The Forgotten Zodiac

((939))

"Right...sleep..." Forin muttered, dozing off after a long moment.

Allie was up in bed, fiddling with a bottle of something. It was a sickly green looking liquid, which smelled faintly of smoke. A horsefly buzzed near her shoulder, speaking silent words that no one else could hear.

"I know it'll hurt, but...that'll be that, right? No more of this ridiculousness...I just don't want to be here anymore. No one really talks to me...I know. They just don't know what to say, but...I'm practically useless. They already have a healer, after all...it's fine."

There was a sudden sneeze from the doorway, where Luen had been sniffing quietly, trying to determine scents, then he opened the door with a timid "Allie? Are you in here? It's Lu-" He froze upon sight of the girl with the steaming green bottle, his heart clenching once, powerfully, in a surge of fear-fueled adrenaline. "What are you doing?!" he shouted, racing over and knocking the bottle from her hands. It shattered on the floor, smoking. He grabbed her shoulders, his thin, bony face searching hers anxiously. "What was that?" he demanded, wondering why he felt so...scared. And angry. He had never felt quite like this before. "What were you going to do?!" he said, holding her shoulders tightly, but not enough to hurt her.

Allie fliched horribly, not expecting this turn of events. The horsefly buzzed away, sitting on the ceiling. She looked sadly down at the broken mess on the floor, which slowly stopped steaming and shriveled up into something that resembled a black raisin. Disgusting and hard as a rock. Slowly, she decided to answer his question, though she was afraid of his reaction. "P...poison. A fast-acting one..." She trembled, somehow afraid he might yell at her more or something.

He exhaled heavily, lowering his head for a moment, then surprised her by hugging her tightly, saying "Thank the Goddess...I don't know what I would've done if you...if you had..." He shook his head, holding her so gently. He pulled back, staring at her from arm's length, then folded his legs and sat delicately on the edge of her bed, resting one hand over one of her legs. Or rather, the end of her cut-off leg. "Why would you do something as terrible as kill yourself?" he whispered, sounding stricken. He took her hand and held it close to his chest, the tines of his stark white antlers gleaming in the moonlight.

Allie looked him up and down, as though she couldn't quite believe what he was saying. Then she looked down. She still spoke slowly, forcing the emotion from her voice so she wouldn't start crying. "You know my story...you know that there's not much left in this world for me, and the fates have already decided that they don't like me. D-do you know how unlucky witches are? Any body they inhabit is left with this reeking aura that attracts the worst of things. I see the others...your friends...they're all suffering. Something bad is happening to almost all of them. I was told that trouble sort of follows this group around, but I can't help but feel at least a little at fault.

"A-and for that matter, none of them seem to care. If you weren't here, they probably wouldn't have found my corpse until the smell leaked out from under the door." She said flatly. "I...I might be in a witch's body, but I'm not a witch. I...I need more than just bugs to talk to. They all have their own little groups and pay no mind to anyone else. I-I saved Nate, didn't I? From being a Strider. No one seems to care about that now that he's better. I deserve some credit, don't I? I...I suppose it doesn't matter. They've made it clear that I'm not really welcome here, one way or another..."

She peered out the open window, towards the night sky, which was full of stars and the bright half moon. "I...I wanted to fly, you know? To see other worlds. I don't really care what's beyond death. I just...can't do anything else. There's nothing..."

"No," Luen said suddenly, ferociously. "No, you're wrong, you're wrong! There is something you can do, something only you can do! You and you alone!" A strong, overpowering emotion welled up inside him, and before he could stop himself, he pulled her close and wrapped an arm around her waist.

He kissed her.

It was the sweetest thing he had ever known.

They parted, both panting, and Luen cupped her chin in his hand, aware that he had pulled her right up against him. "I love you," he said breathlessly, throwing everything on the line. "It's sudden, I know, but...oh, I just feel this aching pull towards you! When I look at you, when I see your legs, all I want is to do everything for you! I don't want you to do anything for me, I just want to care for you. I want to carry you where you want to go, I want to touch you and ease your pain, I want to do everything for you! It's the strangest thing I've ever felt in my life, and I know it's because...I love you." He finished simply, stroking her cheek gently.

Allie felt her breath catch in her throat. Tears flowed down her cheeks freely after that, her lips trembling as she struggled to form words. She hadn't heard such words in years, not directed towards her. Not since she was a young child. She couldn't hold it back any longer; she started to cry, feeling a bit ridiculous; she had just been reassured that someone did care about her, and in a big way, and her first reaction was to cry? How stupid...

Eventually, she managed to stop and peer up at Luen again. "You...you would carry me?" She thought for a moment, then said, "I want to see the city. Just a quick walk will do, I...I wanted to see more of it, but with my wheelchair broken...I thought I would be left at the inn, even, but..." She glanced over at the corner, where a quiet Carlyle was sleeping heavily. "He carried me here. He's sad, too...he doesn't have a family, a lot of people treat him wrongly, and he's extremely out of place here in Herrace. I don't even know why he's still here...I told him he should just go home, but he just said that he didn't have one. I...I told him what I was planning to do tonight, a-and he just shrugged and said he might join me." She looked down again, then back up at Luen. "We...we can talk to him tomorrow. Please, walk me around the city. I don't care that it's night time, I want to see it..."

