Erosion of the Horizon

Akeya was glad that Onyx Moon had a way for members to sneak in unseen, because right now she was pretty sure that if the wrong type of person saw her she would be in trouble. Granted she was using Korikami to hide herself as she entered, but it was still better to not take any chances. Having to wait for the right time of day had fortunately not taken very long, so the shadow fox had managed to quickly slip into The Lair from the underwater passage. From that point on Akeya pushed herself out of the shadow realm Korikami held inside of his dark body, using the disguise all Onyx Moon members have to wrap herself in cloth to hide her figure while at the same time removing her tail and wings for now so they wouldn't betray her. This way she'd just look like an unusually tall figure wrapped in lots of cloth. Fortunately those of Onyx Moon would recognize her as one of them.

Stumbling into the Siren's Song Akeya leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths and trying to regain her focus. She could feel the toxic energy coursing through her, making her feel like her entire body was burning up and leaving her sensitive to the slightest stimulation. It was hard to think straight and the room looked way too bright even when she was sure that her magic tattoos were still keeping excessive light out of her eyes. She ignored the looks she got from some of the other patrons, taking her time to recover before inhaling sharply and pushing herself back upright. With careful but steady step she headed towards Alisha, the barmaid with the pointy ears who was most likely the source of desire for many of the patrons. Unfortunate for them, since Akeya had never seen her show interest in anyone. She herself had little interest: her own tastes lay in a different direction.

Once Alisha had noticed her approach and realized that Akeya needed her for something the barmaid/secretary excused herself before hustling over to the dragoness, who was frankly grateful that she didn't have to keep trying to walk straight for any longer than absolutely necessary. Before Alisha could speak Akeya hissed out the words, her lips barely parting as the dire headache made it hard for her to speak clearly.

"Mission went wrong. Will...Will most likely need Ruvel's aid." She placed a bandaged hand against her cloth-wrapped forehead. "Not sure... but would be preferred if he hurried. Will be in library."

She barely waited for Alisha to acknowledge the message before turning around and slowly walking out of the tavern. She then promptly stepped back inside of Korikami's realm, commanding the fox to head to the library. As always the dark spirit obeyed without question, having long since gotten used to acting as Akeya's companion and minion. Like a slithering shadow he moved across The Lair towards the secret entrance that lead to the more prestigious building of the West Fiore Trading Company. Staying hidden to avoid any interruptions or delays Korikami moved from shadow to shadow until he was in the library, where there were very few people and where Akeya could relax. A little, at least.

---

Akeya didn't want to be away from her hatchlings for now, but she wasn't going to let them out of Korikami's inner realm until she was strong enough to protect them herself. Even here in the stronghold of her guild she wouldn't run the chance of them being harmed or taken away while she was at her weakest. This left the dragoness little choice as she sat in one of the comfortable chairs placed in the lower levels of the library. Turning the lights off and activating the silence rune so she wouldn't be disturbed until Ruvel arrived the cold-blooded woman closed her eyes. Even without any lights on the room still felt too bright. And even with her eyes shut the pain didn't go away. She felt like she should be sweating from the heat but upon touching a part of her exposed skin she quickly ascertained that this wasn't the case. What was destroying her body wasn't something that could be sweated out.

Opening her eyes to only the slimmest slits she looked at her raised hand. It had the foundations of a human limb, but with draconic claws and scales. Normally the skin would be a dark olive and the scales a midnight blue, but now the skin was interrupted by blotches of extreme paleness and the scales were a messy mixture of dark and light scales. The dark scales seemed to be absorbing the light the glowing scales were emitting, resulting in a fluctuating and flickering illumination. It was unpleasant to look at, and it just made her more aware of the fact that right now she was slowly dying unless she could find a way to fix this very quickly.

A quick command had Korikami gathering scrolls on the conflict between the element of dark and the element of light. A quick glance had her discarding the ones which were only folklore, rumours and hearsay. She then got the shadow fox to also gather books on creatures of dark and how they interacted with the rest of reality. Once again she put away the ones which didn't contain any useful information, but now she had enough reading material that she shouldn't have to do nothing while waiting for the Ace to arrive.

Doing her best to ignore the numerous warnings her body was giving the dragoness focused on the scrolls and books, emerald eyes flitting across texts written in various styles from various time periods, hoping that she could find the best path to survival within these texts left behind by the people of the past.

Sticking out one hand she reached inside of Korikami's body, feeling her clawed limb pass the entrance to the dark shrine. Once inside it didn't take very long before three scaled snouts were pressed against her hand, the dragoness doing her best to stroke and lightly scratch them with one hand while she concentrated on the texts before her with the rest of her body and mind.

@Ruvel

WC: 1039
TWC: 1039/8000

Ruvel had been down at the docks helping to assess the damage done to one of the company ships on this particular day. He was wanting to know what caused such damage to the ships reinforced and magically sealed hull for it to be in such a disturbing way. The captain had said that they had been attacked by pirates, now he had no reason to doubt this captain as he had always been loyal to the company from what he understood. There were several holes in his story and things just weren't adding up as they should be if this had been a run of the mill attack, the hull would have never been breached and even if it had been it was magically sealed so the ship could make it from wherever it might be back to the docks of Tolgalen. This was something that he had implemented thanks to the fateful day they all had met Yona and she had decided to try make a hole in the ship to try and escape them. This was during the time that he was a vice president and had taken it upon himself to add security measures everywhere he could to prevent future issues, especially given there had been so many random attacks on the company and the land they owned.

He wasn't expecting anyone to bother him as he done this task but as he was just about to head up the gangway and onto the ship he heard his name being called in the distance and sighed. "Just one day, is that to much to ask?" he said to himself more than anyone else at this point, looking to the harbour master he sighed once more but this time it was audiable "No one goes on this ship until I've accessed everything." he said his tone showing that he was in fact pulling authority "Of course sir, well have the dock shut down until further notice." he said walking off to get the dock secured as was requested of him. Ruvel himself rubbed his forehead and released a frustrated huff "I'm starting to see why Cirven left." he commented to himself now briskly walking towards the head of the secretary team that now had become his personal assistant of sorts, she was at least happy that she didn't have to force Ruvel to do things he was usually on top of them one way or another, getting his elder brother to do some things was like like a trip to the dentist and getting teeth pulled. Stopping in front of her his hand went to his chest as he bowed ever so slightly to her, this was just part of his mannerisms and something everyone knew wasn't going to change. It still managed to make the elder woman blush every time he done it however.

Standing he looked at her through his dual coloured eyes noticing she seemed to be out of breath, that could only mean that there was an issue from the other side as she would have sent another otherwise "What's going on?" he asked calmly not mincing words because it didn't seem like there was time to waste or she wouldn't have been running. "Akeya isn't well, she's asked for your presence it seems bad." she said getting right to business, this caught the youth off guard as the last time he had seen the dragoness was before his reverting to a four year old, his trip home only to find Cirven had vanished in his absence and him being handed the keys to the guild and company in the confusions. He then had to spend a stupid amount of time letting companies and clients know of the change and assuring them he was up to the task, something he never wanted to go through again that was for sure. "Where is she?" he asked finally not really knowing why he was being called if she wasn't in good shape, she should have been taken to the hospital and he could have find out things in due time but deep in his gut he could tell that wasn't about to happen as this didn't seem run of the mill in any way.

The elder woman looked at him with a worried look of her own "She's in the library." she said Ruvel nodded and felt a headache starting to form as he started to head towards the company building at a steady running pace, then again his steady running pace was more like most peoples full on sprint. It only took around five minutes before he was at the double mahogany doors and started to walk towards the elevator directing others along the way to go to the proper sections and such, his headache growing by the second he was in no where near the mood to deal with this right now but he didn't exactly have a choice it was part of his job to make sure everyone was healthy and safe. He was starting to feel the strain of the responsibilities but he didn't show it outwardly and it wasn't exactly like he could talk to anyone about it. Getting into the elevator he waited till the doors closed "First floor." he said calmly being moved to the next floor instantly the doors opening and he walked out and into the recreation hall, in honesty this had been the first time he had ever stepped foot in the place outside of tours but then he normally didn't spend much time inside the building at any point outside of business.

His eyes went over the large lounge for a second taking in the lush azure blue carpet complimenting the sky blue walls, he forgot how it seemed like it was like an ocean in here and hated it. It would be amusing if it wasn't ironic given what the company done and used as their main mode of transport. His eyes found themselves lured to the two giant bay windows framed by white silk curtains, he seen the redwood shutters knowing they where only really used if there was a storm coming as of yet no such thing ever had but they always believed in being prepared for any eventuality at the company. Starting to walk deeper into the room he walked passed several chairs and couches all of a regal blue colour and golden silk cushions, at this point he was wondering who the hell decided the colours of this room because it should be renamed in his opinion from the recreation room to room blue or something of the likes. Of course there were several viewing crystals all at the moment had been turned off as the room surprisingly wasn't in use, he had to wonder if it was due to the fact they knew he was coming and decided to run in case he was in an apparent bad mood over what happened in the docks.

No one had ever seen the blonde haired youth and he guessed that scared them a lot more than if he was to have yelled, he didn't really care either way and went to the first redwood door on the left opening it and heading into the library without paying much mind to anything else. The moment he went into the library he seen the lights off and headed to where he felt something familiar but strangely new all at the same time. He knew it couldn't have been an enemy as you needed the guild's marking to get here without an escort and if you were escorted you'd have never been left on your own. It was then he seen her and ran over worry spread across his face "Miss Kuusai!" he called out almost falling over as he tripped over his own feet going over how she looked he had to wonder if this was how he looked nearer the time of a blood moon. He didn't understand but given that her eyes were barely open he could tell that there wasn't something right his eyes flicking back to the door, they could get discovered here and it wasn't like they could lock people out of a communal area. "Keep your eyes closed I'll take you to somewhere safe." he said not fully knowing how the hell he was going to do it, with his weakness he couldn't carry her. 'Amuul I know your weakness but I need the help, please... please help me...' he called to the younger of the two void princes who came out of his young summoner's shadow 'I will always answer the call.' he sent back moving to pick up the dragoness if allowed if he wasn't able to he would at least try and support her following after Ruvel wincing at the bright lights as they moved from the darkness of the library to the light of the recreation room.

Ruvel ran ahead and started turning out the lights to make it more comfortable for the two, even within the elevator and as soon as they were in he closed his eyes. "Third floor." he said and like before they were moved to the floor that was said he hadn't event waited till the elevator lift had opened fully before looking at the light down the hall that led to the bedroom shrouded in impenetrable magical darkness for when he was sick himself. "Lights off" he said watching as the light lacrima turned off and the magical darkness enveloped the entire hallway he moved down the hall with Amuul following with Akeya one way or the other. "This is my bedroom within the company Miss Kuusai, my big brother converted a storage room and put in a lot of magical protections to keep me safe when I'm sick..." he explained opening the door as he was the only one in the company that could "It's the most fortified place on this entire continent I'm pretty sure." he wasn't trying to boast about it but it was likely the truth as so many protections from so many different people and races had done their own defences.

Amuul would help her to the futon and help her lay down "You can open your eyes now Miss Kuusai, no light can get in here, it gets swallowed instantly." he explained he had tried with the light of his own body and still he could never see it. "What in Earthland is going on?" his tone once again showing worry as Amuul stepped back into his summoners shadow going quiet but remaining close just in case his services were called upon again. He wanted answers but by how the other looked he would need them as she was in such bad shape he was worried that she might pass away from whatever injuries and ailments she might have.

Word Count: 1,819
@Akeya

Reading through the scrolls and books she had accumulated Akeya got the feeling that she might be facing a bit of an issue, which might quickly turn out to be a fatal one. Nearly all the written works that focused on light versus dark or dark creatures had at best a neutral opinion towards the dark, and at worst negative. While it was good to know what kind of things were harmful to you and your kin in this case what she needed to know what could be used to cure her. Even methods for extracting the light from her body came with the grim implication that the dark creature would be destroyed in the process. As it was there weren't many circumstances in which a creature of the dark had light energy inside of them unless it was either properly caged up (which also made it easier to extract since it hadn't mingled with the dark yet) or it had been put there with the purpose of weakening or destroying the creature.

The best she could say right now was that if there were a solution to her condition it'd have to be something so rarely done or heard of that she'd have to figure things out on the fly. These scrolls were giving her a lot of information but nothing conclusive.

