helantri deru

---

Makyon decides that he is an absolute brute at making tea, but after a short time his methods yield success. He takes up a tray and heads outside to offer Yoru a cup... if she is still awake. It occurs to him that he ought to pretend she doesn't exist, but something in his polite sector says he ought not to treat her like a leper.

"Yoru," he whispers, thinking that if she doesn't hear him it still counts as asking. "You awake?"

"Makyon?"

Damn!

"Next tree, pet!"

The slip mage takes a step forward, heading towards the indicated pine, and quite suddenly vanishes. He reappears, still in midstep, on a platform next to Yoru's tree. The Serinian in question is stretched out on a thick branch, sitting pretty. She smiles at him, ears flicking amusedly.

"I brought some tea," he explains, showing her the tray. "Do you like tea?"

Yoru shakes her head. "I don't know, pet. Do you like Ting?"

He blinks. "Of course. Why do you..."

"Do you like me?" She sits up, perfectly feline in method if not appearance.

"Well..."

"Yes, Yoru."

Makyon's lip twitches. "Yes, Yoru. Do you want some tea, or not?"

Yoru's ears droop. "No need to snap," she laments. "I asked you to come here, anyway."

"What? When?"

"Don't tell me you came out here willingly."

"Well..."

"Look." Yoru creeps closer to him, balancing precariously on the branch. "I need somebody. Felina has Orrin. Mara has that scary man. I need somebody."

"You know, you should consider charm school, Yoru."

"Consider what?"

"Nevermind."

Yoru sighs. "I suppose I will never fit in here. I don't understand charm school, Makyon, or making out, or talking parasols. And it is obvious to me that I am not wanted here, either. You are too busy with... with that spotted Ting!"

Makyon steps back a bit. Yoru is getting increasingly worked up, and to say that he is not a little afraid of her is to dodge the truth.

"Don't leave," she begs him, "I won't let you leave." Her eyes flash, and a spark of psychic energy passes from Serinian to revenant. He can hear the bones in his legs cracking before the pain registers in his mind.

The tray tumbles to the forest floor.

Yoru leaps onto the platform, shoving the slip mage hard to its transparent surface. She looms over him, fangs bared, mischeif darkening her features.

"You cannot scream for help," she warns him, "so don't try. I like you. I don't want to hurt you but I will, if you make me." Her little hand stretches out, fingers combing through his long, dark hair. "Mine."

Felina appears only a few feet off to the side. "Just what's going on here?" She spots Makyon's legs, and her features darken and harden to true ice. "Yoru, what are you doing?" The revenant immediately begins to knit via a remote spell.

"Punishing him," Yoru answers, looking at Felina with innocent eyes. "He hates me. He thought bad things about me, even as he offered me tea. He thinks I am a leper."

"People are nice to people who are nice to them. You threw a fan at him, and dropped him out of a tree. Those aren't nice things no matter how they turned out. It would have taken awhile to convince him to like you again after them. Since you just broke his legs on purpose, he's probably not ever like you again now. That's the way people work." Of course, she's planning how to jump to Makyon's defense despite awkward positions in case her own words are dangerously inflammatory.

"No, no! He'll like me." Yoru looks down at Makyon. "Won't you?"

"If you get the hell off me we'll talk," he half-growls.

Yoru just shakes her head. "I don't understand at all. Stupid, stupid... hmph!" She gets up, moves aside to let Makyon get out of the way. Her ears flick with irritation. "I know what to do. You just tell me where my parasol is and I will leave. And then we won't have to worry about if people like me!"

"I can't do that, Yoru. It's dangerous." Felina is quick to move to make sure Makyon is mended, help him up, and get him the hell behind her. Or at least to a more defendable position not so damning to his pride. Her eyes remain on Yoru. "You're welcome to stay here as long as you aren't hurting people. But I won't give you the parasol."

Makyon doesn't mind in the least. He's strong, sure, but Yoru practically ripped him in half with a thought. He prefers living over hubris.

