The Forgotten Zodiac

The gryphon blinked at the girl, then wordlessly plucked two of his crest feathers out and offered them to her without hesitation. Apparently, children was his only known soft spot other than Lily. He then looked back up at Forin.

"You annoy me."

And he turned, shutting the door in their faces.

Luen gave a weak smile, patting Forin on the shoulder as he turned. "C'mon. Let's go see if we can do anything for Cynyr," he suggested, stroking Diana's hair back lightly.

"At least he doesn't hate me," Forin pointed out when Diana pouted. "You've got your feathers. Let's go visit Cynyr."

"I don't want to," Diana said at once. "It's...he...he scared me before, and now all this is happening..."

"Oh...that's fine, then. We'll go back to the infirmary. Is it alright if we leave you to watch over Luna while we visit him?" Forin asked.

"Yeah. That's okay. I need to work on my special thing, anyway." Diana nodded. She wordlessly climbed up onto Luen's back, feathers still clutched in her fist.

"Back to the infirmary, then." Forin shrugged.

Luen flicked his ears, helping to nudge the girl up onto his furry white back before following along quietly behind Forin, walking as if perfectly tethered to him. They made it back to the infirmary and searched for Luna's bed, which had been placed further away from the others to give her peace and quiet. Her eyes were open, but as far as they knew, she wasn't conscious. The healers had determined her to be in an odd sort of trance, almost as if something had temporarily sealed her mind away from them all, in a place where their words and touch couldn't reach.

Forin looked down at her, and brushed a strand of hair from her face. "I'll be back," He said softly before helping Diana off. "She...won't respond to anything you do, Diana. You should just...sit with her." He said quietly, his voice almost strained. Diana blinked at him, then sat down on the edge of the bed. She took Luna's hand in her own, casting her eyes down to the floor.

"Hurry up, then," Diana sighed. "And...don't let him hurt you."

"Of course, mistress." Forin turned on heel and left the infirmary as quickly as he had arrived.

They found him easily, judging from the screeching and shouting, but the second Luen set foot at the bottom of the jail, he froze as if bound, eyes wide. "What...what is that?" he whispered, staring toward the largest cell, where the sounds were coming from.

When Forin turned the corner, he saw the panther, bound by magic-restraining chains and several large Striders, but he could hardly call what he saw the wind mage they knew.

Cynyr's eye had turned solid red and large black horns grew from his head, his hair ragged and longer than it had ever been, two small black bat wings growing from his shoulder-blades. They were growing an inch at a time even as Forin watched them. A long reptilian tail, twitce the size of his normal one, was writhing and twitching on the ground behind him, and the claws on his hands were now long and digging into the ground as he struggled to free himself from the chains.

"Dear Goddess above..." Forin murmured, suddenly grateful Diana had chosen to stay behind. Several Striders were nearby, picking at bones that had probably belonged to several rats at one point. They weren't doing anything in particular; Diana had given them express orders not to attack anyone, and to stay out of sight. They had clearly already forgotten the latter.

Forin turned his attention back to Cynyr. He voiced the only thoughts he could muster up at the time. He probably shouldn't have said them out loud, but he couldn't help it. "What on earth would your wife say, Cynyr?"

The panther practically screamed at Forin, the sound made ten times worse due to the fact that his torn vocal cords permitted hardly a sound. His voice crashed into Forin's mind, powerful and gnarled.

If she were close enough to see, she'd be dead! he shouted, baring his teeth angrily and revealing lengthened fangs. If she gets too close, both babies inside her will die and her along with them! It'll eat them in front of my own eyes! He jerked his gaze away from Forin, panting heavily, clearly in deep, unsettling pain.

"So it's controlling you." Forin said softly, resting a hand on the bars. "We'll keep her well away from you, then. Anything we can do to help, we'll do it, Cynyr. Yes, you aided Veros. But you had your reasons, I'm sure. We're not your enemies. Don't forget that."

Cynyr glared hard at him, but his jaw was trembling. I...made a mistake. I know that. I messed up, and I admit it, and I can't FIGHT this thing. It's eating me alive, and I can't...I'm too weak...

They felt his fear, nearly palpable in the air, and saw when the tears began to cascade down his cheeks.

Luen's eyes immediately widened and he jerked his gaze away, horrified. He hated seeing someone so proud cry. Cynyr was the one in their little group who never cried, who never showed emotion other than neutrality or anger, who was always stoically there, unbending, immovable.

Luen ducked quietly out of the doorway, unable to face the panther's sorrow any longer.

Forin stayed and watched, putting two and two together. Cynyr's reasons were no longer hidden from him. "So you made a deal with Veros. That Veros would remove the demon from your soul in return for his filthy deeds being done. You went to that monster instead of telling us about your problems. Instead of letting us find a way to take care of it. Let Veros deal with you, then. Traitor." Forin turned at left at this, ignoring the screaming that followed.

((But Foriiiiiiiiiiin, this demon is differeeeeeeeeeeent. Veros is literally the only one unable to be eaten by it. You are included in the being eaten part, Foriiiiiiiiiiiiiiin. It would've started eating you for your shadow magic and Diana for being bonded to youuuuuuuuuuuuu. It's eating Cynyr so fast now because it knows more and more people know about iiiiiit. That's why he dun tell youuuuuu.))

*

Welk twitched with a groan, managing to open his eyes faintly in order to look around.

He felt deeply sick, which was odd, as he never got sick. He slowly tried to sit up and immediately almost screamed; every movement felt like being stabbed repeatedly with knives, and loads of them. Whatever it was, it was in his magic, he knew that. Most likely when he had tried to pull those creepy green flames into himself, like he would normally do with fire. It had invaded his magic like a poison, and since those powers filled every inch of his body, it made sense for the pain to be there.

