Xilanada - Pursuit Of Regretted Truths/Part 16

The wind was subtle and cautious. Where the demons weren't running, it ran. Where they weren't grouped, it passed by. With this much commotion, no spawn of hell would notice a slight breeze. They had the Army of Heaven to worry about.

Sen was worried about something else. Xilanada had vanished and he hadn't even had a chance to tell her he loved her. Father was still out there somewhere, causing who knew what trouble. For that matter, no one had seen Ava or Glee all day. Seya had only known that they were investigating the death cult last night and, since then, no word. He tried not to expect the worse.

Unfortunately, he wasn't looking for any of them. Something even more important had to be dealt with first. Sen had to find where the demons were coming from...and close it down.

If he was the wind, Crimson Laughter was a hot eddy in the currents of the corridor. His Anima had faded enough to use his other, most prized artifact but he was a Fire-Aspect girded for battle. He might be doing a little spying but he wasn't done with the night's murder yet.

Down an empty corridor, Sen spied a man perched in a window. His clothes had seen better days but their poor condition only accentuated how finely muscled his was. What was a Southerner built like that doing here? The stranger peered back, eyes moving as if looking for something. Then, he leaped from the window and was gone.

That was odd.

What was even stranger was that flicker of lightning from under a door.

Sen moved down the empty hallway, while trying to remember what was down here. Storerooms, he thought. Supplies of all kinds from the Realm, the kind not easily obtained in the Threshold. Someone must have wanted them, though, because one of the storeroom doors was a pile of ash across the floor. Sen had seen a lot of flame damage in his time and it was both amusing and a little frightening to realize the spread pattern was characteristic of someone in the way of an Elemental Bolt.

On the other hand, that little fact along with the spark of lightning told him a great deal about who was in that storeroom. Praise Hesiesh for small miracles.

"Ava," he whispered, no louder than the rustling breeze. "It's Sen. It's safe; the demons are falling back from this area."

"Sen?" Her whisper was perfectly distinctive, for once they'd been closer than lovers. For the first time, Sen realized how much she and Xilanada looked. Maybe he had a thing for willowy blondes. Certainly, that was the only thing the two had in common given their respective Exaltations.

When he stepped into the storeroom, Sen realized how wrong he was.

Ava looked worn, tired, and not entirely human anymore. The features he remembered were still mostly there. The delicate arch of cheekbone he so admired, the tiny line at the corners of her mouth that grew when she smiled, the curly blonde hair so like Xilanada's and yet just an inch straighter; in all things, she was unmistakably Ava. The lightning that rippled across her skin, across the surface of her eyes, that was hers.

But the sky-blue color was gone. Her eyes were black now, a uniform black that made her lightning seem like snakes slithering across marble. Sen had never heard of a demon that could change their victim's eyes, even through possession, which was the only reason he hadn't already taken her down.

More subtly, a lock near the front of her hair had turned silver-white. He almost didn't notice it in the dim lighting but Sen's eyes had always been exceptional and he knew this woman very well. Blonde with a streak of silver. What had happened to her?

"I'm right here," he whispered through the air. "But I'd rather not step from the wind. It's tiring to maintain this but even more so to invoke it again."

"It's fine, Sen," Ava said, rubbing her face with her palms. "Gods, what is going on out there? There's demons everywhere, there's an Abyssal running around loose...Sen! He was converting our students, he's the one who made the assassins who tried to kill Xilanada! He almost killed me with a knife. And he's actually Piiro!"

"I guessed as much," Sen said. "Piiro's dead, though."

"Oh." Ava looked just a little deflated.

"He won't be making any more converts now," Sen chuckled. "I think...I think Rainblown Joybringer's dead too. I think he's been dead for a while. A Silver Anathema took his place."

"Was it too much to hope that this would hold off for just another month?" Ava grumbled. "Finals would have been over then and most of the students wouldn't have been here. Sen, have you seen Glee?"

"Glee? No, I was looking for both of you, actually. So what happened?"

"Long story and now's not the time. There's a demon of the Third Circle loose in here, Sen, as well as an Infernal Lunar. Maybe they're the same person?"

"Who can tell with them?" Sen said, aggrieved. It would not surprise him in the least to find out that the demon-wielding Anathema Solitary Coil had been Infernal all along. He hoped Xilanada was alright. Clinging to that hope gave light to his heart and masked the inch of jealousy he found inside it.

"Come on, Sen, we have to find Glee and stop these demons before things get any worse!"

"You beat me to it," Sen grinned, knowing she couldn't see it. "I'll tell you what, I'm going to try to take you with me. I haven't tried anything like this before and I don't know that it can be done so...bear with me."

Sen reached up to his neck and felt at the blue-jade choker around his neck. The Wind-in-One Necklace was the most valuable artifact he owned, even more precious to House Tepet than Crimson Laughter and he was deeply grateful he'd managed to get it on long-term loan. He concentrated deeply, feeling his attunement with the choker, reaching for the power to turn Ava into wind as well.

The choker fluttered fitfully around his neck. Perhaps it could do what he wanted but he didn't have the strength for it. The drain changing to wind was taxing for him alone. Apparently, it was prohibitively so for another.

