† Kohryn †
The expression Mikhail wore gave her an acute sense of dysphoria.
Usually large, his smiles made his eyes crescent sweetly and drew in those around him.
This smile was small, didn't reach up to crinkle his eyes. It was different from the smiles he gave to the world. This was miniscule and doughy. It was the first time she had seen him deviate.
"The Wheel of Fate." He held the card out for her to view.
It took Kohryn a moment to look away, her eyes lingering a few seconds more on his strange smile. With a bit of drag she did finally see the card. A simple wheel in choppy print sitting center of an otherwise empty rectangle. "What does it mean?"
"Divine destiny. It symbolizes the beginning of fated change and transformation."
Anxiety, sweet and sour all the same, mixed in with her dysphoria at his words. That softened smile still pressed into his features suddenly felt as if it were just for her. When their eyes met again, Kohryn found herself doing something unexpected. She reached out and gently set her hand upon his, lightly pushed the outheld card down from the space between them. She wanted him to put the card away. She didn't want him to smile at her like that.
Hands still touching, contact that felt like cool static, she watched Mikhail's eyes just slightly widened and his smile faltered, drawing his lips into a flattened 'o'.
...
"What are you guys up to?" Talis' voice suddenly cut through the tension between them.
Kohryn flinched, withdrawing her hand.
Talis gracefully crossed her legs coming to sit with them, skirts fanning around her. "I almost didn't see you back here in the shade."
It was Kohryn who answered, Mikhail's gaze burning into her. "Mikhail was just showing me the stuff he bought. Did you find anything you liked?"
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† Mikhail †
He had hardly heard a word the two women spoke to one another. Instead most of his focus had been trained on his hand that lay in his lap. Still pinching the oracle card.
When Kohryn had touched him, a chilled whisper had leapt into his skin. Like the hollow winds of an endless chasm.
She had slowly yet firmly pushed his hand and the card down. He was so blown back that he lowered his hand with her, letting her guide it down. The only time she had touched him was when she had dressed his burns and even then she had deftly avoided direct skin to skin contact. The gauze served as a barrier while she wrapped up his wounds.
For a moment it had excited him. The whisper of static. The promise of endless depth. Almost enough to lull the demon out of the corner he had shoved it into to keep it out of the sight of the witch.
The way her eyes had hardened and her unspoken disregard of the oracle card felt like a stinging slap of silent rejection.
It left Mikhail blinking. She had spoken to him bluntly before, told him no, leaned away from him, outright avoided him, but this was different. As soon as the card was out of sight the tension that swam in her eyes dimmed. The card that he had pulled countless times. The card that had led him here. The very same card that she had now also drawn. As soon as it was away from her she looked relieved. It was as if she had simply rejected fate. Rejected him.
Oh gods. Mikhail internally shook his head. He must be overthinking this right? He hadn't been pursuing the woman romantically. She was small, bordering androgynous, not necessarily his type. Sure he and the demon really liked the mystery of who and what she was, but it wasn't like his interests had been so meaningful. So why did his chest ache a little? Was it because of the oracles and their occasionally intimate readings?
"Are you okay?"
Huh? His attention was brought back to the moment to find that Kohryn was staring at him, head slightly tilted. He was faintly aware that Talis had dismissed herself while he had retreated into his thoughts.
She looked at him with her big yellow eyes asking of his well being after she had rejected him. He wanted to be annoyed. No, no, no. He was making this into something it wasn't surely. If she had rejected him the skittish woman would have already excused herself, right? She always had his thoughts reeling. She makes me feel so uneasy sometimes.
Kohryn's neck pulled back ever so slightly and her eyes seemed to tense as she looked away from him. "Oh. I… I didn't know you felt that way."
Horror sunk through his stomach, digging its way into the ground. He had said that out loud! "Fuck. I didn't mean it like that." He was shaking his head, waving hands. "You just…"
Shit. She wasn't looking at him and it made his earlier speculation of rejection hit harder. His heart raced a little and the demon stirred. It was angry. Upset at him and his fumble. Angry he'd ruin the chances of piecing together her puzzle. Pissed he might have hurt her feelings.
"It's alright. I mean most people feel-".
"No, no, no." He raked a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, Kohryn. What I meant was that you confuse me. You can be very mysterious sometimes and I don't know what to think." He was suddenly rambling, and it was so unlike him. "You… I'm so… It's just…"
Her attention finally came back to him. That sad look in her eyes returned, amplifying. "It's alright. You… make me feel a little uneasy as well."
Mikhail clapped his mouth shut. A weird sense of relief filled him at eye contact.
"You don't treat me how everyone else does and I don't understand why you hang around me. Everyone thinks I'm..." She pulled a hand up to rub the ends of her hair. An anxious action. "...different."
Mikhail winced at her words. He'd seen first hand how the people treated her and now he was worried that she would think that he also secretly harbored those discriminating feelings.
"I want to be your friend, Kohryn." He was a liar and there were other reasons he wanted to know her–to unravel to the wheel of fate, discover her strange powers and how he was involved, but that still didn't belittle the honesty in his words.
Kohryn nodded once then twice. "It makes me uncomfortable," Mikhail's breath hitched, fresh thoughts of rejection squeezing his lungs, "but I would also like to be your friend." Her voice was small and, for once, didn't carry a monotonous tone. It came out in a timid whisper.
