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Conflict and Interest

Started by Salzem, March 24, 2017, 03:17:13 AM

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Salzem

Aeizith made his way to the human town of Laamari as per the letter he was sent, kissing his sweet Silver goodbye before heading out. Between the relatively short distance had his speed, the little ice dragon had little difficulty making it to town just before the afternoon sun had risen in the sky, much to his discomfort. Aeizith remembered why he avoided packed-in towns like this, why he often refused to go out on the streets until the night had fallen... There were so many people... they were all so loud, so... probing... In large crowds, Aeizith felt like every single eye was on him, that these people sought to steal steal away that which he keeps to himself or, worse yet, expose it all to those less fortunate... He felt unsafe here, now, but his resolve drove him forward. Kaida had went through all the trouble to write a letter and set up a meeting-place rather than coming to talk to him herself... As much spite as he carried for her right now, he trusted in her ability to know certain things... things that might pose a great danger to them both...

And so, the little ice dragon waited at a particular bar, the only one in town with a tan-ish skinned, brown-haired waiter who went about cleaning his glasses as meticulously as Kaida would weave together a strand of frustrating comments. The dragon had walked in and sat himself down at an empty table in the back, doing his best to block out the noise the patrons were so casually making... If Kaida thought he was going to wander around town day and night trying to find her, she was sorely mistaken... She had broken his heart 3 times now and lost any confidence or care he might've placed in her as his sister so she could come to him if she cared so much.

______________________________________________________________________________

Lanister looked on at the quiet, white-haired patron as he sat alone in the back of his bar, neglecting to order anything... He simply sat there, quiet, alone, isolated, and the aura about him seemed to emphasize his actions. He almost felt bad for this guy... the pain on his face and in his language was about as obvious as his spiky snow-white hair...  If anything, he looked like he needed a friend... But Lanister did not move from behind his bar as he turned his gaze elsewhere... He'd died to an angel times beyond counting so he thought he knew what power was... how to sense it and this guy... he was someone who could do the same thing... If he weren't married.... if he didn't have his beautiful children then maybe he would've risked himself for the sake of this guy but now... he simply couldn't afford it. All he could do was wait for when he asked for a drink.

Blink

The door to the bar flung open and in stepped a very small white haired girl. To most she probably looked no older than 14 or 15, when in reality her age most likely towered them all combined. Well that was until she saw her brother sitting in the back. "Figures you would choose this seat." she mumbled already having started in with her lovely dialogue. Before going to join him she walked up to the bar, acknowledging the man standing behind it. "I need a bottle of your strongest liquor." She didn't even wait for him to respond before flinging a substantial amount of money onto the counter. "Two glasses... one bottle." she repeated as if maybe the man was mentally handicapped.

She then made her way towards the table, figuring the man would bring the bottle and glasses when they were ready. "Hello brother.... still enjoying your game of house?" It would be wrong if she didn't poke fun at him. If she hadn't... then what kind of little sister would she be? "I appreciate you coming on such short notice..." she paused and acted as if she had just swallowed something fowl. "... and thank you for leaving them behind." From there she took on a very serious demeanor. "I am afraid I have been informed of some very horrid news. News that only you and I can know the true meaning of."

All of this she managed to get out before even reaching the table. But once she did, she pulled the chair out and sat across from the brother she once looked up to. The brother who now was everything she knew she didn't want to be. In all honestly, Kaida felt alone... the only Black-Hearth left that still gave a damn about the original plan. "I was just informed that Emelia is trying to come back." Her eyes the locked on Aeizith hoping he would be able to shed some light on the situation.