Luen held her fingers so gently in his chilly ones, and his only answer was as sweet and soft as his own nature.

"I want to see it too. For you."

His arms encircled her, one around her waist and the other easing under her. He lifted her, and it wasn't like lifting Diana or (trying to lift) Forin. She was tiny and light, and he held her close, right against his side. He exited the house, walking along with his newfound love tucked close. He hummed softly to her, feeling a strange sense that he had never been able to feel before.

He kissed her forehead, then murmured "Be with me...and I'll show you the world."

Naybrin bent his head and exhaled over the wolf, beginning to very carefully bathe his legs in his saliva. "It won't heal instantly," he said. "but it will help with the pain and speed up the process. At least you were able to see were Seria was." He finished his cleaning of the wolf's legs, then pulled back, saying "We'll have to move on as planned. It's of utmost importance to the two held captive at the castle." He flicked his ears, looking thoughtful.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get to see what they were doing with her. But Cyprus...lean in, Naybrin, see for yourself," Ophile pressed his nose against Naybrin's, doing what he could only do sucessfully with Naybrin; he showed the great dragon his mind and memories.

Cyprus had been tied down. Not too surprising. The cell had been overgrown with moss since he had been placed in it, a flower poking through the rocks where the dawn's light shone the most, and another was starting to poke through. If not for the unchanging light of dawn, it could be mistaken that the time was sped up; the flower budded and bloomed so quickly. It wasn't magic, but rather, Cyprus' strange aura that caused mass growth when he stayed in one spot for too long. The timid Demigod had slept through most of the night, but as Ophile had watched, an oddly familiar man opened the cell door and walked in. Cyprus slowly woke up, and promptly uttered something that Ophile didn't catch. He could, however, hear the other man.

"No, I'm not human. You know me, little half-brother, don't you?" He chortled in a laugh that was reminicent of...someone's. He seized Cyprus and dragged him to a different room, obviously one designed for torture. Cyprus was chained by his wrists to the ceiling. "Humans call me Snider. I rather like that name. Most of them just think I'm some crazy man with an affinity to causing pain. They don't think for a second what I'm doing. You know me...I feed off of pain. Your agony is my life force. Which is why it was so vital that I go into the torture business, you see. Being a Demigod of Order and Disorder at the same time is no easy task. I did have the choice...feeding off of happiness or pain. But pain is so, so much easier to bring about. Humans are never truly happy. They always want more..." He pulled a few tools from his pockets. "And when they are truly happy, they leave. They don't stay in one place, and it's a bit odd to follow them, if you catch my meaning. That's another reason why I like this. You can't go anywhere, and if I do it right, I can feed from a single victim for years. I once had," He giggled. "An entire organization that bought little children and tortured them. Tested their insides. Saw how much they could take before cracking. If they survived for long enough, oh well. I'd get bored and have them let go. If they died, we would take the undamaged organs and sell them for a profit to medical institutes. I left it alone after awhile, such a thing can only go so far before people start asking questions..." He carefully injected something into Cyprus' neck, then remembered to close the door. Ophile was faced with a decision; run in, or stay out here. There wasn't much he could do either way, and...well, needless to say, he didn't dart in before Snider shut the door. He stayed outside and listened to the screams. He wandered upstairs after awhile, disgusted by the scents and sounds. That was where the guard passed dangerously close to his invisible self, and accidentally dropped his teacup right on Ophile's head.

Ophile broke the memories off there, fairly certain that Naybrin didn't care to see what was obvious. The pain broke his invisibility, which caused the guard to grab him. Intruders commonly had their legs broken before being released, and Ophile was no exception. He had dragged himself back here painfully, only using his front paws. He was a mess and in pain, but there were others in more danger than himself.

"You've got to help Cyprus, Naybrin. Snider...a Demigod of order and disorder at the same time. It doesn't make sense..." Ophile snorted unhappily. "And poor Seria, whatever they're doing to her can't be much better!"

((Snider had a counterpart; his twin, the Demigod of order and peace. But he ate her. It's a bit ironic; chaos devours order. 936))

((I thought Snider died when he shoved the gauntlets/bracelet onto his arm in book 2?))

Naybrin gave a low moan of terror, then looked up when Cynyr snapped "Alright, that's it! We're moving out at once. I'm limber enough now, and I'm going! I'm not letting my wife stay there anymore!" He stormed towards the door, but Naybrin caught him with a claw. "Hold a moment, good sir," he said. "Let us gather ourselves and we'll be off. We need to stop and pick up Luen in order to bring Allie back to the house-"

"What's he doing out with her?" Cynyr questioned, but he was silenced when Naybrin said "I believe the word is 'kissing'. Now, I have thought that perhaps I would create a distraction for the guards. They have no hope of catching me, and I could put on a merry chase."

