Biting the Hand

Log Info

• Title: Biting the Hand
• Emitter: Auranar
• Characters: Faranmidahn, Auranar, Cryosanthia, Kira
• Place: A10 Temple of Daeus
• Time: Thursday, June 04, 2020, 2:24 PM
• Summary: Auranar intercepts Cryosanthia as she is leaving the Temple of Daeus, with the intention of leaving Alexandria. She delays the sith long enough that Faranmidahn arrives, and Kira catches up from the bath. As Cryo expains her rational, she gets progressively irratic, and finally asks for Faran's sword so she can cut off her hand. When the lucht knight hesitates, Cryo decides she can bit it off and attempts to do so. All three of her friends rush to restrain her, with Kira using Paladin's Sacrifice to prevent the injury. When the sith scents her blood, she is horrified to have directly caused another injury to a friend, and completely collapses. They take her to the Temple of Althea, sit her down and talk her down. Auranar steals the memory seed when Cryo reveals an odd plan for it, and finally they decide to ask Mikilos for some help.

In the Temple of Daeus complex, there are a lot of smaller, single purpose buildings surrounding the main temple. One of these is the Purification house, which contains hot and cold baths, hot rooms, massage rooms. It is intended to cleanse the soul by relaxing the body. Everyone who attends and uses the amenities leaves refreshed, refocused, with pains washed and rubbed away.

Almost everyone. The building did not have the intended effect for one white-scaled sith-makar female. Cryosanthia unfroze some emotions, let them unpack, and when they bubbled up to the surface it turned into a boil. Even in the cold pool. She leaves metaphorically hotter than when she went in, and literally colder. She is wearing nothing but frost and anger. The water has crystalized across her scales, making her fuzzy of form. She has a backpack on, and a determined stare, and is heading for the exit. It's not the worst disruption the temple has suffered, not by far, but she's drawing attention.

It's not really the backpack. Or the determined stride. It's just Cryosanthia that draws Auranar's attention. Given that the woman is the reason that she is in the temple of Daeus, the elf shifts her stride and starts heading in that direction so as to cut off Crysoanthia. She's forced to pick up her feet quite a bit given that she's much shorter, and it's for this reason that she doesn't notice the other two things as she cuts into the sith-makar's path. "Cryosanthia!" Her voice calls out semi-cheerfully, but in all seriousness. "Do you have a moment?"

The sith stops. The wild-elf is in her way, and she is a friend. She exhales, two cold streams of air from her nostrils that become visible with condensation. She blinks, lowering her head. There is the crackling of the thicker beads of ice along her neck. "This one does. Just a moment. What do you need?"

Some moments after Aura's arrival, a smaller figure arrives, travelling with her features shrouded with hood instead of helm. There's a bleak, worried humor to what's visible of her features and she skirts parishoners to seek her pale sister. Seeing her without apparel before Auranar with curiously fuzzy edges quickens her pace for it's abberation, and she ventures a, "Hello?" with a little wave.

Cryosanthia's demonor immediately penetrates Auranar's thoughts and she stops, tilting her head up at her much taller friend. The sith is covered in frost and not much else which only adds to Auranar's confusion. "What's wrong Cryosanthia? You..." She glances around the open space and lowers her voice. "You don't look well."

"I'm fine." Cryosanthia says, in exactly the manner how someone who isn't, does. Very controlled, very firm, biting her worlds. A tension around her eyes that suggests her regular vision has switched over to something more predatory, focused and tunnelled. She looks directly at Auaranr when she speaks. "Nothing is different. It is more clear."

She seems surprised at Faranmidahn's hail, from the way her head whips so she can face her. There is more crackling of ice as she shifts position. A smile, almost. "Faran. I'm leaving Alexandria. Please suggest places. We should ask Ezil along as well."

Scales are better at shedding water than other things, like hair. It's fortuitous, then, that Kira had recently lopped most of hers off. It may have helped a little. Scales are more appropriate for public settings than bare softskin, though.

Thus it's several moments after Cryosanthia that Kira comes running out of the Daeusite temple complex. Her shorn hair is still wet, though possibly air drying along with the rest of her as she's moving rapidly... despite bare feet and holding the hastily borrowed plain robe to her and close so that it isn't flying in the breeze.

"Cryosanthia! Wait!" she calls out even as she's looking around and before she spots the whitescale. Once she does, she changes her padding course appropriatel.

