Chained
Part Ten
by Kimra
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He was frowning still, but that happened often when he had a puzzle to unravel. There where tangles of magic around her, thick blazing copper lines that went beyond his comprehension. Even watching it from where he sat, overlooking the camp with the kind of lofty air most people expected from mage's, he could see it was creeping, growing.
It had shocked him at first, seeing that kind of magic around her, and he cursed himself for an idiot for not looking before. But the years hadn't been good recently and power had become precious even for him, so the little spells he would have cast three years ago out of habit had subsided and faded. He didn't look for anything but threats these days and he hatted that about himself. He used to be academic, now he was a warrior, or as close to a warrior as he could be.
The soldiers where starting to light fires although the sun still lingered on the horizon. They had to pull up much earlier then they would have usually but the women where tired. Camp had been set and there wasn't going to be any more movement for the night unless something serious occurred. At least, Numair knew, at this rate the soldiers escorting the prisoners would catch up quickly.
He didn't approach Cat, who had fallen asleep not to far away from him in the grass. He wasn't sure how to do it but knew it had to be done. Maybe if she was rested when he tried things would work out better, but then it could also be considered the other way around. He had never had to do this sort of thing and was even hesitant to do it.
It was clear from the sheer strength of her magic that she had much more then he had ever seen before, perhaps more then he had heard of, but that seemed unlikely. And it was clear from her behaviour too that this magic of hers was affecting her. It was the magic that made her 'Cat' and not one of the other women, without it he didn't know what she would be, but without it she could have been just like the others.
That's why he was hesitating. Her magic as it was, Wild Magic, had probably shielded her, given her mind a place to escape to that wouldn't destroy her. If he took that away now, what kind of damage would it do to her? He wasn't sure he wanted to know, wasn't sure he was ready to take her defence away from her. But she needed it. He knew now, more then ever that she could be human again. She could function and exist in society and all he had to do was somehow pull her apart from her magic and enforce the separation.
No, not pull, that was too violent and it had to be passive. He would damage her if he was violent even with his magic. She needed to be separated, a shield maybe between magic and self that could distinguish the two. Oh she wouldn't be healed, she would probably turn into more of a mess then the women where depending on how much her awareness existed while in her current state. It could be non-existence and her return to reality could rip her apart with disturbing and vicious memories, or she could just slip into it all with the knowledge having already existed, already being processed.
But he had to try, because it was clear she wanted to fit in somehow. She was trying to come back, so to speak, to humanity as he presented it to her. She was trying to free herself, but he wasn't sure how much of it she could do on her own. He owed her this and he would do it. The moment she woke, he would do what he could to help her.
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Cat woke slowly, stretching the muscles that had tensed in her sleep. She felt cushioned, the smell of wet grass in her nose the sound of animals around her. Horses near by whickering and talking. She couldn't make out what they had to say though it seemed like things she would be interested in hearing.
A soft yawn escaped her as she stretched her arms up above her head and then the sound of human voices interrupted her and she jerked up, eyes flicking to assess the danger. The uniformed men where all about, doing the various tasks that she recognised as routine for their day. The stranger women who reeked of fear and other things less pleasant where about a roaring fire, the sun having faded out and only a light glow dispersed across the tree tops.
She looked about carefully and found Him sitting by his own fire, smaller but enough for him. He had claimed that space as his own even as they stopped and she wondered if he had even moved while she rested. Something told her if he had he hadn't gone far because she would have awoken at the first change around her and she was well aware of his presence now.
Sitting up on her hind legs she glanced about the clearing seeing tents as they where erected and ignoring them. She moved from her warm patch and made her way to him, wondering if she was allowed in his space but he made no protest as she took a seat a little along the log he was perched on. She knew he was aware of her as he poked at the fire distractedly and wouldn't have minded if he wasn't.
He released a deliberate breath after a while and glanced to her. He looked troubled, uncertain. She wondered why and bit her lower lip as she tried to piece what she knew of him together. But it didn't help, he was a puzzle and he wasn't going to stop being so just because she wanted him to.
He murmured something, gave the fire a last poke and stood up. It was abrupt and she was surprised. She met his eyes and he inclined his head away from the hubbub of noise that the other humans and even some of the animals where making.
