forum And the Brightest Burned (Closed)

Started July 22, 2019 by VictoryOchre

tune

Pheonix made a very rude gesture behind their back and turned back to the necklace. She closed both hands around it and muttered a few words. The crystal started glowing and a smal image appeared. In the image, a young girl with wild hair was sitting atop the shoulders of a laughing man as a slightly older boy was being tickled by a smiling lady. Pheonix felt a couple tears arise at the sight if the image and she sat down on a nearby chair with her head in the table and the image still infront of her.

Pheonix left the crystal as is and walked to her bag, grabbing her weapons and potions she set them on the same table and started going through them. It was a good thing Pheonix packed a few extra herbs and things, if she didnt have a potions she needed, she could simply whip one up.

What felt like an hour passed by quickly. Sariel left Pheonix to their own devices, choosing instead to focus on finishing their defenses. They hummed while they worked, the tune bland, unmusical, and generally lacking passion, their hands not shaking but deadly stiff.

Five minutes after they finished strewing some burgundy petals onto the floor, they made the choice to try and open up to Pheonix. Maybe conversation would make them feel better; besides, they’d been rather harsh.

As they turned their head to shout something, a loud noise came from somewhere right outside. Their first instinct was to jump. Their second was to, with a sinking feeling, check out the window to see what the source of the noise was. A figure approached the door. It was shrouded by mist and rain and darkness. The only part of them that was visible was their face, and only the lower half, not nearly enough to make an identification.

That was, until they smiled. Sariel would know that smile anywhere.

“It’s Raphael,” they said faintly.

Pheonix took a cloudy grey potion and tossed it down I front of the two of them. A dark flame sprung up and Pheonix touched it. "If he and his soul haven't been tainted by the creature, he would be able to pass these flames with no problem." She said

She had a sneaking suspicion that something was Wrong with the Angeleyl's sibling, but it wasnt her place to simply tell them.

“No-” they started, froze, and repeated with urgency, “no! It’s Raphael. He’s not- he’s alive, I can’t belie- Raphael!”

The figure lifted its head. It was Raphael, although he looked worse than he ever had in the past. When his eyes locked with Sariel’s, he immediately stumbled up to the front door.

“Oh, oh no, you’re hurt, come here, El, I’ll help you out. Come inside. It’s not safe out there.”

Raphael’s dark curls fell in his face. He still didn’t speak.

“Raphael, what are you waiting for? It’s dangerous! Come- come on, please, just get inside, El-“

And then it hit them. He wasn’t speaking because he couldn’t.

The blood coming from his mouth had to be-

They’d thought maybe he had a rib problem, but no, he-

Did-

“Raphael?” they asked, afraid.

Two giant wings burst from his back, tearing through his skin. They hung like giant, bony, torn curtains around him, blocking the storm from wetting his already soaked body. For a moment, they just stood there, looking at each other some more, and then he started to flap.

His wings extinguished the flames.

“Should he be able to do that? Should- how did he- Raphael, how did you-“

He lunged for them.

Phoeanix yelled and immediately ducked down, pulling Sariel with her. "Rule number one of a battle, never trust anyone!" She yelled. Pheonix conjured up a thick layer of fog as she navigated her way to her bag and back. "Do you have any herb to knock him out?" She whispered

“Knock him out? We are not knocking him out! He’s my brother, and this is not a battle!”

A loud clang happened to their left. Sariel flinched and reached out for a nearby vine. It curled around their hand before slithering off like a snake onto the ground.

“There. If he tries to come close, that’ll snare his ankles.”

As if to prove their point, someone crashed to the floor in front of them. A strangled gurgle came from the thing’s—Raphael’s, they reminded themselves—throat.

“Raphael, I don’t know what this thing is, but you’ve got to get it out of you,” they tried hopefully. Raphael made a spitting sound in response. “I’m not going to hurt you. Don’t make me do more than this.”

