viceofvoices | Of Courts and Courting

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Of Courts and Courting

Traveling beyond enemy borders is no easy feat no matter who you are. It takes some finesse and knowledge and maybe even a generous amount of luck. And if you're trying not to be found? Doubly tricky! But Hild managed. After all, her love life was on the line.

Since their botched wedding, Hild and Krichevskoy went about life much the same way they did before, only now the tensions between their two clans of demons was focused primarily on a third threat: the monsters and lesser demons who had risen up much earlier than anticipated thanks to Hild's secret meddling. And while that meant Hild and Krichevskoy no longer had to get married, it seemed she had less and less time to even spend time with him out of her own free will. War councils and spell preparations, magic training and scouting missions...really, all she wanted to do was sneak away and spend time with...

Pausing under a tree in the forest lining this border of Krichevskoy's kingdom, the cloaked Hild paused and grinned to herself, swept up in the memory of their last encounter. He'd actually kissed her back, which was more than he'd ever done before. Hands to her cheeks, one of the most powerful demons in the universe squirmed in bashfulness as she recalled the event, oblivious to her surroundings.

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Krichevskoy wasn't sure how to reply to that. He suppressed a shiver at the way Dagr stared at him. When he looked at him like that, it was difficult to tell the difference between gods and demons beyond their names.

"So... it is not a curse, and I could harm people?" he asked cautiously. His stance was still tense, and he looked ready to run at a moment's notice. It might not have been the most dignified or intelligent of responses, but he had no intention of dying today.

"At present, 'curse' is the best way to describe it. Or perhaps a virus, magically attacking your very essence and eating away at everything you are until nothing is left." Dagr tilted his head a bit, one hand to his chin as he mused. "...why its progress has been halted is quite the mystery, though I suppose we should be grateful for small favors."

Hild glanced down at the wooden planks of the floor, lifting her fingers to her lips. "I...may have caused that."

Dagr looked down at Hild in silence, his expression unreadable. "Oh? Well, it doesn't matter now. What matters is getting to the root of the problem. I must prepare myself first, however." He turned and headed towards the door, slipping the hood of his cloak back on.

"I'll give you two some privacy." And then he was gone, if only temporarily.

Suddenly, his current state of being didn't seem to be quite so... okay. He had been told it was unnatural, that it was the result of a curse, but that was considerably different from being told he had come very close to nearly being destroyed completely. Krichevskoy looked down at his hands and inwardly cringed. Hild hadn't been too far off when she said he was diseased, had she? He only hoped it was closer to a curse than a virus.

"Everything I am..." he echoed. "At least it is stopped now, correct?" He turned to Hild and smiled weakly.

She didn't look up at him, instead turning to walk towards the window. Though the light was mostly blocked by the curtains she'd drawn, enough still filtered through to cast a faint glow around her silhouette. "...Dagr will try everything he can to save you, you needn't worry." She arched her back and was surrounded by smoke once more, transforming back to her original size.

Her back to him, she crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "A loss of any life is always a last resort for the gods. They usually prefer to transform lifeforms to less threatening beings, or to lock them away beyond all reach or reason."

"I'm not sure I like those options either." The first sounded better than the second by far. She looked beautiful like that, he couldn't help but think. The image of her in a long dress filtered into his mind, but he couldn't place where or why he had thought of it.

"You tell me not to worry, but you seem to be worried yourself."

"...it's exhausting enough to dance around my own people and the demons of our combined realms," she said after a long pause. Moving toward the bed, she sat on it once more, though this time her feet actually reached the ground. She looked tired, the her bangs falling over her face.

"To see for myself just how closely monitored we are by the divine realms as well does not help on that score. While I know Dagr to be a man with the best intentions, not all gods are so honorable." She sighed deeply, her shoulders hunched.

"Forgive me. It has simply been an...emotionally exhausting day."

"No, it is fine. I cannot say I understand what it is like, but... If I am this worn from what I have learned, I can only imagine how you feel." He reached for the cloak, but stopped halfway. "Would you prefer me to keep this on?"