Auranar blinks at the response, and then again at Cryosanthia's comments to Faran. "Wait... What? You're leaving? Why would you be leaving?" She looks around but doesn't see anyone else around. Until Kira appears and then that only makes the situation even more curiosu. "Cryosanthia... Ah... what's going on here?"

Faranmidahn's pace increases as she notes the odd look she's gotten, the sound of her voice. Her trailing foot catches her leading ankle on Cryo's pronouncement and she stumbles owl-eyed for a moment then, "Ha-wait, what? Ahh... well..." She frowns and thinks on that for a moment, "We, mother and I, need to meet with our clan. For Father." she's gotten better at pushing the loss out of her voice, while her hood helps from most taller vantages with the rest but nonetheless the wound is still fresh and grievous though not mortal. She smiles, a little off balance, yet and, "Ah... Hello, Aura, how are you?" She looks up to the incoming, "Kira." and the smile on her lips changes hue, lingering conflict there, but is closer to normal than on their past accounts, then she nods up to her sister on Auranar's question and Kira's objection.

Cryosanthia's head whips first to look at Kira pursuing her, then back to Auaranar. Her breathing is quick and shallow. She seems ready to fight, or as if she has been fighting. Perhaps she should have baked her mind longer, but with cold clarity she answers the wild elf, and once she starts the reasons keep coming.

"I have poor judgement. I endanger others. I've gotten you killed. Kira, almost. Faran's... " she hesitates, her voice softening, "Faran's family suffered greatly because of me. Zeke. Everyone. I would kill my own child and what isn't broken in my mind is conditionned to serve the Mistress. I trusted my instincts and they were wrong and wrought a long chain of suffering. Any moment she will send Him or the Ice Demon to collect me, and more people will suffer. Zeke believes so and abandons me, so there's no reason to stay."

The white sith exhales more cold air, turning to her sister-lucht, "This one wanted to talk these thoughts through with you, but I reached the conclusion on my own. I should go. We should go. I would love to meet your clan. You may join if you wish Auranar."

Kira finally catches up, padding to a stop before coliding with anyone. Also without tackling anyone, though the thought may have briefly crossed her mind. "Cryo... I told you... that wasn't you, that was HER." She gives Auranar a slightly embarassed look and Faran.. more guilt than embarassment, though she tries to cover some of both with a slightly forced polite smile and a nod.

She looks right back to the sith, though. "I don't think you should go. I don't wish for you to go. Please. What happened was wrong. Many are weary, or fearful, or angry..." An undeniable, perfect, legitimate reason for her to not go would be wonderful about now. If only Kira could think of one or put it into words in that way.

Auranar can't help but feel confused, and the expression spreads across her features until she's holding her hands up. "Cryosanthia. You can't leave! Don't make any hasty decisions, please. This doesn't make any sense. Why would Zeke abandon you? That doesn't sound like him at all." She looks at Kira and Faran. "Listen to Kira, I don't want for you to go either, we've a lot to get done here! Leaving would just make it easier for that fae... to capture you again. For all we know she's just waiting for you to leave Alexandria to get her hands on you. Please, talk to me; talk to all of us; we're your friends."

Faranmidahn steps around Auranar with a gentle hand alighting against her arm, clearly trying to play catchup as Cryo pours her demons out in a rush, "Cryo... you can't be held accountable for every errant spasm Sally has." She reaches out to take the Sith's, likely frigid, hand in hers, though she at least is back to using her abjurations again, "Don't you take what happened to my parents... don't you dare. -I- told her who they were, where they were... I opened a door that Sally stepped through. She gives a quick, quizzical glance to Kira, then Auranar, before, "What happened to Auranar was terrible, yes, but I wanted the same thing you did, sister... and likely if we scried for Father or Mother the demon still would have come."

She takes a slow breath, "There is the other side, too... Kira, Aura. Salina's eye is on her seemingly at a whim and she's supposed to suffer in silence while Gods know what happens elsewhere?" Her voice has pain in it, "We can't speak to her for fear of telling the Avalanche which slope to roll down? Salina's every response ends in overwhelming force. In malignant cruelty." She glances, "The Queen came once, and left without killing everyone around. Once. She could easily have done the same at the Soldier's Defense." a sniff, "At the Research camp... how many innocents? And now, apparantly another of her errant reflexes sends a new calamity to the city."