At least the three little ones inside the dark shrine were helping her calm down a little. She'd rather that she could just release them into the library and let them explore, but the dragoness wasn't going to let them go anywhere where they might be discovered by any third parties when she wasn't even in the condition to protect herself, let alone them. The best she could do was give them some attention with the movements of her nimble fingers, stroking their snouts and scratching them behind the horns. They were doing their best to provide some comfort while at the same time taking what attention they could get from their surrogate mother. Under other circumstances it would fill Akeya's heart with a kind of warmth that she hadn't felt for many, many years. If it wasn't for the part where she was dying in a rather painful manner.

When she heard that someone was approaching her position she somewhat regretfully pulled her hand back out of the shadow fox's interdimensional insides. While she was in the middle of what was supposed to be friendly territory her paranoia didn't allow her to take any chances with the newborn twilight drakes. She'd put herself in a position of imminent death for their sakes, so she definitely wasn't going to be careless with their lives. Especially once it had been made clear to her that there were creatures out there which would be all too happy to render her sacrifice moot.

She knew that dark and light didn't get along, but she had to wonder if it was normal for such a powerful creature of light to come along when someone tried to merge the two or if she'd just caught the attention of a particularly zealous party.

And so it was that she was found by Ruvel, who immediately noticed that something was wrong and got to work helping her. Although even a fool could have noticed that there was a problem: a dark dragon wasn't supposed to have flickers of light travel across their body, shooting out randomly and in varying degrees of intensity before the darkness swallowed it back up. Having her be sitting down in a slumped position with her expression that of a grimace just emphasized that.

"Don't shout... better to stay calm." While it was good that he didn't waste time wondering why she'd called for him, but panicking would just make things worse for the both of them. "As for safe... Right now the danger is coming from inside." However despite her protests she didn't actually resist. Although when someone tried to pick her up she immediately refused and instead limped onwards with the support. Korikami meanwhile disappeared as he was wont to do, going to places unknown while keeping the twilight drakes safe inside of him. He could take care of them for as long as was needed, even if this entire situation took a turn for the worst and the drakes had to grow up without a mother.

She could sense that Ruvel was turning off the lights along the way, although she didn't know exactly where they were going and as long as her eyes were shut the light didn't hinder her too much. That said she appreciated the gesture, because even now the dark felt more comfortable than the light. When he told the elevator to bring them to the third floor she resisted the urge to voice her surprise: she didn't think she'd ever been there before. She wasn't sure what was here, although given that this was the West Fiore Trading Company it was probably something special indeed. As for whether it would be safe... that was another question entirely.

The magical darkness came as another surprise: why would Ruvel have an area with magical darkness? Welcome as it was she thought it rather out of character for him. "I'll take your word for that." Was her only reply when the boy stated that he believed this to be the safest place on the continent. He probably wasn't even wrong with that, given how much magic there was in this place. Opening her eyes she saw that Ruvel was correct: even her own body was back to its dark state as the moment any light energy reached the surface it was sucked up as if drawn into a bottomless pit. However she could still feel the light ravaging her insides, and with some difficulty the dragoness stumbled over to the futon. She wasn't entirely happy with laying down, but in her condition she didn't have the strength to fight back. Instead she folded her hands on her stomach and looked upwards, feeling the darkness blanket itself around her as she sorted out the words in her head so she could explain what was going on. What would she tell him, and what would she leave a secret... she'd have to say enough for him to understand what the issue was.

"I was on a mission to... protect something valuable. The mission detailed that there would be attacks from those who either wanted it destroyed or claim it for themselves. I thought myself prepared but I underestimated the threat." She raised one claw and gazed upon it, then her emerald eyes moved towards Ruvel. She didn't know if he could see in magical darkness such as this. "I managed to take care of most of the assailants, but at the end a solar attacked. I presume you know what those are." High ranking holy servants. Powerful enough that most demons would run away rather than face them. "I'd already been wounded by some of the previous attackers, so the solar was much stronger than I could handle. In the end the only method I could think of to fulfil the mission objective and survive was to try and eat the solar's light." Incredibly stupid. Dark creature were weak to light and light creatures were weak to dark. To eat your opposite was a fool's gambit one could only justify with the most desperate of scenarios. "It worked, and I managed to complete the mission. However while I could force the light to bend to my will for a while it's now destroying me from the inside, given that I'm a creature of dark."

Taking a deep breath she winced, then exhaled sharply. "So that's the situation. The light is like poison, running through my veins and slowly killing me. I asked for you to come since you... are familiar with light. I was wondering if maybe... you had an idea of how to deal with this." Also important she trusted Ruvel far enough that she didn't think he would use this opportunity to kill her. While they didn't meet eye to eye on everything he appeared to be respectful enough of Akeya's perspective that he wouldn't eliminate her without provocation on her side.

WC: 1,377
TWC: 2,416/8,000

As the blonde haired youth moved closer to the library with every nimble and precise movement his body could muster, he cared little for protocol or procedure at the moment. The company was the least of his concerns, one of the members where in a bad way and this was his main priority right now, it wasn't like he liked breaking the rules, more so as he enforced them within not only the company but the guild as well. Still this wasn't exactly normal circumstances as if he was being requested by Akeya before even a medic then it was likely a life or death situation were every second could and most likely was vital. People tried to stop him for things, he normally would stop in his tracks and deal with it, right now he couldn't though he did instruct them to either give it to one of the vice presidents to handle or give it to a receptionist and he would get to it as soon as he could, he apologised afterwards for not being able to handle it right there and then, but there was something of great importance that needed his immediate attention. This in his mind was no lie, his employees and guild members were his family and that meant they would come first, even before the company and the continent of Tolgalen as a whole.

He felt horrible for thinking this way but he was no fool, he knew that he would have to prioritise where he placed his attention at times and what was most important to him. He grew with no one and this company and guild had given him everything he had been lacking for as long as he remembered. A sense of freedom, a purpose, protection and most of all a family. Due to this he made sure to give them everything they needed when it was requested or needed, he guessed that was why he was respected, but then he wasn't the one giving it to him so he had no idea what was going through their heads. It didn't matter to him one way or another so longs no trouble came from their opinions, after all he paid little attention to idle gossip. To him such things could lead to miscommunications and could cloud his own outlook on situations, being as he was a diplomat he himself needed to go in as an unbiased party to get things settled with the best possible outcome for everyone involved. It was like a dance and one wrong move could cause thousands of deaths he couldn't bare having that guilt on his mind.

Soon he found himself in the elevator and gave it to the order to give him to the floor which the library was on, it had only taken a few seconds before he was on the correct floor and the door opened. The doors hadn't even opened fully before he had made his way out and running through the recreation room and through the library to where he knew the Shadow dragoness would be awaiting his arrival. He had no idea what to expect but he hoped that it wasn't to bad, as he entered he was still running towards her not paying attention to anything more at current. Of course he noticed there was something off right away, due to where he was raised it paid to be highly observant or you could become highly hurt or worse... end up dead. As bad as his life was back then he was attached to living and didn't like the latter ideas so taught himself what kind of things to watch out for around himself, how to remain aware when sleeping, how to move when tired and to take in even the smallest details of people in. It had helped him a lot, especially since his departure from 'home' and entrance into his new life. He done his best to look over her where they current where but he could tell that would be no good so had asked Amuul to help him, he even stated that he understood his weakness but he couldn't do this on his own.

His attention was then brought to Akeya once more as she said not to shout, that it was better to remain calm. This was true, but he was frightened he had never had to deal with a situation such as this before; especially not without support. "You're right Miss Kuusai, I will be more careful with volume." he said trying to keep his voice calm, he did take note that her tone seemed to have changed mid sentence and that caused alarm bells to go off in his head. Just what in Earthland had she done? That would be a question for later, for now he needed to get her to a place that there was absolutely no light, the only place in the whole company that was like that was his bedroom on the third floor. The amount of protections that, that room had made the magic council's headquarters seem like an amateur had installed them. What could he say he had some powerful and stupidly protective friends it seemed. Many of the bonds he had created with them when he was a summoner had come to an end but they were still close and as far as he knew was still just as protective of him. He was thankful for this as he knew he himself had a lot still to learn about the world outside of the facility, he still wondered how he ended up in his current position and wished he hadn't but it was as it was meant to be he guessed.

Ruvel listened to her as she said that the danger was coming from within, he seen the flickering light dancing across her scales and realised she had done something foolish, something that should never be done. He concluded not only had she eaten an element she shouldn't have but stupidly eaten her opposing element. The two elements right now would likely be attacking each other within her body looking for supremacy all the while killing the one in an excruciatingly slow and painful manner. He watched as Amuul tried to scoop Akeya up but was denied, though his second attempt to aid her seemed far more to her liking, it was a pride thing he guessed. "I understand your prideful Miss Kuusai, it is in a dragon's nature after all from what I myself have seen first hand..." he took pause for a moment as he thought out the next sentence he wanted to say to her "But pride means nothing to the dead. The one who is currently aiding you gets hurt by light being from the void, he himself can see you are flickering with light and that it is daytime meaning all these things could kill him and currently you as well." he continued looking to the two "He knows for everyone's continued existence you both need to get to that room as quickly as possible, so please next time he tries to scoop you it isn't because he is trying to take your pride from you, it is because he knows there is something greater at risk." he explained moving back into the elevator with them both and moving to the third floor.

As they walked out of the elevator he himself took lead turning off the lights to make it easier on both Amuul and Akeya "Normally only myself and the CEO of the company can get into this room. The clerical staff don't even like being on this floor due to the darkness that surrounds my room" he explained to her knowing that normally only the clerical staff came to this floor, even then they didn't like to come to it due to the unnatural darkness that was at the end of it's corridor. He listened and smiled "Dragons, shadows, angels, demons, void dwellers, elementals and such have all put protections on this room and my room within the lair... this place is beyond safe." he explained wanting to know his words were indeed true to the best of his knowledge. He watched as her eyes opened Amuul taking his leave after making sure that Akeya was sat safely on the futon in the centre of the room. He knew with the light snuffed out by the unusual darkness within the room she would feeling more like her normal self but this was only a temporary fix, the elder woman would end up going stir crazy if she was forced to stay within this room for to long. He remained quiet as she got herself situated and worked out what to tell him, even when she started to speak he waited until she had said everything she wanted to. "Have you embellished anything or committed to tell me anything? I can't help if I don't know everything." he asked knowing the latter was more likely the case with the shadow dragoness, he knew he could ask the twins but they had a strict set of rules they didn't break but he had gotten good at getting them to admit if things were missing just not what. Still he tended to not do it unless it was a life and death situation which this seemed to be, so he might had to break his own rule on asking them for the information he needed to save her.

After asking he then sieved through the information she had given him, he remembered the request of leave for a personal reasons. Everyone was granted them and it was never pushed as to what those personal reasons may be, it was non of the companies concern unless it affected them negatively. He knew that Akeya worked from the shadows so the chances of anything coming to bite the company in the rear was beyond slim. Due to this he had no real worry on what her expedition might have been, well that was until he seen her current condition, still he didn't want to ask her about it at current. "That would be the sin of hubris affected there." he said calmly taking everything into consideration "Even jobs that seem easy it can easily turn out to be dangerous even to someone of our strengths, this should be a good learning experience on that." he said to her, he wasn't scolding her just a reminder that things aren't always as they first appear and should always be entered into with caution. "I know what a solar magics can do, they are not kind to those of darkness and shadow." he said in a matter of a fact way, he himself knew he had the potential of using such magic and due to the disposition of the twins he knew that magic had to be used carefully when they were around but then his shadow protected them from the magic he used. It was the next part of what he processed he couldn't help but face palm as when he though happened was just confirmed by the injured dragoness "That was beyond stupid, you could have killed yourself just by attempting doing such a reckless act!" he scolded her like an adult to a child, as always when the blonde haired youth got angry it quickly vanished.

Now he had to figure out a solution for this issue because the light would still be eating her from the inside out. The fact that it hadn't killed her gave him hope for something that was only believed to be a myth in everything but that one perfect moment that happened twice a day. The moment of twilight, when light and dark lived in complete harmony with one another, but if it could happen inside a body was a complete and utterly different matter entirely. It wasn't exactly like he had much of a choice because regardless of wither it failed or he didn't try, she would die of the unnatural magic and element within her body, the chance for success was slim, really slim but he still needed to try. Didn't he? He rubbed his temples finishing what was said to him, he would rather have not been put in such a position but he was and it needed to be handled quickly. "We need to get your body into a state of twilight, but there is no natural way to do it unfortunately. Well not entirely true, if this was planned in advance it could have been possible but we are way past that, so the natural way went out the window." he said moving to be at the edge of the futon beside her "I have dragon slayer lacrima somewhere, a client gave it to me a while back and it has never been used..." he said taking her hand into his own "I could use that with you, then channel the light into the lacrima." his voice was warm as he spoke, though turned his head a little.

