As promised, chapter 5. This is a long one folks so strap in. I decided to deviate from my format of small chapters and singular plot points for something bigger and more intricate so let me know what you think. This was a hard one to write, but it was mostly inspired by "Eyes of the Devil" by Seether, if that explains anything lol. Now on to the thanks:

xLyraCharlottex
Shar82204
CaptainShy
ALotObsessed

You guys rock, as always. Still just the one review, hope this chapter will change that. Let me know what you think alright?

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Life and Death

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The day dawned, bright and cold. Loki woke first, waking his brother with a shower of freshly fallen snow over his unprotected face. For a moment, it was like they had never been apart, like the last several years worth of betrayal and pain had never happened. He was back at his brother's side, preparing for a battle with some small civilization that resented Odin's rule. But as the sun rose, Thor stood, no smile present, his eyes distant as he saw his brother's smirking face and the truth of the situation settled once again on Loki's already heavy shoulders. The pain that lanced through him was quickly swallowed into his own burning resentment and grief. He was not here for his brother, he was here for vengeance. He was here to take the life of the creature who had slain the only member of his adopted family that had still loved him.

He stood, shaking the snow from his cloak and armor as he checked his weapons, still at his hips, and the pouch containing the stones he stolen from Riley. They had returned to their normal temperature. He took a moment to wonder at the happenings of the night before, going so far as the reach into the pouch to feel the stones. They no longer vibrated with the energy he had sensed the night before and they were cold, lifeless once more. He thought of the human woman, crying and cursing him, the heat of the stones so reminiscent of her temper that it struck him almost physically. She truly was connected to them, though why that was or why it merited his attention he had yet to guess. Thor shook him from his musings, calling his attention to the air, pointing out the slight shimmer it had taken on.

"The convergence has begun, this is but one of the many...symptoms, we will see. Watch." He took a handful of snow, forming it into a ball as he drew even with his brother. He tossed the ball lightly through the shimmering distortion, laughing as it exited just behind them, exploding into powder against the back of his brother's skull.

"I have no time for your games Loki. What does this mean?" He turned, facing his grinning brother, brushing the snow from his hair.

"Simply put, the walls of the worlds are thinning. As for time, it would seem we have plenty. We know from your mortal's calculations that this is where the Dark Elf will appear and he has yet to arrive, so it would seem that we are left with little to do but wait. Wouldn't you agree?" He hefted another handful of snow, forming another ball and chucking it a little harder into the shimmer, watching as his brother flinched, though no projectile ever came. He made a small noise of interest and tested it again, watching as the snow ball disappeared, reappearing as half melted and fragile. "Still in flux it would seem. Malekith will wait until the convergence is at its height before he makes his attempt. He can't risk the Aether going off course or it will pull him with it. But it seems odd that he will come here openly without first attaining it, don't you think?" He looked over to his brother, seeing if the big lug had followed his train of thought.

"What do you mean? Speak plainly, I am in no mood for your riddles." Thor turned to him, a blankly angry look on his face. Loki sighed, turning to face Thor fully and taking a deep breath, preparing himself for a lengthy explanation.

"I mean, we were on our way to him, if you will recall. He was menacing Asgard to get to the mortal woman Jane, correct? He would not dare move against a full realm until he attained that power. Jane is not here, she is back with the mortals on the other side of the world. It would be foolish to expect his first move to be an overt landing. It would put us all on alert and give us time to hide the woman before he could get to her. I believe that this is a ruse, taking us out of the fight before it has even begun so that he may infiltrate the city where we landed and obtain the Aether before we even know he is here." Loki kept his tone calm, realizing even as he said it that it had the ring of absolute truth. His mind had been buzzing ever since they'd set out for this place. He hadn't known at the time just what was causing his nerves to be so on edge, but now it was clear. He had been fooled, just like the mortals, into thinking that the elf would be disoriented after coming through the portal. It had made sense at first, they had been so why wouldn't he? But he had spent the majority of his life traveling through realms and living in the dark space at the edge of the Universe. It had been foolishness to think that he would be so easily confused.

