Reaching Daed
Although it is raining outside, lightly but insistently, it is a fact that is largely unnoticed this deep in the temple of Eluna. Though these are tenuously the sleeping quarters, there's a pair of guards standing outside one of the rooms, guarding the way inside. They stand tall and look... admittedly a little bored. Though however bored they are, they have not abandoned their duty in any way because of it.
Passing conversation from a non-blood related sibling has a certain mute mul'neissa woman here. She has a set determination in her eyes, as she arrives with...
Bolts of cloth under one arm, a basket dangling from her fingers, and several fine clothes over the other shoulder. She has a plan, and cannot be stopped. Well. Except for the guard. Her hands her full. She cannot talk. So she awkwardly stands there, eyeing it and the guards to see if she can get in.
Fortunately for Aryia, someone else comes up behind her. Not sneakily, no. This person is unlikely to _sneak_ anywhere, between the breastplate and the golden gem in a steel-and-bronze ring, set where his right eye should be amidst three deep, scarred furrows and half a countenance worth of acid-melted flesh. Long, straight brown hair frames the mass, and the lone brown eye is keen and thoughtful as he approaches the guards. "Brightest of days," he greets all present. "He's needing guards?" There's something gentle there. "I'd like to see him, if he'll see me."
Andelena follows behind the dark-haired man with one metal-ringed artificial eye and one brown eye, her stream of red hair flowing freely. The woman is different from the last time that Aryia has seen her, suited fully in mithral armor and with a magnificent-looking sword hanging from her swordbelt... As well as a scar across her cheek, a jagged thing that states firmly she's survived something harsh. "I'm accompanying him in," she states. That's not a request as much as it is a matter of fact.
Before the arrival of Dolan, the guards were kind of... Staring at Ayria. An increasing tension growing in the air as they try to determine if she's any sort of threat. Her lack of communication only worsens this - as they have no way of knowing that she uses her hands for speech - and then thankfully Dolan arrives. "Needing... we don't know. But after the attack on the temple of Daeus, we've been putting guards on anyone who might be a target, or who might... be a danger themselves." The pair look at one another. "He's not been requesting or denying visitors, so if you'll wait just a moment?"
One of the guards lifts his hands to his brow and then keenly looks over the three gathered before the door before nodding. "They aren't evil, and Aya said she'd be sending visitors to him." He gives the three a firm look. "We'll be standing right out here. So if you need anything, or if we hear a ruckus... We'll be in."
With that warning given they are allowed entry into the room. It's a small space, and there is in fact a cleric waiting inside. She gives a warm smile as people make their way inside and rises to her feet, rolling a scroll she'd been reading. Daechir lays on the bed in the room, his eyes vacantly staring off into the middle-distance. The cleric nods as she gets to her feet. "He's been prone to fits of crying today, though I don't know why. He doesn't say anything. But... perhaps it's good for him." She glances toward the man in question and makes for the door. "I'll just excuse myself. We didn't want to leave him alone in case he needs anything, but there's not really enough space in here for me; and I'm sure you'd like your privacy with him."
Aryia turns slightly, brows raised at seeing both Dolan and Andie. It's been a minute since they last spoke, and her glowing gaze is appraising, looking both of them over. Down-up at Dolan. Down-up at Andie. Perhaps she was going to have some retort, or say some comment with her hands.
But instead, she gives an approving, firm nod.
She stares at the guards. Stares. Then gives a light sigh of relief as they let them in. She slips inside.
And stares. A different kind, stymied and... empathy? She saw first hand what they did to him. And her eyes harden with resolve. Warning of crying from the cleric gives her lips a quirk downwards, but perhaps its necessary. Emotions are weird to process. Another nod, still muted by her effects, as she finds a chair to start unloading her secret weapon: various pieces and textures of cloth.
Dolan's entrance, behind Daechir, is much more certain. Remembering what had happened the last time, he'd taken care to peacebond his own blade before entering, but the first thing he does on entering is to take a copper coin and touch it lightly, focusing on it. It begins to glow with the sunlit white gold of the sun, though only as powerfully as a candle. "Brightest of days, Daechir," he greets in the same tone he'd used to greet the guards.
Only then, as Aryia unhoists her load, does he turn his attention towards her with considerable interest. "I didn't know you were a tailor." There's an approving tone there.
Andelena follows behind Dolan as they enter the room. Andelena's own sword is peacebonded, but that doesn't stop the sword from doing what it does best. Which is also new for Aryia. In the sense that a cat bringing a live lizard onto the doorstep is both new and shocking, that is.
"Daed, we're here," comes a maternal voice from the sword on Andelena's swordbelt. This causes Andelena to look down with an expression that intensely suggests she didn't quite expect to be beaten to the punch on greeting Daechir by her own blade.
"My sword talks now," Andelena gently murmurs in Aryia's direction. "No sudden movements; they spook the poor guy something awful."