Salzem

Lanister's eyes widened slightly as a 15 year old girl just walked into his bar, a bar full of drunken men  (jolly or not) as if she had a right to be there, looking over the whole setting with an eye that might make the strongest of beings crawl in a hole and die. As if on instinct, he anticipated the girl would go on some tangent about how alcohol was the bane of all existence, that men are becoming like apes or something, that she was going to get the guard to tear down this place unless they made it "respectable..." The poor tainted had gotten only 5 certain women doing this and only at his bar, sometimes separately, sometimes together, sometimes 3 or 4 time A DAY. It's been going on for at least 2 weeks now so it was reasonable that the poor tainted anticipated the same thing to happen all over again, but this time with a newer, younger face. Poor girl... Much to his relief however, she didn't start her "gods damn this place" speech and instead did the opposite, dropping a swollen bag of gold on his bar, asking for the strongest bottle of liquor he had, two glasses, one bottle, talking as if he had trouble picking out the difference between the words bottle and glass. Still, the tainted blood had a thick skin and his worry remained true for the girl... the only thing worse than a girl in a room full of drunken men was a drunken girl in a room full of drunken men.... and his most potent stuff would blow her head to dust with the amount of liquor packed inside... He remembered taking one shot of this stuff, just for the taste... he was barely able to put together a cohesive thought for hours afterwords... Still... he was bound by his job... he couldn't just neglect her order... Lanister began to count the money inside, hoping to whatever god of commerce there was that she came up short... and... by one piece, she did... Lanister sighed in relief as if this had saved the cocky, insolent girl's life, allowing to Lanister to choose his second strongest liquor which was about only half as potent to offer her instead. Lanister began poking around the shelves for the bottle, feeling only a little less guilty...

______________________________________________________________________________

Aeizith only stared quietly, coldly, his arms crossed as Kaida began cracking jokes, shutting out everyone else in the room but him and his sister. He had nothing to say to her if she wasn't going to get to her point immediately. He'd just sit there and wait for her to burn herself out... he didn't have the time or the patience to be vulnerable with her anymore... She kinda reinforced that when she left the home he had built with her. Again, he didn't say a word nor did his face even twitch when she mentioned his Silver and daughter, not even nodding his head to respond to her thanks. He just stared and waited... He didn't want, nor did he care for her pleasantries. If she had some news, she'd better start talking or Aeizith would be gone. Seeming to get that fact, Kaida began making her way towards the table, commenting how she had gotten some terrible news, some news that only he and her would be able to know. Sitting down across from him, the younger dragoness had a dead-serious expression on her face, perhaps even a bit... fearful? Aeizith didn't react. Silent, cold, dangerous.... Kaida had been informed that Emilia was trying to come back.

"I know." Aeizith said, his voice flat and hard. "She came to my house. She's looking for you, sister." Before the little ice dragon could get any further, Lanister walked up to their table, placing a strange-shaped bottle in the center of the table as well as two square-shaped glasses.

"Two glasses... a bottle.... It's potent." Lanister sounded off to his customer before disappearing behind his counter once again to take this LARGE sum to a safer location. Aeizith didn't acknowledge him or touch the bottle.

Blink

To her surprise Aeizith remained quiet as she spoke, he didn't even try to counter her normal jabs at him. But then he spoke two words that were more of an insult to her than anything else he could have said. I know.... He went on stating she appeared at his house looking for her and this confirmed Kaida's worst fears. Not only were the rumours true, but Emelia was no longer 'trying' to come back but already had.
The young dragoness merely flicked her wrist as the man brought her the bottle and two glasses she had ordered. No time for pleasantries... this was too important. "When!?" Her face then twisted to something between almost crying and hatred. "Why didn't you let me know!?" Kaida slammed her palms against the top of the table. "I know you hate me Aeizith but I thought..." she paused as a single tear of betrayal finally escaped one of her eyes. "... I thought you still cared enough to at least tell me something like this."

And once again she felt like an idiot before her brother, the dragon who always managed to bring out the mortality she held deep within her own self. Maybe this was why she was always so cruel towards him... always trying to get him to forget the parts of himself that he brought out in her. "When I was told about Emelia coming back the very first thing I did was write you that letter. YOU were the person I wanted to tell most." Slowly she retracted her hands from the table and brought them to rest in her lap. The whole time she had averted her eyes from Aeizith, not wanting him to see how vulnerable she was in that moment. But in her next statement all she could do was lock her eyes with his. "But your new family is more important now."