Obediently she followed as he made a path into the forest, listening carefully around them as the noise faded away. There where still animal's talking, soft cautious voices of the wild, hunters or prey. Some of them scattered at her approach, some lingered strangely as if not afraid or curious. She ignored them all, keeping pace with Him easily and feeling a little rise in her pulse as she tried to fathom why they had left the others.
This was new. She wasn't sure if it was good or bad though.
"This will have to do." He sighed and lowered himself to the ground crossing his legs before giving her a smile. "Sit down here Cat." He motioned to the spot in front of him and she took the almost command. She sat, not like him, but as best she could to meet his eyes from the space before him. He gave a forgiving smile and closed his eyes.
She wasn't sure what was happening, just that there was nothing talking about her, as if the silence between herself and Him had brought forth one in all the other animals about. She liked the silence though, only because she could feel the life around her, if she where completely alone she wouldn't have liked it half so much.
Instinctively she followed his breathing, slowing hers down, listening to him intently and replicating. There was nothing else to do in the middle of nowhere and the dark cool air around them was soothing.
"Let's see what we can do for you, Little Cat." He whispered and she felt him reach across the small distance between them to her. He took a loose hold of her hands, one in each of his and she passively watched, wondering what was about to happen because the prickles of hair on the back of her neck where telling her to be cautious.
"Just breath Cat, don't worry." He kept whispering things, his breathing was even and despite the orders her brain was trying to send to get up and run as fast as she could she tried to obey, tried to calm down and do what he was asking.
Then it happened. And the intrusion was so sharp and unexpected that she responded as if physically attacked.
She wrenched herself from him, felt the slightest resistance to her flight and resorted to a quick attack, claws lashing out in one swipe before she was free and she was moving, running, as fast as she could in the only way she knew.
She didn't stop when she stumbled into the field of people. She didn't register them, only skimmed past as she forced herself away plunging in the forest away from him.
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Numair came to the camp sight with as much speed as he could. He knew he was following her, that was without saying as much because he had seen the direction she had dived away from him to.
Alanna met him with a scowl, she had probably heard the noise the Cat had made in that first moment of retreat. He didn't blame the scowl but he wasn't interested in fighting her until he knew where the Cat had gone. He met the purple eyes squarely.
"Where is she?" He asked it bluntly and was met with that same scowl. "Where?" He demanded in a tighter voice. There was blood dripping down onto his neck from his cheek. He could feel the wound clearly but was doing his best to ignore it for now. Far more important then a wound any competent healer could fix was the state of his charge. She was the one who needed some sort of assistance right now, although he hadn't stopped to wonder what kind that was.
"She ran away Numair." Alanna growled brutality emanating from her small form. She asked another question, but he was distracted and not listening.
She had run away, which meant she passed the camp and moved on. He went to move towards the forest on the other side and Alanna stepped in front of him, preventing his pursuit.
"Alanna." He warned and met those purple eyes again. If he lost the girl now he would never find her again and nothing in him was willing to lose her when he had only just realised what was really wrong with her.
"If she's gone, she's gone." Alanna warned tightly. "If she's coming back she needs to calm down first."
"Alanna-" He began, only to be cut of quickly by her sharp voice.
"No. She needs to calm down on her own." Alanna stated sternly. "You can't force any creature to calm down if it's unwilling to."
"What if that's it Alanna?" He demanded angrily trying to look beyond her. "What if she's gone?"
"You can't make her stay." The woman told him soothingly. Agitated he ran a shaking hand through his hair, trying still to look beyond his friend and into the forest where the Cat had disappeared to.
"I scared her." He admitted, feeling like a fool for having being so thoughtless in his activities. He was sure there was some way he could have made that spell work, at least to not have freaked her out with his attempt to use it.
"And she'll realise that-" Alanna replied placidly.
"Or she wont." He snapped feeling aggravated. Oh he could have pushed past the woman with some effort, he could have made a very big production of getting passed her but in the end he was the more powerful mage and he would have won the little battle. But she was making sense, he just didn't want to accept it on some level.
"Once she calms down you can try and coax her back."
