from everything to nothing just like that.

[airily]

Who: Zaveid and Eizen
Broadcast: N/A
Action: On the Blameless
When: After the shuffle

[ He's spoken to Sorey. He's spoken to Mikleo. He's hidden away and tried to face all of this by himself, to pretend as though it's not happening - but it's not that simple. It's not like he can just shrug it all off and let himself act as though he's okay, because he knows he's not. Nothing is going to be okay because Eizen is here and the very last thing Zaveid can remember is seeing him fall and die, hearing the death rattling roar of a dragon as it's life left him.

You did the right thing, Sorey. Don't be so hard on yourself.

Don't worry, I'm sure he's satisfied with the outcome.

It was easy to say it when the decades were finally over and there was nothing but peace. It's harder with reality bearing down on him like a lead weight. He has to force himself to shrug it off, had to force himself to breathe and try to come to terms with it all; he had to go and deal with this. He had to go and face Eizen. He needs to... Push forward, through the pain and the hurt. Through the losses of Dezel, of Mikleo, of Eizen, all of whom have come back to him. ]

I'm coming.

[ It's easy to find out what ship he'd ended up on and Zaveid is used to the shuttles now. It's less easy to step over the threshold, to direct it, to get off, to walk... It feels like there's a weight in his shoes, and he stops, waiting in the shuttle bay, crossing his arms and tilting his head up to stare at the metal above him. The air is almost oppressive here and it makes him feel disgusting, suffocating but... He has to do this.

He has to try. ]

Comments

[rockily]

[ There is something in the other man's gaze and unsettles him, the intensity of it, the weight that starts to settle in the air around him. Something is there, something that is far out of his reach and that leaves him stumped - unused to being looked at like that. It has, after all, been little more than a handful of months since Artorius' defeat and weeks since he started his strange companionship with Zaveid. He doesn't understand it, Zaveid's gaze, though he does start to question.

What happened to him during those thousand years?

Closing his eyes Eizen exhales pushing those thoughts away once more to wrap his head around everything else, Sub-Lords, oaths, the flames of purification. Thoughts of Laphicet come unbidden, the small seraph and the power that saved both Zaveid and himself from being overcome by Theodora's malevolence. Mikleo hadn't been making things up. ]

She must have made an Oath with him, Maotelus, in exchange for those silver flames. [ It's the only way he can think of that she could have access to that power. ] He couldn't go out and help people himself, it makes sense he'd trust someone else with the power to do it in his stead.

[ He misses the kid, misses Laphicet. ]

Yeah right. [ His eyes snap back open to stare at Zaveid then, sharp and intense as they almost always are. ] You don't just get tangled up in things Zaveid, you always have a reason.

[ For them it was Aifread. For Sorey... well, he hasn't the fainest idea. ]

[airily]

[ It's difficult to tear his eyes away and actually face what's happening - Zaveid is afraid that if he does then he'd be faced with actually talking to Eizen about what was going on, about what happened... What had been one of the worst days of his life - and not just his life... Edna's, too. It might even be up there with Sorey's, given the reaction the young man had shown when Zaveid had told him all about it that fateful day - and he hadn't even experienced it yet.

Breathing out, he crosses his arms and just watches, waiting to see what the other seraph has to say. It's too much, even now, seeing him here and imagining the nightmares that might come because of it; he had been left alone in his room once already, desperate and uncertain, wanting to fight back against chains he could already feel creeping over his skin. He was losing his control over what his life was like here and he wasn't sure how to bring it back, how to force himself to survive. He doesn't want to come face to face with Eizen and what happened, but...

Here he is. Here they are. ]

I guess that's it. She wasn't able to talk about it with us, since it was an Oath, and it's not like I was gonna go around telling a load of humans about our baby boy. It wasn't my story to tell.

[ Laphicet would definitely trust Lailah and there's no denying that. Another problem is that Zaveid is definitely not going to be the one to tell Eizen what happens to that little kid. No one in the world could convince him to do that. ]

Does that really matter? [ Another shrug of his shoulders. ] I'm tangled up either way. How I got here isn't important, now, is it?

[ It absolutely is, but... It's not a story he wants to tell. Sorey's family, now, either way. ]

[rockily]

[ And it's difficult for Eizen not to think about the thousand years of history he has yet to experience standing right in front of him. Questions sit on the edge of his mind constantly being pushed back, buried, brushed aside for more immediate problems - but they are there, an itch he almost desperately wants to scratch. He wants to know and doesn't at the same time, torn between blissful ignorance and confirmation of creeping, dark thoughts.

It was going to happen eventually.

With a scoff he watches Zaveid talk, his shoulders rising in a too casual shrug, he feels irritation sink it's claws into his throat. He's dodging, of course he is. There is things there he doesn't, or wont, want to talk about. Fine, he can have his secrets. ]

It's not like they'd believe you anyway.

[ If he survived the thousand years he's likely become as legendary as the Five Lords, present though no one was truly certain he existed. No one would believe him even if he had gone around telling them about Laphicet, the young malak he had been before he become Maotelus. The kid they took in, they cared for, they helped learn how to be his own person. ]

Yeah, it does. [ Eizen sighs, looking away. ] But I won't make you tell me.

[ Not today. Maybe later after he has met this Shepherd face to face and assessed his worth, maybe then he'll ask Zaveid's reason. And maybe then he'll tell him. ]

[airily]

[ Zaveid might be talking to him, actually discussing things, but he's still dancing around the truth. There's no way he can talk to Eizen about how he became a dragon, his end, the horrors and the dangers and the threat he posed to Edna, the malevolence that Maotelus was surrounded by, the suffering they'd all gone through... He just doesn't have the words, and there's a burst of agony and hurt in his chest that he can't fight back.

He doesn't want to be here. Even as he shrugs and laughs and play acts he can feel the tension in his shoulders, the urge to turn and run in a whirlwind of power and artes. He can't look Eizen in the eye and he doesn't stare him in the face - he glances away and he laughs and he shrugs to distract attention from how obviously uncomfortable he is. ]

Hey, I've got a trustworthy face! Don't be so cruel so soon, Eizen...

[ A hand on his chest is easy; it's like playing the part of someone else. Someone that Eizen knew, once, hundreds of years ago - someone happier, maybe, freer. It's not the person he is now, and Zaveid is still learning to balance that part of himself. He's still growing, even with how old he stands right now.

Huffing a noise, he shakes his head. ]

You'll get to know him. He's not gonna give you a choice.