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Post by Noa on Oct 27, 2019 11:48:19 GMT -6
By this time, even Rhys looked a little shocked, though he was the one of Aster’s two charges who had agreed to this little experiment. Now he came warily closer, though his body language betrayed his unease. Carefully he sniffed around the wound.
{There’s something wrong with it,} Rhys replied slowly. {Like a… Like a sickness, but not quite. I don’t know.}
“Can you… cure it?” Aster said.
The Felusine didn’t reply immediately. Aster waited, but the pain was spreading, and it was beginning to get harder to focus. Avander’s poison wasn’t the most potent one in the realm of the lab’s creatures, but Aster was also about the size of reasonable prey for a drake of Avander’s size. It was no surprise that the poison was working its way through quickly.
“I hate to say this now, but time is a little bit of an issue,” Aster said.
{He’s going to die. I knew it. Do something, will you,} Avander said, advancing on Rhys, who now looked rather alarmed. Aster wanted to tell the drake not to rush him, but time really was going to be a problem. If Rhys didn’t do something soon, he was going to pass out. And then…
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Post by Noa on Oct 27, 2019 11:48:50 GMT -6
Maybe the added pressure from Avander had done the job. Aster honestly didn’t know. Whatever it was though, Rhys had finally gathered his nerve to act. He placed his claws on the afflicted area ever so gently, and bent his head to the wound… And there was a soft sort of light emanating from them.
The pain eased. Aster felt that he could breathe again, at least. But it wasn’t gone entirely, and the arm still throbbed dully.
“Good,” Aster said. “You’re getting the hang of it. I need you to try to cure it one more time.” It hadn’t taken properly, but Rhys had managed to get on the right track. Normally Aster would have let him have a little more time to regroup, but under the circumstances, half measures wouldn’t cut it.
At least Rhys had managed to call on his abilities. If he hadn’t, Aster didn’t know where he would be. Draped across Avander’s back and en route to the city healer, he supposed.
Thank the gods for free health care. Even so, he was glad it hadn’t come to that. Being dragged into town by his own drake in such a state would have been awkward, to say the least.
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Post by Noa on Oct 27, 2019 11:49:00 GMT -6
Rhys seemed pale and shaken still, but he did as Aster asked, bending his head to the wound to try again. This time it took properly. The pain receded, and Aster felt it almost as though it was being drawn out of his body by some sort of benevolent force. The wound, too, healed closed, which he hadn’t really been expecting. But it was just as well; if it hadn’t, he would have had to bandage it up, and after a while he would have run out of places on himself for Avander to stab.
Or for himself to stab, really, that he could reach.
Aster sighed in relief. “Good. Thank you,” he said to Rhys.
Rhys didn’t immediately respond. He looked a little… shaken, maybe, by what all had just transpired. Aster didn’t blame him; in retrospect maybe it really had been too much at once. Scratch that, it almost certainly was.
But it had worked, too. And knowledge that you’d gained, however you’d gained it, wouldn’t go away. And after a moment, Rhys’s gaze lifted to Aster’s arm. {I’m glad it worked,} he said, his mental voice weak with relief.
“Do you think you can do it again?” Aster asked quietly.
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Post by Noa on Oct 27, 2019 11:49:41 GMT -6
{Let me---} Rhys said hurriedly, then seemed to catch himself, and started again, more measuredly this time. {Let me try it without the… poison, first. I think… I think I can remember how it feels. Let me see if I can do it again.}
Aster nodded. Avander, for his part, seemed relieved too not to have to administer the poison. “When you’re ready,” Aster said. “Try to cure me.”
Rhys bent his head to whatever part of Aster he could reach this time, and after a moment, the soft glow came on again from his horns. Aster wasn’t sure what would happen now, without the poison running its course through his veins. Maybe nothing--- but then he found that he did feel something, a little like warmth but not quite. When the glow faded, Aster found that he felt… bolstered, somehow, as though he’d just had a good, long rest.
{Okay,} said Rhys, his voice steadier this time around. {I think… I think I can do it.}
“With the poison?” Aster asked carefully. He could feel Avander tense somewhere behind him; the drake’s misgivings had not at all quieted, and at his words they redoubled themselves all over again.
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Post by Noa on Oct 27, 2019 11:49:56 GMT -6
But Rhys said, {I think so. I… don’t think it’s a very good idea either, but I guess we should make sure it works.}
Well, if he was willing, then there was no reason not to try. Aster, for his part, trusted that Rhys could do it. He’d done it three times now, even if the first one had been a little weak, and Rhys wasn’t the type to shirk where he thought he could get away with it, the way Grunty and even Avander sometimes would. Effort wasn’t an area where Aster had ever doubted Rhys, to say the least.
