the sense of dramatic irony, don't you?"

"That wasn't my intention." Raine bit the inside of her cheek as she stifled a laugh at the rather flippant remark, but a part of her ached as she took a long, quiet moment to study her frozen surroundings with fresh eyes. The world about her had gone completely still, though she admittedly wasn't sure if it was Sothis' influence or if the conversation she was having was merely taking place in her own head. It bothered her to see her brother sitting still and frozen at her side, his expression tense and eyes narrowed in focus, and she had to look away from him before the unease became too much. Sothis, for her credit, allowed her this lingering despite the urgency of the situation, and she let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding as she admitted quietly, "I've... missed you sorely, Sothis."

"I know... Even though I couldn't be with you in the physical world as I once was, we still remain connected. Everything that's happened, all that you've learned, and felt... I experienced it, too, in my own way. I know all you've suffered, and I am truly sorry for it." Sothis' voice was quiet, melancholy, and her eyes flickered back from Raine's face to the woman who was currently lying injured and frail at her knees. Her expression was difficult to read, as if she was struggling between love, pity, anger, guilt, disappointment and grief all at once, and she didn't raise her eyes from the face of the woman who had tried, time and time again to bring her back to life, "I am... sorry for so many things..."

"Had you had your memories when you awoke inside of me, you would have left me long before what happened in the Sealed Forest." Raine pointed out with another slow shake of her head, and she felt her body throbbing with a pain that had nothing to do with her wounds as Sothis refused to look up from the face of her daughter. It looked so strange, this childlike goddess looking down upon a woman who seemed old enough to be her mother, but Raine had long since become used to the oddities her life had thrown her head-first into. Still, that guilty look painted across her youthful face was discomforting, and she spoke quietly but firmly against the apology she had been given, "You aren't responsible for where we are today."

"I appreciate how highly you think of me, but... You give me too much credit. Even without my memories, I still hounded you relentlessly for the fact that you could enjoy your body, while I could do nothing but sit by and watch." Sothis dismissed the kindness with a slow shake of her own head, and she flicked her fingers in a dismissive gesture before she finally allowed her eyes to be torn away from the woman laying at the foot of her throne. She watched Raine carefully, sadly, and her smile was pinched and awkward, her eyes shining with an odd light as she mused tiredly, "I wanted to live again, so badly at times that it frightened me... but when I returned to my senses, I knew how wrong I had been. Life can only flow in one direction, regardless of my powers, and my desires... and even at the worst of my envy... I would have never permitted taking life from you to suit my own needs. My time has come and gone, and I am at peace with this now... This life of yours, and that body... They are for your use, not mine. Even if I dearly enjoyed every moment that we shared together."

"Yet, you're still living within me."

"In a sense... I should not be capable of taking form again, but you have called on me in this holy place, and your power, and the power here, has allowed me to return, though it will be painfully brief." Sothis mused, and her fingers drifted errantly along the stone armrest, though she could not feel the cold, or the hardness. Even at the source of her power, the source of so much holy magic, she couldn't be granted a physical form any longer. She remained a ghost, incapable of touch no matter how much she yearned for it, and it made her ache with nostalgia. She wished so badly to be able to reach out and feel, but she knew it was not her place to mourn. She had lived a life before and it had come to its end... She could not defy the laws of life and death, no matter how much she wished otherwise, and it was with a painful sigh that she knew she wished for it far more than she had any right to.

"I know what it is you wish of me... You do not need to speak it. Though I will admit that there is a part of me that does not understand the why... but that is inconsequential." Sothis continued slowly, and again her eyes flickered downwards, studying the frail, pale form of the woman she remembered so much more easily as a child. It felt so strange, viewing her this way and knowing how much time she had missed in terms of her growth, but that was something that had long ago fallen out of her control. It took effort for her to raise her chin, to once more look at Raine and meet her eyes, and she felt her entire being throb with a mixture of grief and love, "What you ask, I can give... but it will not be as simple as I know you wish it would be. You and I are intertwined, and that is not merely because of the Crest Stone upon your heart. You cannot rid yourself of me that easily, even if you are willing to sacrifice the powers you now wield through me."

