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]

[ Eizen didn't expect the message, he was certain he wasn't going to hear from Zaveid at all after a week of nothing but silence. The seraph was avoiding him for some reason or another, ignoring his presence while seeing to Velvet's. It bothered him, more than it should have, even as he learned of the amount of time that had passed since Artorius' defeat.

A thousand years.

He didn't survive it, did he? Not as himself, not as the first mate of Van Aifread's pirates, not as a friend to the Lord of Calamity, not as Edna's loving brother. He couldn't have, there is no way, though somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind he hoped there could be. Something that might save him, spare him the horrors of becoming a dragon, of losing his mind to malevolence.

It'd make sense but he couldn't think about it now, not with other pressing matters sitting on the forefront of his mind. The Shepherd, Edna, pacts, everything they told him coursed through his head like some sort of deadly storm. He needed something, some sort of confirmation, a compass to navigate the storm, it's why he messaged Zaveid in the first place.

Eizen finds him in the shuttle bay different from what he remembers him and for a moment is at a loss as what to say. The years feel almost tangible looking at him now, centuries taking on his form. He stops a safe distance away, stuffing his hands into his pockets and looking over the other man. He barely looks like the young malak who had once gotten under his skin, who he had chased across an entire field just for the chance to wipe that stupid grin off his face and find out what he knew about Aifread. ]

Zaveid.

[airily]

[ It's been so long he can barely wrap his mind around it all - the only image of Eizen he really has in his mind is the shape of a great, terrifying dragon, bearing down on him with nothing in his eyes. The dragon never knew him, never recognised him, never stopped attempting to snap his body in half with giant teeth or burn him to shreds with wildfire. It was only ever Edna that he knew, and all he can do... All he can do is watch and stare, his entire body sore with his own exhaustion and pain.

It's been too long. Zaveid doesn't know how to be himself around Eizen anymore.

He shows up and it looks as though nothing had ever changed; same outfit, same hair, same eyes, as if he'd never been turned into a dragon at all. For a moment all he can do is tilt his head up and stare, uncertainty and desperation colouring him completely. He doesn't want to have to do this, to face this, to look this man in the eye and accept their shared fate and what's going to come of it, but he doesn't have a choice. It's just like Mikleo said; if Eizen left before Zaveid got to speak to him he'd never forgive himself.

So, he crosses his arms over his chest and watches, not making any move to go forward. Instead, he tilts his head up, trying to act as though he isn't broken on the inside and ruffled completely. ]

Yo. Heard you were asking after me.

[rockily]

[ Immediately Eizen feels himself getting annoyed, his jaw setting tight as Zaveid tries to act as though nothing is wrong, their meeting little more than a casual reunion of old friends. It's anything but and he won't pretend that it is. ]

Don't pretend you don't know why.

[ He knows, he has to. Eizen messaged him and he is certain that the Shepherd and his friends likely sought Zaveid out after they spoke to him, to warn him or something similar. They would have told him of his anger, how he knows about the pacts, about Edna, about Zaveid himself. He can't have come here without knowing. ]

[airily]

Hm, do I...

[ He plays it off as something nonchalant, as if it doesn't matter, but soon enough his body shifts and he adjusts his weight, arms crossing over his chest as he stares the other man down. Zaveid watches him for a long moment before he lifts his hands, shrugging his shoulders as casually as he can manage. ]

You wanna know about the Pacts, right? What's going on with Edna and the Shepherd.

[ His own pact with Sorey - and Lailah - isn't as important, Zaveid knows that. What's most important is how Edna is being handled, what's happening with her, and there's no point beating around the bush anymore. ]

Go ahead. Ask.

[rockily]

[ The more nonchalant he becomes the more irritated Eizen grows, more and more and more, like a damn ready to burst. It's almost irrational how quickly he is overcome with the urge to punch Zaveid right in the face. Familiar, but irrational. ]

I want to know this Shepherd hasn't got my sister on some sort of collar.

