Nanami bowed again.
"Thank you, Headmaster. I will relay your message to my elders."
"You may use our communications if you wish. Our teleporter can also take you to your home town if you need to tell them in person." Ryo says, returning the bow.
From the ceiling corner he retreated too when the children arrived, Phaezeriel discreetly manifests Telekinetic Force and readies an action to catch the children should the slip.
::Lady Ananda, I will ward the children with telekinesis. Not that I think Vai will let them fall, but I feel a safety net is in order.::
The Headmaster gets a fresh sheet of paper and writes down a quick note, explaining that the Tanaka family is allowed to come to Avalon at their leisure.
"Here, to prove you were actually here if they think you were too fast." Ryo says as he hands the note to Nanami.
::Thank you, Phaezeriel. I don't want to deprive them of their fun, especially since this is helping Vai become used to being part of the family. But I feel a lot better knowing there's a safety net,:: she replied gratefully.
"Settle down settle down. It's only fair that Gwenne goes first. Don't squirm now, I don't want to drop you." Vai wraps her arms around the girl's torso and beats her wings to lift off the ground. She starts with slow circles, steadily rising, before doing small swoops, avoiding areas with large equipment. She feels very happy at that moment, the joy of flying mixed with the feeling of family.
Gwenne shrieks with joy each time Vai swoops, thoroughly enjoying flying around like this.
Ryleh quietly slipped out the back while everyone was busy watching the children having fun.
"Wow. Gwenne is having so much fun. Which of you two is going next?" she asked Matthias and Tal, hoping to head off a long argument by getting them to decide ahead of time.
"Thank you, sir," Nanami said, taking the note and tucking it into a pocket. "I appreciate it. You'll most likely be receiving guests in about two to three days from now, depending on how much time they take arguing about things first."
"We'll be ready for them. Kitty, Michael, I'll tell your second period teachers not to count you late if you would like to show Nanami around the school for a while."
And for the grande finale. Vai flies up near the ceiling and dives straight down for just enough time to gain some speed before casting Dimension Door, appearing right next to the other children with a flourish before landing gently and releasing Gwenne.
"Thank you, sir," Nanami said, taking the note and tucking it into a pocket. "I appreciate it. You'll most likely be receiving guests in about two to three days from now, depending on how much time they take arguing about things first.""We'll be ready for them. Kitty, Michael, I'll tell your second period teachers not to count you late if you would like to show Nanami around the school for a while."
"Thank you, sir, I'd like that very much," Kitty says, grinning widely.
"We want you to flip a coin." Matthias says.
"Yeah, he's good a switching coins, so he can't do it."
"Well, that makes sense....except that I don't happen to have a coin on me. Rock, paper, scissors maybe?"
And for the grande finale. Vai flies up near the ceiling and dives straight down for just enough time to gain some speed before casting Dimension Door, appearing right next to the other children with a flourish before landing gently and releasing Gwenne.
"That was so fun!" Gwenne nearly screams as she sits down on the floor. "I need wings! Tal, we need to find a way to get wings!"
Aananda groaned. "And with our luck they'll do it too. Ryo is never going to let me hear the end of this."
Gwenne and Tal laugh till their faces go red, then they alternate between laughing and trying to breath. Matthias looks triumphantly at Vai.
"Tal's busy laughing, so that means I'm next!"
Matthias sits down on the floor just like Gwenne, except he's breathing harder and not laughing as much.
"Right... need wings..." He breathes.
By now Tal has calmed down enough for his turn, and bravely steps up to Vai, smiling ear-to-ear the whole time.
"That's fair, come here." Vai wrapped her arms around Matthias in a way similair to Gwenne. He was heavier, and Vai strained at first to take off. Drawing on her draconic strength, Vai felt her mouth fill with razor sharp teeth, and suddenly the pair were airborne. Vai did the same circling to get Matthias used to the sensation before swooping. This time for her grand finale, Vai decided to try and push her limits a bit. She left the dive a little longer this time, getting that much closer to the floor before casting her spell. Phaez had almost decided to intervene, right before Vai teleported. Once again, she finished with a flourish, relishing the sensation of her own magic and the thrill of the flight.
Phaezeriel allows the psychic cushion to dissipate after Vai teleports mere inches from it. And lets out a breath he did not realize he had been holding.
Breathing hard, Matthias sits down just like Gwenne did.
"Right... need wings..." He says between breaths.
"My turn!" Tal says bravely, much calmer now and grinning from ear-to-ear. He holds his arms up to make it easier for Vai to pick him up.