"We must return, immediately." Thor began to swing Mjolnir in quick circles, the leather strap creaking rapidly as wind began to kick up snow around him.

"See you there brother," Loki said, fading through the small portal he'd found. He was back in the city and on his way to Riley's apartment before his brother even hit the coast. He laughed, sometimes it was nice to be the smarter of the two, even if it did lead to an unfair prejudice.

Riley was the first one awake. Her eyes itched with the remnants of tears and her head still ached slightly. Guess even a midday bender would leave a hangover. Her mind took a moment to catch up to the present, running through the happenings of the night before, including the nightmarish remembrance of her mother's death. Why had she relived it so vividly? Why had the memories risen up in such clarity for her? Her eyes wandered over to the empty spot on her altar, the space usually occupied by her rune stones and she had a fleeting image of Loki, halfway around the world, sitting bolt upright. Had he seen them too?

She shook her head, ridding herself of the questions. Thinking was for after breakfast and coffee. But how to get to the kitchen? She looked around, seeing chip bags and snack wrappers littering the floor. Last night had been a hell of a time. They'd ended up staying in the living room, Jane and Riley both taking up the couch and James on the queen sized air mattress on the floor. At some point in the night, Jane had decided to join James, sleeping in the opposite direction on the bed so that her feet were pressed against his chest, a throw pillow stuck between her shoulder and her head, the small afghan she'd been snuggling under wrapped tightly around her. It was like something out of a high school sleep over and it brought on a small fit of laughter as Riley struggled to get up without waking the other two.

They didn't wake up for another half hour. It was the smell of breakfast that first brought them to consciousness, bacon popped and sizzled with fried potatoes cooled on the counter. A plate of sausage was already sitting on the breakfast bar and the coffee pot was happily percolating, adding its own delicious aroma to the bouquet that drew the two sleepy people to the table.

"Good morning." Riley turned, sliding the last of the bacon and scrambled eggs onto two separate dishes. She began to set the dishes on the table, making sure everything was within reach of everyone and going to get the milk, orange juice and fresh coffee for everyone. It was nice, she thought, playing host. She hadn't done it in a while, she hadn't had anyone over in a while. She looked over at the two, rubbing sleep from their eyes and muttering tiredly to one another, their brains still struggling to rid themselves of the foggy after effects of a good night's sleep. She smiled, settling herself into her own seat and filling her plate with eggs, bacon, sausage and fried potatoes and filling her mug with coffee that she then began to "doctor". It was her word for all the steps she went through to make it not taste like coffee anymore. James threw out his usual snarky comment about wanting some coffee with her creamer but she just ignored him and let the warmth of the situation seep into her, chasing away the horror of the night before and the sting of sorrow it had brought up with it. Everything was perfect, for the moment, simple and perfect and nice, and then the door burst open and everything went to hell.

Loki was nearing the apartment when they attacked him. Dark Elves, coming from the alleys on either side of the street, charging forward with energy weapons firing directly into his path. No shots seemed to be aimed at him, just where he had been heading. He turned, intent on finding another way to the mortal's apartment building, only to find more combatants coming from the alleys behind him. Once they had filled the space on either side of him, covering the road and adjacent side streets, they stopped firing and just stood, blank face masks staring at him, weapons trained on him, resolute.

Thor was facing a similar predicament, only about a thousand feet up. He had been surrounded mid flight by four of the small craft that had made the attack on the palace. Like the ground forces, they didn't seem intent on attacking him directly, merely stopping him from moving any further toward the apartment. They had forced him to land on a high rise not too far off his flight path, sitting at each corner of the building like sentinels, waiting for him to make a move. He set his hammer onto the roofing gravel gently, hands held out to his sides, face grim. He knew the purpose behind this obstruction and his mind was working furiously to find a way around it. He had to reach Jane before Malekith got to her, or there may not be anything left to save.

