Closed setting the board.

[Caelum]

The soap he selected smelled like the sea. It reminded him of sun and sand as he lathered it over his limbs and rubbed the sweat and grime from his skin. He had never been fond of water, but that had more to do with emotional associations than it had to do with anything like logic. By standing in the bathing pool and using life-bringing water to help cleanse him, he was allowing himself a slow reconnection with the elements; and when he sank under water, dark hair unraveling from braids to float upwards, he remembered salt stinging his eyes and farseeing memories of all his lives sloughing from his mind like skin. He surfaced and let a lot of that old, unforgiving bitterness in him float away. Then he did it again. In the end, he soaped up three times. He didn't really believe that would be enough to rinse the blood and sin from him, but it felt like a good number and he felt both lighter and more dense afterwards. Clever fingers threaded into his hair and his lips moved with silent recitation of old prayers as he braided his hair into prayer knots. Three strands came back from his temples where his horns would have been and were gathered into the heavier knot of the rest, ends tucked under in a old fashioned club in lieu of tying it off with a bit of leather or twine. He didn't want to wear anything not of his body tonight. Following Kavala into the Sacred Circle, he divested himself of his robe while watching her pray. When she was finished he let his eyes roam over the statues of gods lining the walls of the Circle and he stepped in to follow the path, one to the next. He had not spent time in this room. In truth he had not spent a great deal of time Within. These were the bones of the earth to which he would return, but until that time he preferred to spend his immortality under the sky. The statue of Nysel was stopped by first and he gazed at it with a sideways smile. One hand rose and he drifted the tips of his fingers down the god's cheek. He closed his eyes, remembering, and bent a knee in genuflection, "My lord, witness that this magic not only makes me stronger, but also Cytali through me." Following Kavala's earlier egress, his next stop was for Eyris. He studied her in silence a long minute before ducking head and shoulders in respect. "I don't know you well, Eyris, but it is to your wisdom that has undoubtedly led me back to this place. I humbly ask your blessing in this and all my endeavors and hope to know you better in the seasons to come." Rak'keli was third and he stood before her statue and lowered himself to lay a kiss to its base. Breath came out of him, full and shuddering, for this was the goddess who had shown herself to him first since his return to Mizahar. She had pushed him gently toward the road that ultimately led him here when he was in need of his greatest healing, and she knew what he had his mind to shortly undertake -- the healing he had promised Kavala as summer died. "Help me," he whispered to her. His hand settled warmly at her feet, and he straightened in the knowledge that she would understand. His eyes turned then to the darkness. Nikali had no statue here. Her mark on him pulsed gently and he understood it for the promise it was. The shadows received a smile like a blown kiss and he turned to the light, stepping into the ring of illuminating candles after Kavala as he thought of his Bright Lady. She like Nikali had no statue here, but her sun had heated the earth above them and around, and it would remember itself come spring. Caelum watched Kavala weigh the knife in her hand and he knew this winter would not last. The first sparks of divinity were with them, energized and brightening with every passing breath. Syna watched; revelation was coming. Caelum nodded when Kavala spoke and halted in front of her, well within reach of that dangerous knife. "It is what I want," he assured her, seeking only to strengthen his friend's resolve. The first cut drew his breath in a hiss, but the rest he was silent for. Pain flared beneath the cuts and his blood dripped down carnelian bright. Long fingers curved into Kavala's when she brought their hands together, mingling their blood, and he was watching her face as she brought the rest of their bodies together piece by piece, cut by cut, intimate and close. Heat pooled low in his belly, easy and welcome desire, and even as he studied rich blue eyes, Kavala's own desires swept through him like an inbound tide. They swept his own aside. His heart hammered once and then stilled. Bright pain splintered through him as Kavala's res made its way in. His pulse leapt back up. He imagined the res was trying to build a home inside of him and all of him tensed for a moment, shocked by the agony of it, by the sheer invasiveness of it all. Yet then something exquisite happened. His wants surged hungrily to join her's and all that was holy within him stretched and strengthened. He relaxed even as Kavala caught his mouth with hers and more of that powerful res began to pour down his throat. Head ringings, heart easing, pleasure crawled across his to turn around all of his pain and make of him a bridge between the mortal and the divine. Kavala yearned for that connection and the right person had found her. Fingers braided, bodies entwined, Caelum became the perfect vessel for her res, and for all of their orisons. She could pour as much power into him as she liked, and he would drink it like the wind though it blazed and flared and maybe even ate at him inside. Kavala held him, but he tangled her into his arms. His body was open to her. Nikali had heard him. He inhaled the light.

[Kavala]

Beautiful things never lasted. Blooming roses eventually wilted and dried, their petals falling to be scattered by the wind. Cool breezes on hot days eventually played out. And the light always gave way to the dark. Kavala fed Caelum her Res until she had no more to give and no more will to give it. She broke the kiss off and stepped back, releasing his hands and pulling their limbs apart where they were entwined.