"If you've truly been here the whole time... You know full well how I feel about these "gifts" of mine. I'd see the end of them happily, before continuing to be a stand-in for you." Raine explained with a quiet tiredness, and she looked down to her frozen arm and examined the blood that had been halted in time, hanging freely in the air between the gaps of her and Rhea's wounds. She could sense Sothis' curiosity, but she did not question her further, and Raine was grateful for her silent understanding, and her willingness to answer her prayer even if she didn't know why it was what she wanted. "Knowing that even if I lose it, I won't entirely lose you, is more of a comfort than anything... I don't want to be you, but I also don't wish to lose you. The circumstances that forced us together were terrible, and I know you wish more than I do that it had never happened... but we can't unwind time that far, no matter how much we want to. What's done is done... and even then, I don't regret meeting you. If for that and that alone, I owe Rhea a great deal. I knew and loved a sister, because of her."

"You are too generous, even though I think what you are doing is less seated in kindness and more in justice... Yet, I can't wholly disagree. I too found and loved a sister, despite it all." Sothis agreed with a low, pained chuckle, and she slowly reached out to settle her small hand over the arm that Raine was laying down over the body of her daughter. Their skin didn't connect, but it did not matter as a small sizzle of green and gold sparks began to fly from her fingertips. Still, she held back, eyes lifting to focus on the firm, unafraid gaze of the human woman before her, and she spoke softly, seriously, "I shall do this for you... but in exchange, I wish for a promise."

"What promise?"

"When this shackle falls from your neck, never again take another upon yourself without choosing to do so. You must live freely, from this point onwards, or all I have done, all I will do, will have been in vain. You are not a puppet, regardless of what Rhea wished from you... and I will not share my soul willingly with one. From today forward, you live freely, on your own terms, and take a path you will not regret." Sothis answered firmly, and she straightened her back and kept her face impassive as she watched the shock flicker over Raine's face at her command. It clearly took her off guard, hearing yet another wish for her freedom, and the mere thought made Sothis both want to laugh, and weep simultaneously. "Can you give me that promise?"

Raine nodded, closing her eyes as she again felt that deep tug somewhere in her middle that demanded pain and tears and smiles all at once. It was too much for her, but how could she even begin to refuse? It wasn't as if she was being asked the impossible. If anything, it felt as if it was the most simplest request she could ever be asked... Which made her smile both sad and apologetic as she wondered if her fear of freedom was as great as her desire for it. She wasn't sure she knew the answer, but in the end, she was aware it didn't matter. She had summoned her old friend for one thing and one thing only, and if this was the price she was being asked to pay for it... She would go along willingly, and happily. "I can give you that promise, Sothis."

Sothis' laugh was soft and gentle, and the hand that covered hers began to pulse with that familiar light of magic as she called on the powers that had been laying quietly inside of Raine's body. The light glowed strong and bright, sizzling in green, gold and blue sparks that sank through skin and into the blood, and Sothis could feel that pull that once more beckoned her back to the ether. As she had before, she did not fight it, merely pushed more of herself into her work before she spoke, eyes meeting Raine's for the last time as she told her softly, fiercely, "When this ends, you and I shall meet again, but in the interim... Live free. Live free, Raine Rosa Eisner, and don't allow anything in this world to hold you back ever again!"

Then, that little impishly smiling goddess was gone, and the illusion of stillness cracked like glass being shattered by a well-aimed toss of a stone. Raine abruptly felt herself being tugged back into reality as the heat in her stomach flowed abruptly up her chest and into her arm. She could feel that power, that long-held and tightly cradled strength unlatching itself from her and finding its way into a new target with ease and renewed purpose underneath Sothis' guidance. She let it go even as every last inch of her grieved it, sharply aware of the cold and the absence it left as it flowed from her blood and into Rhea's open wound. She held her arm more firmly down, ensuring that every last drop of blood, of that golden-green power flowed from wound to wound, and only when her vision began to tilt and her chest became cold did she know it was safe to let go.

