Ely kept trying to back up, even though she obviously had no where to go. Her green eyes were absolutely terrified, too. Though, she tried not to show it by keeping her gaze focused on the back of Davide's head.
"I... he... I... he was trying to steal my boo..."
Ely's voice became softer with each word. The last syllable never uttered. Her eyes got wider too, almost at the same rate. Kiga wasn't her enemy. She loved him.
"... I don't know."
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 sighed and dropped his head upon the table, heavy enough to draw attention. He was done with the interrogation, they weren't listening.
"I told you already. The books. It's the books, alright? They messed with her head, they're not normal and if you want to help then please, hurry up and do so. Otherwise, get out of my way and I'll do it on my own."
His tone was far from friendly, or patient now. He'd run out of courtesy and whilst he wanted the books dealt with, he didn't like to see Ely upset.
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 cold silk was applied to his skin with tender and silent touches. Davide ignored what was going on around him to keep the soothing silk pressed to Kiga's side. Burns were an awful wound to keep clean, though, thankfully the skin had not blistered or peeled. Lydia had stopped talking, too. She was helping Davide switch out the silk.
Iona was a healer of the body first and foremost. She had let these two go yesterday not because she was indifferent to their pain. She was anything but, in fact she believed her healing magic was a gift of her gods. As such, it was her duty to help those in need. The misty moors Iona hailed from worshiped Galena as a goddess of wisdom and medicine.
She took another look at Kiga and back at the girl. Iona revised her opinion; these two were not covering up some lover's quarrel. Ely had stopped before mentioning the books, too. That, more than Kiga's protests bothered her. Her ice blue eyes focused on Ely again.
"What do these books look like girl?"
The question seemed simplistic and it was meant to be. What the books looked like did not matter. What did was if Ely could describe them. If she was under some compulsion and if the books had influenced her mind, surely she would avoid the question. She gave Kiga a look, too. Iona placed two fingers over her lips and shook her head before turning her gaze back to Ely.
"What?"
Ely's voice was sharp and quick where before it had been barely loud enough to be heard. She was twisting her hands into her palms and the length of her tail started to twitch from one side to the other.
"Well... like... um... books?"
She tried to concentrate. What did they look like? She was having a hard time remembering.
The constant replacement of the chilly silk had ended. Lydia was stepping back and taking the tray of used ones to the other side of the room. Davide had switched to soft cotton bandages carrying the scent of aloe. He wrapped them around Kiga's side in a weaving pattern that allowed the skin to breathe. He secured them with bendable metal clips that moved when the cotton did, as well, before cleaning off his hands. Iona had rested her hand on Ely's shoulder. Those of the House of Galena never forgot that a single touch could sooth innumerable ills.
"Ely? It is alright, you can tell me later. Why don't you go with Lydia and she'll get you something to drink. Hm?"
Iona waved the other girl closer and held her hand, palm out, in Kiga's direction. When the other two girls had left the room she released a long sigh.
"What else has she done?"
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 only looked at Iona's hand., not quite sure what the gesture meant. He wasn't about to take it, he needed no help to get up and shared no such familiarity with this woman. Thus far, he wasn't terribly fond of her dismissive attitude. He groaned as he slid from the table and stretched some, testing the bandages. The wound no longer mattered.
"She ran from me in town because I offered to carry her books. She attacked me when I chased her. She was very distraught about the books, she didn't want anyone near them. I let her go and she returned home.
I spied on her and she seemed to be starting some ritual magic. She had a dagger, a bowl. She made a circle with some salt and placed the books before her by the fire. She was talking to them, to the books.
I stopped her. But the strangest thing is that my wind was enough to move everything but those books. Like they were bolted to the floor. I got her out of there and when we got to the docks, she seemed to snap out of it.
Now tell me those books aren't the problem. I intend to destroy them."
And he did. He'd made up his mind and unless Iona could offer him something very useful, he was done talking. Ely would be fine for the time being but Kiga was already heading for the door.