She was hurt to say the least... betrayed....forgotten. This was her worst fear, to be forgotten not only as a mighty and powerful dragon but to be forgotten as a sister... like she never belonged to any family at all. Now more than ever she felt alone in this big world. "I'm sorry for dragging you from them. I am sure they are all you can think about right now." Kaida then stood up, reaching out and grabbing the bottle of liquor before sliding it off the table to sling back and forth in her small arm. "I wont pester you with any more news of the family you don't want or care about anymore."

Salzem

Aeizith only ever broke his silent gaze when Kaida slammed her on the table, his eyes flicking down to the rim she struck, mildly surprised her hands didn't pass through it like foam before flicking back up and meeting hers. When she demanded a time, Aeizith didn't waste a single second responding.

"A day ago. Maybe two."

The expression on her face, one of shock, anger and pain... It didn't exactly please him... more that he felt it was... appropriate. Let her feel what he felt when she stole his girlfriend away to die at the hands of a monster. Let her drink in the fires of betrayal and have them burn a new scar in her guts. Let her look at him and feel the pain he had caused by his inaction so that she could understand. The dragon only stared on silently as she stated that she knew he hated her, that she thought that despite all of that, he still cared enough to inform her of Emilia's second coming. Little did she know that it wasn't a matter of hatred... at least not for her. Emilia would find Kaida sometime and Kaida WILL kill her weak, pathetic form and send it back into the void. He'd hoped she would remain ignorant until then, but these circumstances didn't make the plan any less suitable. Aeizith furrowed his brow as Kaida commented that HE was the one she wanted to notify most out of everyone... He appeared almost confused.

"The most out of whom, Kaida? Our other siblings are dead." He smoke smoothly, as cool and slick as polished steel. "No word from them after Emilia's first death? Not a trace of their followers or even a path to their location...? Sister, I am all you have." Kaida locked eyes with him, intending to make her questioning of his loyalties a mortal blow, but Aeizith only raised an eyebrow, judging her with a gaze that'd make the most hardened of beings shiver... It violated her soul...

"Kaida... What do you think family is...? It can't possibly be blood because you've hurt, attacked and stole what is mine regardless of me being your brother... It can't be love because... well... despite this little facade you put on, your actions in the past only lead me to conclude you don't. Obligations? You break those when its convenient. How do you know what family is?"

Kaida began to state how sorry she was that she had dragged him away from them, stating that he must be only thinking about them... This wasn't the case at all. In fact, he hadn't really thought about them since he'd left for here. He had only thought about one thing on his way here... and it had to do with his sister.

"No. What I haven't stopped thinking about... is all the different ways I'm going to inflict pain on Emila for what she's done to me................. and you." His expression changed the slightest bit, his flat-line of a mouth curling the tiniest bit upwards. When Emilia attempted to take the bottle, she'd find that it wouldn't move, suddenly frozen to the table. When she attempted to stand from her chair, she'd find that she was frozen to it, and the chair to the floor. Aeizith looked at her, strangely.

"If I don't care about you... why am I keeping you here?"

Blink

To say that she was annoyed with not only his little ice trick but his perception of family was an understatement. Was this really going to turn into a blame game again? Now more agitated than before Kaida found herself raising her voice again. "The most as in the only person I wanted to tell. There are others I could have told! I could have just went about acting as if you didn't exist either!" She was growing more angry with each passing second at her brother.

"You say you are all I have but that is a lie. I lost you months ago... and if we want to revisit betrayal then allow me to refresh your memory as well. Maybe I did kidnap the mutt, but I didn't let Emelia kill her. Actually I brought her back to you! Yet you are the one who left me. You knew who and what Emelia was long before I did and yet you left me alone with her. You said you would come back, in the first time I ever truly opened up to you only for you to hide and cower in the night. I wouldn't have disowned you despite the fact you flawed your perfect bloodline with vampire blood."