"It is not hasty. I have thought at least a day, and an hour in the pool." Cryo says. If anything, she's looking even more fuzzy as the hoarfrost on her increases. It's cracked at her joints, around her neck, making her resemble an odd sort of positionable statue. She looks at Kira now, her sapphire gem-like eyes, hiding everything inside. "I called her attention. She hears through the mark, we established that ... Faran..." Her voice loses the edge, and there's a pained noise in her throat, "... I'm sorry. It's not... but..."

Her words drift off. Then, the coldness returns. "Maybe she was waiting for that. For me to try talking back. It is as Malik and Seldan say. I opened a door again. I know how she is and yet I still hoped maybe there's a solution that isn't death? Or shere hubris? Malik, Seldan, were unrelenting in their accusations. This one thought, 'are they possessed? deliberately misinterpreting?' No. Zeke sided with them. He thought their words fine. He could smell my distress. He is my mate! ... is supposed to be my mate... He agreed with them! He did not challenge! When they warned I was dangerous, he accepted. He abandonned me. Left! With them. Took Seldan's hand! He won't even touch... mine... me.... because She's always..."

Her voice rises, turning into a wail of despair, which she chokes off. Silence. Her next words are ice cold. She is so still one can hear her ice crystals glowing.

"Faran. I need your sword."

Kira is quick to open her mouth, ready with a prompt retort. Or... not, as she closes it again. She can't deny what happened, because it did. Not Salina, nor Eclavdran, nor Yukia, nor whatever other things have appeared. That she doesn't fault Cryo for any of it doesn't necessarily change how the sith feels.

That's not what pains her, though. It's the latter. Her kin.. and Zeke! Who is she to try and tell someone else what their mate was thinking or feeling or how they're supposed to feel about that? While she's struggling with this, Cryo asks for the sword. It's so unexpected it takes Kira a moment to processes it before her eyes widen. "What are you-- No."

The last is firm and she steps closer to Cryosanthia. She may or may not know what she intends... but her answer would be the same. The request for a sword steals all of the words from Auranar's mind, and without thinking she steps forward, trying to block Cryosanthia much as Kira is. "Cryosanthia! That you would ask for such a thing proves that you are not in your right mind! Stop, please stop. Come with me." She holds out her hand to her friend. "Come to a room, and sit down and have some tea. Have a talk. We can make sense of this. Maybe all of us together can make sense of what's happened to you. Maybe things aren't the way you think they are."

GAME: Faranmidahn casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 5 DC: 14

Faran grips her scabbard tightly on her sister's request, her expression flowing through startled, to a guilt-ridden solemnity. Instead of denying, or drawing her sword with that hand, she forms her fingers into the invocative gestures of her particular divinations. "Magic forces sweeping Earth to sky, reveal your flows to my focused eye." she says, and her eyes take to their pink light. A small, pink star gleams in the corner of one eye... as she thinks she knows Cryo's thought, as it's one she's flogged herself over for almost two months, now. The brand. <halfling>

"No! I'm fine!" Cryo insists loudly in a way that clearly betrays she is not. "NO TEA!" She screams, this is a sore point. Then she is back to speaking with a cold clarity. "I can do it myself. The sword will hurt less. That's why they drew, except, they're right. I have to free myself."

Her eyes widen as if she is struck by an ephiphany, but it may be merely a collision of insanity. "That's the Mistress' lesson! I can get through any pain!"

Her hands turn into wicked claws. Her jaw drops as her mouth fills with fearsome teeth. The white sith is becoming far too similar to a recent paladin's memory. It is ice crystal clear that while some logic is functionning, all sense has long departed her. There's a second where she stares at her left hand, steeling herself as her self preservation screams at her to snap out of it. That hated Snowflake mark. The Mistress. Everything that's gone wrong. She needs to tear it out of her life.

She bites.

"Cryo!" Kira exclaims in shock or horror(?) as she chomps down on her hand. She reaches to her with one arm, wrapping it around her in a half hug. A hug that's firm, and somewhere between 'I want you to feel better' and 'I don't want you to hurt anyone' Because that's exactly the situation. Her hugs are multi-purpose, but she may not have ever used one for both, before.

"Healer ease your suffering..." she utters as an offering. "Please," her voice becomes tight. "It will be alright..."

Maybe Cryosanthia has enured herself to pain, or steeled her will, because it doesn't seem to hurt. Which may or may not encourage her to try harder. Kira doesn't embrace her with her other arm, instead keeping it down at her side, fist clenched. And bleeding.

