[Zuudaria] Unholy War XX: With your thoughts of pain...

[Faith Augustin]

31st Ymiden, 719

Unholy War
From the start of life
To my dying day
In the dark of night
And the burning light of day
It's a Bloody Fight
]But I can't walk away
I'm prime, for the front line
Unholy war. Unholy War.
I'll try. I'll fight until I die
It's an unholy war
We'll fight, cos we ain't on the same side
~~
When I'm all alone... unholy
With your thoughts of pain....

Faith was, there was no doubt, right on the edge of exhausted. Padraig knew her too well for her to hide it but equally - and very importantly - she had been this way for weeks. She slept just as much as she needed to, ate to the same amount. Her focus was incredible, and it was long-term, too. "When this is done, I'll sleep for a ten-trial, I promise you," she said, not looking up until she had tied off the thread she had just finished sewing. Then, she lifted her eyes to him and she smiled. "If I stop, I simply won't be able to start again. It is ... " she shook her head, then, just once, before her eyes settled on him once more. He knew the truth before she spoke it. "It's too hard, Padraig. It hurts too much. I won't start again if I stop, so I'm not stopping until it's dealt with." The situation with Vri, with Rose, it had all been too much for her.

Unlike her though it was, Faith had not told him about it. Usually, she would - albeit in brief and factual snippets. She couldn't speak of it - but she knew that he knew more than two thirds of it, anyhow - because he and she shared emotions and flashes of each other's thoughts as it was. For now, it would have to be enough. She would tell him - but that too would have to come after they'd stopped Ellasin and the Coven. Until then, she simply had to maintain her focus. So, Faith kept busy. Always busy, never still until she fell into bed, so exhausted that sleep took her immediately. Her smile softened her features as she acknowledged the simple truth of it. "I miss you," she whispered, and then lowered her head to the armour pyjama she was making.

Intelligence had come in about planned attacks and Faith had sent the information to Thalia, and had discussed with the Lightning Knights, the Elements and so on, what they were going to do. They were distractions, they knew that, but people had to be protected. Padraig had been dealing with the intelligence and the people who would be acting on it had just left. Faith had picked up her sewing, just taking a few moments together. They needed it, she knew. Silver eyes lifted to him and then, she frowned, looking behind him. "Padraig?"

They were in Zuudaria ~ Famula's Domain yet, there was a wall. "That wasn't there five bits ago, was it?" Faith asked, knowing the answer. No, that wall had not been there. Nor had the strange archway in the wall (there being no wall for the archway to be in) and therefore, they had not been able to see throught it into...

"Padraig, is that Oscillus?" Faith didn't know why she kept asking questions to which she already knew the answer. "And that great big hole... we went down there? And... " Her hand went out to his arm and her face lifted to look at him with a smile. "And you wished. Remember, you wished?" Granted, he wasn't exactly likely to have forgotten.

So long ago, just a few arcs and a dozen life times. Faith's hand trailed down his arm and, as it had then, it slipped into his. "I think we should go, don't you?"

Plot Approved

here!

[Padraig]

"Promises, promises," Padraig muttered, grinning wryly when Faith promised that eventually she'd sleep. He knew what was keeping her going of course, and why she believed that she couldn't stop, even for a trill. Then, she feared, the exhaustion and emotion might overwhelm her. He agreed to an extent. However, "You keep this up much longer, the exhaustion and the suppressed feelings will exact a price regardless. Your focus, which may seem as intact as ever, may become more....nonsensical without you realizing."

But things like that fell squarely into the realm of the mind and the psyche. Definitely not in Padraig's wheelhouse. Too close to philosophy for his taste. So having gently scolded her now, he left it aside. But while she worked on armored pajamas, he'd decided to detach himself, however briefly, from all of this business they'd been contending with. That was his way of coping, to spend time on other things far removed from it all. Otherwise, and he knew it, he'd go mad. He was looking back over all of the notes that he'd taken while off at the edge of the world, and wondering if he'd ever get back there again.