[ Dezel said they weren't slave, Sorey swore she chose the pact, Mikleo patiently explained how things had changed, and he knows Zaveid would not go back to that life. He's already half convinced by them all and yet... It's Zaveid he wants to hear from, the man he trusted everything to. His life, his sister's safety, his true name. ]

Tell me she's safe, Zaveid.

[ Tell me I never hurt her. ]

[airily]

[ Playing around as if this doesn't matter is practically the only way Zaveid can cope right now; he feels as though if he lets go, if he starts being completely honest, he's going to end up shattering somehow. It's desperate and it's sad but it's all he has to cling to in the wake of his friend standing here in front of him, making demands as if no time has passed at all.

... It hasn't, for him, though, has it? For Zaveid it's been decades, for Eizen... Hours, maybe, if that. It makes his stomach flutter with nervous anxiety, shifting from one foot to the other before he breathes out. ]

Do you really think anyone would be able to put that girl on a leash? You know her better than that, Eizen.

[ But Zaveid can understand. He'd had his own reservations, watching Sorey, learning about him, at least before he'd made the pact. He knows better, now, and he feels the weight of it on his shoulders, knowing that he's the one that has to explain this, offer it, because he's the one Eizen's going to listen to. ]

She's safe. Sorey would never do anything she didn't agree to, and she made the choice to be in a pact with his Prime Lord. That's a fire seraph called Lailah - she has the contorl, anyway, not Sorey.

[rockily]

[ Of course he knows, yet it concerns him all the same. He can't help but get over protective about her, ready to strike down any threat to her, imagined or otherwise. And all of this? Lord, it was the worst possible thing to hear.

For a moment Eizen closes his eyes and makes an almost annoyed noise. ]

I know. She's too stubborn.

[ He's still not sure that he likes it, however, the thought of his sister traveling with other men, of the patch. He seems to recoil slightly as Zaveid continues, eyes snapping open to stare at the seraph. Her choice, huh? Sorey said the same to him and it's been rattling around in his head for the past week. No matter how he feels he has to respect Edna's choice, the direction she has decided to steer her ship. ]

The Shepherd has no means of control.

[ Unlike how it used to be, when the exorcists were the ones to make pact. Somewhere humans must have lost that ability, or it was taken from them, instead placed within the hands of their kind. ] I can't say I'm surprised that things changed like that. After what the Abbey did it seemed like there was no way malakhim would be able to trust humans again.

[ But eventually they did. ]

[airily]

[ It's not as though Zaveid is somehow oblivious to the fact that Eizen is primarily concerned with his sister - that was obvious from the moment they first started talking about her. Edna was the most important thing in Eizen's world and there was no denying it, nor was there any point in trying to fight it. As far as Zaveid was concerned it simply... Was.

It was one of the things that made him so intense, but also so interesting. ]

She must get it from her big brother.

[ Zaveid crosses his arms and just... Watches Eizen for a moment. There's an intensity that he can't disguise in the way he just stares at the other man, eyes raking over him and drinking him, and for a moment he has to force his eyes away, glancing elsewhere before he breathes out. Seeing Eizen alive, in the flesh, like this... It's almost too much. It's almost enough to have him flagging and dropping away, feeling sick in the pit of his stomach. He doesn't want this, can't want Eizen to be really back, but...

But he is.

This is how it's going to be. Eizen is here, on the fleet, and there's nothing that he can do to fight against it. This is something that's going to take time, though, and he has to get used to that - to give himself the hours he needs to relax, to consider it, to calm down and accept it. If Eizen will let him. ]

Lailah's the boss of us Sub-Lords. [ A breath, and then - ] She made an Oath. She's got the same kind of powers that Laphicet had. Flames of purification.

[ Pursing his lips, Zaveid shrugs, arms opening wide. ]

I guess they figured it out. I just got tangled up in that kid's story.

[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.