Seldan's Return

The word had come, in Seldan's hand, only around midday: _I have returned, and am well, but have retired to the house until evensong._ The brief missive bids Zeke do nothing in particular about the matter, as is Seldan's way, instead allowing him to choose the timing of his visit with no pressure or obligation.

It is now late afternoon, and the sun westers in the sky, bringing a chill breeze with it.

The moment that Seldan's letter arrived to him, Zeke wanted to go to Seldan's abode. Yet things were not quite as simple as that. Not with Cryosanthia's condition continuing to be an issue. So he waited for her afternoon tea to take her off to sleep and left her in Seyardu's care. He mentioned nothing as to his destination, nor that he had received the missive at all.

He makes haste to Seldan's house, going the long way around as though expecting to be followed, and then knocks on the door, his tail flick-flicking behind him. It displays his agitation, and his concern though the letter indicated Seldan's well-being... Perhaps he simply can not believe it until he has discerned such with his own two eyes.

The door opens presently, a crack at first, and then more fully and warmly at the sight of the agitated sith-makar. It is as Seldan has said - it has been nearly three weeks since he was teleported out in the early morning hours, and the weeks have been kind. His color is _much_ better, he is full hale, and moves easily to step aside and allow Zeke inside. He wears much of his usual attire, including the magical pieces, having eschewed only the headbands - both the silver one and the gem-encrusted one. The difference, coupled with robes, loose shirt and trousers, and bare feet, lends him a simpler, less martial, less _imposing_ look, and the boyish grin that he wears furthers the look of simplicity still more.

"It is well to see you, kin, and I would ask your forgiveness for the trouble. Come."

Zeke relaxes a measure seeing Seldan looking so much better. He tries to still his tail to little avail and nods politely to his kin. "Peasssce on your nessst kin. It isss no trouble, but a pleasssure to sssee you again." He steps inside the familiar dwelling, looking about somewhat before returning his attention to Seldan. The sith, contrary to Seldan, looks... worn. Even for one who was not particularly knowledgeable about the sith would be able to see it. He's rested, but not well. He's eaten, but not enough. "You look well."

Seldan's grin fades, going ragged around the edges at the look of the sith. "Much has improved, and I have kept my word to you, but I would hear what troubles you, if it pleases you to speak it." As he talks, he gestures the sith inside, and as he passes the kitchen, he plucks from the fruit bowl a pair of the fruits that Malik is so fond of, and that Zeke will recognize. Inside the hard rind is sweet white flesh, flecked with black seeds.

Zeke follows somewhat in Seldan's wake by rote. Not really thinking about the action. "Isss it ssso obvioussss?" He asks, and as if the knowledge that Seldan can see his exhaustion gives it permission, he manages to look even more tired than before. His tail slows behind him and he blinks heavily at Seldan. "Thisss one doesss not mean to worry you Ssseldan, but much hasss happened in your absssence."

"Then come, and speak of it," Seldan answers at once, leading Zeke towards the living area with its overstuffed Myrrish sofas and chairs. "Would you have tea, or fruit?" he asks, holding up one of the fruits in query before cutting it. Any idea of worrying him is brushed aside, and the boyish simplicity melts away into the steady, imposing demeanor and bearing of the man, the mage, the servant of Eluna.

The sith seems glad to take a seat at last amid the sea of softness. Lowering himself slowly but looking relieved to be sitting. "Yesss, and yesss, if it isss not too much trouble." The thought of food has his stomach grumbling quietly, a tight ugly feeling in the pit of him that will not cease now that he's thought of it. "Thisss one hardly knowsss where to begin sssave that... We mussst be wary of Aya, Sseldan. Very wary. Thisss one can not trussst her, nor count her ass an ally any longer. Though you know thisss your-ssself in part."

Instead of tossing Zeke one of the fruits, as Malik would have done, Seldan simply offers Zeke one of the two fruits he holds, and turns back towards the kitchen with the other one. A tea pot and a pair of cups is not long in coming, a silvery gray ceramic affair ornately painted in the Myrrish style. Doubtless something he brought back with him.