With the cleric safely out of the room, and the sudden whirl of gentle voices, one might have expected something more of a response from Daechir, however his reaction is subtle but clear. As Dolan sets alight a coin, he blinks and turns his red eyes upon the small object in Dolan's hand. There's a twitch, and then his hand slips out carefully, twisting so that he can open the hand that he'd been clutching to his chest. Therein lies a similar and simple copper piece; though this one does not glow.
Aryia raises a brow at the magically infused coin, her getting her load settled down and making way for the cleric to leave. Dolan's observation gets her to puff her chest out. "Best fucking seamstress in the markets barring Sandy," she proudly motions. If her gestures aren't known, the gist still gets across.
There's a voice, one she doesn't know, and the mute's head quirks as eyes dart about to find it. The... sword? She quirks a brow at Andie before giving a slow nod. Keep it slow.
Her attention shifts to Daed. And her expression softens with a light sigh at the sight. They ruined him. She gives a careful, slow wave towards him, along with a soft announcement of a whistle to make her presence known. "Daed liked getting clothes," she motions slowly to the two. "Sister said he's out of sorts, and we've got to find him. If it's hard for him to respond, perhaps... something familiar would be good." She pulls a square of silk out, and holds it out. "Can one of you tell him that this is Veyshan silk, and let him hold it, please?" <Handspeech/Tongues>
"Good to know. I might could find a means to employ one real soon," Dolan tells Aryia, although all of his attention is turned on Daechir as the revealing of light prompts a response, the response he was hoping for. "He's in there, someplace. Want it to light up again?" he offers in a friendly, casual tone to Daechir, and reaches for the coin. Like his, he touches a finger to it, and it, too, begins to glow, like a candle. Satisfied, he draws back. "That better?"
Andelena understands Aryia's signing, and this is demonstrated by how she responds with her own signing: "Got it." <Handspeech> This is followed by the Sunguard taking the cloth that Aryia offers and stating out loud: "Daed, we got you Veyshan silk."
She holds out the square of cloth. She holds it out under the light that Dolan provides, so that Daed can see it, before she presents it to him.
Daechir's gaze at the bloom of light in his hand. He doesn't close his fist around it, but instead stares at the coin intently. This contemplation is broken somewhat by Andelena's drifting of a piece of small cloth into his visual range.
It is then, that one might realize, if not before, that the clothing which Daechir is wearing is made of what was once very fine material. It is in fairly good condition all told, but well-worn. Though someone has cleaned and repaired any damage done to it, it is not what it once was. This is perhaps emphasized by his hair which has been hacked and chopped into uneven portions.
The bit of cloth touches his fingers and they twitch, the cloth is pressed into his palm and he reflexively rubs his fingers over the soft material. It's a habitual motion, one that Aryia might well recognize in fact. A customer or even tailor familiar with testing cloth would use such a motion to discern the value and weight of the material for its use. His lips twitch.
Mention of tailoring work gets Aryia to quirk a brow, her nodding once with a thumbs up. Could be something!
But alas, her attention shifts to the main person of the day: Daed. She watches him carefully, hands in her lap as she gives a slight nod to Andie in thanks for taking up the job. She relaxes slightly seeing the light do something for Dead. And the corner of her lips curve up slightly as minute motions of familiarity of reveal themselves. She hands another square to Andie. A dark red, airy material. "Thanks. Tell him this is Lotus Weave, from Llranost," she instructs before, slowly, pulling up two different robes of the same material, silk and lotus weave. She also takes out a journal, and eyeballs Daed’s measurements from where she's sitting.
"Now to see which one he likes more..." she signs carefully, watching the man. <Handspeech/Tongues>
"If you're going to do that, someone probably also ought to give him a decent hair cut," Dolan remarks, nodding at the effect of the light on him. Not that he has any room to talk, having let his hair grown out. The man is positively shaggy. "See if you can find out what he wants, though. Put him back in control."
Andelena carefully takes the offered lotus weave cloth from Aryia, and she holds it out to Daechir, too. "This is lotus weave from Llyranost," she says, with a sort of careful precision on the name of the elves' home that she reserves for the portions of Celestial in the wedding rites that she and Dolan have been practicing.
She looks back over her shoulder at Dolan. "Poor guy deserves a decent one, but I think that might have to wait until later," she says. The notion of putting scissors near someone so obviously traumatized does not sit well with Andelena--especially considering what happened the last time with her blade.
One piece of cloth is exchanged for another and this time Daechir actually closes his eyes briefly to feel the cloth more carefully. Attuning his senses to the bit of material between his fingers. He... almost smiles. It's not quite a fully expressed pleasure, but when he opens his eyes again it's with confusion blooming in his red-eyed gaze. It's as though what he sees before him now is a wholly unexpected factor. But perhaps more importantly to those in the room, he is certainly seeing what is there _now_. His red eyes flickering between the three that stand before him without an ounce of recognition.
