Blix:Wow, another chappy
Nana:Yes,amazing isn't it
Dressi: Kind of rushed
Blix:I'm doing it for the sake of not drawing it out. This is seriously how the people would react in real life. No joke, I asked them all if it made any sense.
Nana:Yeah. Pyro's gone somewhat mad lately though. He wanted you to make him a king
Blix:Screw that, I'm not creating something like that to make someone happy
Nana:Good girl
Ebon Thunder
Chapter Four-Seperation
Tweak groaned the next morning as he tried to escape the harsh sunlight coming in through the patio doors. He smelled fresh coffee brewing and bacon already cooked. He threw the cover from over his head and walked into the kitchen, his bare feet making little noise on the linoleum floor.
"Hey Tweak," Faygo said from his seat at the small table in the corner. He was sipping coffee and munching on a piece of bacon.
"Morning. Any chance I might get some coffee?" Tweak asked Daemonar.
Daemonar eyed the man and shrugged.
"Mugs are in the cabinet above the sink, creamer's in the fridge," He replied. Tweak wondered why he seemed so cold and impersonal all of a sudden.
Liz and Matt walked into the kitchen, along with Severnar, Stormy, Sam and Bob.
"Pyro won't wake up yet," Stormy grumbled as she sat at the table.
Some stood with their backs leaning against the counter as they sipped coffee, others sat at the small table eating eggs and bacon.
They all stared as Sere walked in, her hair in wild disarray, and her mismatched eyes groggy.
"Good morning little cousin," Daemonar sang as he handed Sere a huge mug of coffee. She gave him a grumpy kiss on the cheek and sat at the table sipping the coffee.
Daemonar began to prepare some more eggs and bacon, and everyone chatted amiably.
The Daemonar filled a plate to the brim with eggs and bacon, and handed it to Sere.
She ate with a quickness that surprised everyone but Daemonar and Severnar, and when she was done, she put the plate in the sink and hugged Daemonar.
"Thanks cos," She told him. She sat back down and sipped her coffee, then she noticed everyone staring at her.
"What?" She asked.
"How do you eat so much and still manage to stay so thin?" Liz asked.
"Err, I exercise a lot," Sere said. She wasn't sure how to tell them that Craft fed off the energy food gave her, and if there wasn't enough energy, it began to feed off her body.
"Sere, what we talked about last night, let it wait awhile," Tweak told her suddenly. Sere looked at Tweak with eyes that asked questions and Tweak made a gesture to say he'd answer those questions later.
Daemonar looked at Sere in askance and she sent a message on an ebon gray thread that Tweak knew who and what she was. Daemonar nodded and smiled slightly.
"Hey, you guys want to go part?" Liz asked.
"It's rather early for that isn't it?" Severnar asked.
"Well, we can go jack some alcohol from the store and drink under the bridge, and then we can run like mad through Sac," Liz told them.
"As exciting as that sounds, count me out today. I need to do paperwork for this apartment," Sere told them as she stood up and stretched.
"I'll go," Severnar volunteered. Liz smiled and held a thumbs up sign. Everyone made plans amongst themselves. Daemonar was going to go explore Sacramento with Sam and Bob and Stormy. Everyone else was going to go get drunk. Everyone except for Tweak and Sere, who were going to stay at the apartments and fill out paperwork, then cook dinner for everyone when they got back.
As the group separated on their different missions, Sere poured another cup of coffee for herself and Tweak.
"Why do you want me to wait before I tell them?" Sere asked quietly. Tweak mixed some creamer into the coffee and stirred it well.
"They might not believe you right now. Give it some time for them to see underneath the skin," Tweak told Sere. Sere look startled for a moment, then she sat down at the table with Tweak.
"Once,long ago, Draca, told me that we are all dragons beneath the skin," Sere told Tweak. Tweak looked like he was going over the thought in his head, trying to figure the riddle out.
"Why?" He asked her after a few minutes.
"Dragons were once the only beings that had magic, and after a time, they knew that their era was coming to an end, they gave magic to different beings. Draca was the Queen, and she sacrificed her true form, a dragon, to give magic to the Blood. That's also the theory of why there can't be a male equal to a Queen. The Blood's laws are intricate and wonderful in their own ways. Then again, I've never known anything else. Your laws are strange to me, but I bet that the Blood's laws are going to be equally strange to you," Sere told him. She quickly lit a lack cigarette and inhaled. Her father smoked the same cigarettes, and once, when she had been incredibly drunk on her mother's drink, the Gravedigger, she had smoked half a pack with her father as they discussed the drawbacks to being a Sadiablo.
"I don't know. I bet it couldn't be much different there than here," Tweak told her.
"I know some of your laws. In the Blood, those who rape can be castrated or killed, and no one will dispute that. There is no law against murder in the Blood, but a Queen can demand a price for the life lost," Sere told him. Tweak took in that small piece of information. He realized that the laws would be a lot different, but from the sounds of the first one, much more to his liking.
"It sounds like rape is the biggest crime you can commit," Tweak told Sere. She nodded and sighed.
"You see, in the Blood, men don't have much danger to their inner webs, which is for lack of better words, the Self. However, a witch' entire future in Craft hangs on a hymeneal thread. If her virginity is taken roughly, she can be broken, and that means she will never know what she could have become, what powers could have been hers. If she goes through her virgin night successfully, she never needs to worry about being destroyed that way. But rape can destroy the inner web, and send a witch straight into the Twisted Kingdom, which is each of the Blood's own personal madness."