Yoru's innocent eyes come out again. "You can't keep it, it's mine. I can hear it screaming at me, all the time! And I want it more than anything. I have to have it!"

Felina's expression doesn't change. Damage to a friend and apprentice means no-bullshit mode has been activated. "I can, and I am. I'll destroy it soon so that you don't have to hear its calls, but I won't allow you to take it back. It's not yours, anyway. I recently met up with an old friend who asked me about it. He made it, for himself, and had stored it in Mara's home."

The innocent eyes flash away. "Destroy it...?" Yoru's fangs bare. "You will not. You will not!" The overwhelming urge to attack is there, roaring at her body to act accordingly. Still, part of her mind is hesitating, holding her back. "Please don't make me do anything bad...!"

"I'm not." Felina's eyes calm, and she holds up an unarmed hand. "Yoru, you are in control of yourself. You are you, and you make your own choices. I can't make you attack me, or do something bad. Come on...we were doing pretty well with the 'friends' thing."

Yoru's expression turns again, inexplicably dismal. "We both know," she whispers, "that I can't stop what... I am becoming, Felina."

Down below, Yue emerges from the house, presumably with Ting. He looks up, ready to charge, but holds his ground for now.

Ting holds her ground too, ears somewhat back...just watching.

Felina's eyes sadden as well...with truly empathic sympathy, somwhow. Constructs...she's met so many. And so few had managed to resist their ingrained natures. "Yoru...I know it's hard. Hell, I know it approaches impossible. I'm just doing everything I can, trying to make it possible. Because I have an ingrained nature too, Yoru. I am a protector. And if I'm a protector, and you become a destroyer...well. Whatever else you are, you're sharp. I don't need to spell it out for you." Her voice and stance, though not entirely lacking for defense, are just truly sad at this point, bordering on pleasing.

"Yoru, I don't want that to happen. Because I know it's not your fault. The man who created you was a terrible creature. He's the one making this happen. He's also the one making the parasol call to you, it's why I can't give it back. But...I know, none of this is your fault, Yoru. But if we can work together...it's not impossible to win."

"I can't... endanger your family any more." Yoru's fists raise. She takes a fighting stance. "You have to stop me. Give me the parasol, Felina, or make me die trying...!" Tears stream down her cheeks, but she isn't backing up.

Felina's eyes stricken, although her defensive stance hardens by necessity. "Yoru...no...there has to be another way..." Meanwhile, she urges Makyon away with a telepathic nudge.

He knows enough to phase shift away.

Yoru shakes her head. She fights it, but cannot help the sob that escapes her lips.

"I don't want to die." She shakes her head.

Lunges.

Just as her feet leave the platform the air around them splits open. Sorcery burns so thick in the air that Yoru can literally smell it, dragging both Serinians into a gash in the very essence of the universe, dragging them both to Istan Aiga.

"Eep!" Ting's eyes widen. Her senses are going nuts for several moments, searching and trying to figure out what just happened, before her momentarily rigid stance relaxes just a little. "Eee...well, I guess that's good...Yoru's probably more powerful than my mom, but she and Moorn together can take her no problem...." Still, her ears are drooping at all of this. She may act like a ditz, but she knows enough to see the writing on the wall.

Yue is not shocked in the least by what he's just seen. "I wondered how long it would take for your mother to get whisked away. She is good at that. And..." he pauses. "Your mom and who now?"

"That Radivishe Moorn creepy guy. Radish. Radivishe. Whatever. Yes. Mom doesn't like him, and he doesn't like mom, and I think they have a really nasty history? But he kind of broke hell and they're on pretty neutral terms right now. But! They're both really really strong so if something goes bad I don't think there's any real danger there."

Yue sighs. "The last time I was around, he was dead. But the things they did to each other... it makes me cringe. How they could possibly be on neutral terms is beyond me. So... what do we do now?"

Ting pretends she isn't affected by yet another mention of "the things they did to one another. "Yeah he hasnt' been back long either, 'bout a year. Actually, that's about when Makyon came here! Mom was getting really creeped out at all the dead people from her past. Hee. And...now we rock back and forth on our heels and mutter things!" Speaking of which, she hops over to Makyon. "You intact? And did you spill the tea?"