Warin caught her as she fell sideways, but her senses allowed only for her to feel the sudden clench of pressure on her arm as he cut off the flow of blood from her wound with one sharp movement. Then everything went dark, and she surrendered herself gratefully to it. She did not hear her brother's quiet cursing, nor did she feel him laying her down beside Rhea, but it no longer mattered. Warin was quick and efficient, grasping her arm and tightening the belt until it could go no farther, and his hands roughly grasped the bandages he had pulled from his pack to begin wrapping up her wound to ensure it closed. He ripped the knot off with his teeth, laying her arm in his lap as he unwound the bandages, only to feel himself freeze as out of the corner of his eye he caught a hint of a colour he had not seen in almost six long years.

From the tips of her hair, that seafoam-green colour was beginning to darken, and Warin watched, frozen in shock as that familiar navy shade crept up like a wave on the shore. Inch by inch, painfully slowly, her hair returned to the shade she had been given at birth, and Warin found himself holding his breath as he watched his sister in amazement. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and his heart seized as the changing colours finally found the roots and washed away the accursed change that had made his sister into a stand-in for the goddess that day long ago in the Sealed Forest.

He realized as he watched Raine take in a breath that he had been holding his own, and immediately his instincts kicked back in and demanded he finish his treatment. In a trice he had her forearm wrapped, though he had noted with a hint of unease that even the small oozing of the wound seemed to have slowed with the change of colour in her hair. His eyes flickered to the side, watching with both surprise and a small amount of pain as the open wounds on Rhea's body began to close of their own volition, sparking with a strangely coloured magic as if invisible needles were sewing the flesh shut and erasing any hints of the hard-earned hits that he and his sister had struck on her earlier.

Then, there was total silence, save only for the two women's shallow breathing beside him. Warin did nothing for a long moment as his heart beat wildly in his ears, and there was a strange pressure in his ribs that he did not recognize as he looked down at the slumbering form of his sister. She was pale from the loss of blood, but her breathing was steady despite it all, and he was well aware that she would be fine once she was again back in the hands of the monastery's healers. Her wound, as deep as it was, would heal fine, and her blood would be replaced without much trouble so long as she rested and did not fight the orders she would be given. He knew this instinctively and through experience, and yet there was still that odd numbness, that uncertainty, and Warin felt himself hesitate as he reached to pick her up from the floor to carry her to safety.

Instead, slowly, carefully, Warin found himself leaning down as instinct won out over better sense. Rhea was still and silent, something he could easily ignore, and he found himself resting his head wearily on his sister's chest as he forced his other senses to still. He closed his eyes as he focussed, trying to force out the sound of his own breathing, as well as the steady breaths of the two women about him. It felt like lunacy, it certainly had to look like it, but his body refused to obey him as it waited, searching, hoping... Why else had her hair changed colour? Why would she look just like he remembered, now once more appearing as his sister and his parents' daughter, rather than like the Nabateans who had been so desperate to claim her as one of their own so they could make her into someone she was not?

Then he heard it. It was faint, barely audible over the sound of his own breathing, but still that soft and steady rhythm was purring away underneath his cheek and his ear as he finally stilled himself enough to catch it. Slowly, painfully slowly it began to pick up speed, as if realizing for the first time in a lifetime what it was meant to do, and Warin felt himself smiling as the thud against his cheek banished away the last of his fears and concerns. He drew away slowly, his chest tightening until it was hard to breathe, and he cradled his sister's face in his hands as his eyes burnt with tears. She lay still, calm and silent and completely ignorant in sleep, but it didn't matter to him as he whispered, laughing through his tears, "You damned madwoman... You did have one more miracle in you, after all, didn't you...?!"

AN:

-runs off-screen carrying my stuff, which is still on fire-

Mood: Error 404 Not Found.

Listening To: "I Lived" - One Republic

~ Sky