“Avander,” said Aster.
{You’re not going to listen even if I say no, clearly,} said the drake. {Just don’t stab yourself this time.}
“Noted,” Aster said, and picked up the drake’s tail. Avander let him, though the tension didn’t leave the drake as Aster held it to his arm again. “This will go faster if you let the poison flow,” Aster said. “Relax. The point is to sting me, so sting.”
And then he pierced his skin again ever so slightly with the spade of the tail, watching as it sank into his flesh.
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Post by Noa on Oct 27, 2019 11:50:16 GMT -6
At first, nothing… But then, the sensation again, introducing itself a little more slowly this time. Aster could feel the poison as it made its way in.
It was easier the second time, now that he knew what to expect.
He didn’t move much after extricating the tip of the tail spade from his arm. Movement would only expedite the process of its spread, and while he did trust Rhys, he wasn’t sure how much the Felusine trusted himself still. He didn’t want to rush into it and send Rhys into a panic.
He held his arm out to Rhys. “Cure it,” he said.
Rhys looked at the wound solemnly a moment, then bent his head to it. Again, the glowing light enveloped his horns, radiating from them, and in a moment Aster felt well again.
Aster gave a nod. “It’s done,” he said. “I can’t feel any more of it.”
Rhys no longer looked so shaken about it either. Aster supposed he was adjusting, which was a good thing. Even Avander seemed less ill at ease, perhaps because now that he had seen it work twice, he was beginning to accept that maybe it wasn’t a fluke, and Rhys’s abilities were failsafe enough.
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Post by Noa on Oct 27, 2019 11:53:13 GMT -6
And that Aster did not, in fact, have a death wish.
“We’re doing this again,” Aster said. “Practice makes perfect, though if I’m being honest, we’re working on you this time.” He looked at Avander, who blinked at him, surprised and possibly miming affront. “Yeah, you. Let’s get you used to administering the poison. We’ve got Rhys on hand, so don’t worry about it. Treat me like you’d treat an enemy.”
Aster raised the tip of the tail to his arm again. “Sting,” he said.
The spade sank in. There was still a delay before Aster could feel the poison making its way in, though he didn’t chastise the drake for it just yet. It was a difficult method that Aster had chosen for him, at least in part to facilitate teaching Rhys alongside him, and Avander hadn’t been asked to use his poison before either. Speed would come with time, he was sure.
But the poison did happen, even if it didn’t happen quickly. By now, this third time, Aster felt as though he was bracing for it quite well. The sensation of his own flesh singing with it was no longer alarming.
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Post by Noa on Oct 27, 2019 11:54:27 GMT -6
Rhys, Cure: End
It was a very strange session, poisoning himself and undoing it and doing it again. Aster repeated it as many times as he dared, mostly to acclimate Avander to releasing the poison on cue, but also a little to consolidate Rhys’s knowledge of how to cure it. That the Felusine had an aptitude for it was apparent, and Aster was glad that he had picked it up so quickly.
And as the session went on, Avander did seem to improve at his control over the poison. By the end of it, he could administer it quickly; and by that point it had happened so often that even Avander couldn’t find it in himself to become worked up about it anymore. Familiarity breeds contempt, and all that.
Eventually he called it to an end. He didn't lack faith in Rhys's skills, but he didn't want to over-exert any of them, and the lingering sense that this wasn't good for his own body couldn't be completely ignored.
There would have to be more work done on the drake’s part before they could make a proper attack of it, but for the moment Aster was content to call the session to an end.
13 (exit Avander)
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Post by Noa on Nov 3, 2019 10:55:44 GMT -6
The tactic of teaching Rhys new things seemed to be working well. The Felusine no longer looked so… restless, maybe, as he went about; Aster was afraid he might be a little worse for wear after the whole debacle with Avander’s poison, but sudden responsibility seemed to be what he had been looking for after all.
And Aster supposed there were other things that Rhys could learn that didn’t necessarily involve having Rhys run up against actual danger. Maybe he was beginning to come to trust Rhys a little more too.
Besides, the training was supposed to be about giving Rhys the tools to fend for himself if the need arose, to keep himself safe if Aster couldn’t intervene to protect him. Even Aster, being as careful as he was now, knew that he couldn’t cover all his bases all the time. The better Rhys was able to cope with unforeseen circumstances himself, the safer he would be in the long run.
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Post by Noa on Nov 3, 2019 10:55:57 GMT -6
Verdant Growth: Start
… Of course, Aster wasn’t training him for combat yet, not by a long shot. But if a problem ever arose, it would be good if Rhys knew how to get out of a fight.