"Sounds serious. I can see why it's so serious now," Tweak told her. Sere felt a tear slide down her cheek, unbidden.
"Whats wrong?" Tweak asked, aware of the despair in her eyes.
"Both my mother and father were in the Twisted Kingdom for a time. My mother was torn open when she was young, and she was lost to everyone for so long. My father was pushed into the Twisted Kingdom because he was so confused about what happened at Cassandra's alter. It's a confusing story, but he was made to think he was the one that had raped my mother. He wasn't. In the end they both emerged, sane. Me, I've made the Offering and I still haven't gone through my virgin night. I think that maybe I shouldn't risk it simply because I can't afford to have the wrong thing happen. What was Terreille can't afford for me to lose my powers. You can't afford for me to lose my powers," Sere said.
Tweak looked at her like she was insane.
"You'll deny yourself just for our sakes?" He asked her, surprised.
"I don't know what it's like anyways, so it's not really a big deal to me I guess," She told him. "Anyways, the office opens in another hour, so I need to go take a shower and get dressed in some normal clothes. I don't think the landlady would appreciate my pajamas," Sere told Tweak. Tweak nodded.
"Is it cool if I grab a shower?" He asked. Sere nodded and Tweak went to the hall bathroom to take a quick shower.
He thought about Sere relinquishing any possibility of an intimate relationship just so she could save others. Did she ever dream of having a family? Would she be able to find a man who would accept not being able to make love to her? She was dreams made flesh. Everyone else's dreams were what made her real. But, did that mean she would never be able to fufill her own dreams?
Tweak felt the hot water sluice over his body and he thought about what she had told him. It sounded like if a man was rough, he could destroy her, but if a man was gentle and tender, she would make it through with her inner web intact.
So that meant all she had to do was find a man that would be gentle. Tweak almost let out a sarcastic laugh.
Almost no chance of that here in this world. Most guys were too intent on their own pleasure to care if they hurt the girl, and girls ended up on the losing end of the deal. Then again, most women he knew were viscous bitches who would rather destroy people's lives than try to help their own.
He turned the water off and walked out of the shower. After drying off and dressing quickly, he pulled his long hair into a pony tail and put his towel in the hamper.
He walked out of the bathroom and saw no sign of Sere left in the apartment. He looked around and found a note.
'Went to fill out paperwork, be back soon. Afterwards we can go buy some food for tonights dinner.
-Sere'
Tweak smiled and went into the living room and leaned back on the sofa. He let his mind drift over the huge realization he had come to yesterday.
His mother had spoken of a dream that would save them all. She had told him to hide whatever abilities he had so the center wouldn't take him away like they had taken her.
Tweak never had figured out who the center was run by, whether it was some fanatical scientist or the government. But one night they had come to his home and all had been engulfed in flames. His mind wandered into the past.
"Just take me, the boy has nothing special about him!" Janice had screamed with desperation.
"We're sorry Janice, but your son needs to have tests done on him. He's got your DNA, so most likely he's a freak just like you," A strange man had said. He had profuse burn marks all over one side of his face.
Men had seized him and his mother, and the man came over and looked him over. He had been only ten then, still unsure of his powers.
"Don't do anything stupid boy, or your mother will be the one to pay," The man had told him, his tone bright and cheerful despite his words.
"You can't have him!" His mother had screamed, and his world had gone black as some sort of power was released from his mother that transformed into hellish flames.
He was the only one that had survived that he knew of. A hospital had taken him into observation and he was fine, not even a hair singed. He had been found right in the middle of the rubble that had been his home. No one could find anything to positively identify any humans. Most just thought the odd woman next door had burned up in a gas fire and her son had come and sat in the ashes before any of them knew what was going on.
He always wondered how they had come to this conclusion, but in later years had written it off as their need for a rational explanation for everything.
The memory was abruptly shattered when the door opened, and Tweak let his eyes fly open. Sere closed the door and looked round.
"I'm on the couch," He told her. She walked over and looked down at him.
"Know of any stores where I can find some ready made food? I have no clue how to cook, it's one of those skills we witches just can't seem to grasp," Sere told him. Tweak chuckled.
"It's good to know there's something you can't do," Tweak told her. "I can cook wonderfully though. I picked it up in the work program."
"Work program?" She asked quizzically.
"I got into a shelter after my mother died. I had escaped from this messed up group home. The shelter made me take a work program so I could have a job skill, and I chose culinary arts," Tweak told her.
"So, I guess you have a store nearby where we can get some food, right?" Sere asked. Tweak nodded.
"We can go to a Safeway, I have a card that'll help us save some money. Anything you interested in having?" Tweak asked.
"What do you want to cook?" Sere asked him.
"Let me think. I can make fettichini alfredo," He told her. Sere looked at him with an odd expression.
"Let me just buy the ingredients. It'll take awhile to fix from scratch, but it'll be worth it. You can help," He told her. Sere nodded happily and they left a note for the others, should they get back before Sere and Tweak did.
Blix:I tried.
Nana:The reviews will tell you
Dressi:Long live the hatchet!
Blix: Oh god,Im never staying up that long again,I'm still not sure I didn't hallucinate and see the Wraith.
Nana:Bed,now!