Completed Insert Weaponized Object Here

[Narifa]

84th Summer 518 AV

The third day of Lhavit's flash-flood worthy thunderstorm dawned much the same as the second. It was almost as if time had ceased moving in its entirety. The unfortunately overcast skies and the black writhing fog in the streets had not changed for three days. The haunting chimes of the watchtower bell, echoing nowhere and everywhere at once, were the only signs that time was passing.

Deep in the heart of the Shooting Star Inn, two quite frightening individuals had found themselves at odds, separated by secrets yet bound together through a lifetime of parallels. Not two days prior, these two beings had met, and come stumbling into the hands of the guest house staff, wet and whinging and injured. Cooped up, surrounded by nothing but walls of smog and pristine furniture awaiting their perching, Narifa and Raeyn had begun to feel the mental strain.

Narifa had left the older Inarta to his own devices. She was worried, no doubt. He'd left so abruptly the other morning, features twisted in a painful grimace, his eyes losing their focus for something not quite in their physical surroundings. The woman hoped that the waitress had heeded her warning to leave him be for now. Narifa reasoned that Raeyn knew his body and his mind better than anyone, and that he would be well-equipped to deal with whatever troubles he was being plagued with. Some time alone should be just the trick.

After all, he'd been stuck with her for days. Even she would end up doing anything in her power to be by herself.

The change had been a good thing for Narifa, too. She'd taken the free time she'd suddenly found herself with and used it to explore the Inn, crawling up and down it's many halls and floors. She'd peeked her head into empty room after empty room, gotten yelled at by the kitchen crew, been booted out of a reception hall, and called a nuisance under a collective breath. The whole adventure brought a childish smile to her step. It was in this way that she'd happened upon the Shooting Star's frankly impressive collection of books. A true library, in fact. Not having been one to peruse such places as a girl, Narifa decided that there was plenty of time to start now.

She'd stepped into the room and been struck breathless. It was stunning. Not a speck of dust floated through the orange candle-lit air, and the dark material that the shelves were made of shone with a fresh clean. The flames flickered and bounced around the room, providing the place with a cozy and inviting atmosphere. The explorer paused for only a bell, before delving into the weathered pages and leather-bound cases of knowledge. A little nook off to the side had become perpetually occupied.

When the end of the morning rest brought with it a ghostly toll of the watchtower, Narifa awoke to the crinkle of pages in her hand and the smell of old books wrinkling her nose. She'd fallen asleep in the nook, a half-read book on land navigation open in her criss-crossed lap, and an empty food tray on the floor. The Inarta yawned before stretching up like a cat.

But her now awake thoughts began to turn towards her abandoned companion. Narifa's blue-grey eyes, closed in relaxation, flew open with a full-body gasp, her arms suddenly frozen above her head. She'd forgotten to check on him! And she'd never gone back to the room last night. Quickly, she slammed the book onto the nearest table and scrambled out of the cushions, practically tripping over the library's threshold. Narifa sped through the Inn and up the stairs and studiously ignored the weirdly persistent growls of her stomach. She thought she'd eaten before she fell asleep, so she had no need to still be hungry.

Finally at the bedroom door, the red-headed woman skidded to a stop. She thought twice about barging in like she wanted to, recalling Raeyn's intense desire for privacy the other morning. Just in case he was in what he perceived as an embarrassing state, Narifa's fist reached out to knock. But then it hesitated. What if he was angry at her? She took a deep inhale to steady herself, and let it out to loosen the tension in her figure. That didn't matter. He had no reason to be, and she rarely let anything like that affect her. Her knuckles hit the door with a resounding thump. Once, twice, three times, she knocked. Then all the girl could do was wait.

[Raeyn]

The moonlight had seen him in a dire state of self piity. A myriad of thoughts on his mind, some which he wasn’t quite sure were his own to start with. Midnight gave way to dawn, a sky unchanged for the third day was still filled by the howl of thunder and sorrowful rain. And Raeyn had not slept a peak. He had come so very close to forming a meaningful connection with someone for the first time since Alexis had shown up in his life. A chance to dispel some of that loneliness he had pushed so deep down inside he was barely even aware of it anymore, except during moments like this, when faced with the fear of loosing his mind, he didn’t want to be alone. Alone he no longer knew what was real and what was not.

