The Forgotten Zodiac

Nate sighed, stroking her hair back against her head. "Seria...did he threaten you? Remor? Did he...threaten to take them away?" He asked gently. It only made sense; Seria wouldn't abide Diana's suffering unless something important was at risk...

She gave a weak nod, saying softly "He held the threat of their deaths over my head the entire time. There was nothing I could do. He said he could...could kill them before they developed further, or cause my womb to no longer hold them. It was...horrible..." She shook with fear, letting Nate hold her close. She felt safest with Cynyr, but Nate was a dear, beloved friend, and he would always hold a special place in her heart.

Nate sighed. "Well, no matter. He's gone now, and Diana is safe, too. Forin doesn't blame you, either. He...probably already knows. You know, Tartarans..." He smiled a bit, then sighed. "Come on. Cynyr needs to know," He said gently. "If you want, I can tell him to come here..."

"B-but what if he doesn't like it?" Seria asked, frantically grapping hold of Nate's sleeve, as if to make sure he didn't leave just yet. "What if he's angry at me, or at them? You know he's scared of being a father, you know that! Wh-what if he-"

Before she could continue, Cynyr pushed open the kitchen door, glancing around curiously for the two. He knew Nate had come to speak with Seria, but when they hadn't return after a while, he had gotten concerned.

He froze, staring at Seria, his eyes instantly drawn to her rounded belly.

She flinched backwards, her hands immediately trying futilely to cover her stomach. "C-Cynyr..." she stammered, fear lacing through her eyes as he started towards her. "I-I...we...it's just..."

He bent and pulled her into his arms, closing his single eye as he pressed his face to her neck. She found herself unable to speak, stunned at how badly she had misunderstood him. Seria went limp against him as he held her close, new tears finding their way into her eyes. His hands came down, touching all over her belly, just feeling her skin in a shocked-yet-happy way. He looked at her questioningly and she gave a nod, whispering "Two."

He hugged her again, stroking her hair back again and again, pausing to kiss her and rest his hand against her stomach.

Nate rubbed Seria's back gently, then stood, not wanting to intrude. "Seria, in all my days of knowing Cynyr and you...I think anger is the last thing on his mind right now." He said quietly before preparing another hot milk and ale combination, to take to his wife. He left the kitchens feeling quite giddy, but that quickly faded when he spotted little Diana, standing near his wife's room.

"What's up, kiddo? Where's Forin? You're normally hanging around him like a second shadow." Nate smiled at her, setting the cup on a side table.

"I am?" Diana blinked at him. She looked around. "Where...how did I..." She looked up at Nate. "Did you see the strange man?"

"Strange man?" Nate frowned.

"Yes. Very strange. He wore a white coat...he kept laughing. He said something about that girl Lexi..." Diana tilted her head to the side.

"Something?"

"Yes, he said that Lexi is lost." Diana nodded, then slowly seemed to realize something. "Oh...oh, no. I need Forin...N-Nate, please, take me back to Forin. I don't want to be alone when that strange man comes back," She asked, taking his hand.

"A-alright, I will. I need to give this to my wife first, though." Nate nodded, picking up the cup and carrying it inside, Diana at his side. "Good news, dearest," He greeted with a happy smile.

Tasia lifted her eyes from where she had been reading a book, smiling up at her husband. "Yes?" she asked softly, her smile increasing slightly when she saw Diana. While normally Tasia was extremely shy and secluded, she had seemed more at ease around the younger members of their group since giving birth to Ariana. "Hello, Diana," she said gently in her slightly-raspy little tones. "What's the good news, Nate?" She set her book aside, carefully sitting up, her long pink tail shifting slowly through the covers like a snake.

Nate grinned, pointing at Diana. "Forin and Luen are home. They saved both Seria and Diana." The young girl shivered and hid behind Nate a little. "From what I understand, she doesn't remember much. But it's slowly coming back; she seems to remember me well enough. At least enough to know I'm her friend. I imagine she'll remember you soon, Tasia." He beamed, handing over the drink to his wife. "Ariana was at dinner, too. She's doing well. Not ill. Jag is a wonderful father, and a great caretaker. And she seems to get along with Cinnoa quite well, as I'm sure you're aware."

