The Forgotten Zodiac

She tossed her head haughtily, saying "I believe I'm well enough off, thank you very much. My life could be worse, but I don't believe it could be better. Not when he's not here with me anymore..." She blushed sharply and looked away from Carlyle, saying "I mean...my...er...I've said too much." She buried her head in her arms, looking a bit ashamed.

"Ha, it's quite alright...I wouldn't mind hearing about you. Here, we can do a tradeoff. I'll tell you something about myself, then you can impart some of your own information. Nothing too serious, and you can refuse at any time. Deal?" Carlyle suggested, taking another swig of the wine. Without waiting for an answer, he started. "My father was abusive and ran off when I was young, my mother was ill 90 percent of the time, one of my siblings was enlisted in the war against my plea for caretaker privliges, my other brother killed himself, and my mother died due to neglect. The official records say she died before he was enrolled and the other killed himself, but that's a load of bullcrap. He just left her, and I hate him for that. Nothing for it, though, he's long gone...they both are. Little brother number two was killed in battle a month ago. And don't you dare apologize, I hate it when people apologize for messes they didn't make. 'I'm sorry' is such a weightless statement..."

He took another swig, then put the bottle down. "Don't want to make myself drunk," He chortled, shaking his head. "Your turn. Share something. Anything. Doesn't have to be as long as mine, either. Maybe something simple, like...your name."

She blinked up at him through her bright, heavily-lashed eyes, then said "I'm Zelana Nurran, of the same decent as Jagat Nurran, who is my dear cousin. My father was his father's brother. I didn't have any siblings, and my father was the head of the gryphon tribe. The king, you could say. Jag's father took his wife and left, and that was the last I saw of my cousin." Thinking about what he had shared with her, she sighed and said "I was engaged to be married a few years ago, but the 'love of my life' ran out on me. Probably because I caught him cheating." She shrugged, then said "It was hard. We had known each other for years, dating for a long time, been engaged...and he just stopped loving me. I'm never liked anyone else since. Heck, I've almost forgotten what it's like to go on a date..." She sighed through her nose.

Zelana didn't talk for a long moment, then said "But...it feels so wonderful. To care. To love someone." She turned her gaze on him and he felt her disdain. "To care is to be human. If you never care...you can never truly be. Because those who never care end up little more than monsters." She stood and went to the window, pushing it open and falling gracefully from it. She transformed in midair, sweeping off without a look over her shoulder. Her flowing feathers, golden-blonde, caught the air just so, making them flicker and float on her body as she disappeared.

Downstairs, Seria had woken and was leaning against Cynyr, letting him stroke her back as she curled against him. He kissed her forehead and murmured something to her, and she looked up at him with shinning eyes. She moved her hand up and stroked his neck, carefully feeling the ridges and knots of the hardened scars. He moved his free hand up and took her fingers, holding them softly over a particulary ragged spot on his throat. He let go as she moved her hand further, tracing around his dead eye. Since it was just an empty socket now, he had trained himself hard to keep it closed at all times, even when behind the cover of his mask. Now he allowed it open, and Seria didn't so much as flinch at the gaping black socket in his face. She stroked her fingers around the edge of his eye, then suddenly pulled him close and kissed him. He blinked in pleasant surprise and relished in the moment, sighing softly. When she pulled back, she paused to whisper into his ear.

His face reddened a bit and he was quick to answer "No. No, no."

She looked sad, but said nothing else. Instead, she rested her head on his shoulder and sighed, watching little Malice wiggle around on the couch opposite of them, wondering if he could get Diana to play with him. All of the other kids in the town avoided him, after all, and she looked about his age.

Malice watched her quietly, his chin resting on his hands, then he blinked and his dark eyes flashed red. Immediately, a lone figure of a boy with horns was shaped, and it stood out sharply against the other characters, as it was made of shadows. He moved his thin hand out and placed the figure of himself near Diana's, keeping completely quiet, peering at her face from within his dark-rimmed eyes and from beneath his tousled black hair.

Luen had fallen asleep against Forin, Allie still laying against, also asleep. His metal arm was wrapped around her waist and his other hand was being held tightly by hers, both clearly unwilling to let go of each other.

Malice peeked over at the trio, then slowly extended a thin wisp of shadow and scooted the boy a tad closer to Diana's piece. "Hello," he said. "My name is Malice." He picked up the figure of Nate by hand and stared at him, then set him down and attempt to give him a voice, which turned out much deeper than Nate's had ever sounded. "Hello..." He immediately laughed at how silly it sounded.