"The only reason you are probably keeping me here is to revel in the agony of seeing your past right in front of you. I was your sister, you were my..." she cut herself off. Aeizith didn't need to know how much she used to look up to him. How much she used to wish he would just come home. "My coming here was a mistake. Please just let me leave." She meant it... every word. She now felt that even running herself ragged to get here just to tell him news he was already aware of was a mistake.

Aeizith didn't care, not like he was pretending to. Perhaps Kaida's absence caused her to forget just how far he had fallen into the domesticated life he was now living. If anything this entire meeting made her feel worse about everything going on in her world. Kaida had been trying so hard to find her own way, and was actually doing quite well until she was shaken with the news of Emelia's return. And now she was being forced to sit here and listen, just as she was in Zantaric. She was tired of being forced to listen... tired of being taken advantage of. She went to Zantaric with an open mind, simply there to observe only to find herself in an awful situation sitting before an overly annoying pink and fluffy idiot. And now this... stuck again in a chair before her brother.

Her heart was already racing in her chest, her muscles were already tensing at the pure instinct of wanting to turn right there in the bar... yet she withheld. Kaida was so angry, more riled up than she thought she had ever been, yet she was still able to control her form. If Aeizith had succeeded in anything today it was pushing Kaida further back from caring about anything else. "Maybe I will let her find me... so that we can kill you together..." her last words laced with as much venom as she could manage. Of course she didn't mean it. She would never work with Emelia again. But for some reason in this moment killing Aeizith almost sounded... fun.

Salzem

"Who and what...?" Aeizith stopped her right there, pleasantly listening to her go off until that point. "Does that mean you know she's nothing more than a worthless human?" He spoke these words as casually as he pleased, perhaps much to the shock and attention of the other patrons who have started to watch the little spat with some interest. "Why haven't you killed her then? She's right there for you to take it out on. A punching bag that deserves each blow from your fist. You have her in the palm of your hand and yet... here you are, talking down to me like the good-old days..." The ice dragon let out a mockery of a nostalgic sigh before motioning for her to continue with a wave of his hand. Kaida went on about whatever cowardice he had shown, the things she had done for him, that the only reason he was making her sit here was so he could revel in the agony right in front of him... Unfortunately, his little sister knew him too well... as usual. Aeizith only shook his head slightly when she pleaded for him to let her leave, that coming here was a mistake. Maybe it was for her, but the little ice dragon was having the best time of his life for the FIRST time in his life... as much as he hated to admit it, his lack of a conscience was laid bare for Kaida to see for the first time... and he wanted her to remember it...

In some effort to make a brutal stab at him, Kaida hissed that maybe she'd let Emilia find her so that they could kill him together and the dragon only smiled sadly, wondering why she thought he'd ever allow her to leave this place... if he thought she was capable of that... His gaze said everything without him needing to say a word, the two siblings staring each other down from opposite positions. Aeizith, the normally meek, scared, sad, lonely ice dragon was now tearing Kaida bear with the precision and vengeance of a back-street surgeon while all she could do was sit and sputter. He could see her muscles beginning to tense, her brow beginning to sweat, her eyes beginning to water as the ice dragon only stared her down coolly, not regretting a single thing said. With a slight twitch of his finger, the bottle would slip out of Kaida's hands and into his, pouring a chilled bottle of.... "Devil's Tongue..." into his glass, before filling hers up as well.

"You know... It's really quite remarkable..." Aeizith took a sip from his cup, cringing slightly from the strength before setting the glass down again, as formally as he pleased. "...That you're shunning me... when you embody everything that you picked on your whole little life... look at you... asking 'why' in every way but words... you expected me to come up to you... to love you... to comfort poor little Kaida because... what... you were obligated to it? How does it feel to be under my boot now, to know that nobody cares about what you want, that your family will just as soon kill you as they will hold you close?" Aeizith took another sip from his cup, completely unaffected by the alcohol.