Vai picks up Tal and takes off. A little more confident in her abilities now, Vai adds a few little tricks in her flight: some rolls, sharp banks and even a loop-de-loop once. She decides her last stunt was a little risky, so instead flies up to the ceiling, aims herself at the two kids sitting down, and swoops towards them, buzzing them by just a few feet before swooping up and casting her spell to appear right back at her original spot, landing, and releasing Tal.
"Wooohooo!" Tal yells out as Vai flies through the air and he's the only one to not sit down when Vai lets him go.
"Flying so fun! You're right, Gwenne, we've got to find wings!"
Ephebe laughed.
"Well, I'm glad that you three enjoyed your treat."
"Now, I wonder....are there any children in here who want to go and play in the garden? I might remember where there's a shed full of toys that were confiscated from Jimmy at various points throughout our childhood that we could maybe play with...."
Meanwhile....
Ryleh walked into the kitchen at what she hoped was a serene measured pace, although she wasn't feeling at all serene at the moment.
"Ooh, memememe!" The three say, immediately swarming Ephebe again.
"Tea? I've been told you enjoy it regularly." Lysander says with a gestures at the still steaming tea kettle. Simple food covers the table. "No reason to go hungry while we have our little... chat."
"Yes, I will have tea," she said stiffly, pouring out a cup of tea and holding it with both hands slowly inhaling the aroma. There was something about tea that made everything just a bit more bearable.
"Ooh, memememe!" The three say, immediately swarming Ephebe again.
"Alright, alright!"
"Then let's go out to the gardens. Vai, you're welcome to come along as well. I have it on good authority that starting out the day by being kidnapped is considered an excused absence. Although I think we'll all understand if you'd rather get some rest."
"You hate me." Lysander says neutrally. "Because I am a Hunter. That is understandable. But do you hate Gwenne, Tal, and Matthias?" He pauses to take a drink. "What about Ephebe?"
"They are children," she said hoarsely, her hands tightening on the cup she was holding until it shattered. She seemed oblivious to the hot liquid and broken glass in her hands. "Not even in the height of my rage against your kind did I harm children."
"I do not hate them, but when I see them it is very difficult not to remember...."
"Difficult not to remember that their kind killed your children and mate, you mean? It doesn't matter to you whether or not it was the Sandwalkers, the Swfitsparks, or the Shadowstrikers does it? No, just Hunters in general. Very unreasonable if you ask me."
"And you did not say that you did or didn't hate them."
"They killed my parents. It was a very vague they and I hated them in a very vague sort of way, which was really more resentment. I was too young to remember my parents, so I didn't feel their loss as keenly. Then they killed my siblings. That hit closer to home, but still not that close. My siblings were much older than I and we weren't close. The siblings who would have been my age died with our parents. I don't remember them."
She took a deep breath. "They killed my grandfather and the only thing that eased that pain was knowing how many of them he had taken with them."
"The first time that I found out that I was pregnant we were so happy. And when the hatchlings were born we were so proud. Their death was such a shock. Their broken little bodies.." She has to stop to swallow back the tears, though a few trickled down her face in spite of that.
"It all went wrong after that. So many times we ran, so many times we hid....none of the other babies even lived long enough to hatch. By the end we hated each other almost as much as we hated the Hunters we couldn't get away from. My mate...the way I told it to my daughter he heroically sacrificed himself in order to let me save our last clutch. And that's true, for a certain value of true. It just leaves out the fact that he was relieved to finally just die and get it over with."
"You know what I did then. I had never once in my very long life struck out at another sentient creature in anything other than immediate self-defense before that. But I made up for it in spades. It was part grief, part revenge, and part cold practicality. I was the last one of my kind and the only way that my last clutch could exist is if their enemies didn't. And even that went horribly wrong, as you already know."
"Since when did reasonable have anything to do with any of this?!"
"Since you started distancing yourself from your innocent grandchildren! You're great-grandchildren are not far behind, will you stay away from them too? Will you alienate them too? Will they grow up wondering if you love them or not?"
"What I find so interesting though is that, despite your own words, you were the reason hundreds if not thousands of children died. Can you deny that without their parents or even clan, all of them survived? I've seen the dead. Corpses rotting or bones picked clean, torn to pieces or dried to nothing more than husks in the sun. Some of the survivors were worse off though, and you don't want me to go into detail about that, do you?"
"At least when when the Sandwalkers killed we tried not to leave survivors so they wouldn't suffer. How does it feel knowing that you are the monster this time?!"
"Don't you dare act all self righteous with me! You think I don't know what I am? Yes, I became the monster, and I was really good at it. When all the other options ran out I became what I hated in order to save my children. And don't try and add to my guilt by telling me how bad off those children were. At least I gave them a chance. That's better than the Hunters ever gave my kind."
"I do everything I can to stay calm and to keep them safe. Isn't that enough? Because I don't know if I have anything more left to give."