'I miss you too," he said, sitting back and smiling as he looked up from his notes. "And the children. Cyrus, even Katie. I even miss that damned cat." Ever since the house had become overrun by people coming and going at all breaks of the trial, their temperamental four tailed cat had taken to hiding under the beds upstairs. Social events clearly weren't Quatro's thing. But when Faith spoke again, looking past over his shoulder, Padraig turned, looked, and frowned as well. If they lived more ordinary lives, like normal people, he'd have been alarmed or shocked to discover a new archway or door in their home. But this was them, and he was far less shocked than he was intrigued.

"I don't think so," he said when she asked, had it been there before. A strange thing to say maybe, but it was also Padraig's nature. Was the faintest of new stars to appear in the heavens, among millions, perhaps trillions of others, he'd be likely to notice it the trill it blinked into existence. But a new arch, door and portal right there behind him? If it wasn't called to his attention, chances were he'd be hard pressed to notice in a relatively timely manner. But it might just be Oscillus. He'd made a wish after all, and a very large one. Not surprising that if anything had come of it at all, then someone or something might come calling.

"I wished a lot of things back then," he said with a smile, stood, and began gathering up a few things he thought they might need. One never knew after all. "When I was a kid I was always wishing. It was Cyrus that told me that wishing was useless if one couldn't be bothered to pursue it themselves. You're the best wish I ever made," he said, smiling and taking her hand. And with a nod towards the opening, he said, 'What are we waiting for then?"

[Faith Augustin]

"Professor Augustin," Faith said, in mock seriousness. "Did you just suggest that I.... I.... might become nonsensical? I am the very epitome of science, reason, and fact. I have not a single nonsensical bone in my very sensible body." The smile which lit her face as she spoke was, for the first time in quite a while, a genuine one. "In fact, Professor Augustin, you are the nonsensical dreamer of the pair of us! Off flitting around at the edge of the world and finding wobbles in suns. Wobbles! Who ever heard of such a thing?" She grinned at him, then nodded her head. "If I start putting jam in my hair and wearing my clothes inside you, you have my full permission to cart me off to bed and demand that I sleep." Faith's eyes were back to serious as she looked at her husband. "I promise you."

He missed her too? She felt tears threaten but she swallowed them down. But even the cat? Faith smiled and nodded. "It's Quattro I miss the most," she said, with a poor imitation of her usual, but it was an attempt. This too, will end - she was ready and about to say that when an archway appeared. He didn't think so? Faith glanced at him and a swell of absolute love threatened to overwhelm her. He thought it was new? Only her Padraig would be mostly sure but not quite.

But then, he went and surprised her and Faith took his hand with a slight blush on her cheek. "I meant the wish for Treid... you daft old romantic." Her hand in his squeezed gently and the smile on her face was slight, but more emotional than she knew how to express - she never had been good at dealing with lots of emotions, after all. Facts, they were much more in her comfort zone in moments like this. "Yes, it's definitely Oscillus. I don't think we're waiting for anything." Keeping hold of his hand, she stepped through with him.

And the place they found themselves was both familiar and utterly bizarre. It was open skies bathed in moonlight, but that was because there was no ceiling in the building, not because they were outdoors. The moonlight was so bright that there were no stars visible in the sky - there was music playing, at once both discordant and filled with deeply melancholy emotion. And the place was ... wrong. It looked like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces had been put in the wrong places, with jagged edges and a picture which made no sense. The only part of the "picture" into which they walked which seemed whole was a door. It was a plain door, highly polished wood. In the very middle of it was a small sphere of bright white light.

The whole place was jagged and not quite right, somehow. The air was heavy on them and, as the music played, Faith looked up at Padraig and realised that emotions were hitting her like a wave. "I really do miss you, you know." Frowning slightly, she added, "I have an overwhelming feeling of longing. I consider that unlikely to be an accident or coincidence."

[Padraig]

Wearing her clothes inside him? The suggestion seemed to back up his insistence that Faith needed much more sleep than she was currently getting. After all, the simple physics required to pull off such a feat would be..."You, my love, right now, are the most nonsensical person in the room. And I love you all the more for it," he said, and leaned in to kiss her gently before pulling back just a little, nose to nose and eye to eye. "More sleep," he said sternly.