Didn't mean he liked it.

((Forin doesn't realize all that. xD Also, Veros' fire is blue, isn't it?))

Werr was seated next to him, shaking horridly. "Don't move," He said quietly. "Please don't. You kept...tossing and turning in your sleep, it feels like...something's stabbing me," He closed his eyes and relaxed after a moment. "Don't worry about Isslia. Or Lexi. They're safe, they're both safe..."

((I know. That's why I poke his eye.

Erm, maybe. I thought I read 'green', so.))

Welk fell still, letting a pale hand rest on Werr's leg. He closed his eyes, breathing heavily, then said "H...hurts..." softly. His clawed fingers tightened against Werr's pants, grasping the fabric as if afraid to let go. He seemed to relax a bit at mention of the girls' safety, settling for resting his head on Werr's leg, despite the pain it caused to shift his body that tiny bit.

((NO. IT IS BLUE. 030))

Werr tensed, the movement hurting him, too. "I know...I know it hurts..." He sighed, closing his eyes. "A-and...Veros...took Nate. We couldn't get him back...oh, Nate..." He murmured sadly, a shiver passing down his spine as he thought about it. A titan possession was no joke. He remembered when something similar had happened to Welk, at the hands of Malice...

((OKAY))

Welk gave a weak, raspy little whimper, closing his eyes as Werr rested a hand on his shoulder. He was glad for the boy's touch - it didn't hurt for him to move, unlike the other way around, and it was comforting. "I w-want Nate back..." he whispered, so weak and tired that it almost scared Werr. Welk was never weak. He was always strong, especially for his friends.

"I know. I do too." Werr said softly. "I'll be right back. I'm going to go get some milk for you." He stood, and when Welk tensed, Werr smiled a bit. "It's okay. Obelisk is around, constantly doing sweeps for enemies. I'm not too worried...but if I can, I'll try and get Forin to escort me. You can relax." He moved off to the door, letting out a sigh.

Welk watched him go, then curled up quietly into a tighter ball, tears leaking from his eyes.

Outside, Werr encountered Dmitry. The wyvern was standing quietly by, his blue eyes focused on the ground. He looked up as Werr walked out, quietly pushing his glasses further up onto his face. He didn't say anything, just fell silently into step with the boy. Perhaps Werr noticed the new glint of gold at the wyvern's hand; apparently, he and Marion had gotten married while the others were gone.

"Hey," Werr said softly, glancing sideways at him. He was going to say something further, but Obelisk interrupted.

"Werr. Have you already gathered what happened back in Gossain?" He questioned, his usual stoic frown firmly planted below his angled nose. "Have you surmised why Veros' spell failed?"

"Er...no...he said something about blood being pure and stuff, but...I don't quite..." Werr kept walking, forcing Obelisk to follow him to the kitchen.

"Hm. Are you aware of why he wanted me there, at least?"

"Yeah. The immortality stone, right?" Werr nodded.

"Yes. Luna's blood was perfect for the extraction spell. That would have worked flawlessly, but thankfully, he was distracted by the failure of his first spell. Which I shall explain to you now. Souls and blood are closely entwined. The state of the magic within your blood directly equates to the health of your soul. There's a small part of your soul that is lost sometime after you are wed, in most common cases. It is completely harmless, but a small part of your soul is lost when that happens. Do you follow so far?"

"Sure. Lose your virginity, lose that little bit of soul. What happens then?" Werr frowned.

Obelisk chortled. "That's a blunt way of putting it, I suppose. It's completely harmless, obviously. But for Veros' purposes, the blood is no longer pure. His magic resonates strongly with the pure blood of virgins, thus the blood circles you saw yesterday."

"Right. And Isslia..."

"Whether she likes it or not, her impurity has stopped a great evil from reentering this world. Veros' knowledge of us comes entirely from Spy. He knows now that the little one is oblivious to the more complicated tidbits of knowledge we hold. One of which being Isslia's--" He stopped as the girl in question stepped out of the kitchen, holding several pieces of jerky and a glass of milk. "Past."

"Oh. Hey." She blinked at them, tilting her head slightly to the side as she sipped her milk through a straw.

"Are you alright? Should you be walking around?" Werr frowned.

"I'm okay. Still a little dizzy, but I'm not an infant. I can walk on my own." She shrugged. "Oh hey, Dmitry. How's Marion?"

"She's doing well," he commented. "We got married not too long ago. Sorry we didn't wait for you guys, but...when the world could end at any time, things have to move faster than normal. Besides, our love was always secret; it just felt natural to let this be secret too." He pushed his glasses further up onto his nose, staring down at Isslia silently for a moment before turning his gaze away.

Isslia looked away, slightly unnerved by the staring. "I'm glad you two are happy together," She said, sipping on her milk more.

"I was just about to bring some milk to Welk," Werr changed the subject. "Would you like to join me, Isslia?"

"Sure. Any idea why the healers want us all to drink this stuff so much? It's kinda...yucky." Isslia made a face.

Obelisk chortled. "It's high in fiber and protein. It's easy to consoumn, but just as helpful as a full meal. When you're drained of blood, even chewing can be a tiring chore."

"No kidding," Isslia looked down at the jerky in her hands. She had only taken one bite of it before giving up on trying to eat it. "I guess that makes sense. I just don't like the taste."

"Not everyone does." Obelisk shrugged. "But it's important for you to regain your strength."