"Safety without love is worthless in a family you stupid old wyrm!" Lysander says as he stands, his eyes turning black. "If they think you don't love them then they will never feel safe with you! Ephebe asked me to talk to you to see if I can change your mind, but that's going to be hard when you seem to think you should be dead!"
"Of course I love them you idiot! But the past doesn't just disappear. You should know that better than anyone."
"And as far as I can see, the only purpose behind my still being alive is keeping them safe. All of them. I wouldn't continue to endure this pain if I didn't feel that way."
"You know trying to protect them all is doomed to fail. Ephebe proved that herself. Of all the reasons you could have thought up, failure shouldn't have been one of them."
"Pain isn't something you can live off of and stay sane. I know that for a fact! I know what it feels like to wrap yourself in the pain and feel nothing else, what it feels like to let it consume me until I was a shadow of my former self that no one wanted to be around..."
"You cannot protect all of them. You need help, and that help will come from the very people you are trying to keep safe! But it seems we need to help you first. Go ahead, lash out at me with every ounce of hatred and pain you can muster! I promise that it will make you feel infinitely better."
She turned away. All of the pain and hatred she could muster was more than anyone could bear. It was certainly more than she could bear. She wouldn't say a word in front of the others, but Chan's death for the second time, it didn't hurt any less than the first. He was a monster, twisted and broken inside. He deserved to die. But he was still her son. It still hurt like a knife to the gut to know that he was dead. And Ephebe. It felt like the demon had stolen her granddaughter away from her for good. No matter what she did the girl would always be partly an enemy. She wanted to be happy about her great-grandchildren. She should be happy. But talking about them only made her remember her dead children and it hurt so much.
She didn't even think through what she was doing. She would have stopped herself if she had, but she just couldn't take anymore. Fighting Aegythrax had barely dulled her rage. She shifted into her dragon form and lashed out at Lysander with teeth and claws, doing her best to rend him to pieces.
Lysander holds his ground as a swords appears in his hand, blade ringing as he deflects the brunt of Ryleh's assault.At his best, Lysander still gets slashed by teeth and claws. The house seems bigger now, better able to handle the form of an enraged dragon. Small puddles of blood spatter across the floor as Lysander stays on defense, never striking back no matter how obvious the opening was.
"Come on! Let it all out and kill me if you can!" He taunts. "Senyka."
Suddenly Lysander is gone and the first Hunter Ryleh can remember clearly stands before her, grinning cruely with blood dripping from his sword.
Some part of Ryleh's mind recognized that what she was seeing was not exactly real. That part, however, was not currently in control of her body which was all too delighted to have a chance to strike back at the creature she still regretted not striking down centuries ago. She spit a line of force at him, following that with as many blows as she could manage from tail, wings, claws, teeth, and the occasional flying rocks.
A stray rock pins the Hunter's leg to the floor and claw removes his head. From the remains the blood drains, flowing up into the air to form the Time Demon.
"Tick tock, Rylehtin'akksavith. Which family member do I get to play with next?"
Ryleh screamed, in anger or agony, she couldn't remember which. Crystals flew around the room, manifesting powers for her as she couldn't find the focus at the moment. Her attacks sped up as she lashed out at the creature who had shattered what little she had been able to save.
Time seems to slow down around the Time Demon, but even that area of protection could not keep her safe from Ryleh's fury for long, and she's soon braced against a wall and ripped apart, the smile long gone from her lips.
"Just one more now..." Lysander says as the magic fades and leaves him leaning against a wall. He's covered in cuts and lacerations, blood covering most of his body. He raises his sword and points it straight at Ryleh. Almost like he's taunting her.
She's so far gone into her rage that she can't think anymore. It's all just blood and claws and instinct. Just like back then. And the only way to make it stop is to erase them, really erase them. And there was one of them standing in front of her holding a sword....
She continued her attack, oblivious of reason and pain and everything but the need to destroy on the most primal level, with claws and teeth.
More blood coats the walls, but not because Ryleh's attacks was successful. Lysander was simply running around the room, keeping just out of reach or batting Ryleh's attacks aside. This kill wasn't going to be as easy as the mirage's before. He tunred and slipped in the blood, falling to the floot and slamming into a wall. He's trying to get up when Ryleh's claws pierce his chest and pin him to the wall.
"Feel... better yet?" He manages to gasp before his eyes dull and lose their luster.
Ryleh gasps for breath, her body shaking as she stares uncomprehending. For just the slightest moment she feels triumph. And then awareness and reality come crashing down on her. She stumbles back, away from Lysander, horrified at what she's done. She changes back into the human form she had taken for her daughter's sake and collapses to the floor, overcome by guilt and grief. She can't breathe through the sobs. She hated herself, more than anything she hated what she had become.