Surprise was evident on Caelum's face, those human, Drykas features shifting beneath the current of it when Kavala spoke. He had genuinely suspected that Kavala was uncomfortable and tired, emotional due to the pregnancy and the father of her child was doing a kindness in seeing her safely out of the sometimes pressing crowd and ultimately home. Yet when his old friend expressed her anger and frustration with Riaris himself, the current of her desires swirled around him.
Caelum rolled a lean shoulder back as if he was trying to physically shrug off the metaphysical burden; but, of course, that was impossible. The magic, an outrageously potent blend of divinity, spoke to every piece of him until his mind rolled into high gear in an attempt to sort out, define, and therefore ascertain the treatments for both the physical needs as well as the emotional needs pouring out of Kavala and into the bottomless well of his soul.
He was silent and his expression was probably hilarious, one of mingled confusion and concentration, one eye squinting at the pair before him as if they were a knot he was attempting to unravel. The last thing he had intended when speaking to them was disrespect, and the last thing he was capable of doing was ignoring Kavala's tears once he had noticed them. He had been bound to question, bound by a friend's promise and a healer's oath and the magic of a dark goddess who wrapped her wine stained chains hard about his heart.
"Alright," he said eventually, his voice purposefully quiet so as not to carry and mellow as a sunny, sweltering afternoon. The start of an understanding smile crooked his mouth to be cast toward Riaris and he flipped up his hands in a small, casual gesture. "What if we --"
He stopped mid sentence when Riaris' anger flared at the edges of his awareness and the Akalak released Kavala. Blinking, he instinctively rolled a step forward to reach for Kavala and steady her, knowing that her equilibrium at this stage of pregnancy was off and also knowing that she was not well. He caught her elbow, holding firm and careful to make sure she was steady on her feet. He had just let go when Riaris slapped his shoulder, hard enough to force Caelum to take a step back in order to maintain his own balance, and a new song began to shudder and rattle through him.
Through the haze, one memory in particular made itself perfectly clear. It was Kavala warning him months ago about the gnosis of the god Krysus. The only thing he could think with any clarity in that moment was with a resigned sort of graveside humor: Oh, petch.
The party and the thrum of the tides and the wheel of even the stars above shivered and faded. He needed to see that Kavala was made well and left alone and he also needed very badly all of a sudden to convince the father of her child to beat the crap out of him.
This was not going to end well, he feared.
"Friend," he clarified at the Akalak's back, the word snapped due to the force of what was twisting dangerously through him. "Look, mate. I didn't --" His head pounded. "Hell. Kavala --" He began, then stopped and held out his hand to her, to choose to take or not, to give him something to focus on beside the pain god's building need inside of him, planted there by His marked. Or not. Her choice. She needed to be alone, but she also needed his healing abilities on more levels than one.
A solution was going to present itself one way or another in a matter of moments. Caelum just hoped it would be one to do the least amount of harm to the least amount of people. It was growing swiftly beyond him to change the course of his ranuri's trajectory. |
