Kiga shook his head, sucked in a breath and snapped his hand to the rail to drag himself to his feet with a groan. He steadied himself, eyes closing and him focusing on what needed to be done.
But he managed a slight smile and took her hand, kissing it just once. He didn't want her to worry. He wanted her safe instead.
"It's ok Ely. I can handle it. You just wait for me, ok?"
Ely [M:164:1653:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=394&page=1#14814][b]A soul on fire...[/b][0:Snuffed][1:Flame On!]
He did not look fine. He needed a doctor. Ely's brow wrinkled up and an image swam into view from somewhere of a woman with a stalwart look to her and a strident voice. Galena, right? She was from the House of Galena and she had wanted her to do what?
Ely rubbed at her face and eyes vigorously, but the image would not come into focus. She missed Kiga dragging himself to his feet. She had not heard the groan either, not while trying to remember where she had seen the woman before.
"No! Kiga. We have to get you to a doctor first."
Catgirl Extraordinaire
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Kiga shook his head in protest, but that motion alone made his head swim and caused his eyes to blur a little. He knew he needed some rest, needed to do something about the burn to his side. It had wept and was now blackened and clotted with blood and dirt, an ugly injury. He stopped to catch his breath.
"Then promise me. You won't leave me. You won't go home til I can go with you. Please. It's not safe Ely."
Leave him? She was not going to leave him, not now, not ever.
"I won't leave you Kiga. I promise. Come on. Lean on me."
Ely move to the side of him careful not to touch anything but the small of his back. She waited until he was steady on his feet, too. Healer's Row was just a few blocks away they would find the House of Galena there. Ely's brow wrinkled up again. Maybe that was where she had met the woman. She was a frequent visitor to the Row.
Catgirl Extraordinaire
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Leaned on her and hissed a little when he moved, obviously it was worse than he was letting on. A level 5 fire mage was not to be trifled with and his light armor was little protection when she'd caught him entirely off guard.
Shuffling along with her, he managed a smile though and leaned his head against hers.
"Thank you Ely. You're sweet."
Ely [M:164:1653:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=394&page=1#14814][b]A soul on fire...[/b][0:Snuffed][1:Flame On!]
Sweet? She had attacked him. Maybe he was delirious. Gods Ely, what is wrong with you? There was another fuzzy image in her mind. Kiga running toward her and people tossed up in the air like confetti. She could not believe that she had actually thrown a fireball at him. But, why would he lie?
Ely bit her lip when he hissed out loud and walked a little slower. Idiot. The one person in Wistvale you've wanted to see for years and you hit him in the side with a fireball. She smacked the image in her brain around several times but no other details could be knocked out of it. She glanced up at Kiga again.
His eyes were half closed but he had not repeated the hiss of pain. He was leaning against her. A part of her was amazed by that, too. Should she keep him awake? No. He had not hit his head, or at least he didn't mention it. Sleep might be the best thing for him, but she wasn't sure she could get him to the House if he lost consciousness now.
"We are almost there, Kiga. Just a few more blocks and then you can rest."
Catgirl Extraordinaire
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
He nodded and managed to make it the rest of the way to the House of Galena. He was leaning on her still, his eyes betraying his hurt and his tiredness. He had been through worse, but should have seen to the wound much earlier. It didn't matter. Ely did.
"Now remember, you're staying with me. No one is going near those books. You promised."
He'd make her promise again. He was worried she'd slip away, do something foolish purely because she was that headstrong. And if that were to happen - well wounds be buggered, he'd do anything to keep her safe.
Ely [M:164:1653:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=394&page=1#14814][b]A soul on fire...[/b][0:Snuffed][1:Flame On!]
They had slipped in the door of the House. It was a wide building with long wood benches lining each side wall and a woolen green and gold carpet running from the front door to a raised platform in the back of the room. There were at least two doors Ely could see off to either side and three young children huddled together on the floor among the benches on her right side.
The smell of lavender washed over her and stacks upon stacks of candles illuminated the room farther in. She did not see any adults immediately, but a small bell above the door was tinkling and a man about Kiga's age came around the desk atop the platform.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes. Um... my boy-boyfriend has been burned."
Ely stumbled hurriedly over the word, her cheeks as red as her hair.
Catgirl Extraordinaire
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Kiga had left her side, slipping from her grasp to sit upon one of the benches. He looked about wearily, quite obviously very spent. He was looking for the woman they had encountered in the street, he would like to ask her more about the situation with Ely and those books.
Failing that, perhaps there would be someone in town educated on such things. The Noctis perhaps.
He winced as he looked at his side, it now a sticky, dirty mess. It certainly needed cleaning but it didn't hurt as much as it appeared it should. That was not good, it likely meant his nerve endings were burned off. The skin further from it was a brilliant red and blistered and THAT hurt quite a great deal.
What a mess.
He looked over to Ely though and saw her flustered. He didn't want her alarmed and so, he lied.