Makyon isn't feeling very responsive right about now. He looks at Ting, smiles a little, and gestures to the tray lying on the ground.

"Yeah, I spilled it. Sorry." He shrugs. "Was a little distracted."

Yue heads over that way, still swishing when he walks. He would probably swish even if he was on fire, though.

"Ting. We might ought to leave him be for now. Believe me, I understand a thing or two about the pride of a man."

Ting's ears tilt. She looks back down to Makyon, and her head does, too. "Is that right? I'd be happy to wander off if you want me to." She grins. "I never have trouble entertaining myself, and all."

"I'm sorry, Ting. We'll play cards later, alright?"

Yue lays his hand on Ting's shoulder, gently guiding her to walk with him to the house.

Ting starts whistling a pretty tune about halfway to the house, just for something to do. "I'd say that things get weird when you come around," she notes finally, then grins. "Except this is pretty much business as usual."

"Oh, I can imagine. Felina always had a knack for getting in trouble. Actually... if you have time, I think a nice embarassing story or ten is in order. A little girl talk, what do you say?" Yue bats his long lashes at her. "And then we can talk makeup tips."

"Hee...sounds fun! Except...makeup doesn't work so well when your lips are dark grey and your face is spotted black. Hee. But embarassing stories rock."

Yue looks at her. "Honey, you are looking at the greatest makeup artist in the history of cosmetics. Just look at me, after all." He fluffls out his hair and gives her a slow, suggestive wink complete with saucy smile and half-pout. "But yes. Want to hear about how I met her?"

Ting is giggling just a little at Yue's antics, and then nods. "Sure! It looks like you two have known each other a really long time, huh?"

"Not in the grand scheme of thins, no." This coming from someone who saw existence invert and revert this morning. "When we met, it was in a place that doesn't exist anymore. A whole city within a force dome, cut off from everything. Your mother could pass through it, though." And he proceeds to relate the story of Momo and Felina, drunken Momo and Felina, and the search for the dimensional shard.

"The Golden," he explains, "wanted her. So they sent a man named Leon to get her."

Ting has gotten them tea by this point...and is somewhere between amused and ensconsed in the story. "Was he cute?" Priorities.

"Mm..." Yue sips the tea, thinking. "I didn't think so. He was not ugly, or even plain, just not my type. He had a very cute personality, though, and the way he doted on his wife sweetened him even more. Anyway, he was peeping on your mother taking a bath..."

Ting blinks. Twice. Then cracks up. "Oh, dear! Did his wife pick him up from the hospital?"

"Well... actually, he made it out without a scratch. Back then your mom just didn't seem to care. And no offense to her, but it isn't as if she has much to hide. Honestly, if she would just listen to Mara-kuru's advice on curves..." Yue is starting to ramble, but he snaps himself back into attention. "Or mine, even. And there's nothing wrong with being naked, no matter what anyone tells you."

"Oh, I know!" Ting purrs, but then titters. "So what happened next?"

"Well. Leon and his wife Alma were members of the elite enforcer unit in Dome, but they felt that the Crown and the chief enforcer were neither capable nor just in their rule. Leon had come to try and talk your mother into joining their cause, and using her greatness to try and make things right. Momo and Felina became friends and I, being Momo's guardian, followed suit."

"Leon's insubordination turned into chaos turned into all sorts of unpleasant things. It was during this time that Felina was given the knowledge and power of a Golden, and was forced to wear a dress." Yue sips his tea. "Pity she hates them. She looks fabulous in them."

"Hee. Well, she wears them sometimes when she's going out with dad. Maybe you can set her up with some fashion advice for the next time she does." Ting's amused at the thought, but nods enthusiastically.

"If it is any indication, I wept like a baby the last time I saw her closet." Yue grins again at Ting. It's like... Mara without the open trisexuality. "But of course Felina found herself in the middle of the confrontation, inevitably becoming involved in a plot that stole a girl's body from her to give to a witch. Felina was very upset, I think, that she couldn't save her."