"Can you do it?" Ava asked.

"No, I'm not strong enough."

"Can I try?"

Sen looked at Ava warily. He didn't know what had been done to her but every instinct told him she was the woman he'd loved half a decade ago. Whatever else was between them, she was an Air-Aspect, with the most powerful bloodline of breeding he'd ever heard of. Unbeknownst to poor Ava, the only reason House Tepet had originally consented to his engagement was strictly because of the potency of her blood, for the Outcaste Funerist brought no political alliance, no connections, and no resources for the embattled House.

But if there was one thing she had, it was power.

"Here," Sen said, as he took flesh again and unhooked the choker from his neck. He swayed a second, remembering the need for balance, and she took the artifact from him. Her black eyes were expressionless, making it much harder to read her mood, so he had to be content to wait while she searched it out.

"There, I've begun attuning. It'll take a little bit, though. Let's get away from the door, we don't have any cover if anything comes down that hall."

"Agreed," Sen nodded. "So what happened to you?"

"It's a longer story than that," Ava said, looking cross. Sen frowned a little. "What? I don't even owe you a story. Actually, since we're here and on the subject, you know what I do owe you?"

Sen saw her fist coming. It was unexpected and his reflexes almost caught her wrist with one hand, twisted, and stabbed her in the side with the other hand. That's what his body wanted to do. He was busy enough not doing that that she ended up hitting him after all.

Ava started shaking her hand, looking surprised. Sen rubbed his lip.

"You really don't have much muscle, do you." It was a comment, more than a question, which was just as well since her black glower suggested he wasn't going to get an answer. "I suppose I deserved that."

"No, you deserve me channeling enough Essence to kill five men right through your groin. That punch is all you're going to get, though. For Xilanada's sake. You won't be of much good to her if I did what I wanted to." Ava unexpectedly grinned and actually winked at him.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with the real Ava?" Sen asked, not entirely unserious.

"I'm what's left," Ava said with an indifferent shrug as she sat on a stray crate. "After Glee got through with me, I mean. She Ravished me."

"She...damnit, Seya should have known better than to believe she could keep it together." Sen pounded his fist into his other palm. His own relationship with Glee was... complicated and best left where it was, in the past. He knew, perhaps as well as Seya, how hard the Faerie-Blooded had struggled with the hunger that came from her heritage. At least, their lovemaking had always quieted it for her. Sen smiled a little, remembering what a sated Glee was like.

"What are you smirking about?" Ava demanded. She was looking angry again. When was the last time Sen had seen her angry, anyway? Other than when he'd come to her room. Anger at an old offense never dealt with, that he understood from anyone. But Ava had always been a model of self-control. Apparently, Glee had demolished her underpinnings.

"Nothing. At least this is curable. Seya will fix you up soon, I'm sure. Ava, do you honestly not know that your eyes are black?"

"They...are?" Sen didn't miss a tic in her composure. That was honest surprise if he ever saw it and even Ava with all her self-control had never had Dynastic training in reading the feelings of others. He was confident that this Ava couldn't fool him.

"Black as coal. All the way across, there's nothing but black there now. And you have this...strand of hair that's turned silver."

"Relentless Tyranny," she muttered, tugging at the curl in her hair to bring it into view. She glared at the offending hair color, as if it had personally wronged her. "The eyes came from Erembour, I'm sure. Speaking of whom, we really should be doing something about those demons."

"We will, as soon as you're attuned. Are you ready? And what do you mean Erembour? That Which Calls to the Shadows? She's here?"

"Can you think of a better place or time? I just don't know how she got here."

"Father," Sen answered grimly. "Malias caused this. He tried to turn me Infernal. We fought, he was too strong, I ran for it but he's still loose out there somewhere too."

"Great. So the Demon, the Infernal Lunar and the Infernal Dragon-Blooded are all between us and closing that rift. Oh, and the army of demons. Boy, do you think there's enough to go around?" The harsh sarcasm in her voice was shocking and Sen had to make an effort to avoid staring at her.

"Ava...are you alright?"

"No, I'm really not." Ava clenched her fists tightly and lightning sprayed across her knuckles. "I'm beginning to think that Glee didn't Ravish my self-control or compassion... so much as she consumed a part of my...light." Ava looked at him and Sen understood at once what she meant. "I'm a good person, I am. But lately...I haven't been feeling the impetus to do good things that I used to. It's too easy for me to get angry now, too easy to look at the negative side of things. I even like it, would you believe that? But I know better, I know this isn't me or what I really want. Erembour said Glee had darkened me. I just hope there's a way back to the light again."

"Ava...you'll be fine," Sen said reassuringly. "Seya will fix you up. She knows about this kind of thing."

"Yes, I suppose she does." For some reason, Ava still looked very doubtful. Then those black eyes closed and she faded from sight.

Sen looked around, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to see her. She was the wind now, as he would hopefully be. He lifted his jade knife and waited, doing his best to ignore the nagging doubt that Ava couldn't be trusted anymore, that she'd just made off with his favorite artifact.

Then, the wind took him too.