The #Broken_Dagger Forum

((key: telepathic speaking, telepathic visions))

[Genny] It’s getting cooler, now that the sun has set. Cicadas begin to quiet, orange fades to pink, lavender creeps across the sky darkening into blue and sprinkled with stars. The street lamps are lit and cobbled stones are swept by the merchants as they lock up. The bakery on the street level goes dark, the curtains drawn and the door closed. Still, the scent of fresh bread and sweets lingers while the upstairs apartment above the shop has two windows, one lit and the curtains drifting out. This was Genny’s window. Not the window of the book crowded room she still rented at the Dagger, but her actual, Myrken home in town. Not many knew of it, but then, not many needed to. Feeling someone familiar, that odd sensation that was the link between them, Genny pulled back the curtain and leaned out the window that overlooked the street.

[Zilliah] His approach had been deliberate and slow as he had chosen to walk all the from the inn towards town to avoid the military encampment. It didn't take him long to find her amongst all the other voices in the night and she would feel the sensation of his presence growing stronger, as if it were calling out to her. By the time her face shows in the window, the fae is already there, just across the street, staring up at her window with that unnerving, ever-unblinking stare. Once he is certain she see him, he moves across the cobblestone street towards the lower entrance where he waits patiently for her to let him in. He is finely dressed in a black suit and light jewelry so as not to draw too much attention in town from the soldiers. His hair is pulled back in a tight french braid, a shag of bangs cut to help hide the third eye that he has covered in a circlet of beaten gold and jade fashioned in a ornate dome.

[Genny] He stares from across the road, unblinking and she is down to let him in quickly. Even without words between their minds she knew this much. She will go through the main shop and take him through the dark bakery even though there are narrow exterior stairs at the back of the building. Without coming previously, it wasn’t a path he could have known to take. The floor door is opened and she leads him into the dim room, the paint cheerful and fresh but already half covered by crude drawings pinned to the walls. There were a great many things on the patches of parchment, illustrations that overlapped, crossing many pieces and other accompanying a great many words in a small script. The whole mess covered half of all the wallspace in the generously sized apartment and they would be familiar. The beach, the library, the wolf, Snowy, James, Rhaena, Glenn, dozens of people important to her and to those who had entered her mind. It was a map of sorts, paths and rooms and links, and memeories. Still, amongst the madness she is smiling, standing before him in a light cotton dress, it is not by any means formal or even suitable for any proper sort of appearance. More of a nightgown or a simple summer dress of a very modest length. ‘Come in, I felt you… not long ago, but the tea should be ready soon,’ her voice spoke to his mind, not even bothering with real words.

[Zilliah] He doesn't bother with knocking and just lingers like a shadow until the door creaks open and he slips inside with a wide smile for her. He takes her hand and allows her to lead him through the bakery to her flat without a word. He is not bothered by her casual appearance and as soon as they are safely in her quarters, he lets go of her hand and even moves to remove his own jacket. He looks at all the clutter, the drawings, the books, and he then cranes his neck towards her as she speaks so fluidly into his mind. He is not bothered by it the way Gloria had been, instead, he seems to clearly enjoy the shared telepathic and emotional link. -Do you have anything from the bakery as well? Or should we go back and raid something?-

[Genny] ‘No need to steal!’ Her smile came with the words, her emotions were measured but present. Felt perhaps no more strongly than if he could read the subtly of expression on her face, but far more readily shared. Amusement and genuine gladness at his presence. There was no real pantry or kitchen, a large basin and several pitchers on a large table with a hutch and cabinets. A pair of cinnamon rolls was unveiled on a plate that she pulled down from a shelf, fresh from earlier in the day, the sugar drizzled on a bit crunchy but still sweet. There is no table, other than her large desk sitting across from the fire place and occupying the most space in the room. So, she goes to the corner and sets the plate on her made bed, beneath the open window, curtains fluttering in the breeze. There is room that they my both sit on the bed, but the floor has rugs too, and pillows, and books, perhaps she sat there often. ‘I am so happy to see you, I might have visited but after I spoke with Glenn,’ after the last time when she visited and asked him to find the fault in her mind. In the end, there was no fault, she had been responsible for invading Gloria’s mind. Her emotions rise and the memory of Glenn telling her that she did what she had to do, is shared. But then too, her guilt at the realization, still, unable to remember the events.