"I'm sure she was. Mom's good slash self-punishing that way." Ting's ear press back a touch...she wonders if Yoru is going to be next on that list. "Well...did they find a way to fix the girl?"

"The witch was working on it when I left. I haven't seen her since, but I am sure she did. She had scary talent." Yue looks into his glass. "Felina has a way of making very odd friends. I don't think anyone she knows even runs a pedestrian risk of being called normal."

Ting smiles a sweet smile. "Have you met our pet chimera?" Oh yeah. Case in point.

Yue tilts his head. "Makyon? Based on those pants, I could swear part of him is horse." Winks.

Ting snickers. "You would know. You've had your eye on him for...wait. How long is that?"

"Makyon? About an hour, maybe." Yue blinks. "Ah... yes, the body. Well, let me think... I met Kaies just a very short time before he died, actually. He and Felina had precious little time together, less than a glimmer in creation's eye. He always blushed around me too, as soon as I proposed Felina share him with me. Of course she was invited, but you know your mother."

"Well...maybe if you asked really nicely..." Ting laughs a bit at the thought.

"Now," a third voice inquires, a smirk in it already, "who was that that still owed me a dance?"

Now that she knows the history, Ting laughs, and grins at her father when the dumen walks in.

"Orrin...!" Yue is not one to pounce, not really. But if he was, he would. As it is he heads over to the Dumen with his typical click-and-shake and throws his slender arms around Orrin, resting his chin on the shorter fellow's shoulder.

"He went," he whispers, "and became a father. Ugh, you horrible beast."

"I have a son for you to pick on," Orrin points out. He laughs and hugs the effiminate creature. "Yue! It's good to see you, where have you been all this time?"

"Oh, here and there. Getting my beauty sleep." He steps back, smiling beautifully. "It worked wonderfully, as you can see. The years have been kind to you it seems. Your daughter is a treat of a lady, as well."

"As I can see! And, isn't she, though?" Orrin smiles over at his daughter a moment, before looking back to Yue. "Have you met Dewei yet, by the way? I'm not sure whether he's around or not."

"I haven't had the pleasure of your son yet, Orrin." Yue looks back at Ting. "So, we simply must reminisce. I have just been telling Ting about your Felina's escapades in the Dome, and might have gone on about Inverse Time given the opportunity. Seeing her in an evening gown was like... ah yes, but you know."

"Suffice it to say that it's not my favorite thing that I've seen her in...but breathtaking, yes." He looks over to Ting. "Oh, don't give me that look. Where do you think you come from?"

"Creepy parents." Spot nods.

Orrin grins at her, and looks back to Yue. "She does have a couple of gowns I think you'd approve of by this point, though." Smiles, and nods. "They see use maybe twice a century, but she looks beautiful in them."

Yue's carefully sculpted eyebrow lifts. "And how do you look in them? Or was it the alcohol that brought that on?"

Ting's eyebrow lifts. She's about one point three seconds from bursting into hysterics.

"I...ah..." glances at his daughter, then back to Yue. "Peer pressure." He grins.

Hysterics.

"Well put, Dad," Yue acknowledges with an admiring nod. It feels so nice to be back with people, and even though he has a nagging sort of worry for Felina in his mind that was never anything unusual. He glances at Ting, amused to no end by her. 'I suppose I should stop embarassing you now, dear. Come and sit with us, though!"

"Oh, if you force me." Orrin gris, and finds a seat. "So, I'd certainly expect Felina to be here with you. Any inkling of where my dear wife's gotten to?"

"Oh, nowhere unusual. Fate of the universe again." Yue nods, taking a seat as well. Normally, he would have plopped his shapely behind onto Orrin's lap and teased him some more. But Ting's presence reminds him that it might not be such a good idea to fawn all over a father, even in fun. He's really not too deep on the specifics here, but as luck would have it his ignorance on the matter is spared when Makyon slinks in as well. "Oh, good. You, tell Orrin what happened."