GAME: Aryia rolls craft/tailoring+2: (12)+20+2: 34
Aryia blinks at Dolan. She mouths the word 'control'. It seemed to be key, at least her gut says so. "Yes, keep sharp things away. I saw first hand what they did," she gestures slowly. "And it took me a very, very long time to not dislike holding sharp things."
She locks eyes with Daed. And she... sighs, no recognition. But that's okay. The smile, the little, almost smile makes her own quirk with a grin at his subtle preference of Lotus Weave, Aryia turns a bit to block Daed's sight off from a needle being taken out. She knows the pain of sharp things. It's evident all over her body. Some thread here to adjust, a snip there to loosen, and the mute turns back with the implements hidden away and holds it out to Daed.
The robe, while somewhat simple, has a filigree pattern on the collar to give it some texture along with the fabric itself. Clearly trying to accentuate the quality of the dark red textile. And while it wouldn't be perfectly fitted, it's well made. She holds it out to the lost man, like a tailor handing a suit off. <Handspeech/Tongues>
"I've seen him grab a sword, though," Dolan points out, nodding as, for the first time, there is sense in the man's eyes, his own brown eye lighting up. "What's his girlfriend's name?" he asks quickly of Aryia. "She never did introduce herself. She was here last time I was here, though."
Aryia answers with a hand. "Her name is Aya. A-Y-A. But she told me he told her to 'go away'. I don't know the circumstances, but that's all I know when she told me before I got to work with these," she shakes the robe lightly. <Handspeech/Tongues>
"He probably ain't quite know who she was," Dolan answers quickly, already turning for the door. "Aya. Got it. Andie, I'll be right back. I'm going to go find her. That's the first time I've seen him know who anyone was." He quickly turns and dashes for the door, ducking out swiftly. Muttered voices outside inform the guards of what is happening.
Andelena nods to Dolan as he leaves, stepping aside so that Aryia can present Daechir with the robe. Her steel-gray eyes are intent on measuring the reaction that Daechir has, seeing how he responds to the offer of the nicely-made robe. "Here's hoping," she quietly murmurs.
Daechir watches Dolan walk out with confusion that has him flickering his eyes between the two remaining. It seems quite as though he doesn't know what to make of them. Nor does any amount of study on his part seem to clarify to him what this situation entails. The shirt shakes and his eyes focus on it for a moment. His eyes flicker to the coin. Back to the shirt. Finally he manages a few words, his voice oddly hoarse. "What do you want?"
Aryia nods as Dolan leaves, her a little worried about bringing Aya in here, but she shakes her head of that thought and sighs empathetically with Andelena.
Her brows raise. Then furrow before evening out. Poor guy. But, he says something! How to parse it...
The lack of recognition in his eyes, Aryia hazards a guess that her motions mean nothing to him. "Tell him that Aryia says his current fashion is out of date and needs an upgrade, so this robe is his," she motions to Andie, giving her a 'thank you' for all the help. Seems like he wasn't taking it, so she gets a little closer, holding it out to him. <Handspeech/Tongues>
Andelena smirks a little at Aryia's signing. She takes the robe from Aryia and holds it out. "This is from Aryia," she says. "She says your fashion's out of date and needs an upgrade--so she's giving it to you. She doesn't want anything for it."
The confusion fades a little, and he looks at the shirt - more of a coat really - that is being held out to him. He doesn't say anything further, but rather sits up. The motion is weak, but then that's perhaps not surprising. He's spent most of his time of late laying down, and it seems likely that this had been his occupation over the last couple of months. He graciously accepts the coat from Andelena, and slips it on with long-familiar movements. They are rote movements, and yet they seem to bring something of him back to himself. With the coat settled across his shoulders he slides his hands down the material, soothing it into place.
Aryia sighs in relief as Daed takes the robe-shirt-coat, a grin pulling at her lips. Good! He's moving! She gives him a thumbs up, and turns around to fix up the other robe-shirt-coat she premade, a silken one of a sky blue hue, off to the side before she slowly rises to hang it off a chair.
She flicks a finger, letting her hand light up a faint moonlit hue and slowly waves at Daed. "Looks good on you. This one here is yours, too," she signs to him, uncaring if he understands her or not. "... I'm... glad you're okay. I'll get you some more threads soon."
She gives a slow bow, then turns to Andelena. "Going to get more fabrics for smaller clothes for him," she signs to the sunguard. "I'm glad he's safe now..." A pause, then she pats the human's shoulder. "Also, sick as fuck scar."
The mute grins, gives one more look at Daed, the resolve she carried coming back as she slowly gathers her tailoring supplies and silently slips out of the room. <Handspeech/Tongues>
Andelena grins a little at Aryia's parting. "Thanks," she says. "We'll get them to him." That's a small promise, but it's everything in the face of hope. She takes the other robe-coat that Aryia offers.