While he was still enthralled by the invasion and the way her Res was teaching his djed to form all of its own, Kavala carefully knelt and began healing him. She ran her own bloody palms over his cuts, sealing them neatly and cleanly, leaving only thin scars to add to his already marred flesh. She didn’t interrupt him with speaking nor did she ask him how he was feeling or if he was ready for the next step. She instead went about her work methodically knowing this was what he wanted and needed to further his aims in the world.

And when Caelum bled no more, Kavala looked to her own wounds, closing the ones in her palms, chest, stomach, and legs. She felt a bone deep weariness as she watched him absorb the joy the power would bring him. There was no hesitation in her decision to induct him, but the late night timing could have been better for her having already had long days.

As Caelum reveled in the newfound chemical reaction going on in his body, Kavala moved backwards and pulled a discarded robe from the pile by the door, belting it around her waist. She glanced at the faces of the Gods surrounding the Sacred Circle and began repl acing her steps, snuffing candles and offering prayers of thanks for the gods that had joined them. She took her time, knowing the Eth would need a few moments. When she completed the full circle, she picked up Caelum’s robe and stood waiting, ready to offer it to him when he came back to himself.

[Caelum]

It was a slow surfacing. The prickling song of desire he had been following faded swiftly, the notes twisting to shivering end as some misstep in his conduct failed to fully satisfy Kavala’s needs. The bridge he had attempted to make of himself for her driving requirement of connecting to the divine had not spanned high enough and he slid back into the mire of embattled djed within him. It hurt again, but he set his jaw and endured it, still managing to marvel at the miracle of it all. It required effort because his last induction to magic had been so incredibly traumatizing and out right wrong, but he sustained his wonder all the same. This had been his choice though Kavala had urged him to do it on several previous occasions, and he had squared it with both himself and his gods. That combined with Kavala’s expertise and deft skill as well as her ready desire for him to be successful in his endeavors made all the difference. When Kavala broke their kiss and stepped away from him, he remained where he stood, less reveling in the chemical reactions popping and festering, sparking and burning inside of him and more resigned to handling them. They were fascinating, though, and he studied them curiously, eyes closed even when he felt the familiar grace of Rak’keli’s power coast through his limbs due to Kavala’s generous gift. Visible wounds sealed and settled and the great turmoil within began to ebb and calm. He shuddered, light headed, and drew air deep into his lungs while opening his eyes to the world. “Thank you, Kavala,” he told her quietly upon discovering her standing in front of him. He searched her face, noting signs of weariness and commiserating with it. Except while he was tired, he also felt on the brink of even greater discovery and was driven to now make the magic his rather than the leftover sensation of an alien force. That part was altogether too similar to the aftermath of his forced induction into projection magic. He accepted the rob and shrugged into it, frankly immodest and unconcerned with it. The belt slipped through his fingers as he pulled it into a slip knot and he then looked at Kavala with that wonderful and open smile of his. “Are you alright?” He wanted to know.

[Kavala]

She met his smile with a soft one of her own and nodded an affirmative to his question about her well being. Kavala was fine. Their work must go on and for that to happen Caelum needed this power. But inducting him wasn't like inducting someone newly to the magic. Their was an inner joy to them, a sense of discovery and wonder. Their minds were always filled with questions on the hows and whys of things, which the teacher in Kavala took great pleasure in sitting down with them afterwards and explaining everything when those questions spilled out their lips and filled the silence with the music of voices.

With Caelum it was different.

These days he seemed always moody, introspective, and dwelling never in the here and now but in the past and future simultaneously. Kavala sometimes felt a little sorry for him because he missed the simple joys in life so much of the time. And while she lived for the future, she never took the right now for granted. It was something that she'd never do again, not having been so close to death just a few seasons before.

Each breath was a gift, each step a chance at discovery, each new face or new idea a potential to be mulled over. Even food for her had become something of an indulgence. She'd taken to savoring things that others or herself had lovingly prepared rather than bolting them down as a means to satisfy hunger so she could move forward with a list she had of things that needed doing for the day. Kavala took care in meeting new people and took great joy in experiencing new things or things that were new for the right now.

Caelum's induction had lacked something of that wonder for her. It was perhaps because he had dark memories or expectations having remembered other times and other inductions. It felt more like a chore that had to be done - like fencing needing repaired - than a gift to bestow upon a beloved friend. And he had no questions for her about power, and even his face had seemed more resigned than anything. There was no manifestation of an element choosing him and making him his own.

That was Caelum, though. He was ever private in his dealings to the point that Kavala often felt like she was intruding in his life even looking upon his face. She could tell he had no knowledge she was even there until he opened his eyes and seemed surprised to see her holding out a robe.