If Yue weren't so beautiful Makyon might have said no. It is tough for him to imagine saying anything negative with those eyes devouring him.

"Yoru snapped," he explains in as limited terms he can manage. "She was arguing with Felina when Moorn called them both to his planet."

"I see..." Orrin nods, then manages a smile. "Oh, well. I'm sure that an accord will be reached one way or the other before long, then...Makyon, are you all right? You seem...off."

"I just got my legs broken and fixed by cat women. On top of it I spilled the god damned tea." He shrugs. "I'm just reflecting."

"Mm.." the dumen nods again, considering that. Nice. That would why Fel took after Yoru. "Well, if it's a pick-me-up in any way--and you didn't hear this from me, mind you--I happen to have overheard something about a certain long-eared lady thinks that you're really doig remarkably well with the current skills asigned to you, and that a few days off in the very near future may be in order if you want them, after which she'll move you on to the next skill set, because she thinks you're more than ready."

Orrin smiles, shrugs, and pours himself some tea. "But, you know. The grapevine's a funny thing."

Ting grins. "Hee. Yay Makyon! Well, we have more tea and no psychos to spoil it sit down?" She tilts her head, trying to look just as cute as she can. She doesn't like it when people she likes aren't happy.

"No more psychos indeed," Yue tuts. "You might as well sit. You won't get any peace until you do."

Reluctantly, he does. He lightens up some at Ting's cuteness, and of course, takes the nearest chair to hers.

"So Orrin. Have you made any interesting new trinkets lately? It seems my parasol was, ah, preemptively stolen by someone else..." Yue leans back, relaxing a little bit. It is nice to be somewhere with cushions.

"Trinkets, yes...not much that I haven't melted down again; I'm still getting back on my game after being out of practice so long. I am experimenting a bit with a new scabbard design for Felina's Culheru, though."

"Out of... practice?" Yue glances to Ting and Makyon, a puzzled look in his eyes that makes him look just indescribably cute. It screams vulnerability. "Whatever are you talking about?"

Ting grins. Hee. Yue really is a doll. She needs to take cute-ing lessons from him. Master and prodigy?

"Ahhh...right. Sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up." The dumen scritches his hair, and laughs sheepishly. "I forgot you're a bit behind on family happenings. So...hm." How to phrase this. "I got thirty years of beauty sleep, too. Yay me!"

"Oh, and it shows," Yue nods. "Why, though? I know I was gassed by a hypertime skunk monster. What's your excuse?"

"Oh, some silliness about getting in a fight with someone who threatened my wife and him thinking it was a better idea to curse me." The dumen shrugs. "Oh, for the record?" He grins, and sips his tea. "He won."

Yue just giggles, as though it's terribly funny. "And yet here you are! Hey..." he pauses, glancing at Ting. "Ting dear. Did you parents ever mention me to you, previously?"

"Yus! Here and there. It's fun to hear stories of things mom's done, and dad's done too...till I get bored! Then I go and dance or beat something and then I can listen some more." Ting grins. "But, I did have some idea of who you were, more or less, when you showed up."

His eyes twinkle. "Lovely. Orrin, I think I would like to bond with your daughter a bit. Would you mind if I asked her to take me someplace nice?"

Orrin smiles, and shakes his head. "Certainly not. It could be fun."

Ting beams. "Yup!" Ah, brevity.

"Is now a good time?" Yue gets up, clasping his hands at his waist with a smirk. "I have been sleeping for too long. I feel like dancing!"

"Sure! How should I dress?" Ting tilts her head. She's dressed reasonably snappishly, but casually...a sleeveless white top, cropped a bit but not too much, that fades to fishnet to its tight neckline, matching solid-to-fishnet gloves and stockings--no shoes, but the stockings are rigged a little specially and cut off just before her toes. Cropped pants with a fun set of belts and, above all, a kind of shawl around her upper arms that's comprised of two white leather straps and one fastened over a shoulder.

"You look fine for dancing," Yue nods. "Comfort is most important. Ignore my appearance, though," he twirls, animatedly, to Makyon's unspoken delight. "I chronically overdress. By now my feet are permanently molded to heels."