Tasia smiled widely, giving a light dragonish chirp that was familiar to Nate from Vaira. With the dragoness being a sort of adoptive mother to the young girl, it was natural that Tasia retain some more true-to-dragon traits. For a long time in her life, Tasia hadn't even spoken much. Luckily, Nate had roused her from the frightened little shell caused by the abuse of a brutal male dragonian who had courted her before Nate.

"Yes, it's all quite lovely. I'll be back soon, Tasia, I need to take miss Diana here back to Forin." Nate smiled, taking Diana's hand and leading her from the room. Diana gave a little parting wave to Tasia as they left.

He paused, however, as he heard a voice from a nearby window. Lexi had been drawing in the garden, hadn't she? Who was with her? Nate walked towards the window and peered down, frowning slightly. Indeed, Lexanna was there, joined by Carlyle.

"Not entirely certain what's going on, but, eh...Werr said you would be better off leaving." The manfish said, rubbing the back of his neck. "He said something like...he didn't need you anymore, since Cynyr was back." He didn't look like he wanted to be saying all this. With good reason, too.

Lexi stared up at Carlyle, tears streaming down her cheeks as her eyes searched him, as if waiting for him to keep going, and when he didn't, her tears increased tenfold. "No," she said softly, crumpling the paper in her hands, not caring that she was ruining the artwork she had put her time into drawing. "No, he...he...can't...he can't just..." She stood, her notebook falling from her lap and falling to the ground, the pages wrinkling against the floor, her pencils scattering as she fled towards Werr's room, needed desperately to hear him say it was all a trick, a lie, a story made to frighten her, only that...

The paper she had been drawing was one of Werr holding her. Both smiling, their faces close together, looking so happy.

Now it was stained, the delicate marks running with tears.

Nate watched from the window as Carlyle stooped and picked up the notebook.

Then he...transformed. Nate recognized the shape at once, and that white coat was a dead givaway. It was someone Nate had hoped to never, ever see again. The head guard ducked away from the window, pulling Diana back and hurrying to find the others.

But he was stopped short as Snider himself appeared behind him. A knife was pressed against his throat. Diana whimpered, backing away. "Best not tell anyone about this, girly," Snider grinned. "Or I'll slice him open...then come after you!"

"G-go, Diana, I'll be okay," Nate said quickly, though he recognized the crackling red steel blade. It was enchanted to make the wounds inflicted impossible to heal. "Don't say a word to anyone, just go and find Forin and stay with him! Don't wander away again, you hear me?!" He yelled after her as she ran.

By the time the guard patrol turned the corner to see Diana running past, Nate and Snider were both gone.

Werr was lying on his bed, reading a book. He looked up as Lexi entered. "Oh? I thought you were leaving." He snorted, his foot nudging her box. "If you came back for your stuff, I put it all here..."

((This is the real Werr here, not Snider. Just so you know. Snider made him have a fake argument with Lexi, in which 'she' finished by yelling, "Fine then! I'm leaving, and going home, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" And stuff.))

((Oh dear. Poor Lexi. Poor Nate.))

She stood there in the doorway for several long seconds, staring at him. "So you really want me to just...leave?" she whispered, tears cascading down her cheeks. "I thought...I thought you loved me, Werr!" she cried. She had meant to walk further into the room, having hoped he wouldn't mean it, but now she found herself moving backwards. "And now, I guess I know the truth... It's over, huh? It's all over! You just...don't love me anymore, do you? Welk dies and suddenly, Lexi is nothing." She sniffed hard, trying frantically to wipe her eyes, then whispered "You were all I had left. And n-now...now it's over.

"I'm...alone."

She turned and fled, sobbing, her box untouched at the foot of Werr's bed.

((Heh. Nate will be fine.))

Werr stared after her, then let out a sigh. "Whatever," Was all he could say, going back to his book.

Obelisk was hanging around by the entrance, and he caught Lexi as she nearly ran past. "Lexanna..." He murmured. "Lexanna, what has you so upset? You can't just leave, child, not without me. I offered to take you away from here...that offer still stands."

((Yaaaay~))

Lexi stared up at him, her eyes red and a bit puffy, then sobbed and bent her head away, crying "I'm going home, Obelisk! I...I can't stay here anymore, I can't stand to be around him when...when he's hurting me so badly!" She fell into his arms, then, her small sobs giving way to wails. "Take me b-back to my o-old home and l-leave me," she cried weakly. "Or l-let me...d-die somewhere..."