She looks at Daechir. "Aryia brought you another one, too," she says. "Just in case you want to switch things up. She'll bring you more later."
Finally, she studies Daechir a moment longer. "Do you like the clothes?" she asks, finally. She's spent enough time with clotheshorses to know that question might prompt something out of him. Something of his true self.
Aryia leaves and... is it Andelena's imagination or does Daechir seem to relax some small bit? Either way, the man shrugs our of the coat that he'd just put on and it goes to lay down on the bed beside him. He casually reaches out to try the second coat on. It fits less comfortably than the first but he doesn't seem to mind. Repeating the same motions again. "It will be spring soon." He comments, brow furrowing slightly, and then he looks up, fingers rubbing the edge of his cuff thoughtfully. "Would you ask her to bring a shirt of thinner material? Something short-sleeved perhaps?" His eyes flicker to the door and his jaw tightens.
GAME: Daechir rolls Bluff: (11)+13: 24 GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (18)+12: 30
"When I see her next, I will, but she's not going to be back for a while. And I'm here until Bry comes back," Andelena responds gently to Daechir, catching onto what Daechir wants. She's not leaving him alone. "Do you want to talk to Deliverance again?"
"I am here if you wish to speak," Deliverance tags on.
The answer takes some of the air out of Daechir. He has a rather specific posture, clearly a man raised in an atmosphere where certain things were expected of him, but his shoulders slump very subtly and he looks at the coin in his hand as if half surprised to still find it present. That is, until Deliverance speaks up, then he jumps slightly, looking at the weapon in surprise. "Did... That just speak?"
Andelena smirks a little--just a little. It's encouraging to get that explicit of a reaction from the man. "Yeah," she says. "That's Deliverance. She does that. She spoke to you the last time we were here. She's basically a mom in a sword."
"I am more than that," Deliverance responds with a gentle amount of a derision. "... But I will accept the accusation. Andelena here is bereft of a maternal figure in her life. And so I consider it part of my mission to give her that which she lacks."
He seems to take a moment to digest this information. "Before? We have met then?" Daechir half-lifts his hand to his temple, his hoarse voice growing more and more into something recognizable as a cultured tone. He looks at the sword and draws himself up a little. "I apologize that I do not remember. It is a shame on the name of a gentleman to forget a lady..."
He trails off a moment, his dark brows furrowing in thought. "I am known as Daed. Would you be so kind as to reintroduce yourself?" His red eyes lift, and he rises to his feet; too much a gentleman upon remembering himself to sit in the presence of a lady.
Well. This _is_ different. Andelena seems taken aback by now how suddenly Daechir is... full of life. And given that she didn't know Daechir from before, she wasn't quite expecting this personality to come out of him.
"Stop staring and introduce yourself," Deliverance politely reminds Andelena.
The Sunguard coughs. "Right. Sorry. Name's Andelena. My fiance, Dolan, just stepped outside. He'll introduce himself when he's back in, I think."
Without pausing or hesitating Daechir gently takes Andelena's hand in his own. "A worthy and noble man he must be to have a woman such as you at his side." He says gently, a small mischievous glint rising in his red eyes as he lifts her hand to his lips and touches it gently there. His hand lingers in hers, but not impolitely, instead the weight of his red-eyes reading hers is a distraction from the fact that they are still touching.
It's at that point that the door opens, and Dolan returns, holding the door for someone else. "Baby, are you still here?" he asks as he walks in, then scans the entire room, turning head and body, to search it. The man does not seem to do glances at all. Curiously, though, rather than the excited man who dashed out, the man who returns bears a sharp and thoughtful gaze, and when it is done searching the room, it fixes on Daechir, waiting for something. "Sorry. My name's Dolan, I was one of the people who helped find you. Don't suppose I was much use outside of that." The last brings a self-deprecating, shy grin.
Andelena has her hand being held by the man that they were trying to help, and she's surprised (albeit much more mildly) by her man, who walks in. "Hey baby," she says. "Daed's been talking a bit to me. I, uh. I didn't think you'd be a charmer, Daed." The last is said with a good-natured laugh as she looks back to Daechir.
"You were much more than useful, Dolan," Aya assures quietly as she steps in after him. She only enters far enough to clear the doorway and all but stands against the outer wall. "And certainly are not a hinderance." Her eyes brush past Daechir, with some effort, to Andelena. A hint of smile manages to curl one corner of her mouth. "He is -exceptionally- charming."
As Dolan enters the room, the small sound sends a twinge of tension through Daechir, but he blinks at the other man. He takes Dolan in, and lays his free hand on his chest, offering something of a bow to the man.