Krichevskoy wouldn't blame her if she did. He wondered if it might be better to keep a fair distance from her just in case.

She lifted her head and gestured for him to sit next to her. "No, it's fine. If you're concerned about your contagion spreading, rest assured that my fool attempt at curing you has at least left me immune." Hild leaned back, hands behind her on the bed as she looked up at the wooden rafters above them.

"I had thought to forcibly extract the magic out of you using my own genetic code as a route, but all I did was force it to its final form before it was ready, I suppose."

He hesitated a second, but nodded, pulled the cloak off and went to sit next to Hild. "Would you have been in my position now if you had succeeded?" he asked.

While he waited for an answer, Krichevskoy pressed down on the bed as if testing its solidity. "At least I am able to sit down," he muttered under his breath. Though he did wonder from time to time if he would fall right through if he wasn't careful.

"That is...likely, yes." She fiddled absently with one of her earrings, attempted a bored, casual expression. "It was a necessary risk. My intention was to share the curse between us to lessen its effect, giving me time to end it before it finished what it started."

He looked over at her. "In that case, our current result might have been best. If it is kept to one person and you are immune..." He trailed off, and when he spoke again there was a note of worry in his voice. "You do not think it really is a contagion? Especially if it is stabilized as you say?"

"It has become passive in an attempt to preserve itself," came the honeyed timbre of Dagr at the door. Hild looked up, eyes narrowing a fraction at what she saw.

Dagr's brown hair was now silver, his eyes a crystalline blue and the emblems on his face fare more complicated. He seemed to radiate holy light. "They've let you break your seal," Hild said quietly, rising to her feet.

Dagr smiled and lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "The situation seems to call for it, wouldn't you say?" He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him, eyeing Krichevskoy as he spoke. "As we speak, the magic in you is gathering strength for another attack. It is a sentient sort of disease, and I imagine you're feeling the overwhelming urge to run at my presence."

His light eyes were sad and very old as he looked at the other man.

"I don't recommend it."

Edited 2012-12-28 20:06 (UTC)

Indeed, the power radiating off the other man had set Krichevskoy on edge. There was something frightening about it all, and the subtle threat in Dagr's last statement didn't help matters any.

Luckily for Dagr, Krichevskoy's innate stubbornness kept him rooted to the spot. He wasn't about to run from a potential cure because of some foreign urge to flee.

Still, his voice shook. "If... If this does not work, could you possibly force it to remain in the passive state?" He swallowed. He would prefer it gone, yes, but he hadn't forgotten the other threat, and he had no intention of dying.

Dagr glanced away, obviously troubled. "Even if I could, we cannot allow such a walking time bomb to be free." But then he smiled, waving a dismissive hand. "Ah! But don't worry, I am quite confident in my ability to eradicate the curse completely with no lasting harm to you."

Hild had been quiet in the exchange but now spoke up, placing one hand lightly on Krichevskoy's shoulder. "With the combined might of opposing powers, you have the best chance you could hope for, dear. Have faith in the gods." The corners of her lips curled in mild amusement at her words.

Dagr gestured towards the bed. "Now, Krichevskoy...I would ask that you lay down for this, please."

Slowly, Krichevskoy nodded and lay back on the bed, shutting his eyes. The bed seemed best. If for whatever reason he fell through that, he would still have the floor below, right?

It turned out that was a wise decision, the urge within him to flee so strong that he would occasionally sink into the bed only to rise atop it again.

They loomed over him, Dagr on one side of the bed, Hild on the other. "I will release 50% of my power now," she sighed, and with an audible hum, the room was filled with a deep burgundy light. Her eyes, too, changed from purple to that reddish hue, and they seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it. Like Dagr, she exuded an aura of power, but while his was undeniably light and warmth, her power was dark and deep, cold as a dead winter.

