Tales of the Exalted

Jaeda made its way back into town with a damaged sorcerer pinned to its back, blood runnelling down the jagged scales to pool on the ground. As it approached, villagers screamed and ran, creating one hell of a ruckus. A few of the older men came at the serpent with pitchforks, but they were ignored as the iron bent against the tough hide of the demon. It made its way into the inn where the Chosen were staying, and the room fell silent as the giant head peered in. Everyone got up without a sound and huddled in the far corner near the fireplace as Jaeda slithered up the stairs and into the third room on the right.

It coiled around, and around again, making itself squeeze into the small confines while leaving some working room. It came to rest with the bloody binder just feet from the bed, breathing in ragged, strained gasps.

Callista had dozed off into deep sleep despite her troubled mind. It helped a lot knowing that the group was out looking for answers for her, without that she wouldn't have likely been able to rest. The dream that was just beginning to form shattered, and although she could have sworn the serpent was only in her repose was now in the confined space of the room.

”Jaeda?” She spoke his name as a question, her confusion shining through her torpidness. Then her eyes fell upon the bloodied form that had been deposited by the base of her bed and there was no mistaking the white hair and the scrolling tattoos on the man. ”Eida!” Callista called out his name as she swung her legs off the bed to run to him, immediately checking to make sure he was still alive. [color=lightcoral”May, fetch me some water and bandages. Jaeda please can you help me get him on the bed?”[/color] It took a little bit of maneuvering because she wouldn't let Jaeda impale him with any more spikes but eventually she got the sorcerer on the bed and began to look over his wounds.

Eida's eyes fluttered open while they attempted to move him. He could not feel his leg. Everything else was screaming at him. He looked down and saw the mangled wreck that the strider had done to him. "Where...is Chanekeh? Screw those 'tests'...of his." He was paler than usual from the blood loss, and began to slip back into the warm embrace of unconsciousness.

Jaeda had doubled and tripled over itself to give them working space. Its crest bristled at anything that moved outside the door, and more than once a curious servant was scared witless, bowls of warm water clattering on the ground, spilling everywhere.

Gently she brushed aside some hair that clung to his sweat and gore covered brow as he drifted off again. Him being unconscious wasn't the best thing but she didn't have the heart to force him to be awake while she closed his leg up. Callista was a bit puzzled as to why Eida was asking for Sanjuro at that time but she hoped the Azuma wasn't somewhere injured as well. There wasn't much time for her to think about that because she was worried his wounds would continue to bleed out.

”Jaeda you must let that servant in with the water and clean bandages,” she admonished as she used a clean towel to put pressure on the gash. Carefully she glided her hands over his torso to check for any contusions or fractures that might indicate more serious injuries internally. Satisfied that the leg was the most severe injury he currently had, Callista began working on cleaning it carefully and prepping it for sutures, letting her inner essences flow to guide her hands as they moved.

”Can you tell me what happened?” She asked the demon while keeping her eyes focused on her work.

"Apologies, his pain is rather...intense. Between that and being left to fend for himself against hunting clawstriders, I am rather agitated." The serpent turned its head away from the doorway so that it could try to ignore the comings and goings. It knew Chanekeh's taste anyway.

Callista had started glowing again as she tended to the sorcerer. The presence alone made Jaeda a bit...uncomfortable. Even if she didn't mean harm, it worried. "He managed to survive. Chanekeh is finding the limits of the Sun's Chosen. But he is not using their inherent strengths to begin. Next you'll find that Donovan and Rebekah have to placate the spirits because of his lessons."

The news that Sanjuro was testing the limits of the other Solars was troubling. Did it mean that he was experimenting to make sure he know how to eliminate them if the need arose? Callista didn’t want to think that way of Sanjuro, despite the rumors that followed the man. She’s seen how much he cared for May and his own people but sometimes she wondered if he would hesitate to plunge a knife in her breast should the Khal order it.

”Then I had better get our friend here well again so I can resume learning how to fight in case Sanjuro decides to send me up against some bandits,” she gave the serpent a slightly wry smile but she did not sound very amused. ”That means Sanjuro is not hurt or in danger then,” she said more to herself than to Jaeda since that is what his information lead her to believe. The princess took a deep breath and prepped the curved needle to stitch his leg back up. Even with her expert hands she worried about causing him discomfort but she was too concerned with mending him to hesitate.

Callista sighed as she cut the tread from the wound, satisfied that she had done the best she could. The essence infused wound should be gone by the morning and there wouldn’t even be a scar. It was a pity talents didn’t work on disease the same way. She then took a fresh towel and warm water to begin to gently work at cleaning the rest of the small cuts and bruises that covered his body humming softly as she did.

Eida came to into the world to a woman's soft melodic voice above him and careful hands washing his bare chest. Jaeda was near, but not on edge. The pain he remembered was lessening even as he opened his eyes. Her sweet brown eyes reflecting worry over him, and brought a weary smile to his face before he realized where they were and masked himself before Mayumi came up after noticing him stir.

"Princess, I meant for you to rest and recover. Now here I am needing attention. I am holding a terrible precedent." Jaeda blinked in the corner, taking up most of the room, a terrible emerald eye glowing in the darkness. "I hope that Jaeda is not troubling you. It is rather stubborn where I am concerned." The viper turned its head away as the sorcerer spoke, worry was not a vulnerability when survival was on the line.

A warm smile was returned for a moment even as her hands continued tending to him. Callista was glad to see him awake again. ”Jaeda has been well behaved and he shares my concerns for you. How are you feeling?” She asked as she stopped to place the back of her fingers on his cheek glad that he no longer felt warm and the color was returning to his complexion already. ”I will recover fine. You don’t need to worry about me but you will need to rest for the remainder of the night. This is my fault, I shouldn’t have asked you to go find those herbs for me.” Callista felt the weight of guilt on her, she had been so fixated on helping the townsfolk that she had not considered that she might be putting those she cared about in danger.