Loki, for his part, had been thinking for moment one. He knew that if he took a step either forward or back, he would earn a quick and painful death. But these creatures didn't seem to know his full power. Perhaps they hadn't thought it prudent to learn just what tricks he had up his sleeve. He grinned, turning in a slow circle, careful to keep his position neutral, surveying every soldier and their position, measuring the space left between them. It would be easy enough to simply vanish and slip between two of them, continue on his way, but he had no way of knowing if that would work. They could start firing randomly in the hopes of hitting him. They could have a contingency for that particular trick. But would they be able to control themselves against more than one of him? He grinned, readying himself to strike.

Thor was pacing around the roof, glaring at the ships as though that would make them move. He could feel the rage building in him. First these monsters take his mother from him, make him abandon his home and potentially lose the love of the only parent he had left, and then they come to the one place he still feels safe and proceed to menace the woman he loves. Truly, they were begging for a quick and ugly death. He knew he would not be able to control himself for much longer. His temper was legendary, and not without reason. A god he may be, but even gods have a limit, and these creatures were pushing him to the breaking point.

Both brothers acted at once, though still miles apart. Loki faded from their vision, flattening himself against a wall as the panic fire started. That alone took out several soldiers. He laughed as the mortal woman's term for this floated through his mind, friendly fire appeared to be anything but. He took a moment to gather himself, manifesting several copies of himself at strategic points, waiting to make first one appear and then the other. The Dark Elves, disoriented as they were by the strange surroundings and unusual battle plan, began to fire on their fellows, trying to hit the quickly fading illusions of his own smiling face. It was almost pathetic how easy it was. He waited until a fair number of them lay dead on the ground before dismissing the illusions, maintaining his own invisibility and set off at a sprint for Riley's apartment. He had a sick feeling in his stomach that he would already be too late, something was screaming at the edge of his mind and the rune stones at his side had begun to heat again, almost burning through the fabric of the pouch.

Thor was not so subtle with his attack. It was a spectacle that would be reported for several days on the local news as both a freak weather occurrence and an experiment gone wrong, though neither will ever be fully explained. He had no illusions, no tricks up his sleeve to throw at the overwhelming fire power now trained on him. All he had was his own strength and power. He stopped his pacing, kneeling slowly to the graveled roof, his hands at his sides, one finger slowly curling around Mjolnir's leather strap and drawing it closer to him. If the elves noticed, they didn't seem to care as no shots bombarded him. It wasn't until the hammer started to slowly revolve that the weaponry came to life, actively aiming at him instead of just vaguely pointing. By the time they realized something as amiss, it was too late. Lightning poured down from the sky, raining onto the rooftop, throwing sparks off anything metal or wired and sending shocks through several buildings around the high rise. It was enough to knock out power in all four ships, blowing holes in the sides and venting shafts of the interior. Fire leapt from those holes, fanned and fed by the air rushing into the previously sealed craft. They fell with a strange kind of grace, the shape of the ships slowly causing them to turn in the air until the bow was facing the street. It was, luckily, free of pedestrians. The ships crashed with muted explosions, throwing more fire and sparks into the road. Thor didn't bother to watch, not caring if there were survivors. He was already flying as fast as he could to the small apartment building, his stomach twisting in anxiety.

Riley was the first to her feet, running for the kitchen, hand mere inches from the handle of a knife, when the energy blast hit her in the side. It didn't sting or burn, not like she would've expected from a bolt of pure light energy, it just tore through her, causing every pain receptor she had to fire at once, dropping her instantly to the floor, though the only sign she had been wounded was a small burn mark on her side. Jane was a little more clever, melting to the floor and dodging under a table as the room was sprayed with suppressing fire. James dropped quickly, a small burn at his temple, his eyes open wide and staring. His face was passive, relaxed, still in the sleepy expression of happiness it had been a moment before. It was the expression he would wear to the grave. Jane held back a sob, putting a hand to her mouth to stifle her breathing and praying that this was just an advance party. The sound of slow laughter and heavy boot falls on the plush carpet let her know just how wrong she was. Malekith had come for her himself.