"It's not so bad Ely. Don't worry."
Ely [M:164:1653:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=394&page=1#14814][b]A soul on fire...[/b][0:Snuffed][1:Flame On!]
The young man sighed and moved to the bench Kiga had found. He reached out a hand, careful to avoid the scorched flesh, and urged him back to his feet.
"You need treatment immediately, especially for a burn. Follow me."
Kiga could not do anything but follow as the other man was opening the side door and ushering him inward. Ely assumed the last words were for her and followed them, too.
The same sense of calm that infused the bigger room was in the hallway as well, less apparent perhaps, at least to her. She was too embarrassed to speak, too. She knew the young man helping Kiga. His name was Davide and he was a physician's assistant. Why had she just remembered that now?
She did not have time to explore that thought, though, before Davide spoke.
"Lydia. Burn victim. He is in a bad way. I don't know how he made it this far without losing consciousness."
A young woman about the same age as Davide and in the same type of clothing appeared around the corner to answer him.
"Bring him in here. And let Miss Iona know."
Ely backed out of the way as they both helped Kiga to the top of a cast iron table covered in white gauze. She remained outside the door while the one called Davide left the room and Lydia began to carefully cut away Kiga's clothing. She did not want to distract the woman by speaking but he'd gone awfully quiet and no one had shooed her away.
"Kiga? It's okay. I'm still here."
She did not know what else to say, but a new voice coming into the room did.
"You two. I expected you to be the one on the table, girl. Not your fellow. What happened?"
Catgirl Extraordinaire
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Kiga looked over to Ely as he laid on his back, then stretched out his hand toward her with a smile. He was glad she was still with him. Hell with healing, he just needed to know she was ok. He hissed a little as they fussed with side, but when they asked that question, he wasn't quite sure what to say.
Would Ely be in trouble? Surely, they didn't need to know. Surely, so long as he destroyed the books, everything would be just fine.
But what if she wasn't?
His eyes were still on her, confused and worried. He didn't look to anywhere but her when he spoke.
"It was an accident."
Ely [M:164:1653:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=394&page=1#14814][b]A soul on fire...[/b][0:Snuffed][1:Flame On!]
Iona's voice was a chisel to the block of ice that encased Ely's memory. All the bits and pieces flew away leaving her with the finished image. She remembered the beginning of the day, she remembered the storekeepers, she remembered Alex, she remembered the books, but most of all, she remembered thinking Kiga was the enemy. Her voice shrunk down to a sliver of a whisper, her eyes wide and focused on him.
"I... I hit him with a fireball."
The clattering from a pair of scissors dropped to the sanded wood of the floor echoed around the silent room.
Catgirl Extraordinaire
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Kiga sat up to protest immediately but the pain in his side was damn near crippling and he fell to his back, wincing in pain once more. He was shaking his head hard enough to turn his shoulders though.
"No! It.. wasn't her. Those blasted books - they're.... possessing her somehow! She was fixated on them, she was running away from me and they were controlling her! They're not ok!
Ely is not to blame. It was an accident. Really. It started yesterday when she fell down, you were there! Those damned books are cursed or something!"
Ely [M:164:1653:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=394&page=1#14814][b]A soul on fire...[/b][0:Snuffed][1:Flame On!]
The young woman called Lydia put a firm but gentle hand on Kiga’s chest. Her voice was raspy and dry when she spoke.
“That is enough out of you. If Davide had not dropped those scissors they might be sticking out of your side right now. We have to get the clothing off before we can clean it. I can and will restrain you if you do not stop moving.”
Davide had picked up the scissors and was currently in the process of rinsing them off. Iona, however, glanced back and forth between Kiga and Ely while he was out of the way. It was obvious she was trying to keep her expression neutral for the moment. Though, the looks she had given them were far from kind.
“Mmh. I remember, young man. I do not need reminding. You caused quite a ruckus yelling in the middle of the street. I thought a murder had occurred or, at the very least, someone was bleeding to death. And what’s this nonsense about possessed books?”
As far as Iona was concerned this was a lover’s spat pure and simple. They conjured up this possessed book story to cover it up. Davide had returned to Kiga's side and had silently finished cutting off his clothing. He had a pieces of wet silk, too; in a steel tray full of ice.
Ely, meanwhile, had begun to step back. She was paying no attention to where she was going either. The wall behind her came up fast. She collided with it, made a short sound of surprise, and was skewered by Iona’s eyes.
“Well? Why did you throw a fireball in the middle of the street AND at your lover?”
Catgirl Extraordinaire
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Kiga was quickly getting agitated now, he didn't care for either Lydia's bed manner of Iona's attitude. In fact, he was damn near ready to push them all away and storm out to simply deal with the damned books... but he wanted to hear what Ely had to say.
If they treated her with that same rude attitude though, he wasn't in the mood to tolerate it. He grumbled, begrudgingly laid still in the hopes they'd get the damn dressing on so he could be on his way.