Obsidian Fires
Part 2
By Mieren
Sage rolled into the wall for the fifth time in so many minutes. Rubbing his face wearily, he pushed himself to a sitting position, making a face at Ryo, who was still sound asleep.
"Well, that explains why I was cold," Sage grumbled as he eyed the mound of sheets and blankets to his side rolled up in a massive heap with Ryo in the center. "You have a queen size bed and you still kicked the shit out of me all night. That tears it. Tomorrow, I'm sleeping on the floor."
Ryo snorted in his sleep and looked up with bleary eyes. "Wha…"
"Get up, idiot," Sage growled as he headed for the door.
Glancing at the clock, Sage started. It was past noon! He scrubbed his hands through his hair and looked around wildly. He knew that Mieren had kept them up most of the night, but he hadn't bothered to glance at the clock before passing out on his side of the bed. He let out a started exclamation as he tripped over White Blaze.
"Find somewhere else to sleep," he muttered, glaring at the tiger irately.
Grumbling loudly to himself and ignoring White Blaze's irritated snort, Sage headed into the hall and towards the bathroom. Pausing to pound on the other doors in the hall, he began his morning primping when he was satisfied that the others were getting up. After tinkering with his hair for about an hour, he wandered back into the hall, muttering to himself when he found that Rowen still wasn't up.
"Rowen! Get your ass out of bed!" Sage called loudly, making a face.
"Go in there and get him up," Ryo muttered as he pushed by him to get to the bathroom.
Sage made a face at his friend before pushing into his room, wishing that Mieren was capable of getting Rowen out of bed. Moving over to the edge of the bed, he shook the mound under the blankets, earning himself a loud snore.
"Some things never change," he muttered dryly, prying the blankets off of his friend and trying to pull him onto the floor. "Come on, man. You went to bed over eight hours before we did. How can you still be tired?" Rowen snorted loudly in response, flopping over in his sleep to secure himself to the bed.
Sage tapped his foot impatiently. Striding across the room, he pulled back the curtains to allow the noon light to spill across his friend. Rowen squalled loudly and leapt out of the bed, darting into the hall at full tilt. Sage blinked numbly, never having been able to get Rowen up that easily in his entire life.
Shrugging, he stepped into the hall, freezing when he found Rowen curled up on the floor just outside of the door, head resting on his knees as he panted raggedly.
"Jeez, Rowen. Are you okay?"
Taking a deep breath, he nodded mutely, eyes glazed and staring ahead blankly. Sage watched him worriedly as he slowly pulled himself to his feet, pushing his lank blue hair out of his pale face with trembling fingers. Spitting out something about 'indecent hours of the day,' he stumped down the hall towards the living room, Sage trailing him after a moment.
Rowen headed straight to the couch, placing one hand on Mieren's shoulder and saying something quietly to her in another language. Mieren jerked awake, murmuring out a response before rising unsteadily to her feet, scrubbing her eyes with the back of her hands as she looked at the kitchen longingly. Sighing, she followed him back up the stairs, leaving Sage to stare at them blankly as they disappeared from view.
* * *
Mieren walked into the room first, squinting and snapping the curtains shut irritably before claiming a seat on the bed. Rowen followed her in slowly, eyes worried.
"Is something wrong or can this wait until after breakfast, love?"
"Mieren, I want to go back. I can't stay here," Rowen murmured, wrapping his arms around her. "They'll find out if I stay."
"Think about this reasonably. Of your five friends downstairs, three of them have been turned into demons, another is now an elf, and the last one doesn't care what happened to them. No one will hold this against you. They care about you Rowen."
Rowen's eyes watered and he looked away, trembling slightly. "This is different," he insisted.
Mieren sighed. "I wasn't supposed to tell you this, but do you know what happened to the others when they thought you were dead?"
Blinking uncertainly, Rowen shook his head. Scrubbing her hands through her unruly hair, she continued.