"Come out Mortal, I can sense you are here." His voice was dark and low, full of malice and anger. It was like listening to concentrated hatred. It sent chills down her spine and she felt a strange urge to obey, her body even beginning to shift before she brought her limbs back under control. It would seem that he could command the Aether even if it was in another host. "No? Well perhaps another death on your hands will convince you. How many more will have to sacrifice themselves before you stop hiding and face your fate?" His footsteps traveled across the living room, moving to the hallway opening to the kitchen. He said something in his native tongue, a faint groan accompanying the following rustle of movement. It was Riley. She was still alive. But not for long if Jane remained hidden.

Riley was blissfully unaware of anything that was happening in her apartment. She was somewhere else, floating in a sea of blue green energy, surrounded by it on all sides. It seemed to glow faintly, happily, tossing her occasionally on a wave or surge before settling again. It formed a kind of pattern or rhythm, jouncing her around in time to some kind of movement or action that she couldn't see. It was almost like it was alive and trying to keep her safe from the storm raging further in. She could just barely see it, a dark mass at the edge of her vision. It was like a massive cyclone at sea, it threw a shadow that was so dark it was almost tangible, even this far away and it made her wish she could anchor herself in the pleasant shallows. Already she could feel the change in the water, the pull of the tide. She was moving inexorably toward it, despite the waves and her own feeble movements.

Soon, the shadow was upon her, drowning her in a cold black rain, pushing her under the surface of the emerald green tide, into a darker water. This too was green, thick and heavy like the needles of a pine tree, shocked through with a pale blue, so frigid it burned when it touched her. She tried to resurface, make her way out of this painful torrent, but could neither find the surface nor see enough to guess if she was even going in the right direction. She fought for breath, her lungs screaming at her to open her mouth and take in anything at all to relieve the pain, but she fought it down, her vision slowly going black, shocks of frigid bright blue closing around her limbs and holding her still, burning her limbs as her consciousness slipped away from her.

She opened her eyes a moment later, all sensation gone from her body save for a sense of weightlessness and she saw herself, floating in the midst of that murky hell, eyes closed, body completely relaxed, hair fanned around her in a slowly waving mass. It was beautiful, in a horrific kind of way. She saw the burning tendrils holding her, the kind beneath them slowly blackening. But this vision didn't last long. She was being pulled away from herself, into a kind of black light. It gave off a luminescence, but no warmth, and while it lit the area around it, it seemed to also lengthen the shadows. It was a place Riley did not want to go, but she knew she had no choice. She tried to close her eyes as she passed through the blackness, not wanting to see what was on the other side, but all she could do was whimper as it pressed into her. She could feel it all over, pressing against her skin as if it could go right through her clothes. She could feel it on her eyes, pressing against the skin, invading the pupils, slowly sliding into her mind, and then she was through.

The sight below her was beautiful. It was Asgard, presented from above in all of its gilded glory. The image didn't last long, fading in, pulling her into the buildings, below the ground, showing her flashes of images. She saw a small boy in a massive library, reading at a table that seemed too large to be real. She saw a young man, smiling at the base of a throne, accepting a horned helm from the man that sat upon it. She saw a bright blue cube like weapon, standing on a pedestal, just out of reach of a small hand. Her vision flashed again, changing to a planet made of ice and snow, the frigid cold should've frozen her to the bone, but it didn't. She saw giants, blue and covered in runic scars, their skin imbedded with bits of jade. Then there was nothing but cold blackness once again, her heart swelled with a sorrow and anger so deep and profound that she had to fight to breathe. It was enough to draw tears from her eyes. She felt like she was standing at the mouth of a gaping maw, full of despair, a bottomless pit of suffering that was pulling her down.