But he had managed to convince himself that he had well and truly screwed it all up. What purpose would Narifa have to ever pay him any mind at all, again? He was still a stranger to her, neither especially polite nor entirely altruistic. None of the qualities that would make one a good friend were qualities Raeyn could boast. He was interesting. Life around him was about as exciting as chasing tornados; one would never know when the tides of fate would turn to see blood and loss. This excitement was all he could offer her… but was it really something worth having?

Hopeless musings were suddenly stopped in their wake by a pounding of fist against wood. Ant though Raeyn tried his best to not get his hopes up, the heart within him pounded in anticipation. And anxiety mixed with adrenaline and flowed though his veins, rendering his hands clammy, his cheeks flushed and his lips parted wordlessly. In that moment he didn’t care whether she was angry, fuming like the volcano of Mount Skyinarta. She could hate him for all he cared. At least she was willing to talk to him, if that was even her on the other side of the door. And a chance to talk was like a life line, a chance to salvage a relationship he had managed to screw up before it even truly began. A chance was all he could prey for. Yes, in that moment the Alchemist was ready to tell her everything he was going though, the truth of the voices that threatened her life.

A pale, white speckled hand grasped the door handle. There was a crack as the locks gave way and the wooden door swung open. The barrier between then dissipated into nothingness.

But as his eyes met Narifa’s azure pools, it seemed the whole electricity of the moment fizzled out like a broken spell. A smile of anticipation on his face faded to a quiet worry. A bolt of anxiety pierced his chest and once again the alchemist took a step back from her. Nothing has changed overnight. He had not become a phoenix, rising from the ashes of an old, flawed Raeyn, who’d fly right into Narifa’s arms. Quite the opposite.

“You’re back.” He stated the obvious somewhat impassively, turning his back to her and and making his way over to the white couch in the corner, settling there in his robes, one leg over another. A tiered cheek rested against the knuckles of his fist. He’d leave the door open for her but made no attempts to invite her in.

[Narifa]

84th Summer 518 AV

He wasn't mad. She could see it vibrating in the air between them, with the waves of his listless greeting. No, Raeyn couldn't be mad.

Raeyn could be furious.

Something intangible and dark passed between the two Inarta when the man's glacial stare clashed with Narifa's. Not a hint of welcome was present on his lips, and when he turned his back to her, the young woman's heart almost audibly cracked. They'd been getting along so well before! Or so she'd thought. Narifa trembled with a full-body shake to throw that negativity away. There was no way she had imagined the bubble of warmth that had surrounded them at breakfast. There was absolutely no way she had imagined the upturned corners of Raeyn's eyes, and the wrinkle on the bridge of his nose - signs that the hunter had at least been enjoying himself. Maybe he was still fighting off whatever had attacked him, and that was why he was a little more than prickly today.

The traveler gingerly picked her way inside the room, steps quiet so as not to disturb him. On the vanity she'd used sat a stale pitcher of water. The waitress had evidently come through with her request. Narifa stopped to fill two glasses with the lukewarm liquid before gulping one down and picking up the other. Sleeping in a room filled with book dust hadn't been the best for her hydration. The silence, however, was slowly beginning to suffocate her.

She slowly turned around to face the couch. Her spindly hands were tightly wrapped around the cup, clutching onto it like it was the one object able to keep her afloat in this torrent of Raeyn's disdain. But he was just one man; a man much larger than her, and with a significantly greater talent for combat, but still just one kind man. What could this rapidly unravelling beanstalk do faced with the scalding light of a short ray of sunshine?

Narifa held the cup out in front of her.

"Here...you look like you need it. I apologize, for not coming back last night. For not saying anything. I'd thought you'd want the privacy, but then I fell asleep in the library. I found this really interesting book, y'know? On land navigation. It had an entire section on tracking, which reminded me of you, and I decided to read it, to see what you see. Not that I can actually see what you see. Though that might have been useful the other morning."