Pheonix cursed at them in the language of the Heavefell and threw another potion at his feet. From the broken glass, a green most appeared that went into the air, calming the atmosphere and forcing Raphael to be quiet. Pheonix could tell he was seething

"Whatever thay thing is, it is no longer your brother." Oheonix said after a moment of silence

“Don’t say that. It’s still him, trust me. I can feel it.”

Raphael thrashed some more. He was breathing hard through his nose and coughing very faintly. Finally, after a couple of minutes of being otherwise silent, he raised his head as much as he could.

‘Help me.’

Sariel actually let out a noise that resembled a gasp.

“He’s in my head. Give me a chance to talk to him.”

Pheonix sighed but relented. "Fine, if he doesnt change back, I'm knocking him out." She muttered

They nodded at Pheonix before stepping closer through the green mist to his side. His bloodshot eyes peered at them with an angriness that they’d never seen in any Angeleyl ever before, but that didn’t stop them.

‘Please. Help me.”

‘Raphael?’

‘It hurts.’

‘I know. Raphael, can you-‘

‘Please, stop it, please.’

‘Raphael, listen to me, can you feel the thing that’s possessing y-‘

‘I’m going to die. Stop it, please, I’m dying, it hurts-‘ and then it all became too much to listen to. Sariel winced and disconnected themselves from his thoughts.

“He wasn’t talking to me. I think he’s hurting so badly that his mind’s reaching out in hopes that someone will answer and help him. It means he’s desperate. We need to think of a way to help him.” In their head, they went through a list of all the plants they’d brought. None would be useful in such a case. “Do you have anything against possession? Sort of like something you’d use if you were going to tear a regular escaped spirit from a person’s body. I don’t know if it’ll work in this case, but it might be worth a try.”

Pheonix rummaged through her potions and ingredients and frowned. "I dont have anything specifically for possession, but I've heard that bitter root combined with fresh lavender and fennel seeds assists in controlling a possession." She said

“I have lavender, but I don’t have the seeds or the roots, do you? And what do you mean by controlling a possession? It’s not going to hurt him, is it? Will it make him weaker?” They gave a pitying glance towards their injured sibling. “Honestly, I’m not sure he can stand much more than he already is.”

As if to prove their point, Raphael whimpered from his spot on the floor. He then let out a barely audible growl, writhed around for a second, and fell flat.

"By controlling the possession, it wont allow the thing control him any more power than it already has. It wont help him, but it wont hurt him either. I can give him something for pain but we would have to take him to Heavenfell to treat the possession." Pheonix said, looking through the ingredients and sighing in relief when she found the fennel seeds

“Heavenfell? I don’t think he can go there without… well, without Falling, and in this state that might kill him. Is it possible we could, I don’t know, just…” they trailed off and threw up their hands. The long arms of their robes rippled like dark curtains. “This sounds insane, but could I get you to bring the treatment to him? I could give you my apartment name and number after we do the whole possession controlling thing, and maybe you could bring help there. I’d pay you to do it- no, I’d do more than that. Anything you want. Anything you need, if you can help me with this, I promise.”

"We shall see." Phoenix grinned, the thought of having the Angeley at her mercy was very tempting.

She took her Ingredients and crumbled them in a pot. Adding about 5 litres of water to them, she let the herbs infuse in the mixture. She then opened her wings and dipped the charred end of one in the water. The mixture immediately turned black and Pheonix threw the burning liquid on the male.

The noise Raphael made when Pheonix dashed the liquid onto him wasn’t quite a scream. He couldn’t really scream as much as whine loudly, but even that wasn’t close to what came out of his body. His mouth was forced open as a strangled, gurgling sound erupted from somewhere deep inside him, and the full bloody horror of it hit Sariel all at once. They’d been right. Something awful had been done to him; he no longer had a tongue. That was why he sounded the way he did, they reasoned, and felt very, very faint. For a passing moment, they almost wished he had died. At least he wouldn’t have had to have suffered so much.

