Maddison backed up as far as she could, thankful for the gap in space that Cullen provided by placing himself between the two. She trusted him enough to keep her relatively safe for now, but it never hurt to be careful, and while the two men argued she was silently plotting an escape route in case things went poorly.

"He is right about one thing, though. You don't know who I am, Cullen, and I don't know who you are. At least, not really. It was pure coincidence that we ended up working together. We could just as easily have been at each other's throats if it wasn't for those guards showing up."

She paused, looking Cullen's friend up and down before giving a sigh of her own.

"If it would help settle things down, I could start by giving my side of the story."

Katarina's ears twitched at the sound of his voice croaking something unintelligible at her before she hesitantly made her way into the room. If Tighearnán could see clearly enough, he'd be able to note a couple of changes from her appearance the previous day. A bandage was wrapped beneath her hair, covering up the injury she'd sustained due to the magical explosion, but by far the more interesting addition would be the fluffy pink tail trailing behind her that she'd apparently obtained overnight.

In her arms she carried a pitcher of water which she was careful not to spill as she saw the dire state he was in and hurriedly made her way over to him. She knelt next to him and gently put the pitcher up to his mouth, encouraging him to drink up.

"Shh, shh. Here, you should have some water first. Then we can talk."

Maddison's hands curled up into fists as the man prepared to give her an earful, ready to spring into action to defend herself in case things went south. It didn't come to that, however, as Cullen woke up and immediately defused the situation- apparently the two knew each other? Which was probably a good thing, but it also meant that she was once again out of the loop.

She moved to stand when Cullen did, offering one arm as support if he needed it while her other hand combed and brushed through her hair in an attempt to make herself slightly more presentable. She was content enough to wait and listen to the two men converse for now- well, until he said that.

"B-broad?!"

She went wide-eyed at that, apparently not quite familiar with being referred to in such a fashion. For a moment, she wasn't sure if she was more offended or just plain surprised, but by the time she'd collected herself enough to offer a response other than utter disbelief the conversation had already moved on. For now, she decided to hold her tongue until she had a better idea of who exactly she was dealing with.

"Maddison," she introduced herself rather bluntly, accompanying it with a brief nod. "I get the feeling that the two of you have a better understanding of what's going on here than I do."

Maddison sat up straight as the man abruptly startled her awake. Damn. She really should have known it wasn't going to be that easy. Internally, she was kicking herself for allowing herself to fall asleep instead of keeping watch, but outwardly she did her best to keep a straight face as she stared back up at the man.

"...You first. I think you owe us that much after barging in on us like this," she responded with a level of annoyance quite appropriate for someone having so rudely woken up. She never took her eyes off of the stranger, but on the side she was subtly attempting to nudge Cullen awake in the hopes that he might be better prepared with the situation than she was.

She wanted desperately to fight back against his words, to prove that whatever had gone wrong wasn't her fault and that she was perfectly of healing him, but for once in her life she simply couldn't find the words to argue with. She knew that he had a point- she was in no state to try and fix him up at this point, through magical means or otherwise. Instead, after hastily wiping the tears from her eyes, she wordlessly got to her feet and gathered her things before making a swift exit from the room, very narrowly avoiding colliding with the door frame as she went.

---

It wouldn't be until the next day that Katarina would return, apparently having been held in the ward for quite some time. Eventually, though, Tighearnán would hear a quiet knock at the door, followed by a voice as a familiar pair of ears poked through the frame.

"Hello? You still in here?"

Was he... flirting with her again? She supposed it made sense now that they weren't in any immediate danger, but she'd never been particularly good at identifying when she was being flirted with. She wasn't certain how to respond to his first statement, but she was happy enough to offer a joking response to his second.

"Well, good luck with that. Mermaids are quite possessive- once they find something they like, they're not likely to let you pry it away from them. Might as well try to steal from a dragon's hoard."

Maddison shuffled around a bit as Cullen's arm wrapped itself around her, debating inwardly how she felt about the gesture until eventually deciding that whatever extra warmth it would give her was worth the added awkwardness. She fell silent for the next few minutes, eyelids sliding shut as exhaustion got the better of her and she slowly drifted off to sleep.

"We will indeed," she responded when Cullen brought up the suggestion of discussing... whatever this was. "There's a lot I'd like to ask you and I'd imagine there's plenty you'd like to ask in return."