The girl's rambling knew no bounds. But then, Narifa just wasn't too familiar with boundaries in the first place. She slid persistently closer, until she was right in front of him, leaned forward until she was almost dangling across his lap. Narifa wasn't professionally trained in medicine by any means but she was at least familiar with the symptoms of some sicknesses thanks to her work at the herb shop. It was those tell-tale signs that she was looking for as her stony gaze slid up and down his face. The cup remained out as an offering.

The first thing she noticed was that he was unusually pale. A clammy sheen made more noticeable the unnaturally white patches of his skin. His breathing was elevated, and his robes quivered with the pounding of his heart. His pupils were focusing in and out, probably due to some lingering thread of anxiety, and his cheeks were flushed. Narifa tried to push the cup into his frighteningly limp hands, her empty grasp finding its way around one of his wrists. She had a disorienting flashback to Raeyn's sister Mara doing exactly the same thing at that banquet, all those weeks ago.

"Speaking of which, are you alright? Please don't hold back if you need help. I'd like to help..."

[Raeyn]

"That's quite alright." he answered simply to her ramblings. Something he'd normally make at least some attempt to connect with, as he did so many times in Mara's presence, now just entered one ear and out the other. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate Narifa's efforts. He very much did. Simply he just suddenly didn't want her around, didn't want her anywhere close to him. To hide away his worries was far easier than to face them in the eyes of another.

He shook his head to the offer of water, averting his eyes. But the more Raeyn hoped for her to take the hint and make herself disappear so that he could resume his everlasting wallowing in self pity, Narifa didn't make it quite that easy. In fact, before he even quite realised why or how she had managed to get far too close to him for comfort.

What Narifa would see, when examining him was a pair of wide eyes staring back at her like a deer faced by a wolf. Pupils dilated by fear, lashes wide, not blinking. His breath stopped.

Raeyn expected to hear that indistinguishable cacophony of voices in his ears. He mentally prepared himself to hear such awful things that even his own mind could do little to comprehend them. He expected to rip from her as if her very presence burned his skin like embers. But no such thing happened. Not yet. Uncomfortable silence rang out between the two Inarta, as he sat there, disoriented, with Narifa so very close he could smell her scent. A glass in his hands. Her fingers around his wrist.

Moments after every tragedy he could imagine failed to take place, Raeyn finally blinked. Darkness momentary sooted sore, dry eyes. But he'd repeatedly find himself looking at Narifa and the world still hasn't ended.

What was he so afraid of? Surely at this point anything stupid he could say or do could not math how incredibly strange he was acting now and somehow Narifa had yet to abandon him. Perhaps she wouldn't at all. What terrible thing could he do. He wouldn't dare hurt her after all... would he?

"Thank you." he managed to force himself to say after all that. An indignant ending to such a moment.

[Narifa]

84th Summer 518 AV

Narifa's teeth had made their way onto her bottom lip, worrying the tender flesh in that brief and uncomfortable silence. When his limp hands regained strength to take the cup from her grasp, the sigh of relief the girl breathed was audible, and her lip stung in celebration of being released. She grinned a dimply grin.

"You're welcome. But that doesn't answer my question...." She asked again, "Are you sure you're alright?"

The shorter Inarta suddenly blinked with an idea. She excitedly dropped Raeyn's wrist and swiveled around, head bobbing to and fro, searching. She spotted the bag she'd been carrying out in the storm, on the floor beneath her crumpled cloak. She practically dove for it.

"Oh, I know it's in here somewhere. Is it this? No...Perhaps this? Maybe it's in this pocket..." Narifa muttered to herself as her hand rummaged through the satchel,"Aha! Here it is!"

The exclamation was accompanied by a triumphant waving of the object between her fingers. It was a little bottle of three unused ounces of a belltor tincture. She'd purchased it before leaving home, just in case. She'd had no need for it since she'd discovered All Things Wild, and been granted access to its more particular products. She bounced back over to the man on the couch to show him.