He let out an enraptured breath, his lips curling into a smile, slightly different from the one earlier that had Kohryn on edge. Both were genuine and deviating. This smile, however, looked easier in its curve, more plush in its twist.
Her lips, pulled a little at the edges, odd and unpracticed, her little smile looked more like a grimace. But he was certain it was a smile because a slight blush reddened the tip of an ear peeking through her sleek black hair.
"Shall we head out then? It's starting to get a little late." He held out a hand. "I'll walk you home."
Sure enough the sun was starting its descent into the horizon and lanterns and torches were beginning to light the market.
Kohryn nodded, eyes sweeping the landscape, taking note of her surroundings.
Mikhail enjoyed how observational the little woman was.
With a moment of hesitancy her hand curled into his, the first bit of full contact they shared, and the chasm opened up to him. The demon twirled giddily and Mikhail couldn't erase the timid smile on his face.
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† Era †
Era had lived in the astral plane for countless millennia now but the three days it took Kohryn to return felt like the longest days of his entire life.
After being violently smacked into the Door of Dreams, he had fallen to the Still Sea. The gate was eternal and would reappear elsewhere as if it had never been damaged, but his Skyhaven Terrace would take time to rebuild itself.
Pieces of it were sluggishly floating upwards on a slow mission to reform. Granite rubble littered the air, the largest of the pieces had still not left their positions upon the surface of the water.
An ominous red sky hung overhead, clinging like an unshed skin of doom upon the reflection of the water. Despite the flood of red on the world, Skyhaves ruins remained unstained and creamy white, refusing to accept the intrusion of scarlet color.
He weaved through floating wreckage in a sedated pace. Every second ticked by with nerve grating slowness, but he did his best to appear calm. He kept his shoulders pressed back and his expression level. The only indication of his inner turmoil was the gentle pace of his travel, moving in circles through the rubble.
He must have been on his thousandth figure eight when Kohryn finally appeared. He had made one turn alone, crossed between ruins, and on the next turn, there she was. Picking herself up from being planted facedown on the Sea.
Era stilled, smiling at the sight of the hauntingly ethereal girl rising off of the sea. She was pale and glowing in that special way souls from the material realm did. She lit up the red dyed world like an alabaster and moonlit yellow flame. Skin and eyes aglow, face stained by the beauty mark above her lip and that black hair that ate up all the light.
He loved the look of her the moment he had seen her in the Skyhaven. She was morose yet surging with inner power and authority, the quiet kind. The kind that sat below the surface yet didn't remain unrecognized. She is what he had wished to look like. A wistful envy tickled his throat.
Era held his breath, waiting for her to see him. Kohryn was using a special part of the soul that traveled to the astral realm while the body slept. It was a part that was not apt to carry the capacity for memory. It took repetitive visits and practice to remember dreams and he was unsure if she would recall her first visit.
She went to wring out the water from her clothes , but every drop of the Still Sea always remained in its body, and she found herself dry.
Kohryn's eyes caught his before she had even released her clutch on her night shirt.
During their last encounter he had admired her observant spirit. The way her eyes scanned over her surroundings, like she was trying to see every last little detail of the world around her. She did that now. Eyes flowing over rubble and sky and sea and him.
A slight smile lit her porcelain face. "Era, right?"
Era silently nodded, returning her smile.
"...we've met before?" One hand twisted into the cloth of her pants while the other stoked her chin.
"We have."
"A dream." She said, becoming more confident in her vague recollections. There came a stillness between them, Kohryn in concentration, combing through thoughts and Era patiently waiting.
"We were interrupted." Kohryn looked at the red sky then and a little tenseness returned to her posture, which had momentarily eased at the sight of Era.
Era held out a hand. "I think it might be best to head a little further in. It'll be safe to discuss things if we put some distance between us and that." That being the red coating upon the sky.
Kohryn didn't think twice about accepting Eras' hand. The seemingly long distance between them fell in only a few strides and her fingers readily slid into his light grip. The warmth of their touch creating a hearth between their skin.
She looked around as she relaxed into the feeling. "Where do we go?" The Still Sea encompassed their existence, no end in sight.
Era looked down at the waters beneath them.
Kohryn gasped as she realized the depth of the water they stood on. Its clear waters fading into an abyss with no floor in sight.
Eras' grip tightened on her own. "Do not fear. You will not fall in. It takes great physical force to break the surface of the Still Sea."
"If we can not break the surface then how do we travel further in?" Era watched as Kohryn flickered, her image waving and blurring as she questioned the reality of the world.
He began to rub lazy circles on the back of her hand. "Take deep breaths. Don't question it too much. Or else you'll think yourself awake. Remember, I'm here to guide you. Do you trust me?"
Kohryn took breaths choosing to maintain looking at Era instead of the surface of the water. Her pulse became more steady until her image was once again solid. She slowly nodded and the words came easy from her lips. "I trust you."
"Physical force can not break its waters but other kinds of force can, magical powers and mental fortitude."
She tilted her chin. "I don't know how to use magic."
"Don't worry for now, I can take us in." He gave her hand another squeeze. "Are you ready?"
"Yes-
Before Kohryn could finish her words Era was falling forward, wrapping her in his embrace and pulling her with him. His pretty silken robes swallowed her body as small petals of tiny white flowers littered their path of tumble.