"Neither Cye nor Sage have spoken in two months. Cye has been catatonic. He didn't seem to realize when the others were speaking to him. He stopped eating and bathing. He didn't respond to anything at all, even when he was in danger. Sage was no better off. He hasn't spoken for the two months you've been gone, and I believe that he tried to kill himself on a number of occasions thinking that you were dead. I scanned his mind when he didn't have his thoughts shielded. He's been going out for long walks into the woods, staring over the cliff while standing at its edge and crying. The others were engulfed in deep depressions like I have never seen before. Hell, Kento even lost weight, not eating much since you left. He's much thinner now, or haven't you noticed? They missed you, Rowen. They don't care about anything except that you're back."
Rowen had begun to tremble before she was halfway through describing the others, shaking his head in denial. When he only sat shaking a few feet from her, she sighed and moved over to embrace him as best as she was able with her growing bulk.
Gasping sharply, she slugged him in the arm and scowled at him furiously.
"What did I do?"
"This is your fault," Mieren grumped, clutching her swollen stomach in one arm.
Rowen smiled sheepishly. "How much longer, do you think?"
"I don't know. A normal demon is pregnant no longer than a month. I have no idea in this case. The child is half human, you know. Hell, I didn't even think that such interbreeding was possible. Ah well, it's still your fault."
Blushing slightly, Rowen caressed her growing stomach, looking completely lost and helpless. Mieren giggled at his expression, rising slowly and heading for the door.
Rowen looked up with puppy eyes. "You're not going to stay with me for a little while?" he whimpered, reaching out with lips twitching slightly when he saw her expression and knew that he had won. Mieren sighed and settled down on the bed beside him, grinning slightly at the expression on his face before leaning forward for a kiss.
* * *
Sage relayed what had happened to the others while they sat at the dining table, Ryo standing lookout in case one of the two topics of their discussion came into the area. They finished their discussion several minutes before the two wandered into the room, Rowen more than half-supporting a swaying Mieren.
Sighing loudly, Mieren settled herself into a chair, grumbling something in her own language that caused Cye to choke on a bite of his sandwich.
"I understood that, you know," Cye grumbled, cheeks heating.
"What the hell did she say, Cye?" Kento snickered.
"I don't think that it can be translated," he said evasively, ducking his head.
Making a point of not looking at the others, Cye began to study the table carefully, having no intention of looking up until his cheeks were done burning.
"That bad, huh?" Sage chortled. "Mieren, would you mind repeating that so we could hear?" Mieren only looked at him irately, grumbling something that caused Cye to squeak and dart out of the room, face aflame.
"Man, he didn't even do that when the Warlords were teasing him," Ryo said slowly, struggling vainly not to laugh.
You pick up a few interesting phrases by the time you hit my age.
"I'll say," Rowen murmured, staring intently at the table, cheeks heating.
"What do you want to eat, Rowen?" Mia called from the kitchen.
Blanching and still studying the table, he declined lunch, saying that he wasn't hungry at the moment. Sage studied him carefully for a moment before shrugging and rising to his feet.
"I'm going out to practice," he announced. "Want to come, Rowen?"
Rowen shook his head forcefully, eyeing the window carefully with a clenched jaw and tight lips. Unfortunately, the others noticed his unnerved expression when he looked up, seeing for the first time his bloodshot eyes and realizing suddenly that he had been crying recently.
"Mieren, could I speak to you for a moment?" Mia called from the kitchen.
Rising slowly with her stomach cradled in her arms and spitting out phrases that the others were sure were curses, she made her way into the kitchen.
Mia waited for the door to close behind her before beginning. "I want you to send your thoughts directly to me so that the others can't hear," she said softly.
"Not necessary," Mieren whispered back.
Mia jumped. "When did you learn to speak? The others said you couldn't without the armor." Mieren only shrugged.
"Rowen's been teaching me. I have problems with a few words and conjugations, but I know enough to get by, I think."
Smiling weakly, Mia began bluntly. "What's wrong with Rowen? It's not like him to avoid us or not try to out-eat Kento."