GAME: Kira casts Paladin's Sacrifice. Caster Level: 10 DC: 17

Auranar is a little less... apt than Kira is, throwing herself bodily at Cryosanthia to try and keep the sith's teeth from her own flesh. All she can try to do is add her weight to Cryosanthia's arm so that the sith woman can't lift it. "HEALERS! Help! Someone! Help please! We've got to get her to a bed, keep her from hurting herself! Stop Cryosanthia! For the love of the gods stop!" Her voice is filled with panic. Panic caused by the idea of her friend hurting herself.

Faran didn't quite expect.... that. Cryo's actions, in retrospect are, ultimately in keeping with her logic. Remove the mark, get out her eye. Faran's own thought, though stayed by talk with others. Now we've come to the height of her sister's despair and she surges forward with a scream, "NO!" She sees... the swirl and eddies of the bite, the flow from Cryosanthia's target to Kira's veiled limb, leaving the shining hiney a background consideration, though she nontheless warns, 'She watches!' and she leaps to try and grab at Cryo's neck, even to intercept the next bite if that is the way of things. <halfling>

She is beautiful and deadly, wicked claws and fearsome teeth. An apex predator, now twisted, broken enough to believe the only way out of a snare is to gnaw off a limb. Cryo is trying to do so, biting down and sawing with teeth, even as they seem to be sliding on her scales. Her hide isn't that strong, the thought sinks in. There's a weight on her back, pulling on her neck, which smells like a friend. Two other friends, pulling on her and her arm. She's not so far gone she'll attack them, turning her free hand away to be harmless, minding her teeth. Words. Why can't I bite through.

Blood! Not hers! Kira's! She could smell it all night, on her at the baths. So strong she can taste it. Who is attacking Kira? You are. Their words get through.

Stop!

It shatters through her mind. Cryo stops trying to bite. Her claws and teeth vanish. "No no no no no no no no no." She collapses, sinking to the ground, head and hand pulled away from each other. Kira suffering the wounds she was intending on herself. She starts to wail distress.

With the claws and teeth withdrawn from each other, Kira breathes easier, and not as much for the obvious physical reason as others. Auranar has her arm. Faranmidahn her neck. Kira could probably hold the sith up, or at least partially support her as she sinks, but instead sinks with her. Now she gets a much more proper, soothing, patented Kira-brand hug. The best model Kira has on hand!

The wail, and pain it carries, may well hurt Kira more than the bite. She tries to soothe, "Shhh. We're here. We're not going anywhere. We'll get through this together." Which means she can't go anywhere else, too... and they're not abandoning her. She doesn't care who's watching.

Auranar makes soothing noises as best she can. They're drawing attention, hopefully enough to take Cryosanthia somewhere more private. "It's okay. It's going to be okay. We'll take you somewhere safe and we can work this all out." She husshes the sith, not even knowing if she can be heard through Cryo's wailing. It doesn't matter anymore, everyone knows they need help. It's coming.

Faranmidahn's eyes hold to their light, the star in the corner losing it's shine as it trails down her cheek. She doesn't lose her embrace, though it gentles and the little knight nuzzles at Cryo's head, scritching at the scales with her little fingers, "Easy.... easy, sister... we're with you... we're with you, easy, now...." trying to be calming, to conceal her own anguish. Spying movement, her scritching hand takes a moment to arc a finger toward Kira with a strategicly timed, "Shhhhhh...!"

Cryosanthia is gripped by deep despair. Her feelings of loss, futility and failure, flow out, uncontrolled in the pained calls of her species. Her eyes are black, pupils wide open as she stares at everything, her limbs weak, relying on Kira's support to hold her up. She has been pulled apart, hand from her mouth, preventing from greviously injuring herself and as her teeth and claws fade the impulses may also have.

She can sense Faran's weight on her shoulders, Auranar's grip on her arm, Kira's closeness. They are friends, they are warm, and the ice on her is melting. Their words are sinking in. The cry was answered. Friends are here.

Help, is here.

The sith becomes even more limp, stops struggling. Her breath still comes in gasps, but her overwhelming emotions are receeding. Her loud, mournful wailing turns into quiet moans for herself, driven by her short exhales. Finally words, overtop of her pain. "Put me in a box. Put me in a box." Coherent, but still not sane.