[Zilliah] He had been gone from her for many months and though he had missed her, the time did not feel like so distant a gap. He looks around at the state of her place again while she places the food on the bed. The offering of tea and cinnamon rolls seems to please him and his smile widens as he walks over to place his folded jacket on the edge of the bed. He notices the option given to him but he chooses to sit down on the bed, taking up one of the rolls that he promptly begins to tear apart into bite sized morsels with his fingertips. -You have not come to terms with it?- There is some amusement at the idea of Glenn agreeing with him on the subject of Lamai. -You have not sought her out; were you waiting for me? Did I make you wait too long?- He looks up at her, his head cocking to the side curiously, a touch of concern pulling his lips down into a slight pout. Her problems were not as immediately obvious to him given their state of communication as it had been to Gloria and other humans.

[Genny] Time, had likewise not seemed to bother her or been relevant in the least. Perhaps it would have continued this way if Gloria had not come to her, it was her forgiveness she needed anyway. Had she come to terms with it, ‘I have not, I may never. But Gloria has forgiven me and Glenn seems to think it was necessity.’ She retrieved the tea and set two cups upon the small tray beside the plate on her bed before joining him. Her weight was so slight it hardly shifted the contents at all. ‘You did not make me wait,’ there was gentle, forgiving smile, but it was obvious she meant to be more independent. She had felt bad relying on him so much, like a full grown babe, needing so much and having so little to offer in return. ‘I did not seek any one, it was better, I think, to resolve this alone. I have practiced separating my mind, my emotions from this voice.’ She hadn’t quite the skill to do it before, to separate emotion, to restrain pieces of her while sharing others. ‘I wrote to Gloria, if that is what concerns you. Only my messenger, Daryl, thought to check on me before that. And truly, I am fine.’ Though her physical body had suffered, she is thin and gaunt, still tired looking. Always.

[Zilliah] He waits until she is settled with the tea before he begins to eat the sugary-sticky-sweet roll. He lets the treat wash away the distaste at the mention of Gloria and the guilt the goes with it. His nose lifts in the air a touch and he reaches out to take up a teacup while she continues. As he sips, his third eyelids come out to protect the opalescent orbs from the steam. -I have seen Gloria already. She avoids you because she is pregnant with Catch's child.- So subtle, this one!

[Genny] Genny does not eat her roll so much as dab her finger in the icing and delicately suck small bits of sugar from her finger as they sit in silence. A kiss to her index finger and she freezes, staring with some disbelief at the fae sitting across from her. ‘I am certain you are misinformed. She came by just earlier today, she is no more large than she has always been and Catch,’ her eyebrow lifted. It seemed for the first time ever her perception of Catch changed, he was just a large man-child, more her brother than her blood. To think of him as a man, a man in such a way that could make a woman pregnant. It was almost too much. ‘She told you this?’ Perhaps Gloria had lied or was manipulating him, perhaps he could see the reasoning and gears turning in her mind, feel the disbelieving thoughts. Not that she did not believe him, but more the impossibility of what he said.

[Zilliah] This wasn't the most pleasant conversation to be having while trying to eat, he could grant her that, but she likely would have just picked at the icing anyway! It is only the tension in her posture and the disbelief that fills her that draws his attention away from her long fingers. He blushes a little, both at finding himself looking at her that way and the feeling of slight agitation at being questioned at all on the matter. -They both told me so. Catch had not understood what he had done and showed me so that I might fix it. Gloria admitted it to me when I confronted her about it. I was kind and I tried to make amends with her.- He really had! They had even held hands for a brief moment! He takes one last morsel of roll, leaving a good deal of it behind on the plate. He washes it down with tea and then turns to look out the window with a sigh.

[Genny] She would have picked at the frosting, not that she didn’t like sweets. She just rarely ever really ate. If he seemed to be acting strange she really hadn’t noticed. After all, Gloria had just made amends, they had just cleared the air, dispelled all that had come between them. They were friends. ‘They told you,’ her eyes are wide and the breath seems knocked out of her. Oh, she believed him, after all Zilliah was her friend and had been for far longer than that stupid, foul smelling Gloria! ‘What did they tell you?’ Her emotional stability began to fluctuate like the water as a strong gale might press upon the sea, and his words were the rising moon that pulled the tide. She was trying to be rational, reasonable, do as she always did and find where the error in communication had occurred. Identify the misunderstanding. Red rose in her cheeks and anger began to boil, but she maintained composure, setting her hand on the knee of the fae who was turned to the window with a sigh. ‘Please tell me what happened, Zilliah. This, it...’ even her mental voice struggled to find the words.

