A.N. Yeah, I know I'm a little shit, but c'mon, it wasn't that much of a cliffie. From the first chapter, you should have known what would have been the logical progression of events if she hadn't accepted the Trainer offer. But then again, you're probably throwing rotten fruit at be because I just left it at that, right? Well, don't fret. Here's another chappie.
Bishonen and Bishoujo: Daughter of the Mob
Chapter 4
It was the calm before the storm. It lasted exactly 4.5 seconds.
"What?" Uh-oh, the echo of the sepulcher voice was back. "You were threatened in MY Realm?" For those who could sense it, the dark webs the Queen usually crested started a slow downward spiral.
And although the question was asked of the seething Daemon, who by now was wondering what Aela went through before he and chibi-Janaelle reached her, it was Aela herself who answered.
"No." Well that momentarily checked the imminent plans of annihilation of one or more Blood males. "This was before I came here - to your Realm thingy."
She said it with such a calm voice. Neither Witch nor Daemon or even chibi-Janaelle could detect a tremor or tremble to her tone. It was so incongruous to the situation that Witch looked into Aela's eyes for a reassessment of her character. What she saw made even her shiver just for a moment. It was not that Aela had changed, per se. What Witch once thought of as just a facet to her personality had shifted to a greater focus. A shade of Aela's id had a hand on her words, kind of like how the Abyss echoed through Witch's. Except that Aela didn't echo. She just couldn't speak in anything less than an even tone unless she concentrated on it.
But what to do? While every Janaelle had hereditary memory gifted from their original character, this Witch had never experienced rape first hand. Neither had she have to deal with a serious violence. Her species were too well protected both because they were the Realm's heart and because they were very rare as well. The trainer's way of speaking wasn't exactly something to fret over, as it wasn't an impediment. But there was one thing Witch could do to help the traumatized girl. During her soul-searching, Witch had discovered a budding and twisted anger/fear for the male half of the species. It was quite suppressed at the moment, probably because of both hers and the chibi's auras were there to sooth the trainer, but if left alone, it might grow to become a danger to herself and those around her of the male persuasion. And that definitely was a hazard, as a good majority of the population of Bishie lands were males. After all, this world was a fangirl's paradise.
Witch contemplated those waiting dark eyes with an unbiased opinion. The trainer's lack of trust would hurt the males that would be drawn to follow her, and she WOULD attract a following... Janaelle smirked a bit as she regarded the attentive Daemon for a second. Perhaps the trainer had already made a start. This Daemon was looking at her with that hooded gaze Janaelle remembered from her own Daemon when they first met.
"Aela, was it?" It was the adult Janaelle and not Witch speaking this time.
Getting a little tired with all the deep looks and meaningful glances that obviously didn't include her, Aela was impatient to know the verdict. If this played out anything like the books, then Witch would lay a pronouncement, and that would be that. If she had any jewels to break, then she would be nervous, but as far as Aela knew, she would be considered a landen, and they were to be protected by ancient Blood law.
"Yes? Erm, yes, my lady?"
"Hahah, no need to stand upon ceremony. I just wanted to offer you something. From what you've said, I understand you've recently been through a trial and a half before ending up here. What I'm concerned with is the rent in your psychic aura. You seep a not irrational fear of men, considering. But still, that fear would hinder your exploits here. I am asking if you would like me to heal most of that rent. In all likelihood, it will never dissipate completely, but as it stands, if both the chibi and I were to leave the room, you would either savage poor Daemon here or go catatonic in fear."
At this, Aela looked over in the direction of the only male present with an eyebrow raised to match his own. She mulled the offer.
"None of my memories would be messed with?"
"No! I would never do that."
More silence as she thought about it.
Again, chibi-Janaelle couldn't keep her silence any longer.
"Aela, even if I don't like Daemon, I still wouldn't want you to hurt him. Or for you to be scared spitless. Please." She never finished what exactly she was pleading for.
Sooty lashes closed out the world momentarily before opening to watch chibi-Janaelle.
"Yes. Please." was all she said. She didn't want to live with a deadly fear either.
Once again, Witch was back in action. A meaningful look send Daemon out of the room dragging a mildly protesting chibi after him. Aela could just hear the words "...see your mother, little cat..." before a drawn out wail and further distance drowned it out.
"Please sit," Witch gestured languidly toward the armchair she had only recently vacated.
Aela glared at her comforting cushiony nemesis before complying. It was with wide eyes that she watched her first demonstration of the Craft as Witch drew another heavy armchair over to the one currently inhabited with only a wave of a hand.