"I have come to the borders of sleep, The unfathomable deep Forest where all must lose Their way, however straight-"
There's clearly more to the poem, but the words drop from a man driven to sudden speechlessness by the sight of the woman who steps silently behind Dolan. He moves as he has moved once before, with incredible speed. He draws Andelena behind him with his hand in hers; a protective movement. "Man of light, behind you!"
Dolan's flesh and blood eye blinks. Eerily, the gem does not, but it does not stay in Daechir's sight long, as he whirls to face the woman behind him. The inquisitor's gaze fixes on Aya, and after a long moment, he shakes his head. "Yeah, no, that's just Aya. The Knight shows me evil for the asking, Daechir, and that ain't it." There's no trace of smile there, and he doesn't sound offended or angry. Just easy, once the moment has passed. "Keep in mind that devils and demons love to take the faces of the people you love, just to hurt you. One did that to Andie, right when we got back.”
Aya is not surprised by this. She experienced it before, expected it now, and Daechir is completely justified. None of that makes his reaction sting any less. A small breath is sharply taken in, but she holds it a moment. Her arms cross before her chest and are held in that not-quite-casual stance as she exhales slowly. "It is alright. The fiend claimed more than just my face, and made Daed suffer for it." She looks back towards Daechir but doesn't meet his eyes. "It is still out there. Until it is truly gone..."
"It is best that he fears me. For his own safety."
Andelena looks quite a bit surprised as Daechir spins her around behind him. "Easy, Daed," she says, gently, after she recovers from the motion. "I'm okay. It's okay. Everything will be _okay_."
"I would not permit anything to befall you nor Andelena, Daed," Deliverance states firmly in that maternal voice of hers.
Daechir keeps his eyes on Aya, though she will not look at him. His free hand lifts to his brow. He only then realizes that Dolan's coin is in it. For a moment he stares at it then shakes his head. "Be wary Dolan, for such creatures can hide their evil with magic well enough." He looks around the room a little, his eyes making fruitive little darts; but always comes back to Dolan and Aya. "That is not... can not be Aya."
Well, this is new information. Dolan absorbs what he's been told, looking between the two of them. His lips pursed. It makes the melted scars twist strangely. "Yeah? Do you think that if she was a demon, she'd just leave when you asked her to?"
It's a hard thing, really. _This guy can't even trust the faces of the people he loves. In some ways, this is worse than Kol,_ he muses, his deep thought visible on his face. "Would you rather not trust her at all, or work out a way to tell which is which?"
Being assumed to be a fiend is one thing. Being told she can't be herself is a little different. Aya's arms lower while her eyes now lift to seek Daechir's; to search them, curious. "Why, Daed? Why can I not be?" She doesn't know anything of what he experienced. She may not want to. She may need to.
Andelena looks at Daechir again. "Let me put it this way, Daed," she says gently. "Dolan's right. If you can have a life with her--the lady you love--again, and you could tell that thing wearing her face to fuck off because it doesn't have the proper signs--wouldn't you at least try?"
Daechir lets out a hollow, unhappy laugh that rings with the sound of bells. "I have been trained well by my captors. You are right Dolan, my Aya..." Here his voice breaks slightly though with every word his voice is shaking off the dust of disuse. "She loves me, and so I have told them one and all the same message. Every fiend that wears her face, I tell her. 'Go away'. My Aya, she... will do so."
His voice wavers and his eyes brim with tears. "So she must be a demon Dolan, to come to me like this. Even though it breaks my heart and she hers, she will be apart from me until I can send for her. Then by token, by deed, and by her very absence for all those days between I will know her mine."
Dolan doesn't move, although that laugh rips holes in him. "She came because I asked her to. I bet she'll go if you ask her to, but - I think you need another signal. They don't own you, and all demons and devils want is power and for everyone to suffer." He taps his right temple meaningfully. "By living the good life, I tell them to go suck the dick of a naked man covered in bacon grease lying in a chicken pen." The brown eye dances wickedly, and his lips suddenly break into a grin that is full of wicked humor.
He also carefully does not look at Andelena.
"So if they wanted to make both of you suffer, they'd drive you apart, right? You gonna let 'em win?"
Aya did come at Dolan's insistence... and promptly begins to regret it with Daechir's words. "I was wrong." She turns for the door. "I should g-" Then Dolan makes a very good point. She thought it would just be a matter of time, of acclimation, but... She utters a choice expletive in Yrch and halts.
"No." Aya turns around to eye Daechir again. Angrily. "We're not."
She will possibly wonder about how oddly specific Dolan's example was later.
Andelena has to keep herself from laughing, because laughing would just confuse _everyone_ here except for... Well, for herself and Dolan. Instead, she nods, smiling widely at Dolan. "He's right. They're not here now, your captors. Your life isn't determined by them anymore. You get to be the person who decides. You get to be the person who can choose. Bry here knows a lot. And..."