After a moment he bit his lip as he knew the risks and such that would come with moving what was essentially a poison through her system. "It is incredibly dangerous and will be extremely painful Miss Kuusai, are you wishing to try it?" At the end of the day it wasn't his decision to make, only she could make it as it effected her. "I warn you, the chances of survival are beyond slim but if we don't try it you are going to die anyway, this would likely hasten it." his voice showed this wasn't something he wanted to tell her but it was information she needed to know before making the decision. Ruvel wasn't known to act rash or fighting, it was known that the young wizard saint would show mercy even to his enemies if he could. He wasn't meant for the battlefield and this was something that he could live with on several levels. To him there was no reason to take a life for any reason, he knew that it was needed but it didn't mean that he had to agree with it on any level.

Word Count: 2,380
Total Word Count: 4,199
@Akeya

It was good to see that despite his worry Ruvel took her words to heart and calmed down. His concern appeared to be fully genuine, which was good. However Akeya was of the firm believe that emotions were best leashed and ruled over by a cold and rational mind. Even someone who proclaimed themselves to be good would do well to make sure their warm feelings and good intentions didn't get in the way of making the decisions that would lead to the best results.

She listened with one ear as Ruvel began to talk to her about her pride, and how it would be for the best if she let herself be lifted by the guild master's ally. He was making a good point: if she died from this then pride wouldn't mean naught. Although she got the feeling he might not fully understand all of her motivations that made her deny being lifted... but she wasn't in the mood to enter an entire discussion on the subject. Philosophy and deep debate was for people who had a life expectancy measured in years, not hours.

"I can walk fast enough... with some support." Was all she said. She'd let Amuul support her on the way to wherever Ruvel was leading them, but she still wasn't in the mood to be carried. She could keep up well enough a pace that the boy wouldn't have to slow down for them, especially since he was also busying himself with turning off all the lights on the way to the destination. "He can pick me up when it's either that or death." If it came to that point she wouldn't have the strength to resist being treated like a doll anyway. Embarrassing indeed, although she'd be more worried about how it would leave her defenceless.

She nodded as he explained that this room was usually reserved for him and the big boss of the company. That did make sense: even in her crippled state she could tell that this place was anything but normal, and it wasn't something you'd lead outsiders or even subordinates to unless there were no alternatives. There was still the question why Ruvel of all people would need a room of absolute darkness. He mentioned something about illness... could it be that his light wasn't entirely stable? She didn't think she'd be able to inquire about that without it either distracting the wizard saint or causing suspicion.

She raised her eyebrows when he mentioned all the types of creatures who had aided in the creation of this room, but once more didn't comment on it. She knew that Ruvel had a lot of connections with mythical and supernatural entities, but even knowing that having so many of them pour so much effort into this one room must have taken some doing. Especially angels and demons... those two creature types didn't like interacting or even working on the same project. Were there favours involved?

"Safe enough, at least." She remarked, as usual displaying an overflowing amount of caution and suspicion. For someone like her there was no such thing as truly safe, or truly reliable. There was always the possibility of failure. That said this room was currently as safe as she could hope to ask for. If she were to be attacked in here then most likely the entirety of the West Fiore Trading Company was being destroyed, which meant the odds were very low.

While she had hoped that he wouldn't inquire it looked like she had been too optimistic in that regard. Ruvel's expression made it clear that he was aware that she wasn't telling him everything. The dragoness looked at him, for a moment her expression becoming hard and cold before she forcibly smoothed out her face and instead replied simply. "I've left out nothing which could be of use in the current situation." That at least was the truth so far as she could tell. The twilight hatchlings wouldn't make a difference here: they didn't have anything to do with Akeya taking in the element of light other than that they gave her a motivation to do it. Without responsibility or influence from them she didn't think Ruvel knowing of them would change matters much. Either he could help her out or he couldn't.

She grimaced as Ruvel told her of her hubris. She thought of herself as being significantly more cautious than almost everybody else: she always considered the possibility of things going wrong and what she could do to minimize the chances of failure. And even then she'd think about how to mitigate the damage if things went wrong. However she would have to acknowledge that this time around she hadn't expected a solar of all things to come and attack her. Those things weren't supposed to show up on a whim. "I underestimated how badly some forces would wish that which I was guarding to be destroyed." She admitted. Another wince as she thought back to the solar. That had been a real bastard, and she was really glad she'd destroyed him. She knew that for many a solar was a force of good, vanquishing demons and the like, but this one had earned his death.

When the boy voiced his amazement at her doing something so suicidally foolish as eating light essence there wasn't much of an objection she could raise, although she did find his tone somewhat rankling. "It was definitely stupid. I only did it because it was either that or dying. If you're going to die either way you might as well try something which is almost guaranteed not to work, because you have nothing to lose and might have something to gain." From someone like Akeya who preferred the certain and cautious path those words might sound strange, but once you were on death's doorstep you could afford to be a bit more reckless. Not like it could make the situation worse. She winced and grimaced as she could feel the light essence burning her up from within. "Ghrrr... that said... I'll make sure I don't have to try that again. If I survive this."

Honestly she was somewhat surprised how calm she was facing her potential demise. She didn't think herself someone to chicken out, but she'd always found avoiding death one of the best motivations you could have for doing anything. But here she was half-dead and she still seemed capable of thinking calmly about the matter.

Hearing the suggestion of twilight Akeya stared at Ruvel with some surprise. He'd mentioned that before, and she'd talked about it in the past herself: that perfect balance between light and dark, even more mystical than those fundamental forces. They'd talked in the past about combining light and dark to create it, but had encountered the issue that it required a perfect synchrony between the two mages and Akeya just was too paranoid to link herself that closely to anyone. To now say she had to internalize that force... This would be tricky at best and impossible at worst. It would be a lot like trying to achieve perfect karma or balancing out one's yin and yang. The closest she'd ever come was that she could become a moonlit form of herself at night if exposed to that silver sphere in the sky.

"You'd use... a dragon lachrima for this?" Under normal circumstances she would have laughed at that with some scorn. Before this entire situation came about she'd have treated absorbing a light dragon lachrima the same as eating a solar's essence. However now that she already had light inside of her that wasn't going to go away she had to admit that the idea had more merit than anything else she could think of. As a dragon a dragon lachrima would attune very easily with her... It might kill her or it might be the only way to stabilize the light and dark inside of her. "Those are... very expensive... More importantly, they're rare. But I won't say not to the offer. I'm not selfless enough to turn down the possibility of survival just because it might be costly." She could feel Ruvel's hands around her scaled claw. Compared to her claw his hands were tiny, but at this moment his hands were definitely the healthier ones.

She actually let out a short laugh when he mentioned that it would be painful. "I'm pretty sure I know already how-ghrrr. How painful it will be. As for danger, nothing is dangerous for someone who's already dying." She pushed herself up with the elbow of her free arm, wincing and grimacing but forcing her body to move according to her wishes anyway. "This'll be just like when I ate the solar's light. I'll be dead whether I do it or don't, so I might as well try." Not that she didn't understand why Ruvel was warning her: even dying people could have things they did or didn't want. But in her case it was clear cut. She didn't want to die, and this method might work. More importantly, there was no other option available: she'd considered the idea of having someone drain the light out of her but forcible removal would almost certainly destroy her body in the process.

"Although if we're doing this we'll... have to use another room. I'm pretty sure this place would render any light dragon lachrima inert." While this room brought her some comfort by at least enveloping her in darkness even if her insides were still burning it wouldn't keep her death at bay. "Do we have access to another room which is hermetically sealed? Outside interference would be unhelpful, but since we're trying something unheard of we'd better make sure whatever happens during the process won't affect the outside world in any way either. And... GHRRR! And... it should be a larger room. My body might return to its natural state if I lose control, and I'd... I'd rather not be crushed because the room wasn't big enough to contain a dragon." Her breathing was becoming more laboured, her expression now persistently twisted into one of discomfort. She was forcing the pain down, but it was ravaging her insides and it was difficult to completely suppress it.

WC: 1,717
TWC: 4,133/8,000
@Ruvel

Ruvel was fully concerned at what he had seen, the dragoness had never been sick let alone in such a state that she looked like she could keel over at any time. It made him wonder what that personal errand she had to go on was given when she came back after several weeks she was like this. The two had only ever taken on one job together and at that point they had a difference on opinion on many things, this was to be expected, after all they had different life experiences on such subjects and their elements were natural enemies of each other yet held the balance of everything else in the world. He didn't know what the sickly dragoness was thinking and at this point if he did he would tell her to shut up for a change and take something at face value. The youth had never asked anything of anyone in the company or guild that he himself wouldn't do, it just wasn't in him and out of everyone in the guild he was the one least likely to willingly do harm to anyone, even if there was no other option left to him. Deep down he was a pacifist and would rather heal wounds than cause them, this was because of his upbringing and the pain that it caused not only himself but the others who had to experience it too. This was one of the darker secrets that he kept behind his well maintained image and glamour, one he never wanted to be seen by the light, especially not by those he seen as his family. He tried his best to leave that darkness behind and be normal but he knew that would never be the case, this was as close as he would get to that, oddly that was fine for him as this was now his normal even if it wasn't everyone elses.

He was still frustrated that she wouldn't allow herself to be lifted, it would have been easier and far quicker as they could have just went through Amuul's homeland to get to his bedroom but she insisted on walking. His home had a strict structure to it were certain things would be allowed or tolerated but other things would not be. He could carry her as it would be seen as him aiding a sick woman but to allow her to lean on him as they walked would be seen as her burdening him and well that wouldn't have ended well. They had to take the longer more difficult path it would seem and when she was better he would ask about it, for now however he could see that it was neither the time nor the place for such a deep discussion. "Help her please Amuul" he instructed his summon who nodded allowing her to put her weight upon him, he could see what was wrong as his own race had something similar though for the most part it only afflicted the servant cast as they were the ones who had to at times go to places where there was light. It was true in his, his brothers and cousin's cases they to could be afflicted with light sickness due to their bond with Ruvel, they however were blessed with a summoner who done his best to keep them shielded from not only the light of his world but his own light even if it wasn't always easy on the youth himself.

Ruvel looked back from turning off one of the lights blinking "His race has a very strict way of doing things, had he picked you up we'd have already been were I was wanting to take you." he admitted to the older female before moving to the next one. 'She has light sickness.' Amuul sent to Ruvel making him stop again midstep "Are you sure about that Amuul?" he asked the summon nodded 'It's hard to miss, our culture has a type of light sickness. It is rare as the servant cast are usually the ones afflicted by it if their masters aren't careful in their care.' he informed Ruvel "But she's a shadow dragon, what am I meant to do?" he asked turning off the light, his voice panicked. He had never came across a Deathless with light sickness so had no idea how the hell he was going to deal with a shadow dragon with the same kind of affliction. Soon enough they managed to get to the elevator and to the third floor where his own bedroom was, he didn't want her to feel defenceless or weak, she was not only a proud dragoness but a proud woman. He couldn't even imagine how she felt in her current situation, he had never had pride to be taken from him but he had felt defenceless and weak often enough to know someone who was strong most likely wouldn't like it. It meant relying on others to protect you, this was something he never had until he met his summons. He had played protector to Demi while they were at 'home' because he couldn't bare her being hurt, in hindsight it was foolish on his part since she was stronger but it was his own morals that told him to defend her even if it cost him his life, which it did on more than one occasion.