Cullen's joking around might have helped to keep the situation from seeming too dire, but it did little to help Maddison put the chilling cold out of her mind. She gave him a wary look, weighing her options in her head before shuffling close enough to press her body against his, gently nestling her head against his shoulder.

"Sorry about this. Just... trying to preserve some body heat if possible. I can stop if you're not comfortable with it," she said, although she wasn't entirely certain whether she was trying to reassure Cullen or herself with those words.

"And... sorry about your coat. I'm sure the other mermaids will appreciate the gift, though, soggy as it may be."

She was quiet for a while as she sat and watched the other girl sort herself out, admiring her wings and tail as they were restored to proper order- it wasn't every day that she got to meet someone who looked arguably as distinctive as she did herself! Lanai looked almost puzzled, however, when she suddenly found herself becoming the fae's foremost cause for concern. Normally, she was the one doing all the fussing over someone else- she wasn't certain how to handle someone fussing over her! Attention was attention, though, and wasn't she planning on turning it down just because she was unfamiliar with this particular type.

She took a moment to glance down at her own wounded arms, and... well, ouch. They were scratched up pretty badly, definitely more than she'd noticed during her brawl with the demon. These kinds of these never seemed to hurt all that much until she got a good look at them and really let it sink in, and she winced a bit as she felt a flash of pain shoot through them. Definitely a concerning sight, but all things considered, it probably looked worse than it actually was. Injuries tended not to stick around too long for her, after all, and she couldn't recall ever having one get infected. But if it would make the girl happy to get the cuts treated... it certainly wouldn't hurt to let her try, would it?

"You're right- it's probably not a great idea to leave them like this, is it? But if we're going to go together, we might as well introduce ourselves. You can call me Lanai," she replied, bouncing to her feet and generating a small gust of wind as her wings followed close behind. She half-extended an hand in greeting, only to think better of it as she remembered the bloodied state of her arms and instead shifted the gesture into an odd sort of bow which was totally what she intended to do in the first place.

His shouting was enough to snap her out of her sudden state of rage, stopping her in her tracks as her vision finally cleared enough for her to take in the full extent of his injuries. She gasped, hands reflexively moving to cover her mouth as she assessed the damage.

"No... that's not supposed to happen. I swear to the gods that's never happened before. It shouldn't even be possible!"

She slumped backwards, fighting desperately against unconsciousness as a combined wave of exhaustion, shock, and nausea washed over her. Her magic died down within moments, leaving the two in relative silence aside from their laboured breathing. She looked into his eyes, tears welling up in her own as her own pain and emotions began to overwhelm her.

"Let me try again. Please? I can't just... leave it like that."

"You did something wrong," she hissed back at the figure who was currently fading in and out of focus. She continued to crawl forwards, painfully slowly but unrelenting like some sort of undead creature.

"Just... stay there. This time I'll fix it."

Her hands once again began to glow with energy, but there was something clearly not right this time- the magic swirled and twisted dangerously, crackling like a storm cloud about to unleash a bolt of lightning. She pulled herself up to her knees, squinting as she strained to make out the details of the crumpled form before her.

Maddison managed a smile of her own in return, relieved that Cullen was able to down the antidote without incident. Feeling a sudden surge of exhaustion coming on, she moved to take a seat beside him, closing her eyes and leaning back against the wall as she finally allowed herself to relax a bit for the first time that evening. She curled up slightly on herself, beginning to shiver as the last of her adrenaline wore off and she once again felt the cold sinking in.

Name
Jora. Or at least, that's the name he tells people. Gods only know if that's his "real" name.

Age
Unknown

Gender
Male

Species
Demon(?)

Height
6'0"

Occupation
Shadow Ranger of the Vigilant Shadows (supposedly)

Residence
Clockwork City, although he probably spends significantly more time outside the city than he does inside.

IN-DEPTH STUFF

Physical Description
Jora has the ability to take on multiple different appearances- the one that most people encounter him in is mostly humanoid in form. There are two main characteristics that stand out on first glance, with one being his hair and the other being his horns. His hair is a fiery mane of red, gradually fading to a darker shade at the tips, while his horns are black and resemble those of a pronghorn. Aside from that, he's pretty tall, decently athletic, and highly expressive.

Jora's true form, and one that much fewer people would know about, is that of an odd, jackalope-esque creature. It greatly resembles a rabbit, albeit significantly larger, similar in size to a wolf or large dog. It has black fur, beady red eyes, and the same horns that he has in his humanoid form.