[Zilliah] There is some hesitation in him, up until the point where her hand touches his leg. Were Gloria's secrets his to tell? The hesitation comes from guilt but some part of him cannot move on from it until he tells her. His eyes catch the dim light of the moon as they slowly turn to look down at her hand. He moves to clear away the barely touched food, cleaning his fingertips with a towel instead of licking his clean. -Gloria took advantage of Catch. She told him to sit still and he cares so much for her that he obeyed, even though he did not understand what she was doing.-

[Genny] He hesitates and she sees it, there is some guilt in asking him, but not enough to stop her. No, this was too important. Sitting on edge beside him, her eyes wide as he wipes his fingers and the waves of her mind grow more violent. No. No. Her hand squeezes and retracts covering her mouth as if she might throw up, not that there is much in her stomach to lose. No. No. Her head shaking and tears beginning to well. ‘How could...,’ the focus, the control and ability to form words is lost. Being that he is so receptive, he might well feel the full force of the wave that radiates out and away from her. Emotions like a wall of water, coursing and crashing. Anger. How could she that falsely rueful, lying bitch, that whore, how dare she?! It is not rational, it is not restrained, all of the memories of Gloria are dragged into the water, vicious and full, the details vibrant and exact pulling him into the memories, making all else black and filled with emptional debris. The library, her tears, the feel of her hot, rotten breath against her lips. Genny’s eyes clench and she is crying, hot, angry tears. And Catch, the second wave is a wash of an even darker blackness, it is such sadness. How could she… how could she, she promised. Betrayal. Lies. Selfish. Cruel. Gloria. Catch wrapped in her arms, laying as a small child would on a bed beside her asking her such innocent questions, asking her about drawing, and hats, and kisses. While Genny sits in the physical world, upon her soft bed, tears still dripping onto her uneaten bun, she ceases weeping. She ceases moving, her face in her hands, petrified.

[Zilliah] When it all comes rushing to him, he holds like a levee against it, physically reaching out to squeeze her shoulder gently as he shares in it all. She has so much wrath for Gloria that it makes his eyes widen in response to it and his lips tremble. He never wants her to feel this way about him and in the heat of it, he actually feels some pity for Gloria. He also feels regret for having to know so much so easily, that even with her powers, Genny can still be lied to so boldly. He is frowning and her wrath begins to sink into his bones as well. He lets her cry, his hand slipping away from her shoulder. -I did not come here tonight to make you cry. I am sorry for that. Tell me what I should do.- The plea would be felt; he wanted so badly to make her stop crying, to get revenge of Gloria for this, anything she wished of him to make things right for her.

[Genny] Zilliah is an anchor in the storm. Against her impulsive and unrestrained wrath, a piece that had escaped and was not at all like her. She had trusted Gloria, just as she had trusted everyone, just as she had decided to be as everyone would wish her; plain without the ability to peer into their heads whenever she liked. She had refrained, she had actively decided to do the “right” thing. Was it so right or noble when people merely used it to lie to her. To manipulate her. The boiling rage grew, the wind blew until he touched her and then suddenly the storm quieted. The waves were still fierce but from the sky pages drifted down and books bubbled to the surface of the dark water. And somewhere lost in it was Genny, it had overcome her and she could not answer.

[Zilliah] Somewhere in the midst of all the turmoil, she ceased upon a truth, one that whipped the storm into a fury. She would feel the cold truth of it sink in with his calming touch. His other hand reaches up to brush aside his own bangs and remove the circlet hiding the still flesh and blood third eye. The lashes slowly open and the pupil narrow with the brightness of visible light before zeroing in on her still form in front of him. -That is why they fear you so much; not because you might really harm them, but because you might see their lies. It is hard to find acceptance in the flaws of those we care deeply for but we must do it.-

[Genny] The light is brilliant, his touch is gentle. Still, she sat unmoving. But within, the waters began to calm. ‘It is such irony, isn’t it? You. Me… our flaws are so readily apparent. We cannot be without them,’ the voice is small, distant, and young. Just a child, with her tangled red locks whipping in the wind, standing in the warm sand of the beach in her memories, perhaps she stood here because Zilliah knew it. Or perhaps it was safe. She began to walk towards the cliffs, a cave resolving in the face of the rocks. ‘I’m not like them, I don’t want to be like them. Not if this is what they do,’ the storm surged briefly, the wind howling past the cave. ‘Should I watch and listen when they don't know?’

