Aursra was feeling a mixture of trepidation and elation as Verial led the way to the villa. It reminded her rather strongly of that fateful day years before when a young Angelus had brought home a lonesome little girl that he had met at the local inn. Only this time it was Verial bringing home the 'stray', and she was not exactly an unfamiliar face. (We won't even go into how he'd found her at Siren's Corner.)

She was back to trembling; the raw, untamed magick that now coursed through her was hard to control at the best of times. It was near impossible in her current state of exhausted nervousness. It was hard. Her entire body ached with the effort, almost pulsing with that potentially lethal energy. She felt like a ticking time bomb.

She took a step nearer to Verial, nibbling at her lower lip in that old habit of hers....the one Angelus had never managed to break her of through no lack of trying. The young woman grasped the dark winged man's arm, hoping to get some control over herself before entering. "You're sure it is not a problem?" The last thing she wanted was to be a bother somehow, but oh, how she wanted to be back with those who she had long considered her family...

The way back to the Villa was much longer than he had thought, and Verial only realized this now because he had Aursra traveling with him. Verial was in much better shape, despite his recent wound from Lumine, and the walk to the Villa from Siren's Corner had never seemed like a big deal... until now. There were a few times that he had found Aursra teetering on her feet as if she were just about to fall over. Verial had noticed and scooped her up into his arms which was very much like carrying a small sack of potatoes. She had insisted on walking, but when she grabbed his arm again within a few feet of the Villa, Verial took her trembling body into his arms again.

"If it's a problem with anyone," Verial began looking down into her hazel colored eyes, "they can talk to me about it. You have nothing to worry about."

He proceeded towards the main door of his mother's cottage; his own was a few feet away where Kyrian was probably still asleep. By the time they had reached the Villa, it was very early morning and the sky was colored with blue, purple and orange, the sun just starting to climb horizon behind the trees that surrounded home. The door had been unlocked and Verial quietly entered the kitchen, hesitant to have anyone awake just yet. Verial gently set Aursra down on one of the kitchen chairs and went about finding food for her to eat.

Verial didn't think she had anything to be embarrassed about, but he could understand where meeting so many new people at once might cause Aursra grief. He was thankful that all the children had been asleep still and that his mother's cottage was quiet. Verial turned back to glance at her sitting by the kitchen table. Her clothes were but tattered rags any longer and just beyond the cloth he could see her bones poking against the fabric. Aursra hadn't eaten in a while, that much was obvious, but the magic she was not capable of controlling right now was eating away at her too.

It had crossed Verial's mind once on their way to the Villa that she might not make it; that maybe Aursra had found him too late. He hoped, though grim the thought was, that he had not brought her back home to die. He rubbed at his forehead for a moment as he quietly paced the kitchen, trying not to drown himself in his thoughts. The best he could have done with her, despite whatever would happen next, was to bring her back home no matter what.

He recalled the time he had first heard about Aursra. Angelus had been merrily teasing Verial one morning, saying that Verial had cooties for hanging out with his best friend, Necia. Though Verial was fine with the idea he was hanging out with a girl whose company he rather liked, he took great enjoyment out of chasing his younger brother around and trying to give him the "creepy touch". When at last he tackled Angelus to the ground and tickled his brother all over the place infecting him with his cooties, Verial wasn't yet aware of what he had actually done.

After, Angelus had went off to play and hours later when he came back, a fine colored blush was on his cheeks. Oh, he was hiding something and Verial had pried it out of him. That very same day... his younger brother had... -gasp- played with a girl and had fun. Her name was Aursra.

Thinking back, Verial thought how strange it was that she had happened upon Angelus the very day Verial supposedly gave his brother cooties. It was almost as if Verial had conjured up this sweet and lovely image of a little poet girl for his brother. And now Angelus was not here and Aursra was visibly withering away. Verial wanted to find her real father and do something, but no matter if he beat him or whatever, it would make no difference.