Personality
It might not be a surprise to learn that Jora holds some quite... interesting views on morality and society as a whole. Conventional views on what constitutes "good" or "evil" hold very little sway over him. Instead, it seems that what he values most is, well, chaos. It seems to him that many (if not all) attempts to force sentient beings to act in a strict and orderly fashion are nothing more than futile attempts to turn living beings into efficient and unfeeling machines. As far as he's concerned, it would be for the best if everyone was true to themselves, and if he needs to plant the seeds of conflict in order to push people to let loose and reveal their genuine feelings, then so be it. Whether or not he actually cares about the lives of the people he interacts with is anyone's guess, but if one thing's for sure, it's that he definitely finds them entertaining. If nothing else, he can at least help to weave some interesting stories.

It is worth noting, however, that Jora is far from an unthinking fool. He's well aware that being completely open about his beliefs and goals would make him plenty of enemies, and although he's quite powerful in his own right, he's not under the impression that he couldn't be beaten by a strong enough opponent (or group of opponents). As such, he's willing to lay low and influence people in more subtle ways and even play the hero at times in order to stay on someone's good side. He's in no rush to achieve everything he wants as soon as possible- in fact, he finds that gradual change can be just as fascinating as rapid change, if not more so. As long as he sees a way for a particular action to contribute to a more chaotic outcome somewhere down the road and he deems it to be sufficiently entertaining, he's typically willing to go along with it.

Abilities
Jora possesses many abilities typical of Shadow Rangers- short range teleportation, heightened senses and reflexes, and the ability to blend easily into shadows. Whereas many Shadow Rangers might use their abilities to summon more conventional weapons into their grasp, Jora typically opts to create small portals, pulling lengths of chain, whips, and even thorny vines from within to lash out at enemies before disappearing back inside just as quickly. He's also pretty skilled at creating and manipulating shadowy illusions. It's anyone's guess which of these abilities are due to Shadow Ranger training and which are unique to him.

History
How Jora arrived in the mortal realm is not something he's particularly forthcoming about- in fact, it's largely unknown that he "doesn't belong" here in the first place, although there are certainly those who have their suspicions about his origins. What is known is that at one point he managed to convince the Shadow Rangers to allow him into their ranks, and while many of them are rightfully wary of him, they're an odd enough group in their own right that he doesn't stick out too much. His exact motives for doing so are unclear, but he's happy enough to take on long missions that leave him out in the field for extended periods of time, secretly taking plenty of detours to accomplish his own goals on the side.

THREAD TRACKER
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Lanai relished in the sudden surge of attention she was getting as the unusual-looking girl stared up at her and quite honestly wouldn't have minded staying that way for a while, but the experience was short-lived as apparently something else was occupying her thoughts. Well, shoot. She wasn't the type to get discouraged easily, though, and was happy enough to start working on removing the girl's bonds. Between Lanai's sharp claws and considerable strength, she made quick work of the ropes, slicing through some and simply untying others.

"Really now, there's no need to be worrying about how you look after going through an experience like that. I wouldn't expect anyone to look their best just moments after being ambushed and tied up in the woods. What's important to me is that you're unharmed. Well, mostly unharmed, at least."

She took particular care when working on the ropes around the girl's wrists, evidently more concerned with the rope burns than whatever damage the demon had done to her own arms over the course of their fight. After helping to remove the last of her bonds, Lanai shifted back a bit to take in the entirety of the fae's fascinating form before cracking another smile.

"Besides, I think you look wonderful regardless. Definitely unique... in a good way, I promise!"

With the girl freed and out of danger, Lanai's attention shifted towards the town she had been drawn towards only moments before. If her instincts were to be believed (and they very often were), the situation that had been demanding her presence beforehand had suddenly died down while she was busy dealing with the demon. Was it a coincidence? She couldn't say for sure, but in any case, it seemed that her intervention was no longer necessary. Deciding it was a good idea to spend a little more time with the newly-freed girl who was clearly still in some sort of distress, Lanai moved to take a seat in the grass beside her, curling her wings inward slightly in an attempt to avoid getting them tangled up.

"Not to pry too much, but you seem disappointed for someone who just escaped a life-threatening situation. Are you sure you're alright?"

His screams forced her eyes wide open with worry and instinctually she felt the urge to pull away, but apparently her magic was enough to overpower even her and she found hands locked themselves in place, unwilling to move until the job was done. Her grip was only broken when a burst of magic erupted between the two, easily sending her across the room and knocking her out cold in the process. Which might have been a blessing in disguise, because she probably wouldn't have wanted to be awake to experience the follow-through of her body crashing into a stack of chairs, slumping forward onto the floor, and subsequently being buried as the stack collapsed on top of her.