Her hand goes to pat the hilt of Deliverance. "I know, too, but in a different way. Not nearly the same, but a similar sort of controlling shit. You're not the only one in this room hurting, Daed."
GAME: Daechir rolls Bluff: (17)+13: 30 GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive: (10)+20: 30
Daechir has already scoped the room out, and though it's clear that their words penetrate far enough to upset him that he is not being wholly moved by them. The only warning he gives really, is that his hand lets go of Andelena's, and the other clenches around the coin that Dolan gave him. Then he is flinging himself across the room bodily as quickly and as forcefully as he can manage.
Now, Daechir is no strong-man, never was. And two months of captivity have not exactly done much for his muscle density. However that is not to say that he is a weakling. Particularly not when driven by a sudden spurt of adrenaline, and motivated by desperation. It is not Dolan whom he throws himself at this time either, but instead, he tries to get _past_ Dolan; hoping to startle the man just long enough to reach Aya.
There's no offensiveness in his 'attack' but rather his efforts are aimed solely on a small pouch on her belt.
GAME: Dolan rolls will: (2)+11: 13 GAME: Dolan rolls reflex: (19)+5: 24
Moving quickly around Dolan is _not_ a good idea, and without the sense of him preparing to move, the lunge for Aya catches him off guard. He screams reflexively, and throws himself to one side with the instincts of a trained warrior, rolling harmlessly away from the motion without thinking, leaving Aya open to whatever it was Daechir was trying to do.
Aya isn't expecting Daechir to dart anywhere and her first thought is that he's bolting for the door. When it seems he he might be heading for her, instead, she doesn't act. It could be surprise, the worry that it is some sort of test, or just determination that she'll never raise a hand against him. Again. Ever. Whatever the exact cause, she's left standing still as he moves.
"Daed!" Andelena calls, but she knows--that scream from Dolan isn't out of surprise or shock. Not quickly, not silently, she walks up to Dolan and gets in front of him where he can see her. "Baby, it's okay. It's me, Andie. It's the 19th of Bernfleur in 1025 and we're in the Temple of Eluna."
The sound of fear from Dolan should have stopped or stalled Daechir, but it doesn't. He's too focused. But it's there. Somewhere in the back of his mind even as he tricks Aya with what he's going for. A shuriken slips into his free hand and then he's away again and panting, back against the bed. He grips the weapon in his hand in all the wrong ways, blood slipping from his fingers. "This is real. This is real." He mutters to himself, eyes scanning the room.
His reality doesn't make sense, and he looks from Andelena to Dolan, not connecting his own reaction to Dolan's fear. Then Aya. "Stop. Do not... Do not hurt him." There's resignation lancing across his shoulders.
"Get away from her, Kol." Dolan does not seem to have heard Andelena, and when he stands up, there is no sense in the brown eye. He fairly trembles, but he steps between Daechir and Andelena, _staring_ at Daechir with a recognition of - something. "I'm the one you want, and we both know it. Haven't you done enough?"
Aya doesn't realize that Daechir has managed to slip a hand into her dress and claim something of hers before he backs away. Not until she sees it, sees the blood. "Daed!" She takes a step towards him but then halts it at one, looking from him to Dolan and Andelena for... aid?
Now she is even more confused. Eyes flick back to Daed. "Yes, this is real, Daechir. It's alright." She hopes.
"Kol Demontry is not here." The voice comes not from Andelena but from Deliverance, the maternal tone of the sword cutting through the air. "There is not a demon here. This is a holy place."
Andelena looks at Dolan for just a second. A look dawns on her face. A _grin_. "Bry and I have fucked in plenty of holy places," Andelena says. "Haven't we, baby?"
"You _what_?" Deliverance is scandalized. "Where did you copulate--"
"In the _stables_," Andelena clarifies, "back in Myrddion. The stables attached to the Temple. We weren't playing 'hide and seek' in the courtyard of the Temple of Daeus here in Alexandria." Despite the bawdy conversation--it has a purpose. Of bringing Dolan back here to the present.
The scent of fresh blood is in the air and possibly not being particularly helpful in the case of the two men. Daechir is on the ground, his back to the bed, his eyes on Dolan. "Kol?" He repeats questioningly. "Is it invisible?"
Aya draws a little closer and his eyes narrow on her a moment, his form curling in on itself. He's clearly readying himself for some kind of fight. Invisible enemies, demons stalking him. His eyes narrow on the door. He prepares himself. "Take Andelena and go Dolan. I will hold them off!"
If that was confusing, what happens next will be more so. Dolan looks - confused. The words seem to reach him, and he blinks several times, but instead of answering, he - _stares_. "Fuck," he mutters. "Baby. Talk to me. What in all the green garden hells just happened. Kol's dead. I saw him go myself. Daechir. His girl. A bed. The blanket is gray. A table in the corner." His head turns, roving over the objects in the room, searching them, naming them off one by one.