By the time she had finished, Mieren's features had degenerated into a scowl. "Nothing's wrong with him. He's fine," she snapped, turning to leave.
"Liar," Mia hissed, eyes blazing. "I've known him long enough to know that he's hiding something and I want to know what."
Tensing slightly, Mieren made a face at her. "If he wants you to know, he'll tell you. If he doesn't, you are not to ask." Without waiting for Mia's response, she left the kitchen, stalking into the living room with Rowen in tow.
The others were waiting for them when they arrived. Cye vacated his spot in the easy chair to give Mieren the seat. Rowen plopped down on the floor next to her protectively. Walking over to Cye, Sage and Ryo shifted all of their energy to the younger boy, Sage keeping up his efforts when Ryo left after a moment. Mia wandered into the room, eyeing them all suspiciously.
Kento walked over to Rowen slowly, face tight in determination. Eyeing him warily, Rowen shifted away slightly, squawking angrily when he was pinned to the floor suddenly by the larger and stronger boy. Mieren tried to surge to her feet, but was stopped short as turquoise cords pinned her to the chair, a shield slamming around her mind. Another shield followed, preventing Rowen from lashing out.
"I'm sorry, Rowen," Ryo whispered, eyes stinging as he threw back the curtains to the main windows in the room.
Rowen screamed, bucking fiercely in Kento's grip and very nearly dislodging the other boy, much to everyone's shock. His screaming rose in volume and pitch as the seconds ticked on, Mieren all but foaming at the mouth as she fought the weaves holding the two of them. Thin black tendrils of smoke began rising from Rowen's exposed skin, his pale flesh darkening slightly in the light.
His cries ceased abruptly as Mieren unfurled one wing, liquefying it momentarily to push it past the cords holding her to cover Rowen's quivering form.
"My God," Sage whispered as he looked at Rowen's charred skin. "Close the curtains, Ryo!"
He complied immediately without taking his eyes from the still form of his friend. When the curtains were closed completely, he moved to Rowen's side, reaching out hesitantly to touch the blisters forming on his friend's face. He drew back when Rowen threw Kento off of him and jumped to his feet to stalk out of the room, smoke still trailing from his skin. Cye cut him off by slamming a barrier between the living room and the stairs, swallowing nervously when Rowen rounded on him.
"Rowen, I'm sorry," Sage breathed. "I saw that you didn't like the light when I tried to wake you up. I was only trying to find out why. I didn't know…"
Rowen spun to face Sage, his expression murderous. "Take this damn shield off of me, Cye," he snarled over his shoulder, advancing on his friend. Sage backed out of his reach quickly, raising his hands defensively.
"You want to know why?" Rowen hissed between his teeth, lips barely parted. His eyes flashed crimson for a moment before he snagged Sage by the throat and lifted him clear of the ground.
The others gaped at his strength in shock for a moment before moving forward to free Sage from his furious grip. Rowen dropped him, backing away a few steps, sapphire eyes flashing.
Mieren sighed and slumped wearily against her bonds. Give in, Rowen. They're going to find out sooner or later, so you might as well spill it before they pull another stupid stunt and hurt you again.
Rowen froze, throwing a betrayed look in her direction before slumping to the floor, head resting on his knees. Sobbing silently, he curled into a ball, refusing to uncurl enough to look up at the others as he began to speak haltingly.
"It's the way they brought me back to life," he whispered, curling up tighter. "Mieren went to a group in her dimension and asked them to revive me. They did, but there's a price to pay for being brought back like this."
Rubbing his throat, Sage moved over to his best friend, sinking to the floor beside him slowly with a blatant disregard for his health. "What did they do to you?"
Rowen lifted his head hesitantly, looking up to each of the Ronins gathered around him wearily before continuing. He didn't bother to say anything this time, only opening his mouth widely for a moment. The gasps circulating the room and Cye's loss of control of his shields and powers told him that they had seen. Feeling tired beyond his years, he snapped his mouth shut and lowered his head to his knees again, eyes sliding shut of their own accord.