Then, seated facing each other, Witch pulled a side table between the two and called in the frame for a web. Silk and several chips from her 'training' jewels were also brought in. She stared unfocused at something around Aela's head for a few minutes, but the trainer recognized Seeing when she saw it, if one might pardon the pun. Aela also knew not to interrupt a Healer/Black Widow when she was working.
Soon after, a web was quickly woven. It was an oddly beautiful mesh of a tunnel spider's web and an orb web. Decorated just there with the appropriate chips, Witch requested as a final touch a drop of the trainer's blood for each of the tether lines. When this was done, Witch followed with a drop of her own potent blood and the web sang to life.
Aela was drawn into staring at the shimmering strands. Her gaze was captured toward the center and fixated upon the chip of Black at the center of the tunnel. Aela felt like she was standing inside the web. That little chip of Black felt like the size of a basketball and she could feel the caressing energies of the web on all sides. They wafted like gossamer across and over her aura, seeking and sticking when they found the tearing fear and furious rage. More and more threads found their way to the rent and bridged their way across. It was a sharp sweet ache when they suddenly drew tight binding the tear. Most of the threads had gone over and within the rent to ensure a clean suture, but the few minor leftovers curled around the surface for a bit. They played around searching for any other puncture to repair, but finding none they abandoned the ether around the one they sought to heal.
Aela blinked, and the vision ended. She had to blink again before she registered that the Janaelle sitting across from her was no longer the Witch she originally sat down with. The side table was still between the chairs, but the web Witch had constructed was no longer whole. Only the frame rested on the wooden table. The silk had disappeared.
"Where-" Aela started before being interrupted.
"Witch gave you a tattoo!"
Blink blink.
"I beg your pardon?"
Janaelle burbled with happiness to be of help to her new friend. Her new tattooed friend.
"I saw the whole thing, well not the whole thing, as stupid Daemon dragged me away to see Mom, but I saw a good bit of it. You were in a trance for a coupla' hours and the web threads just lifted off one at a time and then disappeared when they found something, but the last two apparently couldn't find anything else. But they did lift off, and they swirled around you, and finally touched your face. Then, well they didn't disappear, cause I can see them now, but you've definitely got to see a mirror."
With a bit of trepidation to her soul if not her voice, Aela bit the bullet.
"Do you know where I can find a mirror? I don't think I ever read anything about Witch giving someone a tat from a healing web before."
At this, Janaelle positively wriggled as she waved a hand up in the air in a bid for more attention.
"Ooh! I had a lesson in conjuring stuff with the Craft yesterday! Grandpa Saetan number two was arguing with Grandpa Saetan number five about what they should teach me next when one of the Lucivars kidnaped me from 'quibbling old biddy sama Guardians' and taught me some of the simpler conjurings. I've gotten all the advanced stuff down, but he was able to explain it better than some of the Grandpa Saetans."
Janaelle looked expectantly at Aela, who just returned the favor flavored with a look that spelled 'well? Where were you going with that speech?'
"Oh!" was the reply before the chibi made a grabbing motion in the air with a little pink tongue sticking out in concentration. Lo and behold, a small hand mirror came into being. The backing was a tarnished brass instead of the aimed for gold, and there was a little waver in the reflection, but it was a functional mirror. Janaelle tried handing it over with a dejected air. She hadn't gotten it perfect for her friend.
Instead, the two and a half foot chibi got swept into a hug amidst exclamations of appreciative awe and support. When settled, both Aela and Janaelle shared a sinking cushion in the evil chair as the raven haired trainer took note of the changes those rogue threads left on her face.
Reflected back with one little waver was a lightly tan face topped by luxurious curls of raven wing black. Olive black pupils peered back from almond eyes as they traced a new black line a scant distance from her lower lashes on her left eye. The line swept back like an exotic stroke from an eyeliner and winged out halfway to her hairline. It was intersected with another black slash following parallel to her hairline, but this one was shorter and curved sinuously. In fact...
"Wait a second! That second one is moving!" Aela gasped.
"Yup!" Janaelle was all cheer. "It changes. When I first saw it, it looked like a flower. Now it looks like an Erieyan (sp?) tribal design. I heard Witch doesn't make them for many people. Its so great that you have one!"
"But what exactly does it mean?"
"Mean? It doesn't mean much of anything other than Witch liked you. Well, liked you enough to make sure you have a roving healer web. It s'posed to be there in case you get hurt. And if its bad enough, the web sends out a distress call."
"It does? How?"
"Silly, all healing webs are tied to the energy of its maker. That's what I'm told by all the Grandpa Saetans. That's why the weaver puts a drop of blood in."
"Oh." Aela was subdued.
"Yeah... Oh..." Janaelle picked up on the mood. "But at least you don't fear males now, right?"
"Heheh, yeah, I suppose so. I know what they can do, but I also realize not everyone is like...well...I wonder what I should be doing now? Am I going to be living with you guys?"