She gave Krichevskoy a small, encouraging smile and lifted her eyes to Dagr."Well...this does take me back." God and demon lifted their hands in tandem and linked their fingers, intimate as lovers and yet formal, as if in ceremony.

Dagr chuckled, but it was a sad sound. "I could hardly keep up with you last time...I hope you'll go easy on me?"

Hild closed her eyes, smiling gently. "Oh, darling. You know I don't go easy on anyone. But I'll praise you if you can finish with any energy left~♥"

And then, abruptly, she opened her eyes and began to sing. Dagr joined her immediately, a bright tenor to her sultry alto, and at once, swirling hues of blue light danced and twisted with the red of the room. Runes of power twisted up from under the bed and over Krichevskoy, the visual symbol of the arcane language Hild and Dagr were chanting in song.

Krichevskoy rose up somewhat, hovering over the bed, and those golden symbols swirled down into him, flowing through his veins, charging his atoms, decoding him into so many ones and zeroes.

Dagr, his eyes closed, furrowed his brow as he concentrated on making sense of the curse, still singing. Hild continued her support, a stabilizing element for Krichevskoy's demonic essence, and the tether for his soul.

Dagr's divine demand of the curse was not met peacefully. Those inky tendrils rose up off his skin at several points, like smoke and water, battling the light as it entered Krichevskoy's body. Occasionally the curse would lash out at Hild and Dagr, slicing at their skin, but any wounds healed on their bodies immediately.

A holy war within him, Krichevskoy's hold on consciousness and sanity had to be slipping. Hild forced herself to concentrate, making her heart cold. Still, she had to wonder...would there be anything left of the battlefield that was this demon she loved?

Edited 2012-12-28 21:28 (UTC)

He had tried to concentrate on their song for as long as he could. It was something to distract himself with, but that brought the fear within him to a horrible crescendo. It was for the best that he was in the air--he would have been gone in seconds otherwise. Instead the "fight" of fight or flight kicked in, and he could feel something split and separate from him, attacking while he was immobilized.

Something was holding onto him, squeezing him, strangling him in an attempt to stay, and through the dizzied haze of fear and fight and horrible brightness, he was lucky to be aware of anything. It felt like he was burning at some points, at others a terrible, sharp pain pulsed through his head as images filtered in, faster than he could process. It would be familiar if he could get past it all, if he could see past the blur of pain and dizziness in his head.

It was too much.

"S... Stop...!"

Slowly, the wound in his shoulder opened again, first pouring black smoke, then switching between the smoke and blood. The curse's grip might have been loosening, but it was still holding on fast.

Neither Hild or Dagr responded to Krichevskoy, continuing their onslaught. However...

Through the images in his head, Hild appeared. Even as she was casting magic, she had placed a psychic projection in his mind to attempt to soothe his battered psyche. "Krichevskoy..." she called wordlessly, her presence a gentle point of light in the otherwise painful tempest in his mind, as if she were the eye of the storm.

Her loving presence wrapped around him even as, in the physical realm, she and Dagr continued to battle the curse. The god had an extra task for himself as well, making sure the blood Krichevskoy was losing was being regenerated so he wouldn't bleed out.

"We cannot stop now," Hild whispered in Krichevskoy's soul. "Or you will die. Hold on, my love...we are gaining the upper hand."

That calm, steady light... He tried to focus on her alone. He could hardly hear a word she was saying in the chaos, and it was incredibly difficult to see her. He was so dizzy, and it was tempting to allow his consciousness to fade away to stop the dizzying images. The fear was fading, replaced by a numb tiredness. Was it the magic working on him? Was it the incessant battering of familiarity in his head? He didn't know where one started and one began. He'd even somehow managed to shut out the feeling of his skin--or something attached to his skin--tearing from his body.

All he had was that light in his mind.

The music reached its crescendo -- the whole of creation was condensed in that unearthly melody, the fabric of reality humming in resonation. An explosion of golden light, starting from Krichevskoy's floating body, bloomed through the room and over the inn, continuing to expand over the town before fading away.