Quattro's scarcity had been something of note lately, though everyone knew exactly where the four tailed cat was. Under the beds upstairs during the trial, and under the covers at the foot of Cyrus's bed in the night. "At least we don't have to worry about anyone spilling a drink on the floor and then standing in it when the cat walks by." It would be quite the unexpected shock after all. "I know what you meant," he said with a grin when she mentioned the wish that he'd made. But he'd also meant what he'd said, instead. But off they went, prepared as they possibly could be for the complete unknown.

The moonlit realm they stepped into together was just as it had been before. Except that in many ways, it wasn't. There had been a particular order and sense to it then, and now there wasn't. Was this part of the impact that his wish had made? Padraig couldn't begin to know. The music, which shouldn't have been there at all, was full of anguish. Maybe pain. 'It's probably not an accident," he said when Faith spoke of longing. He felt it too. Even grief, perhaps, and it was a hard feeling to shake. "I'm not sure the emotions are ours, however."

It had occurred to Padraig that he'd elected to wish for an Immortal's awakening, without thoroughly considering the consequences. So much had happened since Treid had fallen into his long, forced slumber. The world had changed a great deal since then, and Emea was broken. There was sure to be a level of confusion, even loss on the Immortal's part, to have been brought back to the world so suddenly. If he had been, that was. "Do you hear that?" he asked Faith. Beneath the streams of notes, there was another sound. Faint as could be, it sounded like either the low, steady howling of the wind through rafters. Or perhaps it was moaning.

And then, as if him saying it had triggered something, everything around them shattered. Shards and bits of razor sharp mirrored glass shattered and began swirling and racing around them as if carried by a mighty wind or cyclone that they couldn't feel. But the shards were very real, as Padraig found out when one grazed his cheek. In response, he grabbed Faith and attempted to shield her. It was hard to see anything at all. The mirrored surfaces of the glass shards were reflecting the moonlight and the light was bouncing around from one to the other at a rate so dizzying it looked like a lightening storm gone mad.

The armor they wore protected their bodies from the smaller pieces, but Padraig still collected nicks and cuts along the way. And in the midst of it all, something that bounced off his shoulder felt...different, and when it hit the floor by his foot, the impact rang out differently than all the rest of the noise. It was so faint, it was a wonder he heard it at all. But holding to Faith and marveling that in the middle of all this, the glass was mostly spinning round them rather than colliding with them: something that seemed like it was almost by design, Padraig crouched down and raked his hand blindly across the floor. And then, looking up to Faith, he showed her what he'd found. It was a key.

[Faith Augustin]

Completely unaware of her slip of the tongueSo cruel! So very cruel!!, Faith looked at him in mock-astonishment at his assertion that she was nonsensical. She would have argued, told him that he was more than wrong, but he told her that he loved her and kissed her - and against such torment she had no defence. So, she leaned into the kiss and lingered there a while. When he pulled back and touched his nose to hers, Faith's silver eyes met his. There was a time when he would never have said what he did next, because he was so cautious around giving her orders. Frankly, it did Faith's heart good that he was so much more himself these trials and her smile told him just how pleased she was. "I will. I promise," she whispered. Although, when he admitted that he'd known what she meant, Padraig was graced with an elbow in the ribs in no uncertain terms. "I'm sure it's against some law of the Immortals or men to tease a poor wife so," she asserted, her hand slipping into his as they stepped forward.

And, once they were through, it was obvious that this was a very strange place. Faith kept a firm grip of Padraig ~ this place seemed just weird enough that letting go of each other was not good. She expressed how she was feeling and he said the same. But they weren't theirs? Faith shook her head. "They feel like mine. Like how I miss you, how I want Rose. All those things I don't talk about and will avoid discussing." She couldn't quite help but add, "usually." Evidently, she was willing to make an exception in this case.

But yes, she heard it. Nodding her head, she listened. "It's someone's voice," she said, softly. "I'm sure of it." A low moan, she said, like the sound someone made when they were half asleep. She'd have said more, but suddenly things around them exploded and mirror shards flew. Faith - without hesitation - turned and sheltered in Padraig's arms. There was no fighting between them, these trials, about that ~ he had stepped in and protected her too many times and, in fairness, she could heal him. He could not do the same. Besides, it was more than that. It was a deeper, much more fundamental aspect to who they were. So, she turned, burying herself against him and she felt his strong arms wrap around her. Padraig needed to protect her, she knew - because of who she was, because of what she meant to him; also, though, because of who she used to be and how he wished he could change it. She, in her turn, needed him to protect her. Because of who she was, because of what he meant to her; also, though - because of who she used to be and thus, just how much she recognised it as his way of loving and respecting her.