Eida lost himself for a minute. That moment her hand caressed him, he turned towards the contact, closing his eyes as he thought about Chanekeh's warning. These were likely the only moments he had, and it was for her own protection. Later, she would have to make that painful choice, but he should not hasten that decision.

"This is not your fault at all. He and I went in search of the solution to the problem instead. I went in a different direction so that you would not have to expend yourself. I lost my opportunity to confront who I needed to because Chanekeh choose that incident to gauge my skills. I will return tomorrow, and stop the sickness."

The princess let her hand linger for a moment longer before returning to her administrations still humming quietly off and on as she worked. It occurred to her that this was the second time she had tended to Eida but touching him did not feel awkward or alien in any way. She supposed being the princess, this kind of work was above her but she couldn’t imagine letting anyone else do it, especially for him.

”You cannot end up in my room every night injured,” she sighed but a part of her was touched that he had put so much effort to assist in helping the village. ”Thank you,” Callista said sincerely, stopping once again to look into his eyes. They were still filled with shadows and pain but she thought there was something more reflecting in them now. ”I will speak with Sanjuro about the proper time to test our skills. Tomorrow I will go with you.” She broke her gaze off again, anticipating his disapproval but she couldn’t sit idly by and let them do all the work.

"I will not dissuade you from your course, just be aware that I am heading into the forest to confront the plague-god that has established a living cult and is allowing its subjects to feed on the locals. I do not know its temperament, nor that of the cultists." As much as he wanted to leave her in the dark about this, she would go anyway, so she might as well be informed.

Eida yawned. Her abilities were wondrous, but the exertion had still tired him out, and that was before you factored in that he nearly bled out on the way back to town. "I am sorry, Princess, I will do my best to stay out...of...trouble..."Eida slipped into a dreamless sleep in Callista's bed as his body recovered.

A faint trail of dark mist wound its way out from between Jaeda's fangs as it watched on, pleased with itself.

A plague god explained a lot and why the people of the village didn’t seem to improve at all with regular care. Callista actually felt a jolt of anger at the thought of the thing keeping the people sick for its own benefit and was glad she was going along to help put it back in its place. An echoing memory seemed to stir of her former self chastising a volcano God in a rather violent but also verbal way. She blinked the thought away, there was no way she would ever act so aggressively. Is this the history of the gifts they were given?

”Good, I don’t want to worry about you any more than I already do,” she said touching his forehead as she stood. Callista resisted the urge to lean down and kiss his brow, although she had no idea why she had it in the first place. May was already moving her things to Eida’s room so that they could let the sorcerer rest in peace. The princess walked over to Jaeda on the way out and cautiously put her hand on the tip of his nose, she’d never touched the creature before but she didn’t think it would mind. ”Thank you for bringing him to me. You should go now so that the servants can see to him if needed, we will be close by to watch him.”

Jaeda let the woman touch it. The scales were cold as night and as smooth and hard as steel. "The workmen here won't come in here tonight, not as long as they think I creep. So I will stay. Besides, I wouldn't trust that they knew how to care for him like you do. His sorcerer was alive and recovering, sleeping like it needed him to. He still had a lot of growth to do, but Chanekeh wanted to direct him on an unnecessary path. Eida would become a dictator of paths if the demon had any say in it, not some scout and scavenger. And Callista was the route to use to get him there. As she grew into her role, she would need a skeptical man to judge the character of those coming to her. To judge loyalty and assure compliance. Her innocence would bring Eida to discover more about himself to protect that concept he didn't see in himself. Just the occasional nudge to keep them close together, and their own desires would work for it.

Just a small push tonight. The shadowy mist seeped once more from its great maw, barely detectable. It was only present for an instant, but that was long enough for Callista it to get into her system. She could fight it, but sleep would come.

”Alright then, just please don’t scare them too much if they do come in,” she smiled dropping her hand to go check on Eida one last time. She could have sworn for a second that she saw a mist in the room, which made no sense being in the arid season so she dismissed the notion. It had been a long day and once again she was spent but it was worth it to heal Eida, she owed him at least that much for staying by her side. Callista found herself sitting next to him bed, yawning as she did one last check of his bandages and put her hand on his head to make sure he had a fever. In a second her eyelids softly fluttered, dropped and her body sunk down against the headboard as she drifted off into sleep.

That night, thanks to the machinations of a certain demon, shared a dream. In some indefinite time frame, Callista and Eida stole out to the orchard of Terenuthis in secret. Taking each other's hands, they made sure they weren't followed before taking a circuitous route to the blossoming Sakura.

Callista giggled as Eida shushed her, but they were both smiling as if they had no cares, even within the palace walls where they knew the Khal's word was law. A ring of trees grew around them, hiding the two of them from curious eyes that may have strayed into the landscape. They spotted Persica, who just glanced knowingly at the two of them before disappearing to leave them alone.

The two fell into the soft grass at the base of the tree, content to be in each other's company. Hours passed with pleasant conversations of planned outings and festivals to come. As the sun set and the two of them got up to return to their respective worlds, Eida pulled Callista into a protective embrace. With a gentle hand, he tilted her chin up so that he looked into her eyes. An indescribable emotion flooded into their bodies as Eida kissed her lightly on the lips.

The kiss lingered on even as they pulled away from each other. Eida put a finger to his lips, urging her to keep their secret. A tall, dark man in a violet cowl sat up in the tree, unseen and unheard, His eyes glittering green in shadows cast by his hood. The dream ended as a breeze picked up, scattering pink petals through the air, blinding everyone in a flurry.