"You can use some of this, if you think it'd help." Belltor was commonly used to ease head pains. Master had been terribly familiar with the herb and its infusions, and therefore Narifa was as well, "It's for headaches and such."

Of course, she couldn't know that what was afflicting the older Inarta was something beyond the realm of physical injury. Belltor would be quite useless against mental issues. But she had to try. Raeyn was acting strange, and it didn't sit well with her, not one bit.

As she swirled the tincture around in its container, hanging in the air between them, a white hot flash of pain tore its way through her stomach. Narifa winced violently, glass bottle slipped through her fingers and crashing to the floor. Her now empty hand flew to her stomach and pressed as she doubled over. It was like a pang of hunger that had magically amplified into the pain of being punched in the gut. But it disappeared as suddenly as it had come. She was left gripping her abdomen and silently fuming, eyes half closed against the aftershock.

"I'm not that hungry, I just ate. What is going on?" She quietly mumbled to herself. The medicine had shattered upon impact with the hard ground, and when Narifa noticed the shards, she mourned the loss of the only thing that she thought might have helped Raeyn.

"Oh no! I'm sorry, I'll just pick this up. Maybe I can run out to an apothecary or someone around here has something else."

The woman slipped to the ground and began tentatively picking up the small glass pieces.

[Raeyn]

He should have been able to see the worry in Narifa’s face. The genuine affection she showered him with would be the fulfilment of any man’s desire. But not Raeyn. He was so far wrapped up in his own thoughts than such very human things as empathy seemed so far out of grasp. But the question whether or not he was alright, he still refused to answer.

The alchemist stared at her a little confused as she rummaged though the bag. Eyes following the trail of her hands before a little bottle came clearly to view. And as Narifa explained it’s purpose, he found himself wondering whether such a concoction could be the cure to all of these strange voices. It wasn’t a headache exactly but some afflictions never had clear answers. Or so he thought.

But as soon as the little flash of hope rolled over the horizon, equally fast was it gone. Startled, Raeyn felt his body kick into action before his sluggish mind made any decision to. As the sudden flash of pain tore though Narifa, Raeyn’s reaction was to pull her close, fingers gently stroking her shoulder as it trying to sooth it.

“Don’t be stupid.” He almost snapped, but not with aggression, protectively. Strong hands of a hunter were the one’s to grab Narifa’s wrists this time, pulling her back up onto the couch and shaking off any glass of the broken bottle that might be left to maim the Inarta woman’s delicate skin. If she struggled he wouldn’t have given her a choice in the matter. Raeyn was a little stronger than he looked. “Have the staff clean it up. My goodness, have you any sense what so ever? You could have cut yourself on the glass shards. Are you alright?”

His teeth glided across the edge of his lip as if to cage the words behind pearly white bars, but to no avail. The words rolled like thunder from his tongue, authoritative, commanding, a little more like the Raeyn from the day prior. A little less like the wreck of nerves she had seen today. “And over my dead body are you going out in that storm. I will not allow it.”

That’s when the voices chimed in. Catching the alchemist completely off guard the little whispers echoed with glee. “Dead body. Dead body. Beautiful red and dead.”

Raeyn’s words halted so very abruptly at the sound of that which only he could hear. Fear of what Narifa would think if she knew. His grip tightened around her hands, lost in the moment completely as the whispers faded away into nothingness again, at which point he let out a shaken sigh. A moment to ground himself back in reality.

