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trans_92010-04-21 08:24 pm
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Entry tags:
The Long Sleep [Open]
[ This takes place after the exorcism of Haku thread. ]
Haku woke slowly, with an ache in his head that was like a deep bruise, tender and throbbing. For a long while, he simply stared at the ceiling, and remembered what it was like to breathe. In....out, the texture of the air in his mouth was strangely liberating. He affected a sigh, just to prove he could do so on command, a soft twitch that broke the spell of paralysis that sleep had cast on him. Real sleep, good sleep, not the forced, painful sleep he'd kept since the Nightmare King's corruption had taken hold.
It took a little effort to pull himself onto his elbows. Someone had covered him with a thick blanket and it was heavy enough to give him pause in pushing it back. His feet were bare when he swung them over the edge of the bed— his feet had always been bare, and thankfully he was dressed in his own Hakama and not the clinging plantsuit. Haku had had enough of close-clinging and constriction for a long while. The floor felt strange under his feet, and for a moment he staggered in trying to stand, as if the intervening days of sleeping had made him forget.
...and then he remembered what had happened, and between the revulsion and his own unsteadiness he had to sit. What had he done? What the must think of him.
Haku woke slowly, with an ache in his head that was like a deep bruise, tender and throbbing. For a long while, he simply stared at the ceiling, and remembered what it was like to breathe. In....out, the texture of the air in his mouth was strangely liberating. He affected a sigh, just to prove he could do so on command, a soft twitch that broke the spell of paralysis that sleep had cast on him. Real sleep, good sleep, not the forced, painful sleep he'd kept since the Nightmare King's corruption had taken hold.
It took a little effort to pull himself onto his elbows. Someone had covered him with a thick blanket and it was heavy enough to give him pause in pushing it back. His feet were bare when he swung them over the edge of the bed— his feet had always been bare, and thankfully he was dressed in his own Hakama and not the clinging plantsuit. Haku had had enough of close-clinging and constriction for a long while. The floor felt strange under his feet, and for a moment he staggered in trying to stand, as if the intervening days of sleeping had made him forget.
...and then he remembered what had happened, and between the revulsion and his own unsteadiness he had to sit. What had he done? What the must think of him.
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She stayed in the medbay - between Tycho and Haku she'd spent far too much time here recently - so she would know when he awoke. The sound of cloth stirring, the bed creaking reached her ears and she sat up and stretched.
"Good morning," she said softly. She wasn't really sure how she should address Haku - she'd spoken his full, true name twice, and through picking it apart and building the spell, she probably knew more about him than he had ever wanted anyone to know. "Are you feeling well again?"
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"I'm fine," He replied, quite softly, and set a hand on the folded-back coverlet in a gesture of invitation, "What happened?"
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Her voice trailed off into a questioning tone. Of course she wanted to believe in the integrity of her own wizardry, but her own wizardry had not been one hundred percent functional on board for a long while.
"Oh, and the thing managed to break clear out of one of the cells in the brig. We have someone repairing it, but... the bars are fairly warped."
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"I feel fine," he repeated, then on impulse stroked his hand down Rhiow's back, "I got my name back."
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Later, she thought. When he was well enough to walk around on his own power again. "I'm glad," she said. "Like I said, the wizardry was a little ticklish - I was worried I had forgotten a parameter or something..." her whiskers twitched. "And that was some awful black gunk you vomited all over Dh'aim'hon at the end of it."
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"I guess you know everything now."
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"...Yes," she said simply. "One of the unfortunate side effects of working a wizardry that extensive on someone."
The People were very private creatures. It was more than fair to say that she understood.
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"You're a good cat, Rhiow," Haku put his hand flat on the bed and gave the cat an unreadable green stare. It was, after all, tradition that those who served Kami were given boons that brought luck as well as practical use, "And a good friend. I know you'll live this life well."
And so, he gave it to her.
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Thank him for the boon, fifth-lifer.