The noise cut off as suddenly as it’d began, and its source slumped to the ground. Instantly his sibling was at his side, stroking through his hair and rubbing his back around the place where his wings would be if they were still out.

“It’s alright, Raphael. It’s going to be alright,” they soothed, lip wobbling, and his their eyes in their sleeve. Muffled, they continued, “Just hold on. We’re going to go back to my apartment. Gabriel will be there. Just keep holding on, El.”

To Gabriel in their head, they asked, ‘I need you to be at my apartment as soon as you can be.’

‘Sariel?’ His voice echoed around their mind. It wasn’t as loud as it usually was—he must’ve still been exhausted—but it was concerned. Concerned and relieved, that was. ‘You’re alive?’

‘We made a mistake. Whatever the thing is, it’s not what we thought. It possessed Raphael. That’s why you haven’t heard from him.’ Then, they added softly, their heart aching, ‘He’s in bad shape. Bad, bad shape.’

No response. Twenty seconds passed by, then third, before he finally responded with a soft, ‘Oh.’

‘I know I told you not to tire yourself out, Gabriel, and I don’t want you wasting more of your energy, but do you think you could-‘

A bright flash of light from behind them made them leap up in surprise. Gabriel, shaking, appeared, his whole body tense. When he saw Raphael, he darted towards him, dropped onto his knees, and slid up beside him.

“He’s- he’s-“ His hands skimmed the air above his skin like he was scared to touch him.

“Still alive, as I said, but just badly injured. The thing’s still in him. We need to get him out of here to somewhere safe. Like my apartment, which I believe is where I asked you to meet me.”

”How is it still in him? He’s not conscious! We should try and force it out somehow, like, like-“

“Pheonix made a mixture to help control it for now.”

For the first time, Gabriel noticed Pheonix. He reached a trembling hand out to them.

“I’m sorry for my impoliteness. I’m the Angeleyl Archis Gabriel, Valiant Knight and Holy Defender of Heavenloche, Bearer of Divine Messages. You must be the Heavenfell agent I was informed about.“ Less formally, he added, “Thank you.”

Pheonix bowed her head "you are welcome. Once your sister Pat's the price for my mixture, all will be well." She said and turned back to her tools, putting them away.

“Once my sibling does what?” He glanced over at them and audibly sighed. “I suppose we do owe you something. You are helping us greatly, after all.”

Sariel was too deep in thought to hear anything he was saying. They were studying Raphael intently. Whatever was inside of him, if truly dangerous enough to start what had seemed for a couple of hours like the end of the world, wasn’t something any of them could mess around with. If they were going to do something about it, they needed to get it done fast—before that thing found a way to escape or hurt someone else.

They hoisted Raphael’s scratched, bruised, blistering body up and looped their arms around him. He’d be easier to carry if they could get a good grip on him. While he was still in their arms, they shuffled over, grabbed their bag, shuffled back, and helped Gabriel to his feet. He was swaying like a tree in the breeze, all dizzy and unfocused, but he had a look of determination about him that would worry any sane person nearby.

“I’ll take us back to the apartment now,” he said stiffly. Before Sariel could protest, there was a brilliant bang, an excellent swirl of bright light in their vision, and the faint smell of smoke in their lungs.

Gabriel instantly ducked out of sight behind their couch. He popped up seconds later, breathing hard, his eyes as bloodshot as his brother’s, and coughed so dryly that it sounded as if a fine sand was weighing down his lungs.

“Gabriel!” They yelled, both scolding and worried, as they lay Raphael onto their couch. “I could’ve flown! Now look! You brought along Pheonix!”

Pheonix was standing frozen. The amount of 'good' magic that touched her soul was now at war with the 'Dark' magic. She forced the magic out if her body and casted a shielding enchantment around her body before facting the Angeleyl and glaring at them. "The next time you want to do that, warm.me so I dont come!" She yelled