"I will not let you die," Obelisk said quietly, holding her fast. His grip almost...painful. "Come. We'll leave together." He turned and steered her down the stairs, one step at a time. His dark cloak quickly changed to white, though. "You did perfectly, child. Now you can take a step back and watch poor Werr fall apart at the seams with me." Lexi tried to cry out in shock as Snider grinned his ugly smile at her, but her voice was silenced, stifled by air. "Didn't you hear? Obelisk went away to get medicine for his dear wife. With him out of the way, it makes this too easy..." He practically dragged her to the little toy shop just off the main road, the same one that Forin had worked out of for so long.

He pulled her into the back room, where Nate was. Completely soaked and very limp, shivering as he leaned against the corner wall. "Here we are! Stay in here for awhile, yes? Yes...stay." He pushed her in and slammed the door, which locked with a solid click. The door was thick wood, and wouldn't be broken anytime soon.

Lexi stood, stunned, for a long moment before she slumped backwards into a corner, still heartbroken and sobbing. She crawled over to Nate and placed her shaking hands on his chest, trying feebly to heal him, to do something to help him, but there was nothing she could do. Not for lack of skill, no, but for some reason, perhaps due to her fear and emotional distress, her powers didn't come. So she was forced to simply help Nate as well as she could without magic, by stripping his soaked shirt off of him and tearing her skirt off (she always wore short shorts underneath), then draping it over him.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered, sounding broken and lifeless. "This is my fault."

Nate stared at her. "Are you mad?" He breathed. "Have you gone completely insane? This isn't you-your fau-fault...I ha-have a feeling that Snider has been messing with We-Werr for a long time now...I-I witnessed him disguising him-himself as Carlyle and ta-talking to you...he probably disguised himself as you and got i-in a fight with Werr so th-that he wouldn't worry about your...disappearance." He sighed, closing his eyes. "Dunno what he's going to do about me, though...I hope he doesn't fake my de-death. Poor Ta-Tasia wouldn't be able to handle it..."

Well, they would be here for awhile. May as well get comfortable.

"Cynyr..." Werr approached, looking glum. "Lexi...Lexi left." The daunting realization of what had happened seemed to have finally hit home. "We had an argument, o-over the..." The runic symbols on the wine cellar floor. He wasn't sure if he wanted to tell Cynyr about that, but it came out anyway. "I had carved out sacrificial runes to tr-try a taboo to bring Welk back, a-and...I wasn't going to do it, but...Lexi..." He shivered. "She thought I would sacrifice her, a-and...she said she was leaving, and now she's gone, and...I can't keep my sadness bottled up like this! I was trying to be better for her, I was trying to help, but I..." He shook his head desperately.

Cynyr watched the boy for a moment, looking contemplative, then opened his mouth to speak and let out a squeaky, scratchy sort of gurgling sound. He put a hand over his mouth in shock, then shook his head casually and formed the air words again.

It wasn't your fault, and it's never too late to get her back, you know. There's always a chance, if you don't give up.

Werr wiped his eyes. He looked like he was about to say something, then sort of froze up. He covered his ears, shutting his eyes tight. "St-stop..." He looked up at Cynyr and Seria. "C-can't you hear that? O-oh, Goddess, it won't stop..." He flinched, holding his head tighter. "Stop, stop, stop, stop!" Blood began leaking down his cheeks, as did hot tears. He found himself staring at a window, where the unmistakable shape of Welk stood, smiling and waving as though nothing was wrong.

Snider ducked down before Cynyr could look. Oh, this was so much fun. Werr would snap before dawn tomorrow, he'd see to that. Months of work, finally coming to fruitition. Alastor would go down with their king not long after. Especially with all the trouble broiling and just waiting to froth over in Gossain...

Oh, this would be glorious.

((Don't forget to have Werr question why Cynyr doesn't talk soon. We might know, but the reader doesn't. o3o

AlsoImissWelksobaaaaaad. p3p))

The panther half-cat and his wife glanced all around, but when they saw nothing, they merely looked back at each other and then turned to Werr. Cynyr bent down and helped Werr stand, quickly wiping the blood from the boy's face with his sleeve. He gestured weakly around them and at himself, pulling Werr closer into his arms.

Seria, who had been standing quietly in cat form, now switched to human and stood, placing her hands over Werr's ears and sending healing power through them.