It had been a long time since she'd heard the echo of the Silent One's voice in her ears for anything but help with the variables of a spell - she had given up thinking that it would ever go back the way it used to be, where the Whisperer spoke just for the sake of speaking, but this...
Wait.
Fifth-lifer?
"You..." she said, her eyes growing round in surprise. She had given that life to buy the energy she needed to battle the Tearer the last time she had faced Her. She had settled into the thought that she was now into her sixth... had he really given it back?
A growling laugh at the back of her mind made her remember the rest of the Silent One's words. "Thank you," she said, still stunned.
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"It's the least I could do," He murmured, smiling, "I was in darkness, and it was your voice that called to me. You deserve it."
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It was something she had already come to accept, the fact that laying down her life - or lives - in the line of duty was likely to happen to her... was expected, usually. Wizards sometimes lived long and happy lives, but they were most frequently the exception rather than the rule.
She flipped her tail back and forth. "No more than I would have done for anyone," she said. "The Oath is to preserve life, wherever possible." Had it cost him something to do this for her?
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If she'd asked, he would have told her bluntly that it had. The years of a Kami, and their fate weren't like those of a cat, or a human. You could take a decade from a human life, and know that that would shorten it. Do the same to a spirit, and it might have the opposite effect— or it might have ten times the normal. Right now, Haku didn't see the point in hoarding his resources any longer.
What was the point? He was tired.
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She ducked her head, her ears going out sideways. Wizards on Earth didn't generally get thanked - for anything. Feline wizards were like Manhattan's subway workers; desperately needed, keeping things running smoothly, but completely invisible nine times out of ten. And if commuting wizards did notice them, it was probably because something had gone wrong that they needed to fix.
"I didn't do it for the thanks, is what I'm trying to say," she muttered. "Or for any kind of reward. Not that I'm ungrateful."
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Haven't you read any fairy tales, Rhiow? It is those that act selflessly that are rewarded, not those looking for reward.
A comfortable silence settled in.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused," He said, finally, "I could have killed you. I should have expected it, especially with the form the Nightmare took, and instead I walked right into a trap."
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She began licking her paw and washing her face, staring off into space, pensive. "That One rides us all sometimes, and sometimes we can't get out of it on our own. There's no shame in that."
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He was tired, felt heavy and light-headed, so naturally he ignored it and instead studied the floor. Would it be better or worse to stay in the bed, or in the stagnant, harsh-bottomed pool at the Outsider's? He hated the concrete, and the taste of the paint in the water, but longed for the soothing weight of the water.
Haku thought about the cell and shuddered. No, he'd had enough of concrete boxes, for now.
"Would you like to hear the story?"
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"The spell was only part of the solution. Ha-t'hara and I talked to Stacy and... she's built you a river."
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What?
"W...what?" he whispered, utterly confused. To save his life was one thing, but...a River? How could there ever be room for— and on Stacy?
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"In the city," she said by way of confirmation. "We haven't started running water through it yet, but it starts in Escherville and runs all the way back behind the Garou temple, where the water gets recycled into Stacy's pipes and comes back out of the wellspring."
Her voice got soft and quiet for a moment as she studied her paws. "I saw it in your name," she said. "That you were without... I thought, if we could help with that, it would make something like the corruption less likely to happen in the future?"
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The idea of a dry riverbed out there, waiting for him, was enough to make his hands shake.
"I..." He began, then finally turned to actually look at Rhiow, but only found himself able to lamely croak, "I see."
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"I couldn't do anything less, kami-sama," she said. "I don't leave things half-finished."
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The urgency that rose in him, to get out, to see it wasn't unexpected, but it still caught him flat-footed nonetheless. His voice was embarrassingly soft when he asked,"Where is it?"
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"I'm fine," he insisted dully, much annoyed.
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She switched her tail, feeling a little strange scolding a Power - a Power that had just granted her the gift of another life.
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