Suddenly, he turns to Andelena, running a hand down her cheek, specifically over the scar that runs down it.
"Daed. Please..." Aya doesn't know what to say to him as he bloodies himself on the weapon he took from her to wield against her. She looks back to the other couple as Dolan seems to start to come back around(?). Maybe? Andelena is comforting him, consoling him...
Everything she would like to do for Daechir. Who wants to protect everyone FROM her. She shouldn't have come back. She shouldn't leave. She... has no idea what to do. So she lowers herself down the wall to sit on the floor. Puts arms on her knees.
"Daechir just grabbed something off Aya," Andelena explains. "I think he's caught in his own far-away. He needs you, baby. He needs both of us. He needs all of us."
She smiles brightly at him. "Let's help him, baby. Because you know how to reach him. I know you do. That's the whole damn reason we're here to begin with."
She looks to Daechir. "Daed, it's okay. You're in the Temple of Eluna. It's the 19th of Bernfleur in the year 1025." She's counting on Dolan to fill in the rest.
"What does it matter what day it is?" Daechir asks quietly, his eyes wide with a lack of comprehension. "Today is tomorrow, tomorrow is yesterday." He feels exhausted. Confused. He tilts his head into his knees and folds into himself.
Dolan doesn't answer immediately, but the pounding in his chest is beginning to subside, and he finally turns to face Daechir and Aya. "Sorry about that," he offers sheepishly. "It matters, because it's about staying present, and not getting sucked back into wherever you were." He leans back, just a little, and steps backwards until he is leaning against Andelena, his lone brown eye still dilated.
"You and I have both been in some shit places, Daed. I can't tell you how to get out of yours. You need to find your own key, because most of the keys people have tried to give me and stuff I was told didn't mean shit." There is some absolute candor. “What I can do is tell you that there is a way out, but going back to that place and time ain't it."
"I see you cut yourself," he goes on, his eyes going to the blood. "I know what that's for. That shit works. It helps you focus. It cuts through all the shit in your mind, yeah? There's other ways, too. Naming off objects in the room is one another friend of mine uses. For me, it's better if I touch 'em."
Aya puts her chin on her arms on her knees. She gives Dolan a brief look at his apology, as if to chide him on it... but he's already talking to Daechir. She isn't going to interrupt that. For the moment, she just watches the two. Normally, she's one to take action... but so far, every action she's taken regarding Daed has been wrong. "It helps him when I talk rude and dirty to him," Andelena adds onto Dolan's explanation, her arm going around him. "It helps guide him back. That's probably just a him thing and not a you thing, but--whatever keeps you _here_ is the best way to go."
Daed looks up and his eyes are weary, his expression haunted. "Nothing seems real. What I see becomes illusion. But I am real. I have this light, and this metal weapon in my hand. I know that much is here. A weapon, me, light. I am real. I am here." His eyes are thick with water, but he does not cry. Instead he blinks and blinks until they fade back. "I know a light came to me in the dark, it calls to me. I have captured it here, in my hand but everything else is surreal."
He looks at Dolan. "If you have lived in hell you must know. How unstable this reality is. I remember you, and I..." A pained expression crosses his face. "I remember you afraid. I remember you in light. Demons do not do such things. So you must be a man; or an immortal caught as I. You have your lady kind and fair, and this... then."
At last he turns to Aya and he is caught without words. "Every word and thought that was my loves is known to the one that wears her face and I was tormented by her visage, and the secrets we kept. What word or deed could I ask and know that this is her?"
"Yeah -" Dolan leans into Andelena, placing his arm over hers, quite plainly relishing and seeking the contact. "So I'm a man, all right. I'm one of the Sunlord's Coronae," he explains. "I've spent my fair share of time in chains." He shudders, hard. "I - got caught by the jailer and ended up with you. Wasn't a damn thing I could do to get out, so I was hoping I could help you at least."
"There are things you can do to make it more stable," he goes on. "Just remember, reality's stable. It's your mind that is playing tricks on you. A place like that will ruin a man's mind. I saw what you did with the fabric," he suggests. "Maybe keep some on you?"
Aya may be silent and sitting, but she is watching and listening. She follows Dolan's disclosure to Daechir. Andelena's addition that sparks a fleeting mote of humor that fades out before it reaches Aya's face. If lewd references, or even some extracurricular exercise would help him... Aya could have helped with that, at least.
Instead, Daechir reveals the insidious and unfortunate truth... though that he realizes this does, at least mean something? "He's right," she finally voices flatly to the others as she still watches Daed. "It knows what I knew. It was me. It... still is. All I could do is stay away, and maybe I should, but..."