[Zilliah] Could anyone hear them? Could the mice? The sit there on the bed so quiet, not speaking and barely moving while inside their minds emotions war. The gold and jade band is placed next to the tea-tray, the freed hand moving to clasp her other shoulder. -No one is without them, visible or no.- It pained him when she asks the last question. -You cannot blame people for their nature and it is in it to lie; even innocent children do it.- He finds her on the beach, taking her by the hand to drag her faster from the emotional driven winds into the security of the cave. -I would not recommend it if you are unable to accept the dark truths of people and forgive them and yourself in the process. I did not take anything from Gloria or Catch that they did not wish to show me on their own. Perhaps she does not know how to tell you in a way that will not dissolve your friendship.- In both realms he draws her near, embracing her in a sheltering, much overdue, tight hug to his chest.

[Genny] They were very quiet, and it was night, in her apartment, alone. Though it was truth in this physical plane, nothing was further from the truth within. He takes her hand, the hand of a small child and soon they are inside the cave; the winds whistle past the entrance crying and moaning. But he takes her, he holds her in both realms, and the cave dissolves around them. Within her mind they are in the ruins of the library, it is wet and cool, but the sun is filtering in through the broken ceiling and the child has become closer to the woman he knows. She is far prettier here. Catch saw her this way. Simple, some years younger, a pie maker with the impossible hair of flame. She squeezes him, holding him just as tight. Her arms to lift on her physical body as well, the connection re-established. ‘the truth of people,’ it still stung, fresh tears bubbled, still pained by not only what Gloria had done in facing her without telling her, but the act itself. ‘Is Catch all right?’ Surely Gloria would not be, but at least for her, this had been a choice.

[Zilliah] He holds her to him with an almost breathtaking force at first. It has been far too many months since he has held her like this. His heart beats wildly in his chest even as he tries his best to calm them both. He is the same in both worlds; the perfect ideal of himself in reality and in his mind, even down to the new details of his hair and eyes. Come back to me, he seems to feel, come back to the here and now, you do not need to retreat to this place. It was just like her to worry over Catch, -He is traumatized by it but he cares deeply for her. Only time will tell how it will end.- Even he could not predict how this would all turn out.

[Genny] He tells her to return and a deep breath later the shared space dissipates. Blinking away the tears, her eyes open and she pulls away just enough to look at Zilliah from where she sits in his embrace. ‘I am not sure I can forgive her for hurting him,’ even understanding her faults, there was a difference wasn’t there. She would have to see Catch. She would have to see Gloria. But for right now, she need only stay here. A sigh and she rested her head against the fae. It was all rather complicated, every bit of it.

[Zilliah] He is thankful when she returns to him, when she is once again moving against him and batting away tears instead of trying to hide away from it all. -You have forgiven me when I have wronged him and not meant to. If you two are meant to be friends, you will work it out. If not, then it was not meant to be.- His hold on her relaxes and his face tilts down to rest his cheek against the mess of red hair that is the top of her head. -I have missed you. I am sorry that the first thing I have done for you after so long is make you cry. Tell me how I can make you smile again.-

[Genny] He had a point, but then again Zilliah hadn’t ever done anything quite so wrong as force himself on someone. At least not to her knowledge. It hardly even seemed like Gloria. ‘You didn’t make me cry,’ no, this was Gloria. He had merely told her what inevitably she would have learned. Eventually she would show. Catch would tell her. Perhaps it was better this way, she would have time to tame the emotions. At least Zilliah could weather the storm, he was capable and strong, Gloria’s mind, it might well break against the waves. What to make her smile again? ‘Stay a while? Or visit more often?’ It was selfish, but he did manage to keep the nightmares at bay. Was it difficult? Was this asking too much?

[Zilliah] A lesser person might have used him to enact revenge on the poor girl, but not Genny. She simply clung to him, allowing him to keep her grief and worry from drowning her long enough to see some reason. She would have to leave this home and go out to speak to them both and there is the always unspoken offer to be there if she needs him when she does. For now, she asks only for his company and it makes his heart swell with happiness. -I would stay every night with you if you would let. You are joy to me.- His cheek lifts from her hair and he kisses her tenderly a top the red locks before releasing her only long enough to put away the unfinished late night snack and prepare himself for the evening spent in her bed.