To say Raeyn was sick and tiered of this would be an understatement. He was angered by his own helplessness. The paralysing fear of those whispers burned in the furnace of fury. But it was only in the presence of Narifa that he realised the true extent of his frustration, the pathetic guilt over doing nothing about it. How small it made him feel. He ripped from her once more and stood up, drawing air into his lungs as if it was his very first ever breath. Hands instantly pulling into his hair, messing with it a little nervously, weaving it into a tight braid as he addressed her once more, a little softer this time. “If you’d like I could bring you up something to eat. “

[Narifa]

84th Summer 518 AV

The toxic concoction of confusion and worry had been making Narifa's head spin, but when Raeyn's fingers carded their way through the girls red locks, she sank into him with relief. When his big hands clasped around her forearm to drag her away from the evidence of her failure, she went with entirely too much ease. A sniffle made itself known as she listened to him speak. These last few days had been terribly trying, and the more she thought about it - the canopy falling on her, the shame she'd secretly felt the other morning when Raeyn had left her, the fact that she had destroyed something that could have helped him, getting lost in the first place - the faster pinpricks of tears began to well up in her eyes. Raeyn had, for the moment, put aside his own anxieties. Nonetheless, they seemed to have transferred onto the smaller girl in his arms.

"But...but..." Another sniffle, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I just don't know what's happening anymore. You're hurting, and I don't know what to do to ease that pain. It's all become a mess, hasn't it?"

Her words were muffle into the fabric of his shirt, but they carried as much despair as she could muster. Narifa couldn't see an end to this storm. There was no signs of it letting up. Nothing could tell her when they could finally breathe air that wasn't heavy with fear and the curious echo of an empty hotel. She couldn't breathe at all anymore.

Raeyn had let her go. Was she being too emotional? Is that what was driving him away from her? She wouldn't blame him. The younger Inarta was never so overcome by sadness. This episode of pessimism must be the work of the storm, playing tricks on her feelings and driving her up the wall.

So the girl continued to sit where he'd left her, listlessly staring off into a distance world that the wall in front of her could never hope to be.

"You don't have to do that for me. What's the point? I'm just going to get hungry right after, despite satiating my basic need for sustenance. Maybe if I sit here long enough, and get hungry enough, I'll dissolve into the storm. I'll become a rain cloud, or a fork of lightening. I won't have to worry about anything anymore. " She replied in a voice as colourless as the black sky. One of her fingers chose that moment to begin pulsing, the smallest drop of red hot blood seeping into the white sofa. She must have cut it on one of the shards. Her hand brought the finger up as if it had a mind of its own.

"We all bleed the same colour. Why do we all suffer differently? Why must we all dwell within our minds? That is not who I am. I liked sharing. I liked knowing most things about the man living five blocks from me. I liked seeing the blue sky." Narifa turned to face Raeyn, who was now standing. Her blue-grey gaze had turned foggy and red with the effort to hold back unsightly sobs.

"You've never seen it. The sky of Mount Skyinarta. It's the bluest thing you'll ever see. You don't understand what it's like, looking out the window, expecting to see one thing you always knew would be there, only for it to be gone, stained black. When I look at you, it is the same. I expect the man who protected me from the rain with his own cloak. I expect the man who smiled in glee, talking about his dreams. I expect the man who tussles my hair and keeps me safe. But all I see is a shell, stained black."

Narifa fully turned around on the couch.

"Why won't you tell me what's wrong, Raeyn?"

[Raeyn]

When it rains… inside and out…

Tears, like raindrops of salt and sorrow, fell to the floor. If there was such a thing as the slund of a breaking heart, loud silvery cracks would echo though the room. She was right. In less than a day the world has gone to petch. And there was nothing either of them could do about it.

At first his eyes looked at her with confusion, trying to wrap his mind where this sudden outburst of nihilism came from. How such an innocent question had caused it. But soon enough her words made perfect sense. And they were fire to the kindling embers of his temper, those words. So many times he wished to shush her, to wrap his arms around her and show her she was wrong. But out of politeness he couldn’t quite muster it. And with every following word he found himself regretting the polite manner he had adopted from childhood for each word was truth. She was right. And to be right was a mistake…

For a moment he simply stared at her, paralysed by a flame rising deep inside the black void of his mind. Theres only so much self control that the Inarta alchemist could muster.

“You think you want to know what’s wrong…” he said quietly. A statement not a question. There was something dark in his tone, something forbidding. In seconds every semblance of the warmth she had grown used to evaporated from him, left nothing, but a shell of the man she had grown to call friend.