Ruvel opened the door and allowed Amuul to walk through into the darkness of the room before he himself done the same. He sat down as Amuul helped his guest onto the futon. "I'm guessing you have questions about why I have such a room considering my element." he said calmly, he could guess this was something going through her mind as it would be something going through his if the roles were reversed. He took a deep breath, this wasn't exactly an easy thing to talk to anyone about, but given the circumstances he didn't really have much of a choice. "I bleed light not blood like yourself..." he began to explain to the sickly woman "Where I was raised they were supersticious and feared the blood moon, it was due to my unique blood they believed if I took part in a certain ritual I could appease the moon." his duel coloured eyes glowed a little in the darkness though faded as he closed his eyes "I got sicker than I normally was leading up to a blood moon so they put me in a room much like this one for that weak and gave me half a dose of medicine, I would do the ritual and would be given the other half after when I was close to dying due to doing the ritual. During that following week again I was kept in darkness to recover." he explained opening his eyes "It isn't because my light is unstable if that's what your thinking, it is because I am sensitive to changes in it due to my blood..." he informed her quietly, it was clear there was more to what he was saying but he cut himself off there, the youth hoped that it would put the other at ease and answer some of the questions they might have been wondering about the youth. He also hoped it would make them see that he was sincere on everything he was doing to help the other so they could be a bit more at ease within his presence.

He looked over to Amuul who had remained by his side after setting down Akeya. 'No.' he said to the woman simply as if answering a question. Ruvel had no idea why the younger void prince had said what he said so looked confused. "Amuul?" he questioned making the taller male look down at him 'I apologise my summoner, I will explain in more detail.' he said once again turning to Akeya 'No, favours were not called in to make this room or the room within the lair that he has. It is within our contracts we must do everything within our powers and abilities to keep him safe no matter what. We knew he had the weaknesses and illnesses he does because by contract he has to tell us everything which he does.' he informed Akeya "On the other hand they don't have to tell me anything." Ruvel cut in 'My summoner, you know why this is and that is all I will say on that matter.' He scolded the youth making Ruvel flinch a bit under the tone and gaze of his summon and nod "You're right Amuul." he said almost subservently to Amuul. The albino male sighed, this was part of his summoner he hated to see even though he understood why it was there. It had gotten better but it still had a long way to go and they all knew it. 'As I was saying. No, there were no favours called in to make his bedrooms. We done it because we were obligated to due to our contracts. For many of us it was us who put that stipulation in because we feared of what might come of him...' It again would seem like there was more to that story due to the sentence not seeming complete, but it was clear that no more information than had been given would be given regardless of question. The entire time Akeya would have heard Amuul's voice that she would have likely noticed his mouth didn't move once. Ruvel looked at Akeya for a moment realising how many people found that unsettling, then again not many people ever seen Shindara or Amuul like she currently was. "Their race use telepathy to communicate, they can speak with their mouths but it feels unnatural to them. The only ones that do are a cast known as the Spiritual Calling, I don't know much about them." he informed her, he knew that she enjoyed her privacy and if not seeing him move his lips didn't unsettle her the chances were the belief that he was invading her mind might. 'My twin brother and I are unlike any other within our race, we can't shut our abilities off and so we read people like books. I assure you everything I currently am seeing will not pass mine or my twin brothers lips without your expressed permission even to our summoner. As he has already said, we are not obligated to share everything with him and nor do we, we understand we overstep the sanctity of a persons mind and it is something we can't help, we have tried and failed countless times so we came up with a personal set of laws for ourselves that we do not cross.' he bowed a little to Akeya showing his word was his bond and her secrets would go no further. "He's telling the truth." he said, he knew they had done it once but the woman was ready to harm him yet again, even then it took Cirven a lot of persuading to get Shindara to agree and he had to atone for doing so.

Ruvel smiled a little as he heard her say safe enough, he knew that there were possible failures himself in protections and failsafes, but then he knew that those that he was contracted to bar two were all older than everyone in the company put together and then some. "They know were their own weaknesses lie and that is why no single one of them took complete control of the creation of my rooms. Where one weakness is, another covers it with their strength so on and so forth." he explained, he knew that this wouldn't prevent her being cautious but he knew that they were perfectly safe in that room due to the racial, elemental and other kinds of enchantments it had. Then again both light and shadow were tricksters in their own right and because of that they knew better than to take anything that was seen or said at face value, on this occasion Ruvel was trying to be transparent as he could about everything because in such a state he knew she would be more like an injured animal backed into a corner. That was not only dangerous to her given her condition but to him, he just didn't feel like being hurt in his bedroom by a severely shadow dragon today. "So, are you going to tell me what got you into such a situation Miss Kuusai or am I going to be left in the dark? What is said in this room will go no further, I assure you we're all entitled to privacy but to better understand how to help you I need to know what happened or I'm going to be stabing in the dark and hoping to get the target. This would be terrible for both of us." he said warmly, concern heard in his tone as he moved to be by her side Amuul following closely behind him.

He knew he was pressing for information that she obviously didn't want to give but she went after something that was apparently valuable, not only that but had people wanting said valuable thing and she went into such a situation underestimating her enemy. For the little he knew about Akeya, he knew fine well she never let her guard down or underestimated anyone. His eyes looked to Amuul "You know the reason don't you." he asked the taller male 'I do, but you know the rules.' he repled calmly, Ruvel nodded "I wasn't asking you to tell me Amuul, I was just curious if you knew." he said coldly before turning his head back to Akeya. "Even if not important to the current situation Miss Kuusai, it might bring trouble so I need to know why that trouble might arise." he was being sincere about his concern on the matter, there were hundreds of people who worked for the company on the premisis daily and that's before they took clients and dignateris into consideration. "We both know nothing remains in the shadows forever, eventually everything comes to light at least with me I can redirect it elsewhere." he let her know, he might not be able to lie but he had failsafes within his mind. Can't lie on what he didn't remember knowing, this is how he knew he could keep the guild secret safe if he was ever asked about Onyx Moon being on the continent or attached to the company given that flaw, so that was something. "I protect this company, the guild and continent Miss Kuusai with everything I am, trust me on that." there was no hint of him trying decieve her, he meant every word he spoke to her on that matter, this also meant her and whatever she might be hiding would be protected the same way but this was something he couldn't force her to tell. He could only assure her that he wouldn't tell anyone about it and if it was physical they too would gain the full protection of the company and guild even if they didn't know it. "For now, lets get you well again because you will pass before to long in your current condition." he said having being surrounded by death his entire life he could tell when someone was ready to expire.

He sighed for a moment, he might not of known her all that well or all the details but he knew those of the shadow were beyond cautious naturally. He figured it had to be something to do with their element but he wasn't sure and as much as he might have wanted to ask her this just wasn't the time to do that. He would have to wait til she was healed of the light sickness within her and stable once more before those kinds of questions and debates could happen, he had no issue on waiting he just wante to learn more about the element that was the polar opposite of his own. "When you are ready to show me or at least let me know what you were guarding, I'll be ready to listen. I'm not a threat to you, it or them." It was clear he had no idea about what she was guarding, if it was living or not or just how many there might be so the last three words he used covered his bases. "I will say from what I know of you, you aren't one to underestimate opponents, then again if I had to wager a guess I would have to guess that you were indeed distracted by what you were protecting or that an opponent turned up you didn't expect to be there. Then again it could have been a combination of the two." he said calmly removing the fabric that was covering her gently, it was only then he would be able to see what he was dealing with fully. He turned his eyes to her face as she agreed that her actions of eating an element not hers especially her elements opposite was foolish, what did surprise him was that she said it was that or die. "You are lucky you aren't dead by eating it." he said in a brash tone, it wasn't that he wanted to scold her she was a grown woman after all, it was because he was truly worried for her in her current state. He couldn't fault her logic on trying something that may work and surviving over doing nothing and definatly not surviving "I'll concede there, if there's a chance of survival take it." he said with a gentle sigh looking over her form now to see the full extent of the damage done by the light she ingested.

He looked up to her once and shook his head "If this works, you'll be able to eat light and shadow elements." he explained looking to Amuul who held out a small crystalline orb. "I gained this lacrima a few months back on one of travels to Midi." he said taking it from his summon and moved it to her chest placing it down and watched as it began to meld with her skin before going under it "I bought it at a hefty price because I thought I might need it, I was told that was a dragon slayer lacrima. Given it was sold in Midi and how they rever dragons I was skeptical as this was designed to kill dragons so had Maera check over it and it turned out to be legitimate." he said stretching a little "The lacrima is empty so can absorb an element, given your body is naturally attuned to shadow it will push the light into the lacrima." he explained, hoping that's how it would work "It is likely going to be painful and for that I am sorry, but I'm sure you would rather pain over death at this point." he said moving to hold her hand once more not sure what was about to happen but wanted to support her the best he could. "I would happily pay a fortune to keep any member of this family safe and healthy, everyone is needed as we move forward Miss Kuusai. That includes you." he said gently with a smile hoping that this would lift her spirits "Though I had it meld through your chest you can direct it for ten minutes where you want it to be located permanantly. I chose over your heart, because it was that, that got you into this situation and because blood gets pumped there so the absorbtion would be quicker." he let her know, watching the affects of his actions. He shook his head "You don't understand, right now your in pain because the two are fighting for dominance, failing that they will try to mix. This lacrima will tare the two elements appart, it will likely feel like you are going to be boiling in your own skin at the same time you are drawn and quartered." it was the best way he could describe it but in the end he had never been through this personally, nor had he seen anyone else go through it so he could only hazzard a guess at best of what it may feel like. He half expected that she would faint due to the pain or if she wasn't strong enough die from the shock of it but something told him she would be to stubborn for either of those options. Amuul seeing her moving to lean up helped her to lay back down again 'It is best if you do not tax your body in any way until the lacrima has taken effect, mistress of shadows.' he said to her before moving back to Ruvel's side once more. "When you're better you'll need to tell me what a Solar is, I've never came across the term before." he said his voice showing he was curious on the matter and why one of these people would be attacking her, could it have been just because she used shadow? He didn't know but it was something he wanted to find out because there where several in the company and guild who did so and wanted them protected against such a possible threat.

He knew he was given warnings to a woman who obviously didn't want to die and so would take any option given to them if it meant their was a possibility of survival. He however wanted her to go into each situation knowing the facts, it was just part of who he was, he knew the dying only had two options and she had chosen her path and he was fine with that, in fact he was glad that she chose the path she did; he would have been disappointed if she had just given up if he was honest with himself. "There's no need to change rooms, my summon Korvin put a few of her own little marks on this room when she became a summon of mine." he said pointing to a few spots "The room will grow to what is required, this room is technically a pocket dimension and so that is one of the many reasons it is very safe." he explained with a gentle smile. "Only people who could get into here are myself, my summons or Cirven and no one has seen him in months." he explained showing she didn't have to worry about outside interferance getting involved with this. "The lacrima will not be rendered innert as it was just an empty lacrima when I inserted it into you, it will draw the light inside it and so will not be affected by the room. This room just doesn't let light form as that was how it was designed." he continued to try and put her mind at ease. "As I said, pocket realm anything that happens in here won't affect out there and even if it wasn't it has the the same fail safes as the training halls." he finished showing every care had been taken in making this room for him and in this case her. "Amuul will keep me safe so relax yourself Miss Kuusai and allow the lacrima to do its job, I will be here right by your side." his voice was warm, completely caring and transparent on everything he had informed her, he wanted only the best for her and this was why she was where she was at current.

Word Count: 3,949
Total Word Count: 8,148
@Akeya

Akeya did her best to listen as Ruvel explained why he had such a room prepared for himself, a mage with a strong affinity for light. However her current condition made it difficult for her to process his words as carefully as she otherwise might have, and beyond that it was also clear that he was trying to keep the details to a minimum. What she understood was that for some reason Ruvel's wounds resulted in him bleeding light essence, and that his body reacted very poorly to this. If that was the case it would explain why a light mage like Ruvel would have a room which prevented light from leaving the body even if it gave rise to much deeper questions, such as what Ruvel was supposed to be if he had such an unusual physiology.

"That does... explain some of it." The fact that Ruvel's unique body resulted in him being used for some kind of strange ritual by a bunch of literal lunatics was just typical but she wasn't about to point that out. It wouldn't serve any purpose and she highly doubted that the guild master wanted her to mock the situation he'd been in. That said it was known that the moon had magical properties... and the blood moon was quite special. It all depended on whether the beliefs those people followed had been grounded in facts and research or if they'd just made up crazy ideas. Sometimes the difference between those two things could be difficult to see.

The dragoness was trying to make herself comfortable on the bed but found that the pain made that very difficult. She could feel the tip of her tail twitching in a desire to move, as if she could shake off what was killing her from the inside if she just squirmed in the right way. She did her best to contain that desire, her breathing laboured as she tried to keep solid control over her body. Ruvel and his summoned servant had said something about light poisoning and she supposed that was the right term for it. Of course that did mean that Ruvel's companion was familiar with how creatures of dark and shadow reacted to having light essence shoved inside their bodies... Yet another thing she couldn't focus on to the extent that she would have wanted to.