The vision faded, ripping away from her with a tangible pain. She found herself coming back to her own body, freed of both the torrent of confusing currents and the bright blue tendrils. She struggled to the surface, fighting her way out of the black storm, breaking the edge with an audible scream. The shallows welcomed her once more, their gentle waves carrying her away from the hell she'd fallen into and soothing her chilled skin with their soft warmth. She felt the pain in her extremities easing, being washed away with every lap of the water around her. She didn't even realize she was moving until she was deposited on a beach, the water receding from her with a kind of reluctance that seemed almost romantic in its caress. It was on this beach that she finally allowed herself to collapse. Her head pillowed on a familiar lap, a smile shining in a familiar face, wrinkled with age but no less youthful in expression. Another set of hands began tending her frost burned skin. The hands moved with a practiced ease, like they had tended her millions of times before. A face leaned into her blurring vision and she knew it well. She felt tears rise, obscuring the faces of the two women until they were unrecognizable. She allowed herself to cry out her anger and fury into the lap of her grandmother, letting go of her fear and sadness as her mother soothed the pain in her wrists and ankles. It was in this state that she let herself drift off, her mind returning to her body, sinking into the sore flesh she had accidentally fled. As she came to, she felt herself being moved. She remembered the attack, falling onto the hard kitchen tile. She felt carpet under her now as hands set her none too gently onto the floor. She felt a hand beside her, calloused and well used. It was James, but he wasn't moving. She reached over to him, trying to grasp his fingers to let him know she was safe, but got no response. His skin was cool to the touch, and getting colder. He didn't move, not even when she pinched his skin between her nails.

She felt her blood run cold, the rising sorrow getting swept quickly away by a deep and burning anger. She felt power, not her own, course through her at the thought of his death. These monsters had broken into her home, injured her, murdered her best friend, and were now proceeding to simply sit around the place, like it was theirs, waiting to kill the only people left to her in this world. She felt her limbs beginning to tingle, the anger galvanizing her resolve as she slowly opened her eyes. She would have revenge. She would end them all. Power that she didn't know drove her to her feet, chilling her whole body so that her breath came out in a mist before her. She felt the chill in her soul, granting her strength, though where it came from was still a mystery. She pushed the thought away, she would question the why later, after it wasn't needed. For now she just focused, turning her eyes to the mass of masked bodies before her. Jane was there, unconscious on the floor and a man, if you could call him that, was standing over her, a mass of red mist hovering in the air before him. The Aether. So this was Malekith. She noticed, somewhere under the burning anger and freezing power, that he was not as big as she thought he'd be. He seemed almost small to her now, something to be "handled".

His eyes leveled on her as she began to move, no doubt wondering what she hoped to accomplish, weak thing that she was. But he didn't know. He didn't understand that she was so much more than that right now. She had taken power from something far greater than herself, and she intended to use it to lethal effect. Two soldiers charged her, intent on subduing her. They never got the chance. She gestured, simply waved a hand to them, and they fell, frozen and dead. More came and she dispatched them just as quickly, littering her living room with frozen elven corpses, their featureless masks cracking so that the dark skin below was exposed. Malekith stilled any further movement, allowing the Aether to hover before him as he moved forward. He raised a hand, intent on ending her himself, but as met with an icy blast of air that surrounded both the Aether and himself in a sheet of solid ice. It began to chip almost immediately, his own power rising to meet that which she had borrowed, but she didn't give him a chance to recover. The Aether broke free first, swarming around its creator in an almost protective gesture, taking the brunt of the next blast, icy shards, sharp as knives. Malekith cried out as his body came free, several of the shards now imbedded in his arm and shoulder. They began to melt instantly, dripping a pinkish tinge onto the grey carpet.