With her head nestled in his chest, Faith didn't hear the subtle differences, and so when he dropped down to pick something up, she watched with interest. However, when he stood back up and had, in his hands, a key, she smiled. Then, she reached her hand up to his cheek. "I'd say that you are too protective, but you are not," her voice was low, quiet and just for him. Silver eyes regarded him seriously as she used her moseke-granted ability to heal him. When she had done that, she looked at the key in his hand. "Well," she said, ducking her head once more into his chest, but looking up at him. "There's a door, and there's a key. Want to try?"

[Padraig]

Everyone who knew him well, particularly Faith, knew that Padraig's personal views and his relationship with the Immortals; and their influence on Idalos on and the lives of men, were complicated. In spite of him being the child of one in particular. So what the Immortals thought of the practice of lovingly teasing his wife was neither here nor there. It was one of life's greatest pleasures.

But that was by the by. Suddenly they'd found themselves in the eye of a cyclone made of razor sharp glass shards. He didn't think it was an accident, that they by some stroke of luck, just happened to be standing in the safest place in the room. Sometimes, the wiles and wills of the Immortals, or dumb luck, were nothing to scoff at. "You're right," Padraig had muttered as he crouched down to wrap his fingers around the key, while trying not to put himself outside a somewhat safe shell made of air. The more he focused on the sound while shuffling through the clinking and clanking of glass shards colliding, the more he was convinced. That was a voice.

"You're right," he said, not missing a beat as he produced the key. "I'm just protective enough, and you willing enough to let me do it." Did he want to try? As if those were somehow the magic words, suddenly the glass shards stopped spinning and dropped, right where they were, straight out of the floor and onto the floor. It sounded as if someone had dropped a tray full of fragile crystal glasses onto a cold marble floor. And all the world was still again. 'I do believe that's our cue," he said, and taking Faith's hand in his, he approached the door and tried the key. A perfect fit and the click of the lock disengaging echoed strangely in a room where it shouldn't have produced an echo at all.

Opening the door revealed a long hallway ahead of them, with any number of exits going off this way or that. But not any ordinary doorway. It might have seemed as if it was made of mirrored glass. All of it, from floors and ceilings to walls. Ice so smooth and reflective that it might as well have been polished mirrors indeed. That reflective nature made it difficult, near impossible, from where they were standing, to discern just how long the hallway was. Or indeed, on which side of the hall each door was, due to their own many reflections.

"Like a fun house in a traveling show," he remarked with the slightest of grins. Then squeezing her hand, he looked to Faith. "Onward?"

[Faith Augustin]

He was just protective enough, and her just willing enough to let him be? Faith looked up at Padraig as he said that, and the slightest smile lifted her lips. She didn't expect anything other than that from him - and he was the only person she expected it from. That he was different from everyone else in the world was a given between them, of course, but whilst that was all to be expected, what was very much not something she'd assumed was going to happen was all those shards of glass just... dropping. Whether it was in response to her words, or just well-timed, Faith didn't know but also mostly didn't care. She looked at Padraig and raised an eyebrow. This place was strange, and growing moreso by the moment.

Faith watched as Padraig fitted the key into the lock and peered around at where the door opened onto. It was quite something, the passageway which his opening of the door revealed. Ice, shining like a mirror and Faith frowned as she took in all the things. Nodding her head, she held on to his hand, but then she stopped. "No, wait just a... what about.." apparently finishing sentences was for wimps, Faith had decided. She didn't let go of his hand, but she turned back to the door.

"Put the key back in, please?" Faith asked ~ manners cost nothing, after all ~ and then, when he did she smiled. "Thank you. Look. I think we can..." The sphere of what had seemed to be just white light in the middle of the door had changed, very subtly, when he put the key in. At first, Faith hadn't really focused on it, but then she recognised what she had seen. So, as the key slid into the lock, she reached forward and took hold of the now-solid sphere. It was roughly the size of her palm, fitting neatly in to her hand. When he took the key back out, the sphere remained solid.