Cool hands grasped his face, easing the burns covering him. He jerked his head away when Sage placed one thumb on the corner of his mouth, applying gentle pressure to cause his lips to pull away from his teeth. Glaring angrily at his friends, he stubbornly closed his mouth, pressing his lips together tightly.
"Tell me those fangs aren't what I think," Kento breathed, sinking to the floor. Sage and Rowen glared at him murderously, silencing him from commenting further.
"What all do we need to avoid doing to you?" Sage asked so softly that Rowen could barely hear him. "Besides trying to fry you, I mean."
Rowen threw him a halfhearted glare before turning away. "I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out myself."
"Well, I guess that's all of us now," Ryo muttered softly, sinking to the floor beside the others.
Cye made a face. "I can do something to help, I think." Rowen turned to look at him, his expression so hopeless and desperate that Cye had to struggle not to wince.
Sighing, he gathered energy for a moment before beginning, eyes tight with concentration as he struggled not to mess up this spell like he had the last. It made his chest hurt seeing that Rowen still trusted him after what he had done. The whole mess was his fault. If he had only asked Mieren before casting that spell on Rowen, he wouldn't have died, wouldn't have had to go through this.
Finishing the final knots in the spell, he snagged Rowen with his mind and threw him across the room, opening the curtains with a single thought. Rowen squawked and tried to jump out of the light, preparing to pound Cye into a nameless, shapeless pulp. He paused, holding his hands out in disbelief. The light still burned, almost as painfully as before, but his skin was not charring in the slightest.
Moving out of the light slowly, he wandered over to Cye, sapphire eyes demanding an answer.
"What did you do?"
Cye blinked. "I'm not entirely sure. It affects the skin's strength is all I know."
Idiot. You should not be casting spells that you don't know. I thought that we've been over this.
He flinched guiltily, looking away from both Mieren and Rowen. "I think with a little time, I might be able to figure out how to undo your problem with the sun entirely."
Rowen nodded slowly, smiling hesitantly, showing his teeth without realizing it. "You guys don't care?" he whispered in an unsteady voice.
Everyone looked at him as though he had lost his mind. "Look at us!" Kento wailed miserably. "We're as screwed up as you are, so we can't say anything."
"Hell, Rowen, you didn't even hold it against me when I attacked you guys. Why are you worrying?" Ryo asked, utterly dumbfounded. Cye had told them that Rowen was afraid of their finding out something, but he had no idea that it had been tearing up quite this badly.
I told you so, Mieren smirked, slapping her open palm against the back of Rowen's head with a resounding crack.
"Mieren, what all do you know about Rowen?" Kento asked. The others were glad that they didn't ask when both Rowen and Mieren leveled irritated glares in his direction.
I know that the things you call vampires were the only ones that could bring him back after he died. I tried for an hour to think of another way to help him, but had to leave before it was too late for him to be revived. I couldn't think of anything else to do for him. Mieren sighed, throwing a guilty look at Rowen before continuing. He wasn't able to take the sun until a moment ago. He won't be eating anything either, so don't bother him with it.
"How vampire-like is he?" Kento continued, obviously not caring about his health in the slightest. "You said he wasn't eating, so shouldn't he be…"
"Shut up," Rowen snapped, cutting Kento off before he could finish his sentence, eyes burning with poorly contained fury.
Mia and several of the Ronins paled, realizing that Kento had hit a sore point with Rowen. Sage swallowed nervously, wondering briefly how his friend had been surviving if he was that touchy about his diet, deciding that he was just uppity about them knowing. He looked at Mieren questioningly, afraid to ask her anything for fear of upsetting Rowen further. Thinking furiously, he ran a small probe of energy through her, too slight for anyone to detect what he was doing.