"That depends entirely on what Daed wants," Andelena says, looking at Aya. "You have to let him decide what he wants. This is his recovery. This is his healing. You can't decide for him what he wants, because that's what Bry was talking about before--that people telling him what he should and shouldn't do wasn't helpful at all. Don't go and leave before he even has the ability to say so, damn it."
Daechir listens intently to Dolan, and lowers one of his hands to rub the fabric of the coat he's wearing. "Coat..." He mumbles to himself and looks down at his clothes for the first time. He blinks at his threadbare clothing, his lack of shoes, his hand rises slowly and tremulously to his hair and he makes a soft sound at finding that it is shorn. This seems to spark some memory and he shudders so badly that his whole body shakes with it. "Coat, metal, coin, me."
It doesn't seem to help that much, but they don't lose him, and that in of itself is a massive victory. Certainly something over their most recent attempts. "I do not know what I want... I want..." He looks up, hesitates and looks at Aya. "I want clothes. A bandage for my hand. Food."
He looks suddenly rather terrified to have spoken those words at all.
"I can heal the hand, if you'd rather. So can Andie," Dolan offers, grinning. "If you'd rather it heal on its own, we can get a kit. You want new clothes, or some of your old ones from before? I needed new ones. Aya, you know what he likes. I'm sure if you poke your head out the door and ask, they can get you food and a healer's kit. Let him decide on the healing, baby," he adds. "It really does make a big damn difference if you can decide what's right for you."
"He said-" Aya starts to retort to Andelena, but never finishes it. He may have said it, but she didn't really believe that's what he wanted... even if that could just be her wishful thinking. She quiets to watch Daed again: still concern at his mumbling, and then...
Her eyes widen at him. Not from what he says, exactly, but how... to whom. She nods, if tentatively. "I will get you clothes, Daed, from the tailor you like... and food you prefer. I could... cook you something?" There is a slight raise of brow at that, a hint of curl to her lip.
Whether fiend or not, she would know these things. He can't argue that. "Bandages... or" she dips her head to Dolan and Andelena, also now giving them grateful glances before looking back to Daechir. "Whatever you choose."
"Do you want me to bandage your hand, Daed? Or heal it?" Andelena asks. "You and I were getting along really nicely earlier. You can hold my hand again if you want while I heal or bandage it. I don't think Bry will mind." There's a small little smirk at Dolan. She knows exactly what he might say.
Daechir blinks but shakes his head. Once done, he does it again a bit more firmly, holding the shuriken-holding hand to his chest. "They... No. No healing." He licks his lips, eyes darting between them as if expecting them to argue with him about this fact. When no argument is offered, he looks at Aya and his lips twitch almost of their own accord. "Aya... You do not know how to cook any more than I do. I remember..."
A small flinch and he shakes his head suddenly again. "No pancakes. Just... Anything else."
"Bandages it is." Dolan accepts this without blinking, only a nod of understanding. "Baby, the only difference that will make is which side you get it from later." The half-mobile features split in a wicked grin that lights up with affection and good humor, and he straightens, gently pulling and tapping her on the arm, an unspoken ask to be released.
If she does, he goes to the door, pokes his head outside, and bespeaks of the guard outside a healer's kit, a change of clothes, and a helping of whatever is being served for dinner for Daechir.
"No, no pancakes," Aya assures him, a hint of smile flirting upon her lips a moment. A fond memory of nearly setting fire to... and the smile is gone. Not something to recall now. Later, maybe. She rises up the wall and back to her feet. "I will get you some proper clothes. After you've had some proper food, and your hand is bandaged."
"Don't threaten _me_ with a good time, baby," Andelena responds with a wide grin to Dolan, releasing him so he can go to the door and collect bandages.
She looks over to Daechir in the span of time that passes. "No healing, just bandages, and no pancakes. Those are easy enough asks, I think, bud. I'd help Aya out with getting clothes for you, but heh, I bet I wouldn't know the difference between lotus weave and the other shit Aryia brought in here for you to try."
Something of the true Daechir shows through here in a slightly wry expression. "I will suffer whatever cloth for ones that do not stink of sulfur, or which are not so thread-bare that they feel as though my breath might tear them." He says simply enough, and slowly begins to rise to his feet. Slowly and gently he transfers the shuriken to his right hand, looking at the gentle cuts that are bleeding more sluggishly now on his left. "This is real."
He sounds amazed.
Real doesn't take long to manifest, in the form of food - plain as it is - or clean clothing - just as plain, and a bit roughspun - and bandages. These are applied with plenty of skill and some dirty jokes shared between the sun couple. Not a peep is said, not a request is made to do with healing it, for Dolan was most clear on that point.
When all is made comfortable, Dolan and Andelena depart hand in hand, presumably to make good on the teasing and bantering that had gone back and forth. He notably did not let go of her hand for any length of time, and if she needed her hands, had shifted to her shoulder. When they depart, they leave the other couple behind to consider what they want their next move to be.
Like a real couple should.
-End