((He did. But Demigods don't die for real unless other Demigods (or gods themselves) kill them. They just turn into spirits. They can inhabit the bodies of others, but in Cyprus' case, Obelisk had to make a new body for him with the use of the gauntlet. He wouldn't come back any other way, he didn't want to take someone else's body. |3 Little cutie~

So yeah, Snider is in someone else's body. And we don't actually know his real name yet. I may or may not have come up with this as an excuse to make a more permanant evil character, in order for there to be some sort of drive. 936 Question Snider to see who brought him back, which will only point (yet again) to Obelisk being evil.))

"Luen is kissing someone?" Forin blinked. He hadn't met Allie, so he was a tad confused, but he didn't seem to mind that much. "About time. Good for him. Well," He stood and pulled the blanket off of his crystalline form. "I suppose we should wake up Obelisk." He did so swiftly; all it took was a single knock on the door to the master bedroom, and the door opened without a moment's hesitation. Forin only got a glance inside, but he was pretty sure he saw a miniature garden. Odd. It made sense, though; if Fawn got sick so often, she was often confined to her bed, unfortunately. So naturally, the room had things that made her happy. Obelisk got his own happiness from seeing her happy, so he couldn't care less what he had to put in the room. He'd train the town's children to sing like a choir if it would please her.

That aside, Obelisk was ready in a matter of seconds. He already seemed to have a plan. "Yes, you'll make a perfect distraction, Naybrin. But we need the others, too. Spy, your main focus is finding Seria. We know where Cyprus will be, but we have little information on where in the castle she is. We'll split up; Luen, you'll be fetching Cyprus while I distract the one torturing him. Did you say Snider, Ophile? Curious...another Demigod. This land seems full of them. We'll ask Cyprus for more information on him, if we can get that one out alive. I'll attract Snider's attention and keep him off the two of you. Naybrin will get the guards, of course. Welk, Werr, and Cynyr will go with Spy to save Seria."

"What will I do?" Forin asked at once.

"You, Forin, have a most important task ahead of you. The king has dark magic riddling his mind. I need you to extract it."

"But...I don't have my powers." Forin blinked.

"Oh, sure you do. You just don't believe that you do." Obelisk snorted.

"But...I don't."

"You could at least try. Either way, it has to be you. Right now, you're the least recognizable. Everyone else has to stay out of sight, with the exception of Naybrin. You need to make your entrance as flaunting and show-offish as possible for those pretty little maids that will undoubtedly be reporting all of this to the Peacekeepers. So it's vital that their helpless eyes are on you, either saving their king...or killing him. I couldn't care less which you choose."

((Ah, 'kay.))

Naybrin nodded, then said "Good. Let's get started, then. Forin, let's go retreive Luen, shall we?" He let Forin hop up onto his back and the two set off for the town square, where they found the kirin sitting on a bench with Allie, both talking pleasantly. They obviously got along very well, as Luen (who didn't notice their approach) leaned in and kissed her again.

Naybrin gave a small cough, smiling widely as the two jumped. Luen looked up at them, his ears flicked up high and his cheeks red. "Hi," he said nervously, smiling in a lop-sided way. "What's up?"

Naybrin recounted the plan for him, and Luen nodded. "Alright," he said. "Sounds good." He looked back down at Allie again and spared her a gentle smile.

Luen slid her easily into his arms, and they all headed back to the house. As they walked, Luen continued to talk with Allie, which ended in another kiss. When they got back to the house, the two parted. Luen gently sat her down on the couch, intruducing her to Diana as 'Allie, my girlfriend.' Both blushed at these words, and despite the circumstances, Luen had never felt happier. Unless you counted the times were Forin, Diana and Luna, along with himself, were all happy and heathly and together. Yeah, those were wonderful.

Once everyone was ready, Naybrin set out alone, preparing to make a huge distraction out of himself.

Inside, everyone was praying that this went well and that the people inside the castle were still alive.

*

Seria kicked the door of her room for perhaps the thousandth time, fuming.

She had been locked inside what looked like a bedroom fit for a princess, not that she cared. She stalked across the floor again, peering out the window and sighing. She was locked in, that much she knew...

"Wh-what? Get off of me!" Seria shouted, shoving him away ferociously and retreating in terror. "Look buster, I don't know what your deal is, but you're insane! I won't have you anywhere near me, do you understand?!" Her transformation into cat form was effortless, and she lunged around him and bolted frantically for the door.

"No!" Seria shouted, this time heading for the window. "I'd rather die!" She clawed frantically at it, managing to bust several panes, screeching the entire while and praying that someone would hear her. "Help me! Someone, anyone! Help me!" But of course, there was no one to come to her aide. With a ferocious snarl, she whirled on Alexander, knocking him to the ground and baring her teeth sharply.