These, he sets on the serving table before the sofa, then takes from a small, covered jar what looks like a tiny, clear-blue bead, casting it into the teapot. Instantly, fresh, clean water fills the teapot, and no more than fills the teapot. He then retrieves a box of various types of tea, setting it in front of Zeke to peruse, when his hand is free.

"Have you need of a knife, or do your claws suffice to pierce the rind?" he asks, although his sobered, serious, steady expression says that he heard the rest. "As for Mistress Aya - I have not forgotten, and am unlikely to do so," he replies. "What said she, did you confront her?"

"Thisss one will ussse thisss onesss clawsss. It iss good to feel the food." Zeke does not explain this further, but rather digs into the fruit carefully to begin the process of removing the rind. In spite of the fact that he is using claws he is actually quite neat about it, and manages nicely with what nature and Daeus provided him. "Thisss one did confront her, but did not mention you ssspecifically. Inssstead thisss one lured her into revealing her connection by giving her a physssical exam, and then bidding her to sssilence if ssshe had been healed by the demon. Thisss one had no dessire to have her demon-pact enacted then and there for the want of wordssss."

Zeke shakes his head. "Ssshe sssaysss that ssshe hasss been giving the demon information about usss. Ssshe sssaid thisss resscently. That ssshe told it that you were venturing to the townsship where you were attacked, and that you were leaving the scity. Other thingssss. Ssshe..." Zeke stops peeling and looks at Seldan. "Ssshe hass betrayed usss, and there isss more."

Here is seems difficult for him to continue. "Ssssomeone told the demon about Lily." The words are choked and the rind falls from his claws. The fruit nearly follows but he keeps it barely, looking down at the fruit with such sadness that it's palpable. "Ssshe knowss who. Which meansss ssshe wasss there. Ssshe witnesssed it... and did no-thing." He made a choked noise. "The demon... it..."

Seldan is well aware of why Zeke wants to feel the food, and so makes nothing of it, allowing the Sunguard to feed himself as he deems best. After all, the choice of nature of food was not an idle one, and Zeke may or may not realize this, but whether he does or no, the paladin makes no comment on it. Instead, he busies himself with the teapot, taking it between his hands, drawing a sigil on it with one thumb, and murmuring a simple incantation, one that Zeke will have heard him use before. The last time he attempted this, he nearly screamed in agony and did lose the spell, but this time, it seems not to trouble him in the slightest.

He looks up as Zeke speaks, though, and very, very slowly, he sets down the teapot gently on its tray, the water within it warmed but not fully so. In the space of that explanation, his demeanor and bearing shift from the sober listening he so often adopts when in Zeke's company, to that of an alabaster pillar, as cold and still as one of the pillars of the Dreamer's own temple, rimed with midwinter frost. "Even so," he breathes, very slowly, anger leashed tightly beneath the words. "I had sought to have her cast and barred from the Temple, but to no avail. The Temple heeded not my warnings. Blood now lies on her hands." It's hard to hide his own blood running cold. "Cryosanthia is doubtless beside herself." His tone is the icy stone. "She is to be told only what it serves us for the demon to know."

Zeke falls silent, nodding to Seldan's words and staring sightlessly at the food. His stomach eventually prods him to eat it, but he hardly tastes it at all. It's a mechanical thing. Something he does to survive, not out of pleasure of eating. "Cryosssanthia isss... hallucinating. Ssshe isss not well at all. Thisss one hasss been tending her night and day, but it only helpsss ssso much. Thisss one..." He looks at his empty claws and it seems a statement in of itself.

Slowly, he picks up the rind, placing it on the edge of the table and beginning the comforting ritual of making himself tea. He doesn't talk again until it's brewing and by then he has the measure of himself again. "The demon ssseems tied asss well to an incident where sssome number of Alexandriasss people were fed..." He tightens his jaw. "Ssentient flessh. Thisss one hasss performed absolutionsss for sssome who were there, and the temple of the death-singing-dragon confirmed to thisss one that it wasss true."