Of course the next tidbit that Amuul had been reading her mind provoked a stronger reaction. A hiss like that of a serpent escaped past her lips as her emerald eyes locked onto the outsider as he answered her unspoken question. As interesting as his answers were the dragon's tail was now twitching with more strength, hitting the bed with some force as she grimaced even as her eyes did not waver. Automatic mindreading... Akeya did not like that in the least. Her first response to that kind of thing was immediate elimination of the offender but the fact that Amuul was an ally made things complicated. She had no way of resolving the issue so she'd have to rely on his words that he didn't share what he overheard. Although once her current crisis was resolved she'd have to prioritize improving her mental defences to prevent all her thoughts being leaked. She wasn't a mage who specialized in the mind but rudimentary protection against having your mind read was possible even for people with zero magic potential as it was an exercise psychology and mental fortitude.

"To either be forced to seve or to share all that you do... Both sides of that contract sound terrible." The assassin turned her gaze to the ceiling, studying a surface which few others might ever see due to the nature of the room. She took a deep breath and then released it slowly, bending one leg to plant her clawed foot on the mattress while the other leg remained stretched. "You'll have to make sure you keep yourself to those rules. if my secrets ended up leaked... I wouldn't care if you couldn't help but learn them in the first place." She wasn't exactly in a position to make threats but she wanted to make it clear that ally or not Amuul wouldn't enjoy the consequences if he broke his word.

Fortunately if he was speaking the truth then he couldn't get in the way of Ruvel trying to save Akeya. So as long as she didn't turn Ruvel into an enemy there shouldn't be a problem.

Akeya closed her eyes as Ruvel reassured her that the room was quite safe. She didn't doubt that he'd put a lot of effort into securing this room: to her eyes magic was as visible as the books she regularly read, and this room was metaphorically glowing with the stuff. "Good enough." She could have argued about possible weaknesses but she wasn't in the mood for it. She wasn't in the right position for that kind of thing at all. Right now the only thing she could really do is keep her body in control as she waited for the light to slowly kill her. With as possible alternative that Ruvel found a way to save her before it was too late.

That last part made her feel like maybe they shouldn't waste time talking about unrelated things. However as painful as this experience was she didn't think that her time of demise would be calculated in minutes. She estimated that she would still have at least an hour before things became really dicey, although she'd probably feel like she was already dead long before that point.

Ruvel's second attempt at getting her to tell what she was unwilling to tell earned him a glance from one eye. The dragoness wondered if he was making puns intentionally or if he just was focusing on something other than the fact that those common terms became rather funny in these circumstances. She listened to the small exchange between the guild master and his companion, then scoffed before wincing as she realized that her body currently didn't appreciate that gesture. "Light followers always thinking they'll win in the end..." She muttered those words more to herself than to Ruvel. She quickly followed it with louder words, this time clearly addressing Ruvel. "Plenty of secrets are forever lost, we just don't know about them... because if we did they wouldn't be lost. But you're right that this might cause trouble." Neither light nor dark were completely united. There were factions and fractures and different priorities. Those who wished to preserve their own and those who wished to conquer, those who wished for harmony and those who wished to stomp out their archenemies.

And Akeya had done a pretty good job of ensuring that the more aggressive forces of both elements wouldn't be happy with her. "Suffice to say that neither light nor dark is completely safe now. Anything more than that.. will have to wait." She did not have the time to fully explain. She wasn't even sure if Ruvel would understand everything that she was trying to tell him if he did. She wasn't even sure if she understood every part of the story herself.

The thought of having the guild master turning against that which she had been protecting made her stiffen and bare her fangs for a moment before she relaxed again. "This would be easier if you weren't so clever." She preferred to be the only one who was quick on the uptake. The easiest way to make sure things went your way was to make sure there was nobody involved whose intelligence came close to, matched or surpassed your own.

Ruvel's scolding mostly fell on deaf ears, as Akeya was already aware that what she had done had been too risky. It was the kind of thing you'd only ever do if your odds were already so terrible that they couldn't actually get worse. The fact that she was still alive right now was a miracle. She just hoped that the miracle would stay strong.

Given the room was preventing any of the light inside Akeya's body from seeping out her external appearance wasn't that of a heavily wounded creature. However her scales had lost their usual smoothness, her skin was as pale as you could expect from an olive-skinned humanoid slowly approaching death and her chest heaved as she tried to keep breathing in measured paces. There was also sweat visible on her body for those whose eyes could pierce the darkness of the room. All in all she looked seriously, even terminally, ill.

Although what happened next appeared to perk her up a bit in a very interesting manner. The idea of being able to eat both light and dark was intriguing, but that wasn't what made both of Akeya's eyes open and her breathing halt for a moment. It was the young master's explanation of how he had been sceptical of obtaining a dragon slayer lachrima from a culture which revered dragons which forced her train of thought to come to an abrupt halt. She could feel the crystal slowly merge with her body, her skin closing over it even as she listened intently to what Ruvel was saying as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. When he was nearly finished speaking she began to chuckle, which quickly turned into actual laughter. Her laughter was affected by her current condition, with several gasps breaking it up, but it was still louder than one might expect from Akeya considering the circumstances. And the fact that she rarely laughed at all.

"Seems like you know a lot... but not everything. The relationship between dragons and humans... is... a little bit more complicated than that." Maybe she shouldn't be speaking right now, but she wanted to at least tell Ruvel the fundamentals of what was going on here. "You don't know how dragon slaying magic came into existence... do you? Humans were being wiped out by dragons... and couldn't do anything about it. As a last ditch effort... they began to take the power of dragons and use it as their own. The name of Dragon Slayer... is nothing more than silly mortals trying to be proud of the fact... that in the end the only thing that saved them from the dragons was the dragons. And the dragon slayer lachrima?" She placed a clawed hand over her chest where the lachrima had disappeared. "It's the essence of a dragon.. crystallized. That's why you'd find it in Midi. It really is laughable how the mortals... managed to spread the story that the power which allows them to fight dragons... on equal ground... has nothing to do with dragons even as those who use it for long enough... can feel their bodies become that which... they thought they were meant to slay."

"Mortals couldn't beat dragons. To defend themselves from us dragons... they became like dragons."

She took several deep breaths to recover, both from the bout of laughter and her explanation of why Ruvel would find a dragon slayer lachrima in Midi of all places. Or to be more accurately, a dragon lachrima which had been given a silly name by silly mortals. She sometimes wondered how many of those mortals questioned the fact that dragon slayers either needed crystallized magic from a mysterious origin or lessons from a dragon to become a dragon slayer.

Although she did wonder under what kind of circumstances you'd get a dragon lachrima with no element. Maybe it had been tampered with in the past. Regardless it would probably do the job, in part because for a dragon absorbing the lachrima from another dragon was a little bit different from just having a gem shoved inside their body and letting it produce magic.

"You're smart... but I'll have to explain a thing or two once I'm no longer on death's door. For now... I guess since you say this room is safe I'll have to take your word for it... since with this lachrima inside of me we would have little time to relocate either way." She closed her eyes and frowned as she began to focus on what was going on inside of her. "But still... a word for the wise... prepare to move away."

She'd noticed just how much effort Ruvel was putting into making her feel at ease and trying to show that he cared. She supposed that for social creatures those kind of signals would be touching. For herself... She wasn't incapable of connecting with others but it was a difficult process. Dragons weren't built to rely on teamwork and cooperation to thrive. One of the reasons the mortals back then even had a fighting chance was precisely because while each dragon was a nearly unstoppable force they were terrible at coordinating their efforts. Powerful personalities and a lack of social group structures provided weak links which the mortals exploited. Akeya wasn't alive at the time so she was only going off of what she knew, but she didn't actually harbour any ill will towards the mortals for it. If anything she was annoyed at the dragons for how they let themselves get outplayed that badly in the end.

For now though... The lachrima inside of her wasn't staying solid. The dragon essence was returning to its more natural state, spreading throughout her body and becoming one with her. When a human implanted a dragon lachrima inside their body it remained as a crystal because their body wasn't suited for it. It served as a source of dragon magic but it was also a single point of failure. For a fellow dragon (and dragon slayers who were reaching the final stages of their development) absorbing a dragon lachrima was a lot like eating: the lachrima was fully digested.

Which also meant that it was a lot less unpleasant a process since there wasn't any hostile reaction of the body trying to reject the implant. Of course in Akeya's case there was a rejection, but for different reasons entirely.

The light that had manifested inside of her was in conflict with her innate dark, the two forces annihilating each other and twisting each other. And as the two essences inside of her waged war her body was a battlefield. This new draconic essence could bond with the light essence, stabilizing it and converting it into the essence of a light dragon. That part would be relatively easy, especially if Akeya successfully took control of her darkness and managed to make it push the light rather than annihilating it upon contact.

The tricky part was that merging the draconic essence with the light essence would just mean that her own dark draconic self would be under attack by the essence of a light dragon rather than a more foreign type of light essence. She'd have to rely on the fact that with both her own nature and the nature of the light having turned draconic she could use that as the connection needed to merge the light and the dark. Or at least allow them to coexist inside the same body which hadn't been designed for such a task.

If she'd had more time she'd have studied the hatchlings she'd have gone so far to protect. For them this was the natural state of things, and she might have gotten a clue out of it. Instead she had to learn by doing, and if she wasn't a quick enough learner she'd die a very painful death.

From the outside Akeya would have gone very still, almost motionless. Even her breathing had almost stopped completely as her entire being turned inwards. Her tail was no longer tapping the bed and she was completely ignoring her surroundings. But it wouldn't stay that way for long.

As she began the process Akeya's body quickly began to move again, writhing and squirming as the light magic which had been ravaging it was now forcibly being squished together with the new draconic essence while at the same time Akeya was doing her best to keep her darkness from merging with the quickly-dissolving lachrima. Up until now she'd felt like there was something burning inside of her: this new sensation made the previous one feel like little more than an itching. The light and the lachrima seemed to have little issue with each other, but where the two combined into the essence of a light dragon it assaulted her dark self with renewed vigour. After all dragons were by nature immensely powerful, magical and tenacious. Combining draconic essence with light essence gave you a combination which was significantly stronger than the parts.

However the process was working up until this point. The light essence had fully merged with the draconic essence which had come free from the absorbed lachrima. So now rather than poison it felt like her insides were being ravaged by the magic of a hostile light dragon.

Akeya's body began to buck and shudder, contorting itself as her claws dug into the body in a vain attempt at keeping herself in place while hisses and snarls escaped from her mouth. She arched her back and kicked with her legs and dark magic was lashing out from her body, forming claws to gouge everything around the dragoness as she fought an internal battle.

By strategically applying pressure with her dark Akeya had formed all the light dragon essence into a highly condensed sphere located right above her navel. She was constantly applying pressure to it to keep it contained, but she couldn't keep doing this forever. The moment she relaxed the light would burn her up, turning her into little but a shriveled husk. And with her current approach she wouldn't be getting any closer to absorbing the light either. She could have tried expelling it but... well, the extraction would be as fatal as letting the light run rampant.

Her movements calmed down a little as she had managed to achieve something of a stalemate. However this was only a short reprieve while she tried to figure out what to do next.

It felt a lot like staring down another dragon except this dragon was inside of her. And not in the pleasant way.

She was still treating the light as something foreign. She had to make it her own. This light dragon was going to be devoured by her and turned into a part of her. That was the only way this could go. That was the only way this could go.

---

Possibly a memory or just a figment of Akeya's imagination. She was perched on the very top of a mountain and watching the skies. The sun had sunk and the world was covered in a blanket of dark. A blanket of dark dotted with stars and with a big glowing moon to illuminate the lands below in absence of the sun.

The night had always been more pleasant than the day. She didn't feel the cold like the weaker creatures did and everything was sharper. You could hear more, smell more, even see more. The day was too hot, too noisy, too busy. It was too energetic for someone who preferred precision and clarity.

Yet dawn was coming. She could feel it. The sky in the far distance was already becoming brighter. For a nocturnal creature like her the day was something she avoided if she could help it. But she couldn't avoid it this time. So as she sat there on top of the mountain, feeling the wind blow past her and seeing the midnight black of the heavens slowly turn blue, she watched and asked herself the question:

What is dark and what is light?