Sage's eyebrows shot up to his hairline, his face paling further if that was possible. He wondered if he should keep silent or tell the others in private later. Deciding that Rowen would do terrible things to him if he let on that he knew, he decided to keep the knowledge to himself. Mieren had been keeping him alive, being able to regenerate any blood loss at a rate that he knew that no one else could manage.
He became aware of the others staring at him suddenly, making a face at himself when he realized that he had been staring at the floor. He was thinking of some lie to get him out of telling what he knew when Rowen saved him by leaving the room, distracting everyone long enough for him to slip away silently.
Resting against the side of the house, Sage looked up to the balcony of his room, deciding that Rowen had probably hidden himself there to avoid the others. Looking around quickly to make sure no one was around, he leapt up the balcony, landing lightly on the balls of his feet. Rowen unlocked the door and motioned for him to come in.
"I wasn't sure if you wanted me here or not," Sage murmured.
"Yea, it'd be nice to talk to someone who's not going to compare me to his comic books," Rowen grumped.
"You know that Kento's an idiot. Just ignore him."
"If I remember correctly, someone in this room was touchy about his appearance for a long time."
"Well, that was different. You don't have people trying to ride on your back," Sage grumbled, glancing out the window.
"Same concept though. I caught you poking at me," Rowen accused, raising one eyebrow slowly.
Grimacing, Sage looked guiltily at the floor. "Uh, sorry."
"You figured it out, didn't you?" Rowen asked suddenly, startling Sage so badly that he nearly lost his balance. "You were looking at Mieren pretty hard, after all."
"I'm just wondering how this all works. Your curiosity is contagious, you know."
Rowen sighed and sat down heavily on the one bed remaining in the room. He glanced up a Sage a few times, obviously considering what to tell him. Sage only waited him out patiently.
"Well, to start with, it takes thirteen of them to change someone, twenty one if they have to be brought back to life first. It's not an easy process. It's rather painful, actually. I'm infinitely grateful that my mind blocked out most of the memories of what they did to me, otherwise I'd probably have nightmares for the rest of my life, which is going to be very long judging from what Mieren told me."
Sage nodded numbly, waiting for him to continue. "I haven't found anything that causes problems except for the light and certain wards, but I'd be willing to bet that you guys have trouble with the things too."
Sage flinched. "Yea, I didn't really enjoy trying to get all of those things out of the room. I had to get Mia to help me move them out of the room since even Cye couldn't handle them. Strange, considering that he's only an elf."
"Your toys are that much fun, huh?" Rowen muttered sarcastically, his voice lowering to a near whisper before he continued. "Well, you've already figured out the rest of the details about me, so there's no point in listing them."
Perking up instantly, Sage grinned in relief. "That's not too bad. The only real problem you have to worry about is the light, and Cye's almost fixed that already."
"Umm, not completely. I don't crispy anymore, but it still hurts like hell. There's also the problem of eating…"
Nodding thoughtfully and trying not to wince, Sage began to mull over the problem. "Hell, Cye might be able to do something about that too if he has a little time to work with it," he trailed off when Rowen shook his head slowly.
"Mieren and I have been working on that one for the better part of two months now. She couldn't do anything about the sun beyond keeping it from killing me immediately. We haven't had any luck in finding anything about the other one."
Rowen slumped forward, resting his elbows on his knees and placing his head in his hands. Feeling utterly helpless, Sage sat down beside him, wrapping one arm around his best friend, pulling him closer when he noticed that he was trembling slightly.
"I can't stand this, Sage," he whimpered. "If this is what it takes for me to live, I wish she had just let me die."
Sage stiffened, tightening his grip on his best friend. "Oh God, Rowen. Don't say that. We'll figure out something. It may take time, but we can do something."
Rowen looked up at him with dull eyes. "It wasn't so bad back in Mieren's dimension when everyone already knew what I was and left me alone. No one thought anything about what I was…"
"You know that we don't care," Sage murmured, tightening his grip enough that he threatened to crush his friend. Rowen looked up at him with haunted eyes.