Malice snatched up the figure of his father and patted its head, saying excitedly "I've been living with Dad ever since I can remember! Probably because he's my daddy. He's wonderful and nice and happy and I love him! I love him and momma so much, and they love me!" He set the figure of Obelisk down next to his, surreptitiously scooting them close together. He rested his head on one arm, since he was laying on his stomach, and stared at his figure for a long moment. He flicked a finger at it and Diana watched as the horns vanished in a puff of smoke.

Malice sighed softly, using one hand to feel of his own thick black horns.

"Do you not like the horns?" Diana asked with a tilt of her head. "I like them. They're part of who you are, you shouldn't want to just get rid of them..." She seemed slightly confused for a moment, then watched as a little Fawn statuette appeared, too. Diana looked over at Obelisk, who was smiling away as he started to craft horses and a carriage, and then a house. Soon enough, they had an entire little playset all to themselves. Obelisk even colored the figurine of Malice. Diana giggled a bit; Obelisk definitely was different now. Not just in appearance. He was kinder and more thoughtful, it seemed.

And, though she didn't think of it, stronger in power. The little shadow playset wasn't just shadows. As they played with it, the darker colors shifted to a more richer shade as it literally transformed into wood. Whether he was dragging wood in from the Realm of Darkness or something else, well...that was impossible to know. But the playset was absolutely perfect. Diana set herself in the little living room, in front of the red fabric that took the place of flames in the fireplace.

Malice didn't reply to Diana's question, instead choosing to emerse himself in playing with the set. He kept the sheared-off edges of the horns on his figure, not allowing them to reform. He played happily for a little while, but the thing with the horns had seemed to take the spunk out of him. He slid off of the couch and went over to Fawn, where he crawled up next to her and burrowed down against her side, closing his eyes tightly. He was younger than Diana, but clearly just as needy.

Diana watched him for a moment, then went and curled up under Forin's arm, against his side. "Did you make a new friend?" He asked quietly, and she nodded, smiling a bit. "Good. Friends are good..." Forin murmured.

"They are indeed." Sylas commented as he closed the door.

"What did you find?" Obelisk questioned.

"The Peacekeepers are ecstatic. With the death of Alexander, the kingship went to Forin; but he, of course, denounced the throne and placed them in charge. It's exactly what the Peacekeepers have wanted for a long time, but the king and the kings before Alexander didn't want to give up their kingship. Turns out, that little boy had killed his own father and fourteen young women who he claimed were his sisters. The Peacekeepers had been close to impeaching him, basically." Sylas explained. "But Forin came in and made that worlds easier. Alexander is dead with a hole in his skull, the Peacekeepers will announce their full control over the kingdom's affairs in the morning, and no one will mind it. The Peacekeepers are amazing, Obelisk, they only want to manage the economy and the military, basically."

"I see...we still have to get Werr out to his army in order to prevent them from joining the wrong side, but taking down Bulliete should be easy after that." Obelisk snorted. "And when that's done, we can focus on our own problems."

"Goodness knows we have enough of those..." Werr muttered.

"Intruder," Cern said quietly. "Sylas was...followed."

"Hm. Where is he, Cern?" Obelisk tutted.

"Don't know."

"You don't know? You know he's there, but you can't find him...?"

"The darkness will not...tell me, master..."

Obelisk stood at once, moving over to where Cern was. He knelt into the veil of shadows around the sitting Scarecrow. "Not good. The only people who can hide from me and Cern are those with powers of the darkness. Cern, go to Lexi's room and ensure no one enters but one of us. I'll check the rest of the house." He stood and swept off, and Cern left the main room, as well.

"Oh dear. What's...what's going on...?" Isslia whimpered fearfully.

"Someone followed Sylas and Leo," Welk said, eyeing his father, who had slipped in a few minutes after Sylas returned. Trying to go unnoticed when you were the size of a small horse was hard. "And apparently, it's someone bad," the half-cat finished, automatically placing himself in front of Werr, very subtly. He reached out and took Isslia's hands, pulling her close and murmuring "Don't be afraid. I'm here. I'll protect you."

Forin nudged Luen awake and Cynyr told Seria something, as noted by the way she slid closer to Werr.

Welk wailed and fell backwards, curling up around the gaping burn wound in his stomach. Both of the second shots had hit him dead-on. The first had tore his clothes and burned his skin through, and the second was enough to wreak havoc inside him. He found that he couldn't move at all. The courses of electricity surging through him were so strong, making it impossible to fight. His hands, firmly wrapped around his stomach, refused to move. Luckily for Isslia, he had let go of her hands at the last second, or she would've felt the sharp shocks as well.