She wasn't out for long though, and when she came to a few moments later, the first thing she noticed was that everything hurt. The magical blast might not have done any visible damage on its own, but the energy from the burst seemed to linger, leaving her in an overheated state. Meanwhile, the back of her body had endured the majority of the blunt force trauma, aching with pain accompanied by what was by far the worst headache she'd ever had the displeasure of experiencing. Letting out an anguished moan, she weakly pushed a chair away from in front of herself, leaving a relatively clear path to her "patient" and revealing a strange, dark teal liquid slowly trickling down her forehead from somewhere beneath her hair.

"Gods... damn it... told you to... sit still... fuck's sake."

Her voice was strained and dull, a stark contrast to the chipper tones it had taken previously. A reasonable person might have figured that Tighearnán "not sitting still" certainly wasn't the root cause of the problem, but Katarina was in no state to be thinking clearly. It was already taking nearly all of her concentration and energy simply to stay conscious, pushing through her exhaustion and pain as she began to sluggishly drag herself towards the blurred figure across the room.

Katarina offered him a brief smile as he took a seat, thankful that at least one of her worries had been lessened. She wasn't particularly thrilled with the attitude he had seemingly taken towards the whole thing, but seeing as it would be best for both of them to prevent him from getting too worked up, she decided to bite her tongue. For now, at least. Instead, she just gave a short nod and reached forward, gently laying her hands on Tighearnán's injured arm.

The moment her hands made contact, her magic kicked into overdrive as it set about to fix what had been broken as quickly and efficiently as possible. There was nothing subtle or gentle about the way it did so- bone fragments were urgently and forcefully pushed into their proper place, beginning the process of fusing back together with no regard given to the level of pain experienced by their owner as a result. Possibly worse, however, would be the massive spike of heat surging through his arm, presumably a consequence of the sheer amount of energy that was currently being transferred between the two. Katarina herself seemed to be unaware of this, her eyes shut tight as she struggled to concentrate and continue the channeling of her magic.

Lanai's attack hit its mark about as well as she could have expected it to, knocking her target to the ground as her nails dug into him. Good thing, too- there was no telling how badly she would have injured herself if she had taken the full brunt of the impact herself. Instead she was able to use that force to pin the demon against the forest floor, trying to hold him still as he struggled under her weight. She barely managed to twist her body out of the way when he snapped and took a swipe at her, retaliating in turn by shoving him forcefully back to the ground as her expression shifted to something more predatory and almost feral.

"Naughty words? Tsk, tsk. Somebody aught to teach you a lesson."

And just like that, she started wailing on him. Strong, furious blows rained down on him from above, with their dealer showing no apparent signs of stopping until the demon was either dead or beaten beyond the point of being able to fight back. He did manage to catch her arms with his claws a few times as he desperately flailed around beneath her, although it was difficult to tell how much of her blood he was able to draw as her hands slowly became coated in his. In any case, Lanai didn't seem to mind the scratches too much and she continued to pound away, only slowing her assault when she noticed that her opponent had stopped fighting back.

Once she was certain the demon was no longer a threat to her or the person she'd jumped in to protect, Lanai finally relented, allowing her bloodied hands to rest on the grass on either side of the demon's body while she paused to catch her breath. Eventually she lifted herself back up, taking a couple steps towards the fae and kneeling to meet her gaze. She offered a warm smile, seeming remarkably (and possibly eerily) calm considering the circumstances.

"Don't worry about him- he won't be bothering you anymore. He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"Oh, shit."

Katarina went wide-eyed as Tighearnán revealed his arm, clearly taken aback by the extent of the injury. That was... considerably worse then she was expecting, and for a brief moment she wondered if it was really something within her capacity to heal. But then again, she'd have to be fixing stuff like this eventually, right? And it wasn't as if she could make it any worse.

"Okay. Umm... It should be doable. But it's not going to be easy, for either of us. My magic is kind of... straightforward? It's going to try its hardest to make things how they should be and it's not going to be all that gentle about it. You're probably going to want to pull away or squirm around or something in the middle of it, which I really need you to not do, otherwise it'll just make everything worse. And... try not to scream? We'll probably both get in trouble if you do."

