A Matter of Blood

Second Floor, Silver Dryad

Then Ghet stood in the doorway for a moment, watching. What she felt here tore her up. She'd been planning to avoid Ro until what had happened downstairs was forgotten. He was too likely to recognise the cause. But not now. She spoke softly. "It's my mess, I should do it. You don't have to put yourself through this." 

"Aire Rilme!," Y'roden exclaimed, nearly jumping out of his skin. Whirling around the half-elf stared wide eyed at Ghet for a moment, feeling for all the world like he had been caught with his pants down.

Which likely would have been less... something. Seeing as she had seen that before... many times.

Several moments ticked by while he tried to pull himself together. The momentary distraction had let the mood of the room leak into his present emotional makeup, and it took an iron will to sort out what belonged where. There had been a time when he would have sensed her there, and it still felt a bit strange not to... know.

"I'd prefer to think of it as our mess," he said finally, "And in your current state of mind, I think it's better if I do it. Don't you?" His emerald greens were gentle as they met her denim blues, she was right, he had read her mood in the taproom all to easily. No matter what had happened in between, Y'roden still cared very much Ghet, they had been friends before they had been anything else, very close friends. There had been secrets shared between them, things that were still there, unspoken, tucked away like treasures in the dark.

She was better than she had been, time with Galain had healed her, but Ghet wasn't well yet. She was still kind of sensitive. "What's wrong with my state of mind? You think I can't handle this? You think I'm so fragile I can't take care of my own responsibilities?"

The brandy bottle shook its way off the table and broke.

Paling, Ghet leaned back against the wall. "Okay, yes, point taken. Let me keep an eye on you, anyway." 

Y'roden's brow furrowed as he watched her, worry evident in the depths of his eyes. "Ok.... I can work with an audience. Do you want to talk about it Ghettie?," he asked, "We are still friends you know, we can still lean on each other... I should hope." The half-elf smiled, projecting peace, calm, and joy, for more reasons then just cleansing the room now. While he waited for Ghet to answer he channeled the emotion through the conduit, careful to keep his thoughts and feelings to those needed for what he was doing. He was good at control.... too good.

Ghet stood back, and "watched" what Y'roden was doing. She felt kind of proud in a way: the things they had taught each other had survived their break-up. And besides, his natural bent was well-suited to the Talent. There was no danger of it taking him over, weakening his control.

And she let him touch her, too, let the calm enter her heart. So her voice was quite level when she spoke. She didn't want to mess this room up again. "I'm scared half to death. More than that. It's happening again. I'm losing control of my mind. But you know that, don't you." 

Y'roden closed his eyes, remembering the last time.... Part of him, deep inside, still ached when he thought about it. He hadn't been much better off himself, and Ghet... she'd been so far gone. His will had served him well then as well, his want of her had saved them both. Dragged them both kicking and screaming from the darkness in a frenetic dance of give and take. They had all but consumed one another, it had been absolutly horrific... and utterly glorious. His eyes opened, showing nothing of the inner tide of emotion. Though whispers of it ebbed throughout the room, leaking into the peace he had created.

"Yes," he said simply, "I had a feeling." He studied her for a moment, quietly searching her eyes. "Come here." He held out his hands, beckoning her forwards. "Let me in... let me see, I want to help." 

Ghet warred with herself. On the outside, this meant taking a step forward, and then backwards again. He understood. Until just a few minutes ago, he'd been the only one who understood. Now Galain did too, and that was how it should be. It was his place to help her, care for her, not Y'roden's. After all, what would his wife say?

But to have someone who knew what it was like, who'd been there, hold her... And of course, if part of this was down to the S'hean blood, then Y'roden could help her.

But if he looked into her, he would see. He would see things it would hurt him to see. He would see Galain woven deeply into her soul now. And gods, but he would see she still loved him, just as much as she ever had.

Her feelings flickered across her face. She'd never been good at hiding things. The temptation was so strong. "I can't, Y'roden. Please don't ask me to do that. I can't let you back in." 

Confusion lit Y'roden's eyes for a moment, but he lowered his hands. "Alright... you do know I wouldn't hurt you though... right?" Sometimes the simple things never occured to Ro, he just acted on impulse. In the back of his mind he was processing the emotions he had seen flicker by.... The last one causing a hitch in his heart he hadn't quite expected.

"Ghettie... a lot of this is my fault. I know my blood is changing you. The Canopy Skimming... it was just the beginning. Can you walk by a body of water without ripping your clothing off and diving in? Can you resist the urge to take to the trees rather than walk? Does the Aethyr dance in green arches from your fingertips yet? Have you felt S'hea's call?" He sighed and shook his head, "Have you BEEN to S'hea lately?" 

