The Forgotten Zodiac

L'arc drew back slightly, aborred by the retelling of what Sylas had to do... and who his victims were, but he strove not to let it show. "It's... it's okay. That's right, you're fine."

Sylas clenched his fists, closing his eyes. "L'arc...d-do you hate me for that? I...was selfish. I should have just let myself die...bu-but I put my own life higher than theirs. I..." He didn't dare look up, not wanting to meet his friend's eyes. He had never talked to L'arc about this before...

"I couldn't hate you," the reply was out of his mouth before L'arc had even thought of it, almost like a relfex. "You're my friend, Sylas, and who's to say that I would have done differently, if I were in your shoes?" he asked, closing his eyes.

((Dinnertime, sorry.))

"You're the forest prince...I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have just killed them..." Sylas sighed, looking up at him with sadness in his single eye. "I feel like a traitor sometimes, though. The forest...I love the forest. It's my home. I don't feel like a traitor to the humans, but I know I'm a traitor to the forest...all those deaths occured at my hands, a-and..." He took a deep breath in, holding it for a moment before exhaling. "I dunno. I should stop thinking about it, probably...c-can we go talk to Gabe yet?"

((it's okay. chzy just felt like bothering you so I gave him an excuse to.))

L'arc couldn't meet Sylas's gaze, and cleared his throat to avoid making a reply. "Yes," he finally said. "If you feel like you can put on your feet."

((xDD Niiice.))

Sylas slowly slid his legs over the side of the bed, rising to his feet carefully. He shuffled forward a few paces, and nearly collapsed on another bed. He struggled to keep himself upright; he had lost way too much blood and he felt dizzy as he realized how bad it actually had been. But he kept his hand on the wall once he reached it, determined to not return to the subject of his inexcuseable murders.

L'arc was quick to dart over and take Sylas's arm in an effort to help steady him. "You okay?" he asked. "I could go fetch him, if you want."

"I'm okay, I'm okay," Sylas protested, one hand on his stomach, where the worst wound had been. He leaned between the wall and L'arc, favoring his left leg a little more than the right. But unsteady as he was, they slowly made their way to the sitting room, where Gabe and Jerod were.

"And so I figured, what happens if I try to do a spell without looking at the book? Or even holding it? Does it get weaker? You know, I was reading that some warlocks and witches use stones or wands or staffs to increase their power. Do you think I sould try to find-- oh, look!" Gabe stopped his chatter as L'arc and Sylas entered, and rose to his feet - L'arc was shocked to find that the boy was only about a head shorter than he. But then some warlocks grew up to seven feet tall, and L'arc supposed the boy must take after his father.

"L'arc, Sylas! You're both up!" he greeted them cheeriliy.

"Yeah...hey, Gabe." Sylas huffed, walking slowly over and plopping down where he was. He closed his eyes, breathing uneasily for a minute or two before managing to calm himself down. It hurt quite a bit, walking from the infirmary to here, but he had done it anyways.

"Did you need something, Sylas?" Jerod asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah...we kind of wanted to know what all we missed."

L'arc sat down by Sylas, between the human and Gabe, who had slid over to accomodate them. Gabe, having been greeted in return, now seemed more interested in his book than talking once more, and so engrossed that it was obvious that Jerod would have to answer the two's questions.

Jerod sighed and started to explain. He hadn't heard much, but Aries, Rush, Arachne and Byrne were in the forest defending the Tree of Seasons. Which both Sylas and L'arc understood fully. But Sylas looked upset when Jerod mentioned how sick Rush seemed, and the fact that no one had seen any of the others since Oceanica. He had to explain what happened to get them there in the first place, too. When he was done, Jerod leaned back and sighed. "So no, it hasn't been very easy. But...well, we're trying to give Aries as much support as we can..."

"Tree of Seasons isn't awake yet?" L'arc asked, shaking his head slightly. He then muttered "No wonder I'm so exhausted..."

Gabe looked up at the mention of Aries's name. "Do you want to talk to her?" he asked, digging out his sending stone.

"It should be waking up any day now, though, right?" Sylas blinked. "And even then, it'll take a couple days for its influence to reach this far out..." He looked up at Gabe, then looked at L'arc. "Do we...want to talk to her? Didn't you already tell her that we're awake, Gabe?"

Gabe nodded. "I did, I did indeed!" he said, grinning. "But she said that hearing your voices wouldn't be bad," he added.

Sylas slowly nodded, taking the Sending Stone from Gabe at last. He thought for a moment, trying to remember how to call, then did so. Aries answered first. "What's up?" Her voice came over the stone.

"Hey, Aries," Sylas said quietly.

"Sylas? Is that you? Skies above, it's so good to hear from you..." Aries sighed with relief. "How are things over there? Where's L'arc?"

"I'm right here," L'arc chimed in as he heard his name. "Things are going fine. We only just woke up," he said.

"L'arc is awake too? But the Tree of Seasons isn't due to wake up for another few days, at least..." Aries sounded surprised. "Oh, it doesn't matter. It's good that you're up. Maybe you being awake will bring spring early." There was a pause, then, "Sylas?"

"Yeah?" The boy questioned.

"You're not trying to kill anyone, are you?"

"What? Why would I do that? Don't be crazy, Aries." Sylas shook his head. Apparently, he had forgotten about the incidents earlier. Which was mostly good.

"Oh...good. That's good. Glad to hear that you're better." Aries sighed with what sounded like relief.

"I'll tell you about it later," L'arc chimed in, in reference to Sylas not killing anyone. But as far as the boy himself knew, Sylas would think that L'arc was talking about his awakening.

Gabe listened to the conversation quietly, but after a while, it seemed that he would burst if he remained silent any longer. "Hi, mommy!" he called.

"Gabe, I said it once, but I'll say it again," Aries said, sounding happy. "I love you. And you did an excellent job waking these two up. Now we know that Sylas is fine. Rush will be relieved, and the waking of the Tree of Seasons will come all the quicker now. I'm so proud of you, Gabe...and I miss you very, very much. We'll come see you soon, okay?"