She paused to glance around the room, her eyes settling on something as she came to a sudden realization and scampered off to the side. There was a quiet but intense sneeze- apparently she didn't deal too well with the dust- before she returned a moment later carrying a chair, placing it close to Tighearnán before stepping back and offering it to him.

"Here, it's probably better if you sit down. Should be more comfortable for you."

And less dangerous if he faints, she thought to herself.

"Other than that, there shouldn't be any other preparations we need to do. I'm good to start whenever you are, so just give the word when you're ready."

With that, she lifted her hands up in preparation, revealing a soft glow emanating from them as her magic prepared to do its work.

Katarina seemed happy enough to take the lead, scurrying out of the library when he motioned for her to do so. Despite the lead he'd given her, though, it didn't take long at all for him to catch up with her as the difference between their stride lengths quickly made itself evident. Apparently, he was in quite a rush!

"How long? Hmmm..." She turned her head to face him as he walked up beside her, quickening her own pace to an awkward half-jog in order to keep up with his longer strides. "Well, I guess it kinda depends on how bad the injury is. I haven't actually gotten the chance to look at it, after all," she nodded her head in the general direction of his injured arm, seeing as her own arms were currently occupied. "Bigger problem means it'll take longer, obviously. But to be honest, I don't really have that much control over how the healing works or how long it takes. I sort of just... point the magic in the right direction and it does its own thing from there. If I had to take a guess, though... probably a few minutes? At least, to put things back where they should be. It's still gonna be pretty sore for a while afterwards."

Oddly enough, another being that thrived off of emotions (albeit certainly a different kind of emotions) had somehow found herself nearby, keeping a close eye on the two and waiting for an opportune moment to make her presence known.

The circumstances were strange indeed- initially, she hadn't felt inclined to go wandering around in the woods at all. Her original intention had been to visit the village nearby- she'd gotten the impression that something was amiss in that place- but something else, something nearby and urgent, was pulling her attention elsewhere. And as Lanai wasn't the type to ignore her instincts (they'd never steered her wrong before, as far as she was concerned), she had heeded their call and veered away from her original course, instead fluttering downwards into the forest below.

It hadn't taken too long for Lanai to zero in on the source of the distress she was picking up on- there weren't exactly too many people wandering around in the woods at night, after all- and after a few moments of navigating carefully through treetops, she found herself perched high up on a branch overlooking two figures on the forest floor. Given that one of the figures appeared to be tied up and struggling to escape, it didn't take much for her to guess at what might be going on.

Did she have any idea what had lead to the situation unfolding down there? Nope, absolutely not. Well, at least no idea beyond "probably something bad". What she did know, however, was that there was definitely a person in need of rescuing. Which meant that regardless of what exactly was going on, it was now officially her business. After all, it was always her business to get involved and help out a person in need, wasn't it? Of course it was.

But as much as she would have loved to swoop in right away, she couldn't do something so reckless without running the risk of being discovered too early and causing the demon to lash out at its captive in retaliation. Besides, more selfishly, the strongest shifts of emotion always seemed to happen when she showed up at the last minute! No, for the moment she decided it was for the best for her to lie in wait until a better opportunity to strike presented itself.

She didn't have to wait long, though- soon enough the tied-up girl turned to face the demon, eliciting a response from it that Lanai couldn't quite make out clearly from her perch. A new surge of fear permeated the air, and she suddenly found herself feeling the urge to act as soon as possible. There was no telling if the demon was preoccupied enough to overlook her presence, but she got the feeling that there wouldn't be anyone left to save if she waited much longer.

Shuffling a bit further onto the branch in order to give herself some more space, Lanai proceeded to crouch down in an almost gargoyle-esque fashion as she prepared to strike. Four pairs of feathered wings subtly unfurled themselves from her back, some brushing up against leaves and adjacent branches as they did so. Then, deciding the time was right, she allowed herself to fall forwards and used her legs to launch herself off of the tree. She pounced at the demon with arms outstretched, sharpened nails gleaming in the moonlight as she descended at an alarming rate.

Maddison recoiled from Cullen's reaction to smelling the antidote- it was far from the worst she'd witnessed during her time as a soldier, but that didn't didn't make it any more pleasant to witness, especially out of nowhere like that. Regardless, this was no time for her to start getting squeamish, so she quickly leaned back in after taking a deep breath to compose herself.

"Are you alright? Do you... think you'll be able to keep it down?" For both their sakes, she really hoped he would- the last thing she wanted right now was for Cullen's earlier jest about forcing the antidote down his throat to become a reality.