Kira has no intention of putting Cryosanthia in a box. Now that she isn't immediately trying to harm herself, though, she agrees with Auranar that there are healthier and more comfortable places for the sith than the middle of the plaza. That are still in Alexandria, too.

"Cryo..." she addresses softly, as she tries to think of the best way to word things, "let us help you get more comfortable? We could go to The Healer's Temple..." Kira suggests, as she isn't about to take her near Zeke's room right now. "There are pools there, if you would like to swim more? Or a quiet room to rest? Or talk?"

Auranar's call has drawn into some attention, and there are clerics around to help now if necessary. "Yea. Lets go somewhere. Somewhere nice and quiet and just... talk all this out." She nods to Kira and hopes that they don't need the people that she's called for aid to carry Cryosanthia off somewhere. Nobody's making any moves to do so yet, but there's an air of preperation, the knowledge that it's not safe to allow Cryosanthia to be alone right now.

Faranmidahn frowns at Cryo's words, "Come, sister, please." she says gently, glancing to Auranar with a weak smile, "Would you like a swim? We can swim, together..." She closes her eyes a moment, trying to get her emotions under control enough to let distant Zephyr realize her mistress is 'all right'... ok, more that 'she'll keep'.

"Yes. Pools. A room. Talk." Cryo agrees, even though it sounds like she's only repeating words she's just heard. She has strength enough to stand. Faran is an easy and welcome weight on her shoulders, against her neck. Easily bourne, it makes her presence felt. Cryo can smell her and hear her heartbeat.

"Your hand..." The sith looks at Kira with wild eyes and a panic rising in her voice again. Recriminating thoughts in her mind flaying her, that she's done something unspeakable to the paladin. Her blood smells so strong. "I... I...".

"She reaches for the two, the wild-elf and the human, a hand towards each. Overwhelmed and allowing herself to be led. "A swim. Yes. A swim. Ok."

Kira gently but firmly aids Cryosanthia to stand, maybe with Auranar's help as well, and turns them towards Althea's Temple. There's no rush, but does keep enough direction to urge and encourage. "Yes, we can do any or all of those..."

As for her hand, she offers Cryo a warm, genuine smile. "It's alright. My hand and my choice. You didn't do anything to me, Cryosanthia. -I- did." Which, incidentally, circles back to an earlier point she attempted to make.

Auranar takes Cryosanthia's hand gently. She's much smaller than the sith-makar, but her grip is firm and real, and she hopes that does something for the other woman. Gently she waves back the clerics, taking a few steps toward the rooms and the baths where hopefully Cryosanthia can swim. Slowly but surely. "We're all fine. Nothing that can't be healed. I'm sure one of the nice clerics will be happy to help her."

Faranmidahn gives Cryo a gentle squeeze and goes back to scritching at her as she tries to make her impression of the Sith 'you're safe' sounds. She leaves the words to the ladies, just trying to be a comforting stole, warm and loving.

Cryosanthia walks, leaving wet footprints as her ice melts. Her pupils are about half spread open, leaving moon crescents of sapphire on either of them, so she resembles a cat. She is letting Auranar and Kira lead, her breathing is still fast. Her thoughts are still not coherent if her words are any indication, "Should have. Let me. Can't stop. Only way. She's watching."

She isn't struggling. She weakly holds their hands, as if pressure might bring her claws back. Whether she heard Faran's warning or is in the depths of paranoia isn't clear. There is fear in her voice. "Something's coming. Hurry." Although, she isn't hurrying.

Faran's noises are soothing, they're helping. Even if she doesn't feel safe, the sounds are getting through. Althea's Temple seems a fine choice, she's willing and intent on that. "She's coming. Get Inside."

That someone is watching is one thing. Something that has obviously tormented Cryosanthia, but Kira has only had to acknowledge it as a worry. Concerns that someone may be visiting, however, is another matter. "You are safe, sister," she assures and her pace quickens some. Is she being presumptive with the title? Maybe, but she considers the sith that, at least.

Justified or not, Cryosanthia's worries might still help them to get her inside more quickly. Her first instinct is to try and lead for the individual healing and care rooms. If Cryo is staying, and they're all quite intent that she does, she'll need a place to stay and be cared for as a priority. They can always visit the pools later.

Considering that she doesn't know the area that well beyond the places she's been for research and to visit Cryosanthia previouly, Auranar leads the sith, but mostly by following Kira. "Come on, we're almost there." She has no idea how far it is actually, but every step feels like a victory to the elf, and she's not going to deny that feeling.