"I'd trip in 'em! But might trip without 'em." Ting grins at...him. "You look pretty anyway. So. Shall we?"

"Why not... one second." Yue looks at Makyon. "Get up."

And he does, of course.

"You can't still be upset."

"Well... yes."

Yue sighs. "Ting, excuse us." And before Makyon can move Yue snags him and gives him a deep, provocative kiss. His eyes pop wide, and he is too shocked to even reciprocate.

Yue pulls away, but not before pressing himself against Makyon briefly.

The slip mage blinks.

"Now we can go."

Ting's ears are back just a touch. Nah...that's silly. It's not like Makyon was hers or anything...just 'cause he'd kissed her. He'd been joking anyway. She'd told Ai that. "Alrightee." She nods, and looks out the window. "I don't know where we're going, so I'll follow!"

"Well... for now, let's go somewhere outside. I want to tell you something." He'd noticed the ears. He feels the need to explain, but Makyon actually helps a little with that.

"What the hell was that I felt pressing into my leg?"

Yue smiles a devilish smile. He is carrying a mace at his hip, and it is so much fun to mess with pretty people.

"Guess."

"Okee!" Ting nods. To the 'outside' bit, the question's Makyon's.

Makyon's eyes narrow. "I hope you're carrying a flashlight, is all I can say."

Yue smiles at Ting, and winks. "Alright. Take us to a place where we can dance, Ting. I don't know the area very well."

"Hmm..." Ting rocks back and forth on her heels thoughtfully. "Hmm...okay, I know! Bye, dad!" No 'bye' for Makyon. She's not mad at him exactly, but doesn't feel like talking to him. And she and Yue poof away to Fire Petals.

A few minutes later, Felina appears, and wanders into the house where she senses Orrin and Makyon. "No Yue?"

"She left with Ting. He. She." Makyon shakes his head rapidly. He really looks traumatized. "It."

Felina had still been drained and upset about Yoru. She just stares at Makyon for a few moments...can't help it. Cracks into a smile and laughs. "Let me guess. You got a kiss." She smirks. "Come on, he's a good kisser. Anyway...that was Yue's creative way of letting you know right away that he's not a girl in every way. Mischievous, but not malicious."

"Well, it did look like quite a good kiss anyway, you have to admit." Orrin grins. He's been enjoying this immensely.

"Pfft." Felina grins wryly at her husband, then looks back at Makyon. "I don't suppose he's told you about his experiences with Yue? Let's just say he doesn't always choose to tell his little secret so early in the game." Orrin's in the right chair. She sits across his lap, leaning against the curved back of the chair.

The dumen blinks. "Hi."

"Hi. Stay."

"Yes ma'am."

"I suppose I ought to count myself lucky. But... ugh. It touched my leg." The slip mage smacks himself in the forehead. "Felina. I should have already asked. Are you alright?"

"I'm okay." Felina nods. "Yoru still...well...exists, though. I feel sure that this is going to turn into fatal conflict, but I...hm. Had difficulty following that notion into practical application."

"You froze." Makyon is feeling petulant today. "She could have hurt you badly, Felina. I know how great you are, and your skills are astronomical next to hers, but she..." he looks down. "Sorry. I was just kissed by a guy."

Felina smirks, though there's something gentle and serious under it. She nods. "No, you're right. Mara has more raw power than me, she always has. That means that Yoru does too. It's just..." she shrugs. "I know what has to happen. But Yoru wants to live, and this isn't her fault. She was programmed by her creator as surely as mine tweaked my personality. I don't really know how hard that is to fight...I've rarely fought my inlaid instincts, and never for an extended period. But...I do know what has to come of this, eventually."

Orrin puts an arm around her shoulders. She smiles at him, a touch weakly, although she realizes that she's not being a proper "great mentor" sort right now. This shouldn't happen in Makyon's presence. But then, like she'd told Yue...he's an unusual sort of apprentice.