Verial let an almost frustrated breath come from his lips and shortly remembered he was not alone in the kitchen. He turned his head towards her, raven hair framing his pale face and tried to smile for her, ignoring the gnawing worry growing in his stomach. He was very fortunate someone had already started making breakfast as he wasn't sure how much time he had to work with. A pot of thick oatmeal had been cooking over the hearth, hanging above a glowing fire. Verial ladled some out for Aursra, adding some berries to the mix and brought her over the bowl to her.

He placed the bowl on the top of the table and after his hands were free, smoothed some of the tangled, mahogany curls from her face. Keeping a cupped hand on her cheek he said, "I know this isn't going to be easy, but you need to try and eat, even if your body wants to reject it. I will be right back."

Then moving out of the kitchen, he climbed the stairs up towards Maiwen's room to gather some clothes for Aursra. He had no doubt that his little sister would not mind him taking her clothes. However, the whole way to Maiwen's room he found himself hoping that Aursra would still be there when he got back to the kitchen, and that she would not fade away by any means.

During the long trek to the villa, she had hated to think that she was slowing their progress, but there was still some speck of pride. People had spent so much time and effort in protecting her. Now she knew that her mother had died for that cause, as well as the man she had always thought had been her father. Even Angelus had spent much of his life looking out for her... It seemed to her the least that she could do was walk. She'd made it this far after all.

Still, when Verial picked her up outside of the door, she no longer had the energy to resist. Her head just drooped wearily against his shoulder. Her eyes half closed. There'd been a time when she would have been able to stop herself from commenting on the colours illuminating the early morning sky, but at this point, she didn't seem to even notice.

She was taken inside, and she blinked, letting her eyes adjust to the new lighting. She could smell the oatmeal, but she vaguely wondered if she'd even be able to eat it. She suddenly felt so very weak. Adrenaline and that untamed magic had been keeping her awake and moving all of this time. Now, her body was at that point of just... giving up. She'd gone too long without sustenance... that power seemed to rip at all physical and mental defenses. She'd never been physically strong to begin with, and the visible signs of the toll it all had taken were heart-wrenching. She was still a lovely young thing, but she appeared far too fragile; like a wilting flower or one caught by a early spring frost.

She'd always been slender, but she was looking unhealthily so now.

She was deposited in one of the kitchen chairs, and it took more effort than she cared to admit to sit upright. She leaned forward, bracing some of her weight against the table by resting her arms against it. She was half-asleep when Verial set the oatmeal in front of her. Eyelids fluttered fully open when his fingers caressed through her curls and over her cheek. She looked at the bowl of food with a strange mixture of hunger and despair. The last thing she'd eaten--some berries she'd found during her travels--hadn't stayed down long. She nodded, though, grasping the spoon in one trembling hand, scooping some of it up, and bringing it slowly to her lips. It was so very good. She wanted to take another bite and another and another. She was ravenous, but she had enough sense left to her to know that eating so quickly would assuredly make her sick. Besides, her trembling didn't allow her to spoon it to her mouth much faster anyhow.

Verial turned to go, and Aursra was tempted to call him back. She'd been alone so long now that she was just as afraid that he'd disappear as he was that she would vanish. Food, though, was her primary concern now. It wasn't as if she had any right to ask him to stay anyhow. She stopped eating about half way through, dropping the spoon into the bowl to will back a wave of nausea. She gripped the edge of the table. It passed, but she pushed the bowl aside for the time being, placing her face in her hands; fingers tangling into her hair.

As Verial reached Maiwen's room, he wasn't particularly worried about dressing Aursra up for the ball. He searched through Maiwen's things for something that looked snug and comfortable, something with a bit of layering that Aursra very much had a lack of. He thought of keeping Aursra warm; her figure had zero fat on it now and he imagined the cold would have easily shook her like a lone leaf on a twig. Absently as he opened another drawer, he wondered how Maiwen would feel about her big brother looking through her drawer of intimates, underwear and numerous other girly things. Before he could let the idea bother him, shrugging his shoulders with a shudder, he finished gathering clothes and headed quickly down the stairs again.