“You think you want to know.” He repeated. “Yet the moment I tell you, you’ll wish you’ve never found out. That I can promise you. You want me to protect you, yet when I do just that you cry.”

Raeyn turned his back and walked towards the door. Fingers clenched the wood till the tips turned which from the pressure as he slammed it. The impact echoed though the corridors of the inn. “I’m not your personal protector, Narifa. I’m just a stranger you were unfortunate enough to meet.”

“She wronged you. She must pay for it with her life…”

When he turned around again there were tears in his eyes. A few stray silver drops glided down his sun kissed skin, magnified the freckles, turned to little rivers. He wasn’t weeping. The tears of anger and frustration arose on their own. Powerless was he to stop them. An avalanche of revelations fell from his lips. Voice raised to a near yell. But no matter how much he tried to hold back, it was impossible. With the avalanche too did he fall.

“I’m loosing my mind. Every moment I’m alone with you theres a little whisper in my head, nagging, prompting me to hurt you. Have you any idea what that’s like?” Of course she didn’t, of that he was sure. How could she know that the sky which she thought was blue, had been black all along. With every word his voice grew louder and more desperate. “I’m afraid of just being alone in a room with you for what I might do. Is that what you wanted to hear? Are you happy now that I told you!? No… But you put me in a loose loose position and expect me to win none the less.’

Clammy fists clenched. There was so many things Raeyn had wished he’d not said one couldn’t even begin to count. None the less a spring wound too tight breaks. None could take that strain. “You don’t want to know everything about the man that lives five blocks down because after tonight you’re never going to want to see him again.”

[Narifa]

84th Summer 518 AV

As Raeyn's own emotions shimmered in the drops falling to the floor, Narifa was taken by surprise. With her piercing gaze the shorter girl watched as those feelings burned with the fury of a thousand suns. It was like she could physically see every lighthearted notion in Raeyn's demeanor fleeing from the scene as he stood, paralyzed by the weight of his own darkness. His words were stifling. Like smoke from a furnace, they came a little too close to home, and no matter how hard she tried to avert them, in the end all she could do was breathe them in. They landed on her skin and in her lungs, and suddenly she was seething.

Her personal protector? She hadn't asked for him to do that. She hadn't asked for him to do anything. It was his own deep-seated kindness that had led him to become, in her eyes, someone worth trusting. All she'd wanted was some pleasant company, and perhaps to make a new friend. Narifa's fingers found themselves curling into the furniture beneath her, her eyes narrowing the longer Raeyn continued to spill miasma from his lips. Those innocent thoughts were no longer applicable. Raeyn had become someone more than trustworthy in the scant few days they'd known together, and the gods help him if he thought he was going to walk out that door.

"My 'personal protector', is it? How dare you. You think you have any right to put thoughts in my head? To assume that I've made you into some sort of guardian creature?" It was venom flying from her mouth, not words; a slow acting poison that was crawling up her throat to be spat at the man across from her. She would whittle him down with nothing but her temper if that was what it took to get him to see.

To get him to see that she wanted him around, even if he had voices in his head.

"You hear voices that no one else can. So what? Or are you just too weak to fight them? You abhor the thought of being alone with me, yet here we are, and the most you've done is stroke my hair. Perhaps you're words hold some truth." Narifa forced herself from the couch, her cheeks stinging with red hot anger, her cut finger rapidly pulsing alongside the pounding of her heart. She place one foot forward, then another, methodically stalking after him like a wolf does its prey.

"Perhaps I don't truly want to know everything about that man five blocks away. I wasn't given a choice. It was a part of the culture that raised me. The same culture that inexplicably binds us together, even if you aren't aware of it. But right here, right now -" She stopped once she was close enough to reach out and touch the other Inarta, so she did, placing a single fingertip directly in the center of his chest, "- that man can go die in a hole, for all I care. I want to know you, Raeyn the Hunter, who dreams of becoming a teacher. I want to know the Raeyn who hears murderous whispers, and the Raeyn who cries when he's afraid of being alone."