Janaelle brightened like a terrawatt bulb before slouching.
"No. I wish you could. I just remembered that humans aren't allowed to live in Bishie lands. Usually, you're not allowed to visit or even know where they are."
"Why not?"
"And just what has our little Janaelle been telling you, dear?"
Eep! Both girls whirled at the voice. It was getting a bit repetitive being sneaked up on so many times. Aela vowed to expand her situational awareness. She was tired of the surprises.
"Oh my? My niece gave you a roving healer web? How becoming it looks."
Just how many Janaelle's were there?! Aela quickly sized up this new one. From what she said and if taken in context...
"Janaelle's mother? And is that? Twilight's Dawn?"
An older version of both Witch and the child. If Aela believed in mythology, she had just seen all three incarnations of the mother goddess. Not exactly, since Witch wasn't a mother, and the eldest by no means was a crone. No, but little Janaelle's mom had definitely aged gracefully.
"Correct and correct, young lady. You certainly have your facts straight. But I'm afraid, daughter, that its time for your little friend to go."
A trembling lip and giant tears hung at the corners of innocent sapphire eyes.
"Don't play coy with me, darling, you know all trainers must go through their orientation at a human city, and that's no place for the likes of us. My niece has asked me to transport her, and I'll do so without a fuss. Run along now. I think your father misses his little kitten." Janaelle's mother made shooing motions with her hands, and it was with dragging feet that the child exited.
Silence once more descended.
It wasn't that this elder Janaelle was evil or mean or anything, but... She just rubbed Aela the wrong way. By no means an expert, the dark human could still determine some readily apparent differences between the three Janaelles she had just met that day. This one obviously had no qualms in talking about her when she was standing there in the same room. And this new sapphire gaze wouldn't settle onto steady black orbs. They kept flickering off in order to look at anything but the trainer in their presence.
Not wanting to form a nasty opinion about her little friend's mother, Aela took her mother's famous velveted steel approach to gracious manners. Her matrilineal blood took care of the even tone that chastised by not reacting.
"May I ask where I am going?"
This minutely prodded her host back into her role without seeming churlish.
"Why yes! I am sorry dear, I drifted for a moment. Children, you know, especially if they are your own. I swear, she is going to be a precocious one if she ever ascends to Witch. Ah, but you have inquired as to your destination. It is a quaint human town by the name of Evol."
Blinking seemed a fine habit Aela was rapidly picking up.
"Evil?"
"Don't let the name fool you, I'm told the people are quite nice."
"You're sending me to an evil town? Named Evil?"
Janaelle the elder bustled over and laid a hand on the shoulder of the human. It flinched a bit before grasping gently.
"No no no, dear, you're being difficult. Ee Vee Oh El." She sighed as she entered the webs with her passenger. Amidst the strong undertows of the Black, Janaelle the elder set her sights on the distant pinprick of light that signified Evol. It had to be a town far away from the Realms. Otherwise, it violated the rules of trainers and Bishies. This Aela person had to have no way to tell where the Realm was located. Otherwise, who knew what the human would tell other trainers. And her precious chibi might be in danger. Chibi-Janaelle might even be caught! It was either this, or Witch would wipe her memories. And as much as Janaelle the mother wished Witch had chosen that option, her niece had firmly denied that avenue for whatever reason. It was so irresponsible. Why when she was Witch...
----
In the nice quaint good-natured town of Evol, something happened that was only slightly out of the average. In the middle of the central square, a female figure popped into being a foot in the air only to have gravity reassert its hold. A rump landing and some calm cursing brought a resident of Evol over.
"Hey? You alright?"
Looking up into the bright light of an afternoon sun, this new arrival made out the features of... ... ...
"AAAAUGH!"
It is quite understandable, Aela's reaction to the townsperson, if one knew her experiences. The first thing she could make out of the person above her was a garish purple. It looked fuzzy, and after the barest of seconds, she could make out what looked like an obese T-rex on waffy steroids.
Aela's instinctive right hook and mad crabwalk backwards away from the monstrosity can easily be explained. In a nutshell, those really evil kids she babysat? Lets just say they found her phobia about purple dinosaurs and exploited it.
The person inside the costume couldn't see his attacker anymore, what with the head spun 180 degrees around, but he certainly could hear her.
"I knew it, this town is evil."
All he could wonder is how a newbie trainer knew the town's name. The sign, 'Welcome to Evol, the Happy Family Town' was behind her.
End Chapter 4
A.N. I'm an evol s.o.b. even if I'm the wrong gender and I happen to lovE my mom, and as far as I know, I was born on the correct side of the sheets... After all, I have an older sibling. But the evol thing still stands, yes?