Makyon doesn't mind. He understands very well, actually. "You know, when Shigoriath first reanimated me I maintained a great deal of Radivishe Moorn's... quirks, I guess is the word. It's part of why I stayed with him. I wanted to fight, to conquer. I needed to dominate things, without really thinking about it. Shigoriath eventually tortured that out of me, though. Suppose Yoru could be trained as well?"

Felina nods. "It's possible. It won't be easy, especially with Moorn bound and determined to kill her...but I expect that to fade, at least a little, when Mara reawakens. I'm positively sick whenever I check on Mara-kuru, but...unlike Moorn, any anger over the matter is focussed on Ahmin Rei-ono, not Yoru. And there's something reassuring knowing that we already killed him, a long time ago." Painfully, but she leaves that part out. Her masochistic streak can occasionally bleed into true sadism, but she restrains it fairly well.

"It'll be a while yet for Mara's return," Makyon points out. "Do you know where Yoru went? It sounds... insane. But I think I ought to talk to her."

"I do. But I'll admit that I'm hesitant to do allow that after what's already happened. However technically, you're my apprentice and I don't want you hurt or worse."

"There's not much she can do that would really hurt me any more than you or your kids could fix. I am a revenant." He tilts his head. "You could always bring me back if she became threatening."

Felina frowns, lips thoughtfully tight. "Know," she starts after a few moments, "that there is plenty she could do to you, where I wouldn't be able to bring you back." WAits for his answer on that first.

"So what? Perhaps it might stay that odd temper she seems to have. What if she comes back for you? Your kids?" The slip mage shrugs his broad shoulders. "It could give you advance warning."

"Yes. And in the same moment wipe out someone who deserved equally to live. An early-warning system is a shield or psychic trip-wire, not a life." She's poking and prodding, carefully and hesitantly, testing his dedication to the idea and whether any hint of hesitance gives her reason to refuse. Makyon very likely knows her well enough by now to recognize this.

He does. But at the same time, he doesn't want to come across as too Gung-ho and make her think he's throwing himself away.

He gazes at her with his most earnest eyes. Kaies eyes.

"I want to protect Ting," he admits, "Not to mention my mentor and her pasty husband."

Orrin smirks a little...though most of his attention's really on Felina's mood. He avoids petting or any such, though. This is a different sort of pensive, warrior/mentor-ish, than can be cuddled away.

Felina's eyes remain on Makyon's for a few moments. Then she closes hers. She knows that look. It's a few seconds before she speaks again. "Would you like to go alone?" The logical part of her knows that Yoru may not be receptive to her right now.

"She might panic if you show up," the slip mage observes.

Felina nods ruefully. "Yes." She sighs, then opens her eyes again. Smiles just a little, a very serious smile. "Okay. Are you ready to go?"

He nods, slowly. "As much as I could be. She's pretty scary."

Felina nods once, slowly. "Yeah. She is. I'll be watching, know that." A thin line appears in the air in front of him as she speaks, a portal to the Vir Sorcery Library folding open.

"Right." He nods. Breathes. Steels himself. Hesitates, and does it all again. "I'll be back in a bit." And he steps through to confront Yoru, and maybe get blasted.

Felina closes her eyes as the portal folds shut, and leans against Orrin. The dumen just wraps his arms around her, offering no false words of comfort. He doesn't have much expanation, of course, when one of Felina's eyebrows raises and her expression darkens a touch a few minutes later.

Not so long afterwards, a bright flash precedes a whoosh of water flooding outwards as Makyon's bubble bursts and splashes outwards.

Felina had stood up a few seconds before, and is quick to catch him, arms phasing through the water. "Well, that looks like a polite end to a conversation."

Makyon sputters, blowing spray off his face. "It could have been worse," he admits, "but not much. Did you hear what she asked for...?"

Felina nods as she hands him a towel. She hadn't been sure why she'd summoned it a minute ago...but she's known for a long time to just act on such random whims. "Yeah. I did."

After a few seconds, Orrin blinks. "If you don't both stop glancing at me, I may start to get curious."