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 dropped her hand. She hoped he would take it while getting off the table. But he was like many other young men she had encountered over the years, very stubborn and too headstrong.
"Undoubtedly, she has been coerced. We can keep her safe here for now while dealing with the problem. Lydia is very good at distracting the distraught."
Iona had moved to block Kiga's way toward the door.
"But, what makes you think you can destroy these books? You just told me that you couldn't move them."
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 came to a halt and was scowling now. There was nothing pleasant about his demeanor. His mind was made up and it didn't matter what extremes he went to, he was going to sort out the books in question. He folded his arms.
"So you're listening now? It doesn't matter what I think, I am most certainly going to try. And if I cannot move them... well. Then I'll just have to make sure no one else can touch them ever again."
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!]
"I have been listening. You, I believe, are too close to this. Do you even have a plan besides 'destroy the books and save the girl' hum? For that matter, how do you think Ely would feel if you were killed during such. And, for all we know you might set off some cataclysmic event."
Iona's voice came to a halt as she tried to gage Kiga's reactions. Davide had long since left the room and returned to the main hall. As for Ely and Lydia neither one of them had been back to this part of the building.
"For now Ely is safe. She is acting normal, yes? Or at least as normal as any other citizen here in Wistvale. But, what do you really know about the books? She does not appear to be influenced by them currently, but how do we know? What if you attacked them. Would the damage you do reflect on her?"
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.”
His face looked tired, defeated when she began to speak. He hadn't considered the risk in his urgency to help Ely. She was right. He might make matters worse. But damn it, wasn't this important? Didn't something have to be done?
But when she mentioned the potential to harm Ely, his face went pale... and he stammered. Kiga was suddenly very close to crying. He was scared, tired and torn, in pain and dealing with Ely being... manipulated. She'd even attacked him, like she didn't even know him or care. Shouldn't.... shouldn't her feeling for him been enough to overcome that?
Perhaps he was being a fool. Perhaps he wasn't understanding the dilemma. He just wanted to help her. He wasn't confident in his words.
"I'll... I'll find a metal mage. I'll encase them. Then I'll find an earth mage and bury them so deep, no one will ever find them again. Maybe I can't destroy them. But I can get rid of them."
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!]
"You're grasping at straws young man. I'm not saying they are bad ideas. In fact, I like them. You could put them in a metal box and bury them so deep in the earth they would never be found aga..."
Iona's voice came to a halt. Lydia was racing back toward them and a shrieking sound from somewhere deeper in the building flew in from the flung open door. Within seconds a dozen people were in the hallway and milling around.
"Calm down."
The tone of Iona's words quieted the crowd and Lydia's voice was stammering badly.
"S... she.. she is gone, Iona. I'm s-so sorry. I-I took her into the kitchen for some t-tea... and the next thing I saw was the fire..."
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 didn't hesitate for a moment. He spun on his heels and slammed the doors to the House wide open, storming into the street. It was not three more steps before the wind tore about him and he launched into the air, landing on the rooftops some half way down the street, running at a break-neck pace.
He was headed straight for Ely's home. Blast it if he didn't have the means to damage those books, it didn't matter. Ely needed protecting from them, maybe from herself. Hell with a plan. He had no time to think, to ponder. He only had time to act - he only hoped it was enough.
He flew again, tearing through the blue sky and dropping to the street now, his posture low, an arm held across his face, the wind quite literally at his heels. He would be there in moments and then, well he wouldn't be taking his time. It had to end.
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!]
Ely, of course, had a head start. Not that she was going to make it back home before the air mage. Kiga, by virtue of his magic, was gaining on her with every jump. Ely wasn't thinking about how to stay ahead of Kiga, though or looking back. The only imperative in her mind was protecting her books. A quick eye might have been able to spot her racing back into the main thoroughfare bisecting Healer's Row and heading into the docks.