Dark was dispassionate, cold, still. It flowed silently and covered everything indiscriminately. It granted protection and opportunity for those who reveled in it. In the dark your enemies couldn't find you even as you waited for the right opportunity to strike. It was patience and thoughtfulness.

Light was... energetic. Aggressive. Warm. It shone down on everything and exposed colours and shapes. It brought growth and strength. Those who basked in the light would move ever onwards. It was impulsive and active. It was lively and hopeful.

The two couldn't be treated as the same. Yet Akeya sat there and waited for the sun to rise as the dark sky moved backwards. The light didn't banish the dark and the dark didn't vanquish the light, the two moved each other around. They alternated and circulated.

What was the connection between the two?

Maybe the connection was their opposition to one another.

To possess both light and dark wasn't to treat them as the same.

At night you'd skulk around, remaining unseen as you made each movement with care.

At day you'd run around, exploring the world and letting the energy flow through you.

One was passive and one was active.

One was positive and one was negative.

One was growth and one was regression.

What was in between had to be neutral.

But to possess neutrality you first needed both positive and negative in equal amounts.

The sun was now rising above the horizon. Akeya closed her eyes as she felt the warm light shine on her face. Her back was kept cool by the darkness that still lingered before it would move away for a time.

But it would come again.

Basking in the light was actually rather pleasant.

---

The room's ability to expand would be put to the test as it seemed that after that moment of calm it all exploded at once. Akeya let loose a roar as her scales propagated to cover her entire body even as that body expanded at a ridiculous pace. Her body seemed to lose its physical shape for a moment. The darkness that had been covering the room was fluctuating and twisting. A massive spike of magic filled the room. Large claws scraped across the walls and floor. A large tail slammed against the ceiling with the force of an oversized battering ram. A blinding flash of not-light consumed everything.

It was as if everything was thrown into pandemonium, a chaotic swirl of power. Perhaps even reality itself was groaning from the stress.

The power spike faded away, the chaos dissipated, the room returned to a state of calm. Except the dark was gone. There was neither light nor dark. Everything was visible with crystal clarity. Light would have blinded. Dark would have obscured. The combination would have created a twisted image of what was as silhuettes were distorted and accentuated in odd ways.

Instead there was just clarity. There were no shadows, no gleaming surfaces.

And the big dragon in the middle of it all, the only thing that was barely visible. Her contours were still visible and when she shifted her weight you could see her scales shifting colours before resettling into a new pattern that smoothly merged with the surroundings. The only part of her which remained perfectly visible were her emerald eyes which moved as she turned her head to look at her surroundings. Eventually she'd return her gaze back towards Ruvel from up high, her maw opening to voice her thoughts. It sounded a lot like her humanoid form, except with a kind of gravity which made the words linger in the mind longer than usual.

"Peculiar."

She shifted her gaze to Amuul, then to herself. Akeya watched as when she lifted one of her front claws the scales covering it rapidly shifted in colour, only for them to fade into the background again when she held the claw still so only the lines that gave it shape remained visible.

"I think I should leave this room."

WC: 3,967
TWC: 8,100/12,500
@Ruvel

Ruvel could only imagine how difficult it was for the dragoness to take in everything he was saying to her, she was clearly in pain and most likely tired beyond belief but there was little that he could do to help with either. He didn't have her medical charts and without getting a full check up there would be no way to give her something that might have helped. No matter what this whole situation was dangerous to everyone involved, well at least those in the youth's bedroom. The blonde haired youth was at such a loss, he felt helpless and unable to help one in his care, this of course wasn't his fault but something like this wasn't exactly an everyday occurance anywhere in Earthland from the little he knew of the place. He could only guess that since he was seen as a strong light mage that was the reason he had been asked for. Sure, he could have drawn the light out but that held its own dangers as the shadow may have seen it as an attack and struck out at him or he himself could have drawn in the shadows as he was drawing out the light meaning they would be stuck in the same situation just he would be the one in it. He had to wonder if the cunning and calculating dragoness would help him if the situations were switched, he luckily knew better than to attempt eating an element that wasn't his especially one that counterbalanced his own. Then again he had never been in the exact situation she had, the kill or be killed thing? Well, that wasn't exactly new to the youth but then again until he escaped the facility he had never harmed anyone or anything in his life, the mere thought of it made him sick to his stomach. He knew the reason behind that, a secret he had kept from Cirven and even Johann. He was being raised to replace the gods of light and life and so had been conditioned as such, it was the reason he was actively a pacifist and hated fighting even if there was no other way.

Ruvel closed his eyes after he noticed a slight shift in Amuul's body language. "I realise, this may be a common story you have heard in the past..." he said his tone a bit more quite as if he was scared to be heard "The place I was raised... I never want to go back there... I'd lose who I am and what I've become." His voice shook as he spoke, it was clear he was scared. It was much more that some lunatic cult where he was the sacrificial lamb. He was a sacrifice sure but there where so many others on that boat, he just happened to have a connection to the light and so that was used due to superstitions. It drained him, made him weaker and even more sickly than he normally was but they made sure he wasn't in critical condition before they threw him back into what he had heard them call the pen. When he was there he thought nothing of it but now he knew more and understood what a pen was and what it was used for he had to wonder if all he and the others were viewed as was animals. Then again from what he had seen even animals were treated far better than they had been and so even now he wondered what they had done to deserve the ire of those who were their caretakers. That was issues for other days, right now he had something more pressing to deal with in regards to Akeya's critical condition, though he still had no real way to know whether or not what he had previously suggested would work but it was better than attempting nothing he guessed. So all he could do at the current time was wait and see what happened and hope for the best, easier said than done though.

"I wasn't raised in a cult if that was what you are thinking, it was far from it. It's... it's a place I try not think about Miss Kuusai, though it haunts me it is in my past and should remain there. Don't you think?" he tried to smile but it was clear it was fake, even in the darkness it was easy to see the fear written on his face, the fact he was holding back tears that threatened to roll down his cheeks. He wasn't one ever to really show any emotion other than the ones that were expected of him at any given situation, right now he was vulnerable and it quite easily showed. The strong, proud god of ishgar, ceo of the best know trading company, guild master to a guild of vigilantes, one of the three heads of an alliance and caretaker of an entire continent that mask of confidence and strength was gone leaving the youth that truly lived behind it, the youth that felt the crushing pressure under all the responsibilities he had thrust upon him so suddenly when his elder adoptive brother went missing.  He hoped he was just checking something without telling him and would be home soon but there was a knot deep in his gut that was telling him otherwise. That was a problem for later when it finally arose which he had the suspicion would be soon given how Demi was acting, she was spending a lot of time within Sol's province within Tolgalen and given how she almost killed him when he, Sol, Cirven and Johann all done a job together but turned into kids thanks to a curse he didn't think Demi trusted Sol let alone liked him, of course he could have been wrong about that as he had no idea what interactions those he had contracts with had with other people.

"I know it's difficult but please try stay still." he instructed the other noticing her movements as she tried to get comfortable, he also seen her tail moving a kin to a cat that was irritated. He couldn't really blame her for feeling such a way though he had no idea what she was exactly going through at current. The best he could do was empathise from his own personal experience with what he had been through in his own past. "What do you do if someone get light poisoning Amuul?" Ruvel asked hoping the younger of the void princes in his service would be able to help him with a solution. 'Only the servant cast tend to get light poisoning due to them going to areas with brighter light, perhaps apprentices within the spiritual calling cast gain it too due to going out the void. It is very rare for any others to gain it. Do not worry my summoner my elder brother and I only have that chance being near your light for to long, we have the same protections as a higher of the spiritual calling.' He explained as he watched Ruvel bite his bottom lip softly. 'Light sickness is normally dealt with one of two ways. The first would be in a room like the one we are currently in or the second and more dangerous is we place them into a room without shadow and drag the light out as we slowly introduce void vortex to the room. It is painful from what I remember and only the most sadistic of nobles use it on their servants.' he finished notifying the youth "I won't do the second, it would likely kill her in her current condition." to be honest with himself he wouldn't do the second even if she was at full strength, it sounded like a torture unlike any he himself had been through. The very thought of it made him shudder.

Amuul looked to Akeya as she hissed and knew exactly why she was doing it 'Like I said, your secrets go no further than myself or my twin. My word is my honour and in my race and culture honour means a lot.' he informed her. Ruvel was startled by the hiss for a moment as he hadn't been expecting it from her "Shindara, Amuul and... Jasper.." he started hesitating of course on Oykai's alias that he most commonly used when by his side "They come from a culture much like ancient Midian but their culture is far more structured and strict, everything is followed to the letter and even royals like the three are not above them though their punishments may differ slightly from someone not of said cast but they still get punished. Amuul and Shindara can't help their telepathic abilities unlike the rest of their race they can't filter out or dampen others." he tried to help put the dragoness at ease but not sure if it was helping 'It is the reason we remain isolated most of the time mistress of shadow, we don't want to intrude on something so sacred.' he finished his voice was soft, low and almost depressed at that fact. Ruvel had been the only person to approach them willingly even though he knew their abilities, he hadn't judged them of course that might have been because he was lost, hurt and scared but even when he had recovered he had remained instead of backing away. They were thankful for that and this was why even though his light hurt them beyond words they had agreed to a contract with him and fought to remain even when his magic had changed at his ancestral home in the Silent Glaciers. They didn't know how it would be when they took him there but still it was a gamble they still had to take and it had paid off, at least on this occasion.

"Please Miss Kuusai, calm yourself it will do no good to be riled up like this." he pleaded noticing the tail moving in quicker, sharper movements. His hands moved to her tail as if trying to help it settle, he didn't care if he was hit by it, he would of course wince if that indeed happened. He didn't even know if through her scales she would be able to feel the scars on the palms of his hands, if she did he knew it would lead to more questions that he wouldn't want to answer but right now he wanted her still and as comfortable as possible. When he did manage to hold down her tail he was gentle, it was clear he didn't want to hurt or damage it or her in any way nor was he trying to hold her down with any amount of force, in fact while doing this simple task he was trembling; the shadow dragoness herself wouldn't know the reason behind it. It could have been because he was afraid that he was hurting her, that it was colder in the shadow than outside it or because of some unknown reason in his past, all were plausible after all. 'I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. I understand the mind is a sacred space that no one dead or alive should tread and for that I do apologise to you. I can not prevent my gift so can not say it will not happen in the future because it would make me a liar as I know it will. I can not gift you one hundred percent protection from my own or my elder brothers curse, I can however give you some tips and training if you like to encumber it.' Amuul offered her, it was his form of an apology and within his culture when apologising it was expected that recompence was given in one form or another. His was to help her dampen her mind more from those like himself, where it likely would stop others from completely breaching her mind the chances are Shindara and himself would still be able to see something by the end of it but it would likely be the surface thoughts; Of course this was if she agreed to the training in the first place.

'Your secrets will not pass my own or my twin brothers lips without your expressed permission regardless of whether if you agree to my help or not. I give you my assurance and if we do, we will happily accept the punishment you decide for us as we would have earned your ire.' Amuul finally said after having spoken to Shindara briefly, these were the rules they lived by, rules they themselves had formed over time due to their unique ability of not being able to switch of or hone there telepathy. Ruvel looked to her for a moment before looking down as the conversation changed to the magic he once owned and even now still partly had. "It was at first, I was alone and desperate so accepted what I could to survive." he admitted, he never really thought about that part of things all that much these days. "If I hadn't I wouldn't be here to help you now in your time of need." he said with a weak smile "As bad as some of the contracts were, I accepted because I was so scared. I was in a world I didn't know or understand and if I'm to be honest even now I don't really know it or understand it. I've only been like this for around a year or so." he informed her his voice soft, almost delicate as he spoke to her on the subject. "They might have been hard on me and it might have been unfair but they kept me safe and at that point, that's all I needed. It was survival." he said his head going to Amuul who had remained silent and honestly didn't want to comment his thoughts on this matter. There was more to it, well at least to many of the summons he had gained but in the beginning he understood how it would be like that given the past the young blonde had been put through.