When he moved into the kitchen's archway again, Verial paused for a moment looking at the slumped figure on the table. His breath caught in his throat for a moment until he realized that Aursra was still alive, though her breathing shallow. The bowl on the table was half eaten at least, though that did not satisfy Verial. Walking to the table, he set the clothes to the side and wondered if Aursra was even aware that he had entered the room again. After looking around the kitchen, he knew he needed to do something else to get her to finish eating.

Verial was not a healer by any means; he had lost that ability when he was very young. It had been smothered out by the dragon inside him. However, growing up with his mother - an expert healer - he still knew a few things. Verial searched inside the cabinets and pulled out a small glass jar with a mixture of dried herbs and spices. The dried remedy, when stirred in water, would provide some relief to a nauseated stomach. Part of him wished he had thought of this sooner. Verial spooned some of the jar's contents into a mug with water. As the herbs dissolved, the water turned an almost murky color; it was not pleasant to the eye, but it would help.

Moving to the table, Verial set the mug down for a moment and sat down on a chair. He slid his chair close to Aursra's so that she may lean against him if needed and he slowly helped straighten her posture a bit. Verial circled his hands around her face, pushing his fingers beneath her hands that were tangled into her hair, and gently lifted her head so that she was looking at him.

"I'm back now. You did great... but you really need to finish this food Aursra," Verial said, though he was positive the concept of eating more food would want to make her vomit. Verial wondered if he might be in danger of that anyway, but he was beyond the point of caring over something like Aursra losing her food on him. He nodded towards the cup he had brought to the table. "This probably won't taste amazing, but it'll help settle your stomach so you can continue eating."

Keeping one hand on her face so that she would not fall forward as easily again, Verial grasped for the mug. He brought it to her dry, cracked lips and paused for a moment, before coaxing her into swallowing the liquid. "Drink, please. Trust me..."

If she had been aware of Verial's return, it was only vaguely. She was in a strange stage of semi-wakefulness. She felt as if she should be moving or doing something, but she couldn't make her body cooperate. She just stayed there with her head in her hands, her body shaking almost violently with a combination of that too-powerful magic and the physical strain from her travels and lack of sustenance. It was amazing, really, that she'd been as coherent as she had been earlier. She coughed; a terrible seal-like barking that racked her entire body with its intensity until the fit ceased. There was a small whimper, as her fingers tugged at her hair.

She wanted to turn and acknowledge Verial's presence, but the smallest of movements now seemed so difficult. Her teeth were chattering in spite of the room's cheery warmth. It wasn't terribly long before he was beside her. Gentle hands were prying her own away from her face. She didn't want to look at him. She was embarrassed that anyone should see her this way, but nor did she have the strength to fight him. Those dreamy hazel eyes of hers were clouded with pain and shame and countless other feelings.

There was the scent of ginger and various other herbs and spices very near to her face, and in spite of her resolve to keep herself upright, she let herself slump against his shoulder. "You don't have to do this..." Her voice was thin, barely as much as a whisper. Laid now against him, she felt feverish in spite of her trembling and the chattering of her teeth. Oh, no. She was not in very good shape at all.

There was another whimper offered up from her throat, but she didn't try fighting against him when the concoction was pressed to dry, cracked lips. Trust me. That's what he'd said. It took her a moment to work the words through her half-addled brain. A hand squeezed just barely at his arm, though she'd meant the grip to be stronger. "I do..." She managed after forcing down that first swallow of the drink.

Well momma told him when he was young,
said sit beside me, my precious son
and listen closely, what I say
and if you do this it will help you, all of your days.

Troubles will come and they will pass.
You'll find a woman and find yourself.
Follow your heart and nothing else.
All you need now, is in your soul.

And be a simple kind of man
be something you love and understand.
Baby be a simple kind of man
won't you do this for me son if you can.

Song: Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd
lyrics shamelessly butchered from original song.



If something is lost, it can be found. Can- being the operative word. One need only the will and heart to seek it. The Angel understood her son's unique circumstance. She knew what slept beneath the surface in Verial's inner-man. Once long ago it had been an unchained thing, his Dragon. Pure and magnificent in its strength and power of destruction. She often questioned her deep regard and trembling respect for these Aspects when she has witnessed so much ruin by them.