He turned to her, ripping the remaining shards from his arm, dark blood dripping down to mix with pink. She had a moment to wonder where the pink had come from, if he didn't bleed red, before she realized. The cold was beginning to retreat inward, the shards had not just manifested from her hand, they had come through her hand. She looked down to see the hundreds of needle sized marks beginning to well up with fresh, scarlet blood. It shook her resolve enough for Malekith to get one hit in edgeways. It was all he needed. His weapon connected with her hip hard, slamming her sideways into the table. Her body bent around it as it was upset and thrown to the side, sending her tumbling to rest at the mouth of the hallway, stunned and injured, the power fading quickly away from her. But she had wounded him, kept him from absorbing the Aether, and she heard, just as her consciousness began to fade, the tell tale scream of an enraged Asgardian prince. Her vision was blinded with light as her eyes closed, but she thought she saw a figure approach her, a mass of wavy black hair tumbling into her face as a body collided with hers.

Loki was the first in the room, charging forward and gathering up the women, shielding them as best he could with his body as his brother showered the room with great forking strikes of lightning. It was enough to make his skin shiver as the power swarmed around him. Malekith let out a shriek of pain, gathering the cloud in a mass around him and fading from the room as if he'd never been. The soldiers, now beginning to thaw, lay in pools of frigid water, their bodies still and lifeless. It was the coldness that brought both brothers down from their battle high and grounded them in the present. The apartment had been utterly destroyed. Furniture was upturned, broken, there were blood smears over the carpet and corpses everywhere.

"Who did all this?" Thor looked around, seeing the last of the melting frost on the walls. It was like something he'd seen his brother do, but only when pushed to the absolute limit. Loki didn't respond, something that was odd for him after a battle. He was fixated on Riley, staring down at her with something akin to awe on his face. Thor came even with his brother's kneeling form and drew in a breath of surprise. Her body was slowly fading back to human color, the faint traces of icy blue runes receding back under the small shirt she wore. Her hands were bleeding badly, the skin looking like it had been ripped through with glass, or ice. Her wrists and ankles were blackened and her side was burned. She looked as if she had been in battle.

"I think she did." Loki's response was soft, his body moving slowly to pick up the limp form and carry her away from the carnage around them. "See to the scientist brother, and get rid of these things. I will watch them." He disappeared into the bedroom, returning a moment later for the still unconscious Jane. Thor growled softly, not fond of the idea of leaving the woman he loved with his vengeful brother. But it had to be done and the last thing the women would want to wake up to would be a room full of corpses. He sighed, setting his hammer on the ground and piled the elven corpses up, two or three at a time, and carries them to the window at the end of the outside hallway, chucking them out and into a dumpster. They did not deserve a proper burial, they were without honor and thus they would be disposed of. James, on the other hand, gave him pause. He hadn't gotten to know the little man very well, too busy trying to prevent this very thing from happening, but he had grown fond of him none the less. His strangeness reminded Thor of Erik Selvig, if he'd been about thirty years younger. He felt his heart lurch at the thought of what Riley would go through once she awoke. Thor lifted the body carefully, examining the expression on his face. He looked peaceful, like he had been unaware of his impending death. That was a small blessing at least. The man had died happy, surrounded by friends, and good food. It was a good death.

Thor stepped to the window, hoisting the body up over his shoulder and taking off from the small cement window sill, going to the nearest cemetery and finding a small, out of the way corner, someplace no one would check. He laid the body out, creating a small hole, about five feet deep, wide enough to comfortably fit the scientist's thin frame, and lowered the body into it. He resettled the earth, smoothing as best he could and went in search of a marker. He found a large stone, something he would have been happy with as a grave stone, were it him in the ground, and carved ancient runes of protection into it, imbuing it with a small modicum of his power, just enough to make sure the grave was not disturbed, and sunk it into the ground at the head of the grave. It was not the warrior's memorial he would have wished, but it was the custom of the people of the world and it would give Riley a place to say goodbye.