"Hurts doesn't it? Almost... evil... the feelings this confinement brings up. For example..." Aeizith gestured with his hand, a small (perfect) icy replica of Emilia standing fearfully in the center of the table formed, shifting, moving, almost as if she were alive. With a mere blink, the icy woman began to fade away to dust... from the tip of her fingers, up her arms, silently screaming as she disappeared from existence...

"I thought you deserved a better Me..." He sighed, sipping down the last of his cup. "I thought you all did... Everyone... That I could love you... That I wanted to..." He looked the seething girl over, almost as if she were a perversion of a masterpiece, one he loathed to the umpteenth degree. He slightly shook his head. "I don't."

Blink

His words were hard to swallow, things she never thought she would hear him say. It was like with each word a piece of his own ice began encasing her heart. With each passing moment and its lack of his usual emotional displays Kaida found herself falling deeper and deeper in the dark place she had always walked the edges of. By now his words were beginning to blur together, all of them not stinging as much as the first as he continued to speak.

And then, as if her entire body had been revitalized Kaida took in a deep breath. Her muscles less tense, her heartbeat slowing. Her face became more calm, her eyes no longer flowing the salty fluid that displayed duress. It was as if a switch had been flipped in her mind, one that had been bordering between up or down, left or right... good or bad. "Are you done yet?" she asked with a raised brow as she sat back in the chair, no longer afraid of the words he may potentially spew at her.

"I have more important things to be taking care of right now..." Her words weren't meant to be mean or hateful, they actually sounded sort of bland. There was nothing behind them, no ill will... nothing.

Aeizith had broken his little sister. And unfortunately this crack would not be so easily fixed.

Salzem

Aeizith simply nodded, his ice receding from Kaida's body and allowing her to leave at her earliest convenience. He wouldn't say a word as he watched her go, disappearing out the door, then out of La-marri as quickly as he possibly could... The little ice dragon retreated back into his den, his little house he had built for his love... for Kaida... and now it seemed much emptier than before... as did a certain place in his heart. He couldn't explain it, but his chest felt lighter... airy almost in the most uncomfortable of ways. It was like a dead-man walking with a hollow chest... that's exactly what he felt... everything else was so numb it felt like fuzzy air... The kiss he received when he got home, the food he ate around the dinner table, the bed he slept on that night...

But Aeizith didn't sleep that night... that night, he lie awake, staring into the ceiling as if he were trying to crack it open with his eyes... he stared and stared until he tired of the sight and eventually settled on his sleeping girlfriend, lost in dream-land. The little ice dragon stared into her sleeping face that night, curled up... and he wept... he wept the quietest, heart-wrenching sobs that would only be detected in the confines of his sweet Silver's dreams...

Blink

As soon as Aeizith's ice had receded Kaida stood up in her chair. She nodded to her brother and grabbed the bottle of liquor off of the table away from him. Instead of using the second glass provided she lifted the bottle to her lips and took a swig. As it slid down her throat she found herself staring at the barkeeper, a man who had something 'interesting' about him. "This liquor is weak" she spurted before setting the bottle back down on the table.

Then she made her way towards the door, having waited a few moments for her brother to exit. "You know it's funny" her voice still bland, except this time bordering on cold. "Not many of your kind left. I never thought I would see one of you outside of Essyrn." Of course she was hinting at what he really was... a tainted. She had realized from the moment he brought them the bottle with two glasses.

Kaida being the overly observant girl she always was saw the scars tattered all over the man's arm. The location of them, and the way they were placed pointed towards one thing... his blood had been drawn or taken from him. Deducting from that and the location of where this man resides pointed towards someone who was using La'Marri as a safe haven. This and a few other factors pointed to a few things, the most obvious being A Tainted.

And with that she turned towards the door and walked out, leaving the man to question if she really knew what he was.

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