As beautiful as it was, the climax of the magic also tore the rest of the magic out, evaporating the darkness completely. A wet splash of blood spurted from Krichevskoy as well, but what would have been a fatal, sucking wound was almost immediately closed.

The music faded and Krichevskoy, solid and restored, fell back onto the bed, with a scar in the shape of a pentagram on his arm the only sign of his torment.

Edited 2012-12-28 22:42 (UTC)

Though faint, the light of life still shone weakly in Krichevskoy's eyes. He had focused as hard as he could and for as long as he could, but it was all he could do now to stay awake. Later he would wonder at what had occurred. The blinding, beautiful light, the teamwork of gods and demons, the two working in tandem to save him. He'd look back at the two's interactions with one another and feel pangs of jealousy.

For now, all he really noticed was his normal, flesh-toned skin, and how he felt as though he could sleep forever.

"...finished?" he managed in a faint, hoarse whisper.

Dagr and Hild looked a little worse for wear themselves, both panting for breath and pale. Still, it was nothing compared to having your soul assaulted and put back together. Hild reached down and brushed Krichevskoy's hair from his face.

"Finished. Rest now, darling. You're safe."

Dagr watched the exchange with a completely neutral expression before turning away and heading out of the room without a word. Hild followed with a final glance at the demon on the bed, quietly closing the door behind her.

"...you nearly risked everything, splitting your concentration like that," Dagr said in the hallway after a moment. He lifted his hand to re-attach one of the complex earrings hidden under his hair, and with a brief gust of wind, his power was once again sealed, his appearance back to normal.

Hild leaned against the wall, eyes shut, obviously exhausted. "What purpose would there be in healing his body if his mind was destroyed?" Her voice was soft, weary, yet still somehow petulant in response,

Dagr sighed quietly and took her shoulders in his hands, gazing down at her. "There you go, on the defensive again. I was about to praise you for your quick thinking."

She didn't look up at him, but neither did she shrug away his touch. "What will you tell them?" It seemed his praise was not her priority at the moment.

"The truth. That the decision to open the conduits of inter-dimensional co-existence has been met with the expected risks, but as of yet, things remain in balance."

Hild finally did lift her head, her eyes back to their normal hue as she peered up at Dagr. "...they...they won't demand I step away from his world, will they?" There was a subtle pleading tone in her voice as she looked up at the god.

He smiled and patted her head, brushing back her bangs. "I will do everything I can to assure that never comes up," he said, before embracing her entirely. "...it is, after all, the least I can do."

It was several days before Krichevskoy awoke, and when he did, he felt as though he could still have slept for another week or two. His movements were sluggish, and he kept reaching up, curiously exploring the scar on his shoulder. Sometimes, to some degree, nothing in the room felt real, and he would take the time to press his hand to the walls or the furniture to make sure it was still there, or that he wouldn't fall through.

His head still throbbed from time to time, and he would rub his temples until the flash of familiarity passed.

Krichevskoy looked down with a measure of surprise as his stomach gave a low, gurgling sound. "It appears I am hungry," he said, realizing that it was the first time he had been since he had lost his memory.

The last few days, Hild had also been replenishing her strength. That first harrowing night, still unconvinced that Krichevskoy would be able to recover, she slept next to his unconscious form, protective even in sleep. After it appeared he would be okay, given enough rest, she allowed herself to relax. Unlike Krichevskoy and his demons, Hild's kind generally didn't sleep unless pushed to an absolute brink after a large loss of power, so she'd made use of her time in other ways: investigating the cause of all of this trouble, ordering her demon generals and generally resuming leadership of her clan, but from a distance.

She hadn't expected Krichevskoy to wake for another few days, so when she opened the door, Hild froze in surprise to see him up. "Ah...! You're awake!"

Krichevskoy looked up, blinked a few times, and nodded. "Not for very long. How long have I been asleep?" he asked as he pulled out a chair to sit down on. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell her he was already thinking of going back to bed and napping for another day.

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