Ghet really didn't know whether to apologise or slap him. She took a deep breath, knowing how important it was now that she stay in control of herself. "I know you wouldn't hurt me deliberately. And it wasn't your fault. I don't know how you could be held responsible for something I did while you were dead." Then the cracks started to show. "How can you ask me that? How could I go back to S'hea? It's your place. All it is to me, is the place where we used to be together. Everything about it reminds me of you. It's bad enough coming here!"

Damn, she was going to cry now. She'd been trying very hard to hide from what Y'roden's blood had done to her, and she hadn't been doing a bad job. "I only took your blood because I was mad. Wait, that came out wrong. I don't really regret it, though I wish the whole thing hadn't happened." She sighed. She was tired. "You really think that could be why? I guess you better look then." 

Y'Roden reeled back from her for a moment, completely caught off guard by the strength of her emotion. It was easy for him to forget... or maybe he forgot on purpose, how deeply she loved him... had loved him. He made that slight amendment in his mind, deliberately blocking out the thought that she still did. Ghet had always been his weakness, his madness. Always just beyond his grasp... if he let himself believe she didn't love him, let himself see the strength of her love for Galain, it just made things easier. If he wasn't hurting her... then everything was fine.

"Gods Ghet, you HAVE to go to S'hea, the blood demands it. My mother went mad during the eight hundred years we were cut off, I went mad... it was part of the reason it was so easy for Samara to sink her claws into me. S'hean elves are the living spirit of the land, it demands a price, it calls us home. Every once in awhile we MUST return." He drew a deep shuddering breath, gods, he had damned her in a way... tied her to a need that would never let her go. No matter what she said, it was his fault, it was her love for him that had created this mess. "Gods... I'm sorry Ghet, we should have had this discussion a long time ago. I'm sorry it hurts you, but it's not just MY place anymore, it's your home now too."

Frustrated Ro advanced on her, cupping the redhead's face between his hands and tilting her face up. "Let me see." Closing his eyes the half-elf accessed the D'riel web, unsettled by the fact that he could access her that way. How much had she changed? How far would it go? His family were genetic mutants even among their own people, the conduit magnifying and twisting any magic or DNA that was introduced to it. Ghet was a wild card in the mix, there was no way of predicting what would happen to her.

Their souls came together like water and fire, a sizzling brush of the spirits that set off the aethyr and caused sparks to fly on the ethereal. Hers was a flickering mesh of gold and red, as much Galain as she was Ghet. Y'roden ignored any internal reaction to it, seeking out what he knew would be there before he saw it. Tendrils of emerald that had nothing to do with his own rotating galaxy of a soul. She was altering even at the spiritual level... her could feel the magic singing in her blood, smell it on her skin. It was wild, untamed, untrained... threatening to tear her apart, mind, body and soul.

"Damn," the half-elf breathed, releasing her and stepping back. "I'd say that's a problem."

Ghet pulled her face aggressively out of his hands, so she wouldn't kiss him. Her love for him had changed, mellowed maybe, but not abated. Perhaps that was part of the reason why she was so furious. And unreasonable. "Why didn't you tell me, you bastard? When were you going to bring this up, when the last of my brains dribbled out my ear?"

Being Ghet, she was finished being angry now. Now moving through petulant: "I don't want to go to S'hea." And on to practical. "Damn. Much as I hate to say this, I think we need to have a group conference. Line up everyone who's screwed with my genome in the last few years and work out what to do." She blushed. She hated being the focus of attention. This kind of attention. It was embarrassing. "I need to know more from you, and I need to talk to Galain. It would be far more efficient if I could do both at once. Gods, I told him I was just popping out for a minute, I wasn't expecting... Come with... oh, no, wait, Galain's not wearing any clothes." She waggled her eyebrows in a rather familiar fashion. "I'm not wearing any underwear. Sorry! Sorry, that was uncalled for."

Her grin slid off as she looked back at him, serious and unusually subdued. "Will you help me?" There was after all, as far as she could see, no reason why he should, and a rather good reason why he shouldn't. 

His mood swung around with hers, although horror added itself to the mix at the thought of Galain in the buff, then a total about face as her eyebrows wriggled at him. "Really? Wait... never mind. Well, we'll have to go talk to him." Drawing a frustrated breath of air the half-elf closed his eyes for a moment, settling his nerves and grasping for his sanity.

Why the hell did she still have the power to set him off like that?

Emerald eyes flickered open and he managed a smile, "Of course I'll help you Ghettie. I promised to always be there, and I always will be. No matter what. Even if that means dealing with Galain."