"My companions were never forced to do anything, they could and still could deny my request for aid. They are living people and so have their own lives and commitments." he informed the dragoness "Unlike most summoners, I can't create a contract with spirits. They need to be alive so that is how Miss Hisamori's younger brother Sato regained life after the fire that claimed him." he sounded sad as he brought up the youth in question. "I didn't force him into a contract, he requested it... he wanted to reunited with Yona but such things come with a cost as all things do when dealing with life and death." he continued now pulling at the sleeves a little "In fact two of my former summons I had absolutely no way of summoning them, they would turn up when they decided to or when I was in danger." he finished, he didn't mind this but as anything it could be somewhat inconvenient when a summon turned up and he didn't need them because they would feed off his energy, but he had accepted the contracts irregardless of this fact. "There names were Demiari also known as Demi, she's the one who dresses like a maid within the company and Ziian'tuu who was the ancient of the spiritual realm." he said thinking back on the pair 'Not the spirit plane celestial spirits come from but the spiritual plane that the dead go to.' Amuul added on as to prevent confusion given the current topic. Then again Ruvel had already stated he couldn't use spirits or the dead so this may have made this part a little redundant, still he wanted to make the fact clear about what was being spoken about in this instance. Ruvel smiled weakly looking to the grounds his hands clenching on his sleeves more "The rules they had and still have me bound to is for my own good, I don't blame my companions for it and they always keep to their rules. It helps me and besides some of the former rules I had to follow were so very strict this is nothing." he said shaking his head trying not to think back to the terrible place that he had been raised. He took a deep breath as he tried to stabilize himself once more by pushing that out of his mind.

"Of course there are weaknesses of this room but there are things here that those with magical sight can't see, the reason for this is some of it is blessings which are not magic and there are other things that I won't get into mainly because I don't know everything that has been done to my bedroom." he said to her knowing her magical sight was likely far better than his own, still there was more to this room than either of them knew and for that he was grateful. He knew for every weakness there was at least one other layer to cover it, if anyone was wanting to get into this room they'd had a whole host of problems and likely get damaged for their efforts; his summons former and current left nothing to chance as their main priority was his safety even against allies that had the potential to change their allegiance though hoped it would never have to happen in all honesty. He realised that small talk at a time like this was most likely not what the other needed but it was how he and the others coped if they were helping another pass on, he didn't know any other way to comfort than to talk about stuff that was unrelated to what was causing the distress. "I'm sorry if the small talk isn't what you need or want right now Miss Kuusai but this is habit to me in such situations. I truly am sorry." he didn't know how much else to explain it, he didn't want her to pass, he didn't want to see another person die or have to comfort them as they were more so if they were in agonising pain. At the end of the day he knew that wasn't his call, Oykai or one of his cast would come if it was her time and there would be nothing he could do to stop what would happen next. He knew it shouldn't affect him, it was just a fact of life one he had seen far to often for his liking. He would hold out hope though that she would survive this ordeal.

The pun hadn't been intentional but the true nature of the saying, he had tried to get the information out of her again and what he had said to her about it not leaving the rooms was true, he after all was unable to lie but he had become accustomed to bending the truth or fully omitting facts. It was the territory that came with his job more often than not as damage control when things went pear shape on a delivery, at the gatherings of the higher eselon he was required to go to from time to time or even in his tasks as a diplomat. Only a few outside his summons however knew of the fact that he was unable to lie and even fewer still knew that he had ways to deal with secrets should he be captured to be interrogated. His mind would be sectioned off by the twins so sensitive material such as his guild's affiliation to the trading company and who were on the roster would be removed from his memory until he was able to be freed. Luckily it had never come to that but he rather have a plan to be safer than sorry. Onyx Moon weren't a dark guild but they weren't legal and often went outside the letter of the law, this would make people think they were mercenaries out only for the pay, this again was wrong. The had been mercenaries at one point but not so much now, not since he had become the guild master, they were now more akin to vigilanties. Sure, they still went outside the law but they had a morality code that was far more set in stone than it previously had been, the jobs they often took may have not paid the best though they came from people who were desperate and often couldn't turn anywhere else.

Of course there were other guilds that could handle such jobs Fairytail might have took it on or there was the mysterious and shadowy members of the whispered guild of Hidden Blades. He had little knowledge on the latter but from what he did know no one knew who they were, how they were contacted, where they were located though there was some speculation on it being a small town, a village, forests, even Era or the capital itself but nothing ever panned out when people had investigated. The one thing that was noted by anyone who had seen a suspected scene from the dark guild was there was little to no evidence and if there was evidence it never lead anywhere but a long winded goose chase it was so very odd but he guessed it would make sense they would have good cleaners that could and would do such things to keep their secrets secret. He wasn't about to go down that dark rabbit hole, he knew it would paint a target on his back and given the limited knowledge on that potential enemy he'd rather not step into that territory if he could help it. He did however know that sometimes it would likely be unavoidable but that was an issue for yet another time, if and when it finally happened. For now his path hadn't crossed that of the darker guild so he didn't see any real need to worry and Fairytail was aligned with Silver Wolf and unbeknownst to both Onyx Moon through the company. The alliance had been going for around a year now and it was still going strong which seemed to make all the guild masters happy at least to his knowledge. He hoped that the alliance would continue even if something was to happen to one of them but the future was never set in stone, well he wanted to believe that anyway but sometimes it just felt as if you were going towards a destination even if you fought against it, it might slow down the journey but you would still end up there regardless of what you done but who knew at the end of the day. He was an atheist that didn't believe in gods or higher powers, to him and so many others that he knew; if they did exist why did he and the others have to endure such torture at the hands of others? Why didn't the stop it? They would have that kind of power right? They prayed and pleaded on a daily basis but it all fell upon deaf ears, he had been lucky finally someone heard him as he was about to break and helped him get out of that place, still he didn't believe them gods.

Ruvel looked back to her as she mentioned about those of light, normally he knew that people would take offence to it but it actually made a lot of sense to him "The same can be said from a good portion of those of the shadow." he stated calmly "Each element, each kind of person believes they will win at the end of the day but there is a balance to everything and where the light may win at one point it doesn't mean the shadow will take it lying down, they push back and may win the next time the two fight." he said breaking it down logically. "And I don't follow the light, it's just part of me and I've been hurt often enough to know the light won't always win." it was as simple as that to him, there was a balance and when the scales tipped to much in the one area it then had to be counterbalanced so the other side of the scale then got their turn to balance things out once more. "It's just give and take don't you think Miss Kuusai?" she asked wondering her thoughts on such a matter, this might have not been the time for such a thing but she was the one who brought up the subject and he actually found the subject matter an interesting one, he could see many a debate between the two arising if she survived this whole ordeal and he was looking forward to it in all honesty. "True, many secrets are lost but secrets can be found once again. This is part of what Silver Wolf does after all and they are very good at such a task and even building upon it, so again where secrets are lost over the course of time, with enough time and effort they can be found once more and brought into the light." he said with a smile, he chuckled quietly to himself "Sometimes light and shadow have more in common that they like to admit." he said more to himself than anyone else, he realised they could both hide things equally well but they could if they wanted reveal things just in different ways.

Shadow and light were as water and oil, they never really mixed completely but still there were ways for it to happen though it was more complicated than many seen the worth of doing. Many didn't even dare to mix these elements afraid of what might happen if they did succeed after all both elements were strong in their own rights. What was currently happening wasn't due to experimentation or curiosity but the need to survive just that bit longer and the one who had been in that situation in the first place was under his care, he was her guildmaster after all. The only problem was, he had no idea if what he had done would do anything to help but it was the only thing he could think of with the limited time and means they had; if he believed in higher powers he would be praying right now but he didn't so could only hope that everything would work out in the end. "Oh, I can imagine. Your body at current is a battlefield, the ones waging the war for dominance are the elements." he said moving to hold her hand in his heavily scarred ones trying his best to support her. It is the one reason he had honed his own magic to be more like a scalpel than a hammer, he was afraid of the damage it might do to the area around him and how it would affect those who still needed to live there. He had found many didn't care about this and would have at it in the middle of a town leaving ruins for the civilians who still lived their to clean up, to him that just wasn't on and so why the company had a section dedicated to helping fix areas that the mages under the companies employ had damaged. He of course did compensate those who were affected and helped paid for temporary accommodation and any medical bills that might have come with it. He was lucky that this was a very rare occurrence but event that was to much in his opinion.

Amuul moved his hand to his sword as he seen Akeya bare her fangs at Ruvel, the youth lifted his free hand to let Amuul know it was fine and so the albino male relaxed but only a little. "I get that more often than I like, that being said I need to be clever given the secret I keep on top of everything else." He was running a continent, a company, a guild, one of the ruling bodies of an alliance, he had his own secrets. It was a lot of balls he had to keep juggling and in the air and each and every day it seemed like more was being added. "I am not going to turn my back on you or the secret you are protecting but I have more than yourself to protect so I need to understand what might be heading here and why." he explained, he wasn't trying to misdirect or misguide her he was being sincere and translucent in everything he was saying to her. He tried to go over what she might be protecting, it was unlikely a book or artifact in his opinion because she would be studying it after all there was a reason she requested an ensuite bedroom in the library. She didn't seem like the one who cared about wealth to the point she would get in such a situation as she was at current his eyes went wide as he remembered hearing from Barthenz and Crystal what their race was like when it came to their offspring. A mother would lose their mind if a miscarriage happened and when it came to children both mother and father would go to extreme lengths to protect them, the same lengths that he believed that Akeya herself had done. He didn't understand if it was something every race done or dragons specifically but it was the only thing that made logical sense to him. "Miss Kuusai, where are the children you are protecting and why are they being hunted by these people?" he finally asked the dragoness, he knew the former question would likely be answered with somewhere safe which he would be fine with for now, the latter he was unsure about but it was important.

Ruvel was caught off guard as the woman who was almost terminally dying started to laugh loudly "Well of course I don't know everything, only what I've read and been told." he explained to her, to think you knew everything was a level of arrogance he hoped nobody ever achieved, he however would sit quietly and listen to her as she spoke about the relationship between humans and dragons being complicated. "I guessed it would be, the only dragons I've personally came in contact with are yourself, Mr Terumi, Crystal, Barthenz and the twins companions and let's be honest you're all considerably different." he said to her knowing that not all dragons acted or were the same for one reason or another. When asked if he knew how the slayer magic came to exist he shook his head, it wasn't something covered in the books he had been forced to read in the facility. "I never thought they just took it, I thought that it was a partnership agreed upon by the dragon and the human in question." he said showing he was listening and trying to learn from her like a student at school or even in a private class. "A crystalized dragon soul?" he seemed confused by that, it was something he would have to talk to Oykai about at a later point but he was interested about hearing it from a dragon first hand. "Using slaying magic to much turns you into that which you are slaying..." he trembled at that thought as he himself had slaying magic, his wasn't for dragons however, his was for demons. He didn't want to turn into a demon and be hunted by others, he was finding it hard enough just to try be what many considered normal without having to worry about going on a rampage that might kill thousands of people. He still valued life, was still a pacifist as much as many hated it so with this dangling over his head he felt not only scared but sick to his stomach on what he had just learned.

"The room is safe." he said just as Amuul grabbed him, pulling the youth into his arms and jumping back. Ruvel let out a yelp but didn't fight against the other as he knew what was coming next more so as the room started to expand. He had no real experience on the differences between how a lacrima affected a normal person, a slayer almost becoming a dragon and a dragon themselves; this was yet another thing he would have to ask Akeya when all this came to an end and if she had survived but by the looks of it, it had seemed as if she was already getting stronger. Was the lacrima working already on making a truce on the battlefield that was the dragonesses body? He guessed only time would tell on that one. It was when she went motionless he looked up to Amuul afraid that the strength was only a trick before she passed 'She is still alive, barely, but she is still quite connected to her body.' he explained to the youth in his arms, this didn't exactly fill the blonde with much excitement given he had been told barely but it was enough for him to keep hope that this might turn around. Seeing her move once more made Ruvel let out a sigh of relief but knew that she wasn't out of the woods yet going by the movements and jerks her body was going through. "Amuul, we need to help her!" he started to try and get out of the grip of the taller male who kept ahold of his summoner with great ease 'There is nothing more you can do, this journey is now hers. She must get the two dragons to come to an uneasy truce with each other if she is to survive.' the younger of the void princes explained to the youth in his arms, he knew this was difficult for him to handle given all the death he had seen but it was the truth of the matter, it was all now down to Akeya whether she would survive or not.