She offered it to him as a courtesy. Her bone thin frame was chilled in the heart of The Within, especially in the dead of night with no thermal waters to warm her scaled flesh. She was getting stronger, filling out again, but she was still too thin because she worked harder than someone who had been as sick as she had perhaps should. But Anir pressed her. Vanator had pressed her. And even the kelvics pressed her because she had a desire to be driven to be better and she had only recently began to gather the strength back she needed to drive herself.

Kavala's pupils were opened wide in the dark and she shifted her eyes, altering them as she turned away to snuff out the last of the candles decorating deities to give Caelum another moment or two. Her eye shape changed, so too did the lid configuration, until she saw with the gaze of an Akalak using her newly morphed infravision to see in the near dark. It was a handy trick that only took a tiny bit of her concentration as she worked to finish off the ritual by clearing the space.

"Do you need anything else or are we done here?" She asked softly but not impatiently, certain he would want to be alone now to discover what the res would generate. Kavala wanted to give him space and the time to be alone with whatever memories were currently haunting him. The Konti almost regretted bringing him here. Because she loved the earth and they were already safely within it, Kavala had naturally gravitated here. His solarium or even the beach under the stars would have been perhaps better, she mused, realizing her own mistake like an afterthought a bit sorry she hadn't thought more of his needs and less of her own comfort. Caelum needed more good memories to chase away the bad ones that were constantly haunting him. She'd lost a valuable opportunity here, Kavala realized slowly, as her eyes scanned the Eth's human form.

[Caelum]

Caelum of course knew Kavala was there. It was ludicrous to imagine he could have forgotten about the woman whose djed, whose very essence, had crawled its way inside of him to ignite and set fire. He had attempted to translate her desires and respond to them, literally incapable of considering his own with the complete physical contact they had sustained to induct him; and as Kavala walked the Sacred Circle now, snuffing out the lights, he felt uncertain and volatile. He did not have the ability to see in the dark and a frown worked its way across his face, that open and hopeful smile he was giving her fading as she shut this down. “Do you want to go up?” He asked her, squinting now while his body hummed with all of the new power. It felt as though pieces of his soul were vibrating themselves toward explosion. It was as if he was a star spinning too fast with djed – her djed and now his too – so fast that his centrifugal force might not hold him together any longer and he would fly apart in an imperfect conflagration of light. The sky was calling. “Kavala? What do I do now?” He had questions. They had been there all along, but he had been unable to utter them, to see them out and give them force in the rush of Kavala against him, inside of him, sweet and strong, familiar, wild, and beloved. He’d needed to make sure she was okay first. A step was taken toward her in the dark, one hand extending outward in wordless question and silent offer both. He reached for her, but he couldn’t see her, little more than outline now in this dim beneath the earth. Without warning, a thick and translucent plume of djed ghosted like smoke from his lips. Surprise had him snorting out a breath and the djed spiraled up like a sun flare and struck flame. Tongues of fire crackled toward the stone ceiling, popping like tiny sea shells crushed beneath the heavy tread of boots. Wonder was echoed in firelight over his face and it slowly shuddered into a smoky laugh as the fire died out. “My gods, Kav. What.. Look at that,” he marveled, forgetting his unease with the clutching shadows.

[Tribal]

G R A D E S!

Caelum

Experience

• Logic: 2
• Socialisation: 2
• Observation: 1
• Storytelling: 2
• Philosophy: 1
• Meditation: 1
• Persuasion: 1
• Cleaning: 1
• Endurance: 1
• Rhetoric: 1
• Reimancy, fire: 1

Lore

• The warmth of Kavala's suite
• Kavala: Always prepared to defend herself
• Kavala: The protector
• An initiation in Reimancy
• Caelum: A promise to the gods
• Kavala: Sharing blood
• Kavala: A special bond
• Kavala: An unforgettable kiss
• The burn of a ritual knife

Kavala

Experience

• Reimancy: 2
• Hostessing: 2
• Logic: 1
• Planning: 1
• Storytelling: 1
• Childcare: 1
• Organisation: 1
• Teaching: 1
• Meditation: 1
• Cleaning: 2
• Seduction: 1

Lore

• Caelum: A visitor in the night
• Culture: No one sleeps alone in a Drykas bed
• Caelum: The dreamer
• A plan to bring Cytali back
• Observation: Nikali's mark
• Caelum: A special bond
• The burn of a ritual knife
• Caelum: A beloved friend

Notes

Beautiful, memorable, inspiring; the two of you never fail to deliver an awesome read. Glad I was able to grade this one (leant a lot too). If you think I have missed anything feel free to contact me via private message. Enjoy the rewards and be sure to edit your grading request.