Her finger flew into a fist that wrapped itself up in the man's shirt. Narifa dragged him down with as much force a five foot glassblower could muster, a comical action that resulted in Raeyn being practically bent in half. Just to make sure he was actually listening.

"If you want to become that man I never want to see again, then fine. I'll let you go. I'll watch you walk out that door." The thought brought another bought of hot tears to her eyes. Nonetheless, that was a future sadness that Narifa could deal with later. All she felt in that moment was an infuriating stubbornness, and a strength of will better suited for taking on an entire army of chronically depressed hunters.

She brought her mouth closer to his ear, so that the sheer emotion behind her words didn't accidentally come out as a shout that the whole inn might hear. Her ensuing whisper morphed into her last drop of venom. Her reserves had run dry.

"But I say fuck that man. You are more than he can ever be."

[Raeyn]

Tempers flew like sparks into the air which became electric around the to Inarta. Ana cidic sting of Narifa’s venom on his skin. Little could penetrate the wall that he had spent all these years putting up but somehow Narifa had managed to effortlessly hop over it in her assault.

She didn’t care? After the demonic flood he had released from his heart to drown her in she said she didn’t care. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Hissed Raeyn replying with as much venom as he was given. Unable to wrap his mind around her very lack of preservation, the ignorance to the danger he as to her, pride shredded by her insults, the alchemist took as many steps towards her as she did. His breathing heavy. Fists clenched till his nails dug into the skin of his inner palms.

He could kill her. One arrow to the chest and she’d fall at his feet. In his hands her neck would splinter, her skin would bruise, her bones would break. Something Raeyn feared most of all. He was neither a strong man nor a weak man. Just a man, doing his best with what he’s given. Ambitious, yes. Determined, indeed. But strong? Of that he was not so certain. Not anymore.

Her finger branded the memory of this fight on his skin. A memory he wasn’t going to forget nearly soon enough. In that moment he’d realised just how much he had grown to learn about him. Things that seeped tough the composure of his exterior. Things he so desperately tried to hold back, keep out of sight in the night. But she knew the real him. Only her and Mara truly knew the real him. And the thoughts of that was infuriating.

Raeyn was taken aback by this gesture. The brazen insolence of it. Narifa was knocking down his walls one by one. But before he could cling onto the cracks, launch a defence, he had found himself pulled down by an angry fist.

If you want to become that man I never want to see again, then fine. ‘No. Please no.’ His heart cried out.

She never ants to see you again. But if she’s dead she can’t leave.

The alchemist hadn’t even heard the last of her words. A shriek in his head blocked them out, pounded on his ear drums a hymn of war. It overwhelmed his senses, dizzied his mind. For a moment it ripped Raeyn from the clutches of reality and only added coal to the kindling fire of his anger. A hot roar in the furnace of his chest.

The alchemist would grab Narifa’s hand tight, not quite caring enough if he hurt her or not, and pulled it from his hair. If she continued to cling on then his hair would go with it. Either way something had to give. She’d feel Raeyn’s other fist tighten around the neckline of her shirt and a powerful yank towards him till they were just inches apart. A reminder that no matter what, Raeyn would not relinquish control quite so easily. Nose to nose. Eyes torn by a million emotions at once, piercing Narifa’s deep azure bools like little daggers, causing ripples.

Her insolence must not go without punishment…

“You wanted to see the real me. Well here I am.” His hands, his voice, his very core were shaking.

A season of battling with darkness had seen him come to this point, where Raeyn was truly starting to believe he was the very monster that these voices had lead him to think. Every day had worn him down, grated on him, broke apart the alchemist bit by bit. Every insecurity’s amplified by the insanity of his day to day existence. It wasn’t a transformation over night but a labour of many a sleepless night, many near tragedies and lucky misses. But in a fight against his own reality, Raeyn was rapidly loosing sight of it all, loosing himself. There was no going back.

He needs someone to rescue him. Whether she knew it or not, Narifa was that person. The only person who had yet to abandon him.

Word Count: 695