With the deed done, he took off, anxious to get back to the apartment complex, to his Jane. It was not a long trip, he had spent maybe an hour on the task, but as he neared the street where Riley's building sat, short against all the taller complexes around it, he saw that the building had vanished. Loki stood atop the building, his hands moving in slow circles. He landed beside his brother, trusting that there was something solid below him upon which to stand and stood, silent and patient.

"They are sleeping. I have seen to Riley's wounds and your precious Jane is already recovering from the Aether's damage." He didn't say anything further, simply finishing the spell he had been weaving and moving to the now invisible door that would lead back to the inside hallway of the complex. Thor followed, still in silent thought, his mind once again on the problem of the Aether and how to stop it. The apartment was warmer than it had been when they arrived, the stains and water were gone, the blood wiped clean, the furniture reset and mended and Thor caught himself looking at his brother with something akin to surprise. Loki had mended the whole place, hidden or removed the evidence of the struggle and, this drew his attention, though he didn't understand why, replaced the Rune stones on the woman's altar. It was a small detail, but it pulled a small smile to Thor's face as he looked at the frost giant next to him. He sighed, going to settle on the couch, his head dropping to the armrest, already heavy with weariness. He saw Loki disappear down the hall, presumably to check on the girls, and then he knew no more.

Loki stepped into the darkened bedroom, watching the lengthening shadows play over Riley's face. He'd felt her, on his way here, he'd felt her in his mind. She'd seen his mind for what it truly was, seen his soul, and she had touched it. She had taken it into herself. He felt for the familiar pain, the old resentment and anger that had driven him for so long. It was still here, fueling his power, but it was less than it had been, smaller, quieter. He tested a few tricks, just to see if his power, too, had lessened, but found that it was stronger. He felt it flow more freely than he had in years. It was like something had been choking it, letting it out in small doses, greedily hording it for that one moment when he would truly shine. But now it was there, at his fingertips, frosty and soothing and calm, simply there. He looked to the woman again, feeling tears, true tears, well up in his eyes for the first time since he had confronted Odin about his true parentage. He felt something, he couldn't quite name. Was it gratitude? She had taken something from him, a burden that he had not known how to be rid of, that he had not known was weighing so much on him. She had simply taken it from him and used it. She had wrought such terrible vengeance on those creatures that he had felt a spark of pride, somewhere in the mass of anxiety he'd felt at seeing her blue, limp body splayed almost unnaturally against the floor. It was all so new to him now. His shield, so carefully constructed of shattered pride and rock hard anger, was gone, blown apart by one simple human mind.

He reached out to her, his hand brushing against her skin, now comfortably warm against his hand and sighed. He had taken something of hers, and she had returned the favor. It was almost comical. But what wounds had she received for her troubles? He had burns and scratches to show for his attempted theft, though the damn stones had never worked for him properly anyway. But what would she have. Her physical wounds were enough to show that she had indeed used his power. He felt another spark of pride at that thought. The human woman who could match wits with him and worshiped an effigy of him was also the first human to ever harness the power of his people and not die for the attempt. But it was a cold destructive thing, it was not meant for such a warm blooded and warm hearted people. It could very well end her, even now, if she ever reached for it again. He could feel a tiny spark of it left, nestled just behind her heart, seated in her own, much warmer and more abundant energy, hiding, recharging. It would have to be dealt with. But for now he would let her rest, and grieve. He sighed again, his chest feeling oddly light and heavy at the same time, and stood from his kneeling position. He searched him memory for when he had knelt beside her, why he had been so close to her, but found no explanation. He was just tired. It was hard work, covering an entire building wish both barrier and concealment magicks. He would sleep now, and worry later. For the first time in far too many years, he had peace of mind, and he intended to enjoy it before more problems ruined it for him.

Well there you have it, chapter 5. Hope you all enjoyed it! Review s'il vous plait and thanks in advance to any who give feedback!