Seldan's jaw tightens, a gesture that clearly says that he is leashing himself with an iron fist, but the tone that emerges from that icy stone pillar is still even, quiet even. "Mistress Aya - is in league with this monster," he murmurs, very low. "I would know how it is that he comes to walk this plane as freely as he does. It is not of his own doing, of this much am I near-certain. But that ... Eclavdran must be stopped, ere he does worse. Casting him from this plane is not lightly done, and yet ...." He trails off, shaking his head. "I know something of demons, but there are others who know more."

"There isss one more thing you sssshould be aware of." Zeke says gently, quietly. He has his hands free to clasp his knees. One creaks slightly under the weight of his claws. "He can turn thossse who are mortal into demonsss like himsssself."

He meets Seldan's gaze. "He was witnesssed doing sssuch to Lily. If he can do sssuch to an innosscent like her..."

That is enough to drain the color from Seldan's already-fair features. The tea and its water lie forgotten , along with the fruit, as he stares in shock and growing horror as the sense of what Zeke is saying. "All of Alexandria is in gravest peril," he murmurs. Still, though, there is no fear, only fury and sympathy and a growing determination that breaks the icy facade, leaving that frost riming only the edges of his aura.

Although the deepest of sympathy finally breaks through the ice, it holds determination with it. No words will suffice, for comfort, not here. Only action offers surcease from sorrow. "If Mistress Aya has struck a deal, who else might have so done?"

"Thisss one hasss no way of knowing." Zeke says regretfully, sighing and shaking his head. "Obviousssly sssome-one hasss. To have... betrayed Lily. Yet whom? Whom do we know that we trussst and yet hatesss usss enough to betray a youngling?" He at least can think of no one. "And if there isss two... there are sssurely more. It isss possssible that thisss isss why he makesss ssuch dealsss. Ssso that we can not trusst one another... There isss danger in that."

"Who is to say that such an act is born of hate, and not ignorance, or wiles, or mere foolishness?" Seldan counters. "For you know as well as I that foolishness is more rampant within these walls even than the servants of evil." He looks down at the tea, finally, then back at Zeke, allowing the sith to pour, if he will. "There is danger indeed in not being able to trust those around oneself - and great pain as well." He lowers his eyes, trailing off, but the silence is short-lived. "Would that I could aid your cihuaa, but it is in my mind that aid to her is best offered in seeing that none others suffer as she has. I grieve for her youngling, and yet can I not permit it to consume me, or else are we truly lost. Know you if Silver Guard Serene and Archmage Cesran are well enough to speak with?"

"You are right kin. Thisss one can not be sscertain." Zeke finally, at last picks up his tea and takes a breath of it. Partially to steady himself, partly because he needs it. Comforting is hard to come by in the midst of battle, and they are at war. "Thisss one agreesss with you Ssseldan. We mussst be asssured that none other lossse thossse they love in thisss war. Thisss one hasss not seen Ssserene at all, sso can not sspeak for her. Cesssran sseemss well enough, he came to visssit you and thisss oness cihuaa. Thisss one can not be sscertain of hiss condition, but he isss better off than sssome."

"Very well. I shall seek her out, and do what I may for her, if that is needful." Seldan nods his immediate understanding. "We cannot continue to allow him and his minions to do as they will, for truly does such leave us all in peril, and yet is it in my mind to ask only the strongest among us to attempt to move against him directly. For others, who would help - I would have them learn who it is that summoned Eclavdran, and why."

Zeke nods at this. "Thisss one will ssspread the word. Thisss one... Thisss one would aid you kin, in facing thissss demon directly. For Lily." He looks down at his cup. "Yet thisss one knowsss that thisss one iss not warrior-casste asss you are, or Sserene. Yet have you need of thisss one in any other way. Thisss one isss at your disssposal. Thisss one will sssupport you asss besst ass thisss one isss able."

"It needs more than warriors to best one such as Eclavdran," Seldan answers at once, finally settling down into another of the overstuffed chairs and leaning forward to pour the tea into two cups with ornate handles. "Do I find myself in need, do not doubt that I shall come to you. My allies number few enough that I would overlook one merely for not being a warrior."

-End