"They're fighting! You need to find the similarities of the elements and use them to your advantage." he was of course a walking ball of light and couldn't gain darkness within himself but he had spent enough time surrounded by it to know there was definitely similarities this is what helped him cope and feel at ease even in his current bedroom. If Akeya could find the neutral ground of the elements he was sure that there could be some sort of balance within her body. He could only hope that she heard his words and it was helping her in some way but he had no way of truly knowing, not right now. He had never been in this situation and for that he was glad, he couldn't even imagine what she was going through right now and hoped that it was something that would never happen if he was to be honest with himself just because of what he was currently witnessing. It was then Amuul continued to jump backwards suddenly the room ever expanding once more to allow Akeya's dragonic form the room it needed to grow and then some. Ruvel couldn't see everything that was happening due to the constant jumping back that Amuul was doing but he understood enough that she seemed to had found a way to find the balance required to change and was happy for that. He could feel the spike in magic, his magical senses didn't work as well as others but that did come with its own ups and downs one of them being that given he could only sense a few different magic types he could normally narrow down what a mages type of magic if he could sense them. Downside was that there were a lot of different kinds of magics out there and if it wasn't one of those few then he wouldn't be able to feel the mage full stop.

When the spike dropped in how chaotic it was Amuul let his young summoner down and walked towards the dragoness with him always on alert as he had no idea what would happen next. Both males looked over her scales but had remained quiet until Akeya herself had spoken "Are you feeling better Miss Kuusai?" Ruvel eventually asked not sure what else to ask at the current moment in time "Leave the room?" he said in a thoughtful tone as she mentioned about it "You might have to turn back into a humanoid form to do that because the marking to take the wall away is somewhere but I'm just not sure how far this room has expanded." he said with weak laugh rubbing the back of his head. "Perhaps you should rest a bit before leaving though." this was just a suggestion, he was still worried about her given how she had been and what she had just went through but at the end of the day it was up to her whether or not she wanted to accept his suggestion or not.

Word Count: 6,227
Total Word Count: 14,375
@Akeya

It wasn't the first time Ruvel had talked about his past, or at least had alluded to the fact that his past was an unpleasant one he'd rather avoid reliving if he could help it. He might be protesting the idea that he'd been part of a cult but the dragoness wondered whether his perspective of the matter was completely reliable. People who were in a cult often didn't think of it as a cult, and if you were a victim of a cult maybe you'd also think it different? It also depended on how exactly you defined a cult: followers of the larger religions would argue that they weren't part of a cult even if from the perspective of an outsider it would be difficult to see the difference. Well, whatever you called it didn't matter much to the  assassin as long as people weren't being vague about the actual details.

Of course Ruvel then had to follow up with the argument that bad memories had to stay in the past, something which Akeya wasn't fond of. "That... is how secrets are lost." Was all she said. Ruvel could make of that what he wished.

When her guild master tried to dictate to her that she shouldn't move the dragoness resisted the urge to frown. Too much effort. Talking was already a pain. Arguing would just make things worse. Although if he thought that he could restrain her even in her weakened state he'd have another thing coming. She wouldn't be so foolish as to deny Ruvel's strength as a mage but when it came to physical might he wasn't exactly Hercules.

"It's... too late... to search for... alternate treatments." She hissed out as Ruvel and Amuul resumed the conversation about how to treat cases similar to herself. From the way that Amuul talked about it she wasn't sure whether the second treatment would even be very effective: most likely those 'servants' who had that kind of treatment applied to them ended up crippled by the forceful extraction, at least if they had a case as severe as her own. If they survived at all. Then again it was also entirely possible that there were some distinct differences between herself and Amuul's kind which meant that what worked for them wouldn't work for her. Creatures of darkness weren't always the same after all.

Another attempt was made at reassuring her that there wasn't any reason to be on edge because of Amuul's ability to read her thoughts, but so far as the dragoness was concerned it was a waste of time. As long as there was someone who knew what she was thinking it was a security issue regardless of how many times they swore to never reveal anything. You didn't keep a secret by swearing everything who knew into secrecy. You kept a secret by making sure that nobody knew of the secret in the first place. As long as he didn't say anything she'd tolerate it, but if they thought they could get her to be accepting of it... Well, hope springs eternal.

The offer to help her improve her mental defences, however, was tempting. She'd already put some effort into guarding her thoughts in the past but clearly she hadn't done enough yet. Apparently they didn't think they could teach her to completely block them out but maybe it was worth swallowing her pride to at least improve her grip on who could enter her mind and who couldn't.

"Maybe... if it turns out... it's the only way." First she'd scour the library and see if she could find anything herself. The less she had to expose herself to Amuul's mindreading the better after all. But in the end it would depend on what she could accomplish without his help.

Apparently Ruvel had a different view on the restrictions of his contract with Amuul and the other entities that he could summon. That he had made the contract out of necessity did make sense, although it left Akeya wondering what kind of circumstances would require such a contract. At least she would be wondering if she wasn't more focused on her own survival currently. It was amazing how having your insides be on fire would cause a strong shift in focus. The normally curious dragoness was barely finding the minimal amount of interest in the guild master's story as she was trying to calculate how quickly her life was fading away.

She'd have to ask for more details once she was no longer preoccupied. Right now the thing which managed to actually get through to her was the mention of Demi, that strange girl that she'd seen around the guild but of which she'd never been able to figure out what her deal was, other than that she was supposedly rather obsessed with Ruvel in some way or another.

Although it was rather surprising to see how invested Ruvel appeared to be in keeping her alive. She understood that as the guild master he had the responsibility to look after the people who were part of the guild, but with how sensitive he was acting one might actually think he was taking the entire situation personally. If she had the mindset and breath for it she'd have told him to not have bothered letting it get to him so much, although on the other hand without his help she would almost certainly be doomed so it wouldn't do to dissuade him from doing his best before he'd helped her survive. Maybe afterwards? Her thoughts were becoming more jumbled and tired as the battle in her body raged on.

As Ruvel attempted to argue that other forces were just as aggressive as the light in claiming victory the dragoness managed not to snort. It took some difficulty though. "Maybe... but the light... certainly isn't... as virtuous as it would claim to be." In the world of mortals light was almost always associated with what was good and proper while dark was associated with things vile and indecent. It could be argued that the only difference was that the forces of light had done a better job establishing themselves as the ones on the side of good but in the end it still meant that over the ages they had developed a severe case of arrogance and self-righteousness, which most people took for granted and rarely questioned.

When Ruvel mentioned Silver Wolf Akeya's expression twisted for a moment, the poison running wild throughout her body making it difficult for her to remain entirely composed. She was aware that the other independent guild had as one of its priorities research and development but she'd never been very impressed by their progress. If only because she'd been doing the same thing for a pretty long time now and had become rather good at it, so maybe it wasn't entirely fair of her to judge a bunch of mortals for not having the same amount of experience as her. "I wouldn't... put too much trust... in them..."

And there was Ruvel trying to figure out what it was that Akeya had been doing that had landed her in this mess. Of course as a man... well, boy with responsibilities it made sense that he'd want to have a clear picture of what was going on, but Akeya couldn't care less about that. What had happened was for her to keep to herself and if anyone became too aggressive with their prying she'd have to take care of them in a terminal fashion. Some things couldn't be allowed to spread no matter what, and that piece of information was one of those things.

Which was why when Ruvel managed to make an educated guess the only answer he got was a glare so hard that if stares could kill he'd have died instantly. This was the problem dealing with intelligent people. They could figure things out with little to no clues, so the only way to make sure they didn't was to not talk at all. Now Akeya had to figure out how to deal with this issue. Eliminating Ruvel was not a move she could afford to commit to right now, especially since it was a realistic possibility that even if she tried she might not succeed. She took pride in her assassination skills but the guild master of Onyx Moon was protected by several powerful entities which would be difficult to bypass even with all of her stealthiness.

However if he insisted on trying to find out more about the hatchlings she'd be forced to take action. It was one thing to have Amuul reading her mind about things of a lesser relevance, but there was no way she'd be letting anybody else get close to the hatchlings any time soon, nor let them know about their existence if she could help it. Korikami was the only creature she could trust, if only because they'd been together for so long that the thought of him betraying her was unthinkable: the shadow fox was a whily one, and also had his own interests, but he knew that life was good as long as he stuck with Akeya and didn't do anything that could be considered betrayal. She allowed him a enviable amount of freedom while protecting him from entities that might wish him dead. A symbiotic relationship which neither side could complain about.

But Korikami was the only one. If the clever little guild master started pushing too hard... She winced as another wave of pain washed over her. She'd have to think about that once she was no longer in critical condition. It was difficult to keep coherent thoughts going.

Well, at least Ruvel took her seriously as she explained where dragon slayers had come from. Many mortals would have tried to dismiss her words or tried to find some alternate explanation, because the truth wasn't one which was pleasant for them. It was one thing to admit that the most effective way of fighting mighty dragons was to utilize a magic similar to theirs. It was another thing entirely to acknowledge that the only way mortals could stand a chance against dragons was to turn themselves into dragons. "Dragon essence.. not just the soul. It is... similar... to the philosopher's stone... which is made from... human sacrifices... Of course... unlike mortals... a single dragon... is powerful enough... to create a lachrima by themselves. That said... it is not entirely clear... if the lachrima... contains the actual soul... or not. It could also be... that it is just the condensed... lifeforce and magic... of a dragon... Or maybe... it is... a case by case... scenario." She wetted her lips with her long, reptilian tongue. "Regardless. The crystallized essence... will produce... and contain... the same magic... that the dragon held in life. This can be used... to fuel many things... including a mortal's magic abilities. Even if... such a method... won't give you the same... expertise... as learning how to use... dragon magic... the natural way would."

"Some dragons... might have gifted... their magic... but it is clear... that once the mortals had access to dragon magic... they would also try to take it... by force." She watched as Ruvel showed no small amount of distress at the idea that using slayer magic would turn you into that which you slayed. It wasn't an unusual reaction: people who learned how to use slayer magic often weren't aware of the consequences, and having your body and being change into something else without your consent was something which would bother almost everyone. Akeya's personal perspective was that being a dragon was almost always a step up for mortals, but she'd seen enough mortals protest to know that they didn't share that belief.

"That is... how it works... for dragon slayers... I'm not sure... if the same... counts for... demons... and god... slayers..." The dragoness's thoughts wandered to those strange people. "Dragon slayers... were created... as a result of the realization... that the most realistic way... for a mortal... to fight a dragon... was to become like a dragon. However demons... and gods... both have a natural enemy... namely... each other. Demons... can't stand... divine power... and gods... become quite ill... if directly exposed... to vileness and corruption. It would not be impossible... that a demon slayer... would turn into something akin... to an angel... or a minor deity... whereas a god slayer... turns into a demon... or a devil." Dragons didn't really have a natural enemy. However holy and vile were opposites just like light and dark were, so demon and god slayers were most likely not exactly the same as dragon slayers as they depended on using the antithesis of that which you hunted rather than making yourself like what you hunted.

---

Akeya's new dragon form felt a lot like her old one in terms of the overall shape, but otherwise it felt very different as well. As a creature of dark she had been like a deep pool, hidden underneath and difficult to grasp. Now she felt like she more smoothly connected with her surroundings, her balance of light and dark elegantly shifting to match the world around her. Rather than being something deep and dark it was more like she was moving in a slightly different reality. The background of reality? Reaching out with one claw she pressed it against the nearest wall. She still felt solid, but she also felt that she could change that if she wished. That wasn't necessarily new but it felt a bit different from before.

"I'm feeling a lot better. I was worried that even if the procedure was successful I would still feel like something was off, but it looks like I'm taking to the light quite naturally after all." She wondered why that was even as she slowly stretched, her tail uncoiling and her wings spreading to their fullest extent. "It might have to do with the moon and the stars." When she was younger her exact element hadn't been dark but night. And the night had a kind of illumination as well, even if it wasn't as powerful as that of the day and often obscured more than it revealed. Over the years she'd delved deeper into darkness, but maybe being forced to let the light become a part of her had also returned her to those days.

"I assume that your helpers were careful enough to also ward this room against those who might try to phase through the walls, but as long as we can find the door the size shouldn't matter. Neither light nor dark is restricted by shape after all." Opening her maw wide as she finished stretching the dragoness sat upright, towering far above Ruvel and Amuul as she looked down at them with sharp emerald eyes, her tail curling around her claws as her wings folded up on her back. "But beyond that I have to address a few things... First of all, I will be accepting your offer to further improve my mental defences. Second of all, while I'm grateful for your help today if you pry too deeply into what I'm protecting my gratitude will have its limits. Especially since it has become irrelevant. As long as I'm alive the same dangers will exist."

WC: 2,561
PWC: 10,661
TWC: 25,036/25,000 (Completed)
@Ruvel