Faranmidahn continues to try and calm her sister, through fingers, through her voice, her warmth and embrace. She's never been very deep into the Mother's temple, herself, and is ill informed to lead. Kira knows best in this regard, thogh she maintains her glowing stare.

The sith is letting the paladin lead, getting inside seems to be her greatest intent, although that won't change anything. So, the group ends up at the individual healing and care rooms. Cryo's only real reaction is to say "No pool?" when they enter. Otherwise she stands there, eyes still giving her a lost expression.

Kira is somewhat relieved once they're inside. The temple is arranged and decorated to be calming, for those within to feel safe and secure. She's moreso once they reach the room and she gets Cryosanthia near the cot present, in case she wants to sit. Which Kira encourages with, "Please, sit. For a moment? We can go to the pools soon. I need to check what is available, first." This is entirely true; Kira hasn't used any of the communal pools recreationally, or otherwise. She'll help Cryo to sit if she wishes, or release her if she can and wants to stand, or neither of those if not. The important thing is that they're here. Together.

With a few calm words, Auranar continues to agree with Kira. Reitterating the other woman's words in the hopes that it will help sink in past Cryosanthia's disassosiative state. She doesn't release Cryosanthia's hand, but rather uses her other hand to catch up a chair in the room as they pass it and pull it closer to the bed so that she can sit down if and when the sith-makar chooses to.

The little sorcersss is continuing to watch the flow of magic as they travel with glances to either of her marked companions, no doubt obvious to the Tormentor after so long under watch, and likely not unexpected. She shifts her position slightly as her leg starts to cramp, but otherwise continues making her noises, moving her fingertips along the winter scales.

The surroundings are calming, this sinks in. The lucht's gentle stroking of her scales also helped. Cryosanthia sits on the bed, her tail straight out behind her. She takes off her haversack and puts it in her lap, then slides her left hand into it. Her breathing seems to have slowed to normal, although her eyes still don't look right. Her attention focuses on a spot on the floor, otherwise she's still. To Kira's explanation she answers, "Ok," although, she might have said that to anything.

Cryo starts to shake her head, then stops herself, forcing the nervous tic away. The frost has vanished, she is for the most part dry. Her speach seems normal enough now, and properly connected to a thought process, even if she sounds utterly defeated. "I'll never escape Her. I can never free myself of Her.""

Kira softens her hold on Cryo after she, or rather they, sit. She doesn't release it, only lessening so that it is present rather than possibly oppressive. "Yes, you will." She thinks to add more, and nearly does... but stops with that simple, earnest assurance. Anything more makes her worry she might cause the whitescale to revisist or conjure more desperate ideas. "We will. You don't face this alone, Cryo."

"It's as she says. You are not alone. We're all here with you." She soothingly pets Cryosanthia's hand which she still holds while taking her seat. "Look, you don't have to say anything. You don't have to do anything. We can just sit here. What's important is that you don't do anything that you'll regret later okay?"

"Forever, dear sister." Faran whispers in her ear frills before gently kissing her cheek. She gets a few more strokes in as Cryo seems to be coming back to more fully resemble herself before she tries to slip down to her feet. She wishes Zephyr was here, she's usually very helpful with Cryo's moods, but the little spider is currently keeping an eye on her mother, "Don't be alone, Cryosanthia. Be with us as we're with you."

Cryosanthia sits there, hunched forward, staring at the floor. She is listening, and what the others are saying is good, but the reassurances bounce off impenetrable logic. "I can't escape her. Even if she's killed, she's still in my mind. The memory of her. I copied her for decades. I was twenty one. For every memory of myself, I have four of her, with her. Even if that is forgotten, her handiwork is on my scales. Flay me to the bone... even then... change time so I never went... and that wouldn't be me, whoever you got instead... I'll never be free."

Just sit, that's what they say, so she sits. Feels Auranar pet her hand. Don't do anything, that's easy enough. Her biggest regret can't be undone, and neither can most of the smaller ones. She breathes. She doesn't move. She stares. "Thanks for being with me, but it's hopeless. I don't see what can be done."