"And how will I do that when she's off somewhere in the middle of the forest!" He motioned dramatically, feeling stressed.
"We'll look for her tomorrow. At first light we'll all split up and see if she's anywhere in the vicinity." She was doing a good job of calming him down, he knew she was even though he felt anything but calm.
"And if she's gone?"
"You can't cage her. If she wants to be in the wild, then she will be. But remember Numair she's stuck with you so far. I don't think she's going to quit now, she just needs a break. Tomorrow-"
"We'll look for her. I heard you the first time." Numair interrupted a bitter tone in his voice, but he was feeling calmer. Alanna was right, if the Cat hadn't wanted to be with them she would have disappeared a long time ago. He had reached out to her every time so far, it was time to see if she would reach back.
"Good. Now you better sit down so I can take a look at your cheek. It looks painful." She motioned to a log by the fire, the one had had been at before and he moved there without protest, his eyes lingering only for a short while on the tree line. "Why don't you tell me what happened." She encouraged as she took the seat before him, turning her attention to his bleeding wound.
"I was trying a spell." He admitted, feeling once more like an idiot because it hadn't worked. It should have worked, well no, he knew why it hadn't worked, he wasn't that stupid, but for any other creature it would have worked.
"I guess it didn't work." She supplied in good humour and he gave a wry, fleeting smile in reply. Magic twisted into his wounds and he bit back the flinch that wanted to summon.
"Doesn't seem like it." He replied lightly.
"What kind of a spell was it? I've known you a while now and I've yet to see you get a spell wrong." She was teasing, trying to take more of the tension out of the situation.
"I was trying to put up a barrier of sorts, between her human self and her magical self."
"She's got magic? I didn't notice it-"
He shook his head quickly interrupting her. "No, no. Not the Gift. Wild Magic. And she's got more then I've ever seen before." He shook his head in awe, still flabbergasted by the sheer amount he had seen. Thoughtfully he continued. "She hasn't just 'got' it, she's smothered in it and I think it's stopping her form coming back to reality."
"Why didn't it work? This barrier thing?"
"My best guess, and it's a guess. Is that she's been in this state she's in for too long. To actually put a barrier up between her-" He shook his head again disregarding that explanation. "A year ago? I could have done it, with a lot of effort. If she was sitting in front of me willing to let me in and able to control her reactions I could have put that barrier in for her." He let out a sigh of annoyance, a dejected sound that echoed exactly where his thoughts lay. "But now? In these circumstances? I think it's too late, at least for anything so primitive. Her magic's had so long to wined it's way into her self that they've mixed and interwoven into a single thing. It would actually cause her physical pain to try, and I stress 'try' because there's no guarantee of it working, to separate them." He took a breath and threw his hands up. "And even if I did think I could do that right now? She would have to trust me completely, she would have to be in complete control of herself. To put it shortly she would have to be in a state of pure and absolute calm." He had realised just how un-calm his Cat was over the afternoon. Oh she was willing to relax in his company but the moment something had shifted, the moment she had been threatened or unsure and all her guards had sprung back into place. If she came back he prayed she would forgive him for the misunderstanding. He wanted to help, almost desperately and the thought of her mistrusting him now seemed to send daggers through him.
Alanna patted him on the shoulder and moved away. He realised as she did so that the healing was done and his cheek didn't even sting any more. Thankful for that blessing he focused on the failed experiment.
He felt tired and strained. He hadn't expected her to respond so instinctively to the first touch of his magic and didn't like how quickly she had responded. If he'd had a few seconds before she had freaked out he could have tried again, maybe worked her into accepting the feel of his magic but that instant reaction took away the option. A part of him wondered if it was just as well and the rest of him wondered why he was trying to figure it all out when he needed sleep and he wouldn't be able to think clearly without having gotten it.
He picked up a stick and poked at the fire, letting Alanna's soothing words run through him. In the morning if the Cat hadn't found her way back into their company they would look for her. But Alanna was right, if the Cat didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be.
Resolutely he decided to sleep, at least in the morning he could deal with the situation from a different perspective. Silently he stalked through the camp to the tent the soldiers had set up for him and disappeared through the curtain doors.
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