“Today,” Aster said, setting the Felusine down on an old fence post, “we;ll be working on ways to restrain someone.”
By this point Rhys had perhaps grown used to these mysterious, eccentric starting comments. He didn’t even give voice to his confusion this time around, opting instead to simply wait for the explanation that would come.
“If you ever find yourself needing to buy some time to get away, tripping up your target is a good way to do it--- though if you can hold them down, then that’s even better,” Aster said. “Though I guess that’s just the theory, isn’t it? Alright, in more practical terms, I guess what you’re trying to do today is… grow some vines.”
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Post by Noa on Nov 3, 2019 10:56:50 GMT -6
{Vines?} said Rhys. The explanation had taken an avenue that he hadn’t expected, even with the idea of keeping an open mind through Aster’s introductory explanation.
“You’ve called up flowers before, once or twice, I think,” Aster said. That hadn’t been something Aster had taught him, though it was within what he knew to expect Rhys to be capable of. Rhys himself had happened upon it on a whim, amusing himself with the plants that lived inside the house--- he'd had little enough to amuse himself with. “It looks like you have some kind of affinity for plants, so… This might be stretching it a bit, but I think you could do it. Worth a try, at least.”
Rhys didn’t look as confident as Aster was trying to make himself sound, but Aster didn’t blame him. Frankly, Aster himself wasn’t as confident as he was trying to sound either.
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Post by Noa on Nov 3, 2019 10:57:05 GMT -6
And the funny thing about abilities you’ve never used before was that even if you knew for sure that they were there, it… must have been an alienating feeling, trying it for the first time.
Up until he had gotten ahold of his wind node, Aster hadn’t really understood. Now he did. Doing any new magic for the first time always felt like tossing a gamble into the, well, the wind. It felt as though you had no reasonable right to expect anything to happen, and yet…
“If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out,” Aster said.
{I’ll try it,} Rhys said a little hastily, as though Aster were the one who needed reassuring. And hey, maybe Rhys wasn’t entirely wrong about that. Confidence in the Felusine and his capabilities hadn’t exactly been something that Aster had been providing in great quantity lately, such that the whole debacle with the poison had been an unusually… vivid display of it.
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Post by Noa on Nov 3, 2019 10:57:22 GMT -6
And given how Rhys had taken to it, Aster was beginning to feel guilty about not having tried harder to trust Rhys sooner.
But it sounded as if there was a ‘but’ at the end of Rhys’s sentence.
Aster waited. {Well, I just… don’t know how to start, is all. I mean, before, I guess I just did it, but…}
Ah. Well, admittedly making flowers bloom or vines grow wasn’t really something Aster had a lot of experience with himself. Or any experience at all, really. Not that he had personal experience with poisoning people either, or with breathing fire, but it was going to take him a little longer to figure out something that might work for Rhys in the meantime.
Aster thought on it. “Do… you remember how it feels when you make flowers bloom?” he asked carefully. Maybe Rhys would tell him something they could build on there.
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Post by Noa on Nov 3, 2019 10:57:39 GMT -6
Rhys had to think about that one too. {I don’t know,} Rhys said. {I guess I wasn’t paying attention… I thought they were beautiful, and I wanted to see more of them.} Rhys’s voice was hesitant, and his answer… Well, he had done what Aster asked and given it, but Aster didn’t know if it was applicable to what he was going to ask Rhys to do.
“And I don’t suppose you find vines beautiful, huh,” Aster said.
{I don’t know if I’ve ever seen any pretty ones,} Rhys offered uncertainly.
Aster mulled over his answer. It wasn’t exactly a no, now that he was examining it a bit more closely. Aster had seen plenty of vines in his lifetime, but how long had Rhys even been alive? Aster had been present for most of his life, come to think of it, but… he wasn’t used to having to think about anything in those terms.
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Post by Noa on Nov 3, 2019 10:59:08 GMT -6
He couldn’t remember how many vines Rhys had ever had occasion to see.
“Come with me for a bit,” Aster said.
Rhys seemed bemused, but didn’t question him, and simply hopped up to what had become an accustomed perch of his atop Aster’s shoulders. Of course, he could only do this when Summer wasn’t around. The Shijin still claimed pride of place, by seniority and sheer force of personality if nothing else. No little upstart creature was going to oust her from what was hers by right.
Fortunately for him, though, Summer wasn’t here, and he was free to hitch a ride unmolested. Once he was settled, Aster set out, through the path that led from the house out past the gates of the estate.
{We’re going out? We’re not visiting that strange house again, are we?} said Rhys, meaning the mansion, of course.
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