"Hope is never absent," Kira knows this to be true, though the challenge can be spreading and nurturing it in others to prove it to them. She puts a hand to Cryosanthia's shoulder. "You are stronger than her. You suffered her longer than anyone, and you endured. We may never forget all that's happened, but she will be forgotten, and we are more than just our memories"

Her hand lowers to some of the differentiated scales. "Your scales aren't her mark, they're -your- banner. Signs of your strength, that you overcame. I don't see her in them. I see only you. Bold, bright, beautiful, fierce... like the sunshine across the snow on a clear, cold, winter's day."

Faranmidahn closes her eyes and shakes her head, "Conditions, people even can sway your decisions, but Cryo....?" she starts, trying to lock eyes with the sith, letting her spell go as staring with her detection running would probably cause her thoughts down a rabbit hole best avoided. "That can only happen if you let them. Believing you have no choice, is ultimately a choice you're free to make, but consider: It takes outside influence, whatever she or her demons employ to bypass your true mind." As Kira speaks she goes silent, then nods affirmingly at her words before turning back to add her own. She points at the palescaled chest, "In there... despite your copying her for so long... you still weep, you still smile, you still -try-, you try to do what you think is -right-. And after so long in your truest being.... she could not take that from you."

"Was she still watching?" Cryo asks, focusing on Faran in front of her. "Why does she care what you say to me?" And why does the sith care that she cares, and there's that rabbit hole. The other things her lucht sister said were not lost, she did not lose herself, and while demons and mind conditionning tricks grab at her, they don't get to the heart of her. She snorts a short laugh, "maybe that's what she was cutting me up to find. Must have annoyed her to find everything but."

Cryo inclines her head and gazes at Kira, blinking slowly, "You make me sound beautiful. And, thanks. For the Hope."

Next follows a long exhale, where she adjusts the haversack on her lap. "The problem remains, I interest her, she will try to recapture me, this will endanger others. I can't live with my hand in a bag. Things said around me when she watches are heard, and she acts to punish anyone opposing her. If I was far away she would either take me or dismiss me, but it would not summon demons to Alexandria."

Kira can't not smile wider at Cryosanthia, hand returning to her shoulder to give it an affectionate squeeze. "You are... and you are very welcome." Hope may not solve everything on its own, but it is a required start. She nods to acknowledge her point. "I'm not very skilled with magic, but there must be some way to stop her from listening? One that is more comfortable than your bag. They studied the plague and it is being cured, I'm certain there is something. We just need to look."

"At the very least, offering yourself up to be captured again doesn't help /anyone/." Auranar states sternly, her dark eyes stairing up into Cryosanthia's. "Nor does leaving Alexandria. That just means that... if she comes for you, you won't have anyone to protect you. And what are we supposed to do if we lose you again?"

"I don't know Auranar, I don't know." Cryosanthia says, hanging her head. She is hunched forward, resting on her elbows, resting on her knees. Her tail hasn't moved since she sat on the bed. "Finding some way to safely wait it out, since I'm such a liability, seems the best I can hope for. I can't stay in the Arcanist dungeons. I just... not..."

She sighs, "And making others protect me, it ... distracts. I have moved from being a distraction to being a trap. An entanglement. The Temples can't. I hate to appeal. Who? How? You have duties Kira, you too Auranar, you can't always be watching me. Appeal to Mikilos? Ask him to cast his magic mansion, recast it daily, live in it till this is done?"

She shrugs again, adding the oddest comment. "Eat the seed and see what happens?"

"We love you, Cryosanthia. We want you safe and free and happy," Kira feels comfortable speaking that much for all here. "You aren't a burden. My duty is to protect and aid any in need. That includes my friends. We have the advantage; there are many of us, and only one of her. We can find a way..." She is surprised by the last option. "Seed? What seed?"

Faranmidahn hmmm's looking between the two for a few beats, but she holds the spell, regardless, "She seems to have lost interest for the moment." Though she, too is puzzled by talk of a, "Seed?"

"Whatever this seed is. It sounds like a bad idea to me." Auranar frowns at Crysanthia and the other two women as well. "If you don't know what it does, that only makes it a worse one. You need to /not/ make any drastic decisions right now Cryosanthia. You need to sleep. Think on things. Talk with your friends. Talk to your... mate? Do all that before you do something else."

Cryosanthia puts her other hand into her haversack and takes out something that looks like a large plum seed. She holds it between thumb and forefinger. "It's the seed from the Memory apple... that Seldan traded for..." She exhales, hangs her head, staring at the bag in her lap.

A thought strikes, "Were both our marks on at the same time, Kira's and mine, or did they switch?"