She did feel bad about one thing. She had given Kiga her word that she wouldn't leave. Surely, though, he would understand. Ely had not liked Iona at all. For that matter, she did not appreciate being hauled off by Lydia. She had wanted to stay. Keep any eye on the young man whose name she could not currently remember that was attending to Kiga's burns. She had felt discarded and unwanted. It did not help her mood.
When Lydia had gone to prepare the tea Ely set fire to a stack of wood outside the kitchen door; a few feet from the herb garden. She did not care about the consequences, either. Which was so far removed from her thoughts a few weeks ago. She was well and truly enthralled.
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 his head low and his hands thrust out behind him, feet spread apart and tiles flying off the rooftop and every which way as his wind pushed him along at incredible pace. It left a torn trail over the rooftop that only ended when he leaped again, spinning and tumbling to land here or there, pressing on more speed, blasting more wind from his palms and propelling him every quicker toward Ely's place.
His eye caught something as he once again plummeted toward the ground, a small child's cart. The theft of such a likely cherished object was not even a factor in his mind, he hurriedly leaped upon the tiny wheeled box and again, thrust back to shoot himself along the stone road with alarming speed. One hand in front for improvised steering, his feet held him firm as he leaned and tilted, weaving in and out of people, around objects and closer to Ely's home. It caused quite the commotion, the rapid-fire squeak of the tiny wheels underneath him, him tucking his feet in and leaping, spinning as he flew over a much larger cart loaded with goods for market and landing once more on the other side, much to the astonished expression of on lookers.
Kiga should have beat Ely home by a mile. There was no possible way she could have gotten back to the library first even with the head start. Kiga's magic and recklessness with the cart put him way ahead of her feet, swift though they could be. Fire could not speed her path.
But...
Ely was getting closer to the library. The library that harbored those books that Kiga was so desperate to destroy. And those books were, even now, filling her mind with images of destruction. She could see Kiga, plain as day, tearing them asunder with torrential winds.
A small part of Ely, one huddled in a ball worrying at the trap of her mind, knew the image to be false. That Kiga only wanted to keep her safe. Be that as it may, her body was already moving and reacting to the disastrous thought. She stopped dead in her tracks. She spun around, a whirl of red hair and vibrant green eyes. Ely caught the tail end of Kiga vaulting over the market cart and threw a fireball at his heels.
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.”
If it weren't for his moving so rapidly, swerving this way and that and changing direction so suddenly and swiftly; Kiga may have received his second blow from a fireball this day. He was unlucky in that as he moved, the fireball completely destroyed his cart, sending tiny charred bits of wood all over. He was lucky in that he wasn't hurt or rather, he was skilled; and managed to dodge the incoming attack at the last moment, spinning and twirling in the air before coming to a halt upon the cobbled road.
But now he stopped. Stopped and turned to face her. He didn't look happy, not at all. People were suddenly less interested in the commotion and more interested in their safety.
Fire was dangerous. He'd never really seen Ely use the full extent of her powers. It was one of the stranger elements in that unlike other elements, you could create more of it. You couldn't alter how much water, metal or earth you had. But fire grew in the hands of a skilled mage, almost exponentially if done right.
Fire also fed on air.
"Ely, you need to stop."
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!]
There was no return volley to Kiga's words, not at that moment.
Ely was already running. The screams in her head reached a crescendo and she bolted for the library doors. Something else swelled up with her fleeing feet, too. The pieces of the burning cart grew into separate balls of flame and followed her as if they were attached.
She threw a hand forward and blew the massive wooden door of her library apart. A new shower of burning wood and debris exploded outward in a wide oval sending most of the crowd cowering against or behind any cover they could find. She was inside the building and the other hand was flung behind her. The rest of the fireballs attached themselves to the door frame and shot across to the other side. They formed a lattice work of flames to bar anyone entry to her home.
Now her voice did come, oddly stifled as if all the air in her lungs was being stolen away.
"Stop? Why?"
She was still visible inside the flaming doorway.
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.”