"Do me a favor?" Rowen asked softly, waiting for Sage to nod. "Could you get Kento to leave me alone? I'm afraid that I'm going to do something to him if he keeps pestering me."
"Hell, if he doesn't stop the stupidity, I'll do something to him."
"Oh, and one more thing," Rowen muttered, Sage looking over at him curiously. "If you must get me up in the day, find a new way to wake me up."
* * *
Shortly after the sunset, Rowen perked up considerably, looking completely awake for the first time since he had returned.
Ryo watched him, relieved. Whatever Sage had said to him, he had calmed down considerably and was even smiling and cracking a few jokes, most of them directed at Kento, much to his irritation. He had even shown them how he was able to manipulate energy to fly around, though only Ryo managed to get more than a foot off the floor.
Rowen was laughing softly, forgetting himself enough to show his teeth when Ryo slammed into the ceiling. Unable to control the energies needed for flight, he couldn't pry himself off of the ceiling more than shifting his arms and legs slightly. Giving up, he let go of whatever it was he was doing, plummeting to the floor below amid peals of laughter.
"Not funny," he grumbled.
"This is how it's done," Kento smirked, lifting a whole three inches off of the ground before his ascent stopped abruptly.
"Pathetic, Kento. Can't even lift your own weight," Rowen taunted.
"Like this," Cye called out happily, gliding around the room with sickening ease.
"Gee, thanks," Sage muttered, eyeing the ground around a foot beneath him in a mixture of frustration and amusement. White Blaze immediately helped him down, slamming into the startled Ronin to pin him to the ground.
Rowen locked eyes with the great cat for a moment, the massive tiger blinking his strangely intelligent eyes slowly before complying with his request. Getting off of Sage, he hopped onto Kento, creating a startled squall that only lasted for an instant before he was pinned below the great hulking feline.
Mieren and Mia watched them fly around and taunt each other like idiots, occasionally slamming into each other and beginning impromptu wrestling matches, Rowen winning more often than not.
"Mieren."
The slurred name brought everyone in the room to a sudden halt. The accent was thick and terrifyingly familiar. Rowen paled and backpedaled quickly, flattening himself against the wall furthest from the voice.
Stepping forward, Mieren raised her head in acknowledgement, eyes shifting to crimson as she scanned the room. Turning slightly to face the voice directly, she began speaking in her native tongue. Only Cye and Rowen were able to follow the conversation with any success at all, the others trying futilely to listen with their minds.
"Yes, dark one? I am here, speak your mind."
"I have come for the agreed price."
Nodding as though it made sense, Mieren moved forward slightly, pausing when Rowen caught her arm.
"What is he talking about?" he hissed frantically.
I had to agree to follow through with any request they made to get them to bring you back. Don't worry, I won't be gone for long, I'm sure.
"Do not count on that, Midnight warrior. There is a war raging across the planet, and our demand is that you end it."
"And who started the war?"
"The dark elves. They and some of the darker demons are causing havoc. They purposely waited for you to leave before doing this."
"Heh. Is that it? That's simple enough."
Cye looked up from his furious translating for the others, face pale. "You aren't seriously going, are you?"
I promised, Cye. I have to go. Don't worry, I'll return soon.
A cloaked figure emerged from the deeper shadows in the room, flashing a smile in Rowen's direction, displaying a set of horrendously long canines. Rowen swallowed thickly and took a step back before he caught himself.
"I'm going too," he stated simply, eyes blazing with determination.
Conferring with the others for a moment, Cye looked up. "We're going too."
No, you're not, Mieren snapped, glaring at the Ronins forcefully. "Lead on, dark one. I will follow."
A portal of blue gray flames rose just in front of the cloaked figure, who gestured for Mieren to pass through. Throwing one last glare at the others in the room, she vanished through the gateway of gray fires. The cloaked man followed her and snapped the shining path closed immediately behind him, leaving the others standing numbly in a silence only broken by Rowen's soft sobs.