Cryo finishes her earlier idea, "I ate the flesh of this to bring back my memories. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat it all, no one knew. If I ate it, I don't know what will happen. Would I remember more, would I remember things that didn't happen? It's a rather big seed, it might shred and block my intestines and I die, if it doesn't poison me outright. It's a seed. Seeds grow into... things."

Auranar's assessment seems strikingly accurate after the sith's explanation. Not a safe toy.

Kira is a bit concerned as soon as she mentions the source of the seed and the power it must have contained. The mention of intestinal blockage and death pretty much seals her opinion on it, though. "No. Auranar is right. We shouldn't do anything rash. The seed might be used for something to help, but you shouldn't eat it."

Auranar only frowns at Cryosanthia more as the description of the seed is laid out. Wordlessly, and without warning she snags the seed from Cryosanthia's hand. "I'll hold onto this for you." She stares the much larger sith down. "You can have it back when your plan isn't to /eat/ it."

Faranmidahn shakes her head, trying to suss out the reasoning, though... there is an avnue of her thought that it could be that simple. The other avenue laughs in that one's face, but she dismisses neither out of turn. Instead, "I'll get get us some food, would anyone like anything in particular?" she offers hopefully.

"Grind it up like nutmeg? Everyone's holiday eggnog gets that more interesting?" Cryosanthia suggests. She made a small snort when the seed was snatched, but seems content to leave it with the wild-elf. "It might be useful for trading. To the Queen of Pain or King Knickerssnatchers. It might grow in Fae realms. It might grow here, but one likely has to hop backwards widdershins whistling 'We Build for Blar'. Don't lose it, if it's important it's dangerous."

The sith sits silently, staring a her bag again. There are some very long breaths full of silence. "I'm not even sure I have a mate."

She doesn't let that utterance linger long. "This one would like some chewy meat. Should I ask Mikilos for the mansion spell? It will be prettier than a box. I can stay inside." Where she, hopefully, can't be scryed upon, but equally where she can control who enters. "Until we figure something else better out."

If Cryosanthia's intent was to offer utterly terrible ideas first to make the last sound much more palatable... Well, it isn't really a bad idea at all. Mikilos' Magnanimous Mansion, that is. "If you would feel safe and comfortable there, and it is protected... That's all that I want for you, Cryosanthia." She offers more smile. "That and to visit you, of course."

Auranar pocketed the seed and rose to her feet. "I'll come with you Faran. None of us should be walking around alone now. Just promise me you'll stay here until we come back okay Cryosanthia?" She looks at the sith woman hopefully.

Nodding once to Auranar, "Thank you, Aura, I... sometimes have trouble carrying enough food for everyone." She stes up to gently stroke Cryo's cheek with her hand, "Chewy meat... from that little place by the north bridge?" She smiles, "We'll be back, soon, sister, then we can eat and swim!" And with that, she turns to start to make her way out.

The whitescale sith looks at Auranar silently for a moment, then nods. "I'll stay."

She turns and looks at Kira, specifically at her hand. "Of course you'll be allowed in. After everything, how could I not?"

She smiles as Faran touches her cheek, "Yes, that's the place."

Kira turns her smile to Faran and Auranar to assure them, now. "We'll be here when you return. Feel free to get as much chewy meat as might be eaten." Back to Cryosanthia after. "I wouldn't think that you wouldn't, but everyone might need privacy or rest from time to time."

Auranar turns and follows Faran out after a brief nod and half a smile for Cryosanthia.

Faranmidahn makes her way out to get lunch for the group, even as she struggles with everything in her mind, idly trying to rub the feel of her scabbard from her palm...

Salina's two marked ones are left alone in the room, united in their experiences, their snowflake brand, and their suffering. The whitescale is drained from her emotional upheaval. She still wants to leave, get far away, swim. She will settle for sleeping. "I wish to like down Kira, can you... you can sit back down when I've stretched out." She occupies a lot of bed, and she's lying face down, which is a sign of improvement. She uses her haversack as a pillow, with her left arm still in it.

"Oh where is Merek with his calm emotions spell when you need it... oh... right." Cryo exhales a weary sigh, closing her eyes so she doesn't have to stare at the wall. "Thank you Kira... for everything."

She makes a fist with her left hand, out of sight, extra-dimensionally. She doesn't want to hate it, but this Mistress has her snared by it, and there's still no good solution.