She wondered if Verial would keep grasping for straws in trying to save the dwindling life of the young woman Ausrsa, who had been for so long a daughter in law, in spirit, in their family. Where one came, another always followed. The Angel could almost be sure that Angelus would once more return a Prodigal to the pulling of the poet.

She smiled to herself, watching from a distance. Her presence unnoticed, though the breakfast was. She could of easily stepped in, grasped the situation with ease and Grace, making it easy for Verial by removing the desperate need for him to seek deeper inside himself and grasp hold of his raw potential.

But nay. She did not move.

The state Aursra was in, it almost seemed wrong for the Angel not to step in, sensing the instability of magic that threatened to completely fray what was already a fragile creature. The Angel would sense the life in the young woman weak and her spirit fighting against slipping to the coldness of unconscious.

Aursra needed more than a bit of oatmeal and herbal remedy. She needed Verial to remember he was still an Angel, by the blood of his mother's mother. He was still an Angel.

Verial knew what he was. His wings were definite proof of his heritage, however his mind constantly concluded for himself that he could not heal or produce any fabrication of light magic. Blame his father, Julius, or blame the dragon, Verial's body immediately rejected any form of creating light magic any longer. The last time he had tried to do such, to help his mother heal Dalharil Do'Urden, he ended up pathetically fainting. The last thing he needed right now was to fall over on Aursra and have her fend for herself. No... he had already promised, "I won't let anything happen to you... no matter how much terrible power you might have."

So while he was convinced he could do nothing for her as far as healing went, it was increasingly clear that he had to do something and fast. The first sip of the concoction he made was a tough one; her body was subjected to constant trembling as if she were having a seizure. Verial felt like he didn't have enough hands and that he wasn't able to keep her steady enough. There was no way she was going to get through another sip and by that point, Verial was positive it wasn't her hunger that had been gnawing hungrily away at her. It was the magic that was suffocating her soul and Aursra was still fighting a losing battle by herself.

He moved the cup away from her lips and set it on the table, still trying to keep the shaking poet upright. He would not be able to heal her, but at least he could take on some of her magic. Verial recalled the times he needed to learn how to accept and live with his dragon; there was a difference between outright rejecting it and trying to cope with it. He was partial to always doing the first - turning away from it - but soon after knew the second choice was the better - to accept who he was becoming.

It was a shame Aursra's real father had tried to unleash her magic for his own selfish reasons and now she had no idea how to control herself. Verial couldn't have imagined the memories Aursra's father had inflicted upon her to try and accomplish turning her into some killing machine, but he had a notion Aursra was trying to fight that desire and her magic leading to the consumption of her very being. She would die trying to hold everything back.

Back in Siren's Corner, Verial had been able to converse with Aursra right after she had let loose some of the magic on the man that tried groping at her. There was a significant difference between then and now; letting a little bit of that energy stored inside her go, Verial thought she was able to find relief. So, he took her hand and placed his palm on top of her own and nodded sincerely to her, hoping she was able to still hear his words at this point.

"Aursra, you have to let some of your magic go. Stop holding it back or it's going to kill you,” Verial started gesturing to their hands pressed together. "I'm going to try to absorb it, and then everything will be okay."

Actually, he was not entirely sure about his last statement. The man she had attacked was left sprawled on the ground, dazed and in pain, but Verial was not like that man. He was part angel, among other things, and though he could not heal her, he had enough strength and (stupid) bravery to try and take in some of her magic. It was either do that, or try and heal her, and Verial did not want to risk the chance of being incapable of waking up right now.

Here goes nothing, Verial thought and breathed in.

She hated that Verial had felt inclined to make that promise… hated that even now, with untold power coursing through her veins, that she was unable to protect herself. Too many people had sacrificed themselves for her protection, and it ate at her. Even now she didn’t know where Angelus was. Was he, at this very moment, out looking for her? A silent tear tracked down her cheek.