Makyon towels himself evenly, though does make it a point to quit with the looksies. 

"Yoru was asking for you, is all," he explains, not really a lie.

"Now there's a phrase with multiple meanings if I ever heard one."

Felina smiles wryly at him. "As in, she thinks that it's a much better idea for her to have than for me to have you."

"Oh! So he was right the first time. She is nuts." He gets a slight smile for that.

"No question." Makyon sighs, lays out the towel, and sits on it. "She is completely insane, but in a way that perplexes me. She seems to be going in ten directions at once, and how she reacts to something seems almost random."

Felina nods, and raises her hands to the fire to warm them. They're not really that cold. It's just an old habit. "She's an interesting problem. And that needs to be fixed one way or the other, very soon, if she continues to accrue knowledge at this rate. Thank you for trying, anyway, Makyon...the risk was not overlooked, I assure you." She smiles at him a little, before looking back to the fire.

"How can she possibly learn that fast, though? i mean... her brain is the same as Mara's isn't it? Mara was... is... swift on the uptake, but nothing like Yoru, and a personality can't account for that, can it?"

Actually, it can't. Even now Yoru is reading, and unbeknownst even to her the tiny networks implanted in her brain are running at full capacity, giving off no hint of their existence, operating off of the darker Yoru's energies.

Felina shakes her head. "No, you're right...it isn't natural. That's one of the things that's bothering me. Mara's been learning all of this time, and yet Yoru's cramming in knowledge--and designed to do it--in a way that could have been programmed into Mara all along. Considering quirks of my father's own abilities...I think Ahmin Rei-ono may have forseen this split the whole time. Yoru isn't just a creature of our creation. She's progressing exactly as she was supposed to." She looks back to the fire.

Had Rei-ono forseen her own inaction as well? Is she part of the plan?

Makyon grimaces. "I knew a ghoul, once," he quietly begins in a storytelling voice. "He was a tribal spirit of some sort, could see destinies in people. Eventually he foresaw his own destruction at the hands of a witch hunter." The slip mage holds his own hands closer to the fire. "He sat and fretted so long about whether he could escape his destiny that the witch hunter took him by surprise and destroyed him, just as he had seen. Had he fled instead of considering it, he might have escaped."

Felina frowns, and nods. "There's usually a stronger nether double...Mara is stronger than I, Moorn is stronger than his double...my father was stronger than Ahmin Rei-ono, and also more given to quiet pursuits like divining. He was a watcher superior...like you described. He saw the future as it would be, not as a seer's 'unaltered' future. He only saw a vision thwarted once in his nearly four-thousand year life, no matter how he tried to change thing. I wish I knew whether Rei-ono was the same level of watcher. Whether he didn't have some 'seer' mixed in." She shakes her head slowly, looks to Makyon. "But, your story was pointed. What are you suggesting be done?"

"I suggest you just handle it like you think it ought to be handled, ma'am." Makyon slips unconsciously into apprentice, which is a bit fitting, seeing as how he was just schooled at the academy. "And don't concern yourself with who planned what, because whether he saw it a certain way like your father would have or not doesn't change how it's going to be. And that is your choice."

"And so much rides on it," Felina observes. She nods to his observation, and just looks into the fire.

Makyon tilts his head. "Lots of things ride on space ships, too, but the space ship never notices. It just does its thing. Look, I'm worn out, and my legs still hurt, so if no one minds, I think I might hit the hammock."

"Good plan. I cleaned it, by the way, you need to wash it more often. It smelled like revenant."

"Um..." he smiles. "Sure... yeah, I will try to remember. You really are all-knowing, blast you." And he heads off that way.

An amused smile touches one corner of Felina's lips, and she looks back into the fire. Finally... "Orrin?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's move to a deserted island."

"We already live on a deserted planet."

"...Off with your logic."

The dumen grins, stands up, and walks up behind her, taking her arms gently. "If you insist. Come on...I really doubt you've eaten. I'll cook. I trust you with my life, but not with a stove."

She snickers and gives him a little shove, but then they both head towards the kitchen.