The trembling was definitely more violent than the average cold or frightened sort. Verial’s silent assessment that it was more like a seizure certainly wasn’t wrong. It took all of her will to contain that toxic magick. She was strong of will, but her body was so fragile.

Toxic… That’s how she thought of it. It had been tainted. She had yet to see it do any good, save perhaps leading her here to Verial and whatever remained of the only family she’d had since she was nine years old. That was what was killing her… that this magick had only been able to cause harm thus far. She was so inherently… good; a complete pacifist. It had taken Angelus an age to get her to even touch the wooden sword that he used for practicing when they were children because she didn’t like the thought of what it stood for… of the people who could be hurt. He had eventually gotten her to understand the need for good men to stand up and do what had to be done to protect others who could not protect themselves, but she’d always hated to think of that ugliness… the bloodshed…

The girl’s eyes focused on Verial, but it took so much effort. The usually quick-witted Aursra looked at him puzzled, as she tried to make sense of his words. When it all sank in, her body went rigid, and she was sitting up on her own. She was in a complete panic. She looked absolutely terrified, as she shook her head vehemently. “C.. ca… can’t. I can’t!” What she had done at the Siren’s Corner had been an accident. She’d even begged him not to touch her. She had known how unstable she was.

She tried pulling her hands out of Verial’s, still shaking her head. She gave a sob, her shoulders rising and falling. “I’ll hurt you… maybe… maybe worse…” Her body was already reacting to his proposition. Or rather the magick was. It wanted released, and her body wanted to reject it every bit as much as it had tried to be rid of that food. The air gave another crackle around her, an intense but brief shock transferring from her hands to his, but she was trying to pull away. She gulped in great gasps of air as if that would stop the inevitable. “Verial please…” Though what she was pleading for was difficult to tell.

(Continued from chat session on February 2... Although Aursra had unleashed some of her powers, in which Verial's arm was injured, Sorvynia showed up and helped to heal the both of them. Afterwards, Verial and Aursra proceed to Verial's cottage in the Villa for rest.)
-----------

Verial had climbed the stairs to his room and for once held onto the railing as he went along. He was physically beat and needed a good night's rest. Usually he could go on little sleep, but after Aursra's magic and even his mother's own healing magic, he felt as if he had been hit in the stomach by the tail of a very powerful dragon. Oh yes, sleep was definitely in order.

Before heading into his own room, Verial checked on Kyrian, slowly opening the door trying not to let it creak. His son, now twelve years old, was still sleeping his face buried into the pillow and raven hair messily covering it. Verial decided not to wake him; there was no point in yet announcing Aursra's return for Kyrian. About a year or two ago when Verial had brought Necia back, Kyrian could barely remember the face of even his own mother. There were certain things he could recall, but for the most part it was very awkward for Kyrian. So, he had to wonder honestly if Kyrian would know Aursra and if not, if it would break her heart.

The door was softly shut behind him as Verial went into his own room now. He tugged off his shirt over his feathered wings, shoulders and head and tossed it aside, thinking it was better off burned later. Verial got a new shirt out of his closet and as he was putting it on, he took a glance at his bed which looked oh so comforting right now and wondered where Aursra was going to sleep? His cottage was not as big as his mother's; it was only him and Kyrian and as far as Verial knew, he wasn't having any more kids. His mother had given him enough younger brothers and sisters running around to last him a lifetime. After much deliberation between possible spots he could sleep - the couch or the floor - he decided the two of them, himself and Aursra, were just going to have to share.

He was about to dive right into the covers and pillows that beckoned him, but thought he ought to check on Aursra. Normally, Verial knew she was very capable of taking a bath by herself, but in the short time that had passed an enormous amount of mental and physical stress had plagued her. Verial descended the stairs again and on the bottom step that was somewhat close to the washroom door, he sat and pressed his pointed ear against the wall. Closing his eyes and letting out a yawn, he listened as he heard the water splash delicately from inside the other room. It's not as if he was trying to be a creep, lurking outside the washroom; he was still concerned and doing exactly as Sorvynia had asked him to - to tend to Aursra and make sure she was alright.