"Look at this, Padraig," Faith whispered. "It's ice. But.. like that passageway. It's not melting. Want to pop it in a bag?" That was what they would normally do, and she thought that it was the right thing now, too. So, they packed up the ice-sphere, and then they started to make their way down the corridor. Hand in hand they went and Faith spoke in a quiet, small voice. "It's just like in Treid, do you remember? I warned you to be careful and immediately bumped my nose?" She smiled at the memory, her hand tightening in his. Just a little, but enough that they both knew; of course, they both knew anyway - they always did. Yet, there it was. Hands out in front of them, to avoid any nose-bumping.

The voice - for such it most certainly was - grew more evident and a little bit closer with each step. The cold in that corridor was such that they would have both been shivering, but Faith did no such thing, these day nor for some time now. However, it was obviously a low moaning sound and, as they walked, there were flashes - pulses - of light through the ice, just as there had been those arcs before. There were doors, lots of doors, but Faith looked at him and spoke her thoughts on the matter. "We need to ... " she was fighting tears, she realised and she heard the sharp catch in her voice. "Follow the lights. They'll lead us." Shaking her head, as much to warn him not to ask her any questions or be at all nice to her in any way as it was to clear her head, Faith kept walking, determinedly, forward. Yet, the tears which threatened spilled and she stopped walking - physically unable to carry on, she turned to look at him. "I miss her. It was so cruel after everything we'd both been through, what Aelig did. But this wasn't Aelig... it was... you know who it was." Suddenly, Faith realised that she was overwhelmingly tired, her legs heavy and almost entirely immobile. "I don't think I'm strong enough to keep going, Padraig. I'm just too weak." Her hand held on to his and more than anything she just wanted to sit down and give up.

[Padraig]

True enough, while Padraig didn't consider himself to be terribly unique in the world of scholars and science (they were oddballs all, as a general rule), Faith on the other hand was unique in all the world. And that, made the combination of him, and her, quite the eclectic pair. But a pairing that worked, and in his mind was wonderful.

But he couldn't any more stop trying to protect her than he could stop being attracted to any new shiny object in the night sky. And as fate would happily have it, she let him. Good thing. It wasn't the time to start squabbles over who went first, and when. So just as she asked, he'd tried the key once and he tried it again. And she noticed something that he hadn't before. "Very clever," he remarked when she plucked the globe out of the air and handed it to him. Giving it a quick look, he placed it carefully into his sack, and on they went.

"It is," he said when she compared where they were now, to the place they'd been once before. Treid. And he put a hand out in front of him in order to avoid any embarrassing collisions. He resented needing to do it. As a scholar who considered himself to be clever enough, he ought to be able to distinguish an opening from a solid wall. Even with a thousand reflections mirrored back at them. Padraig followed the lights, just as she suggested, but much of his focus was on Faith, and the emotion that was rolling off her like a wave. While threatening to consume her at the very same time. And them.

It was the voice, much more obviously a being that was moaning, rather than anything else, than it had been before. He thought he might know the source of it, but he definitely knew the cause. Rose. 'You are," he said, suddenly stopping, reaching out and taking Faith's hands, and fixing her gaze solemnly with his own. "You are strong enough. You're stronger than anyone I know," he said. "I miss her too. Always have, always will. But if it was Aelig, if it was someone else, will we let them win?" That was what this was about. The torment. An effort to crumble and stop them.

"I've never known you to back down from a fight. Ever. Not ever. But you're not alone Faith. You never have been," he said, and scooped her up into his arms before she could melt to the floor in front of him. "You have carried me when I needed," he said, in case she decided to protest. "Damn them all. We're not giving up, and they're not winning." And so he carried her and kept going, brushing his shoulder against the smooth, cold reflect walls as they went, in an effort to find a proper exit. And after a few bits and a few false starts, he finally found one and ducked through a new threshold. And once he did, the moaning they'd heard in the larger corridor seemed to have melted away. He smiled, and put her back on her feet again. "We're an unbeatable team, you and me."

[Faith Augustin]

"I understand," Faith said, with a smile, "that you are more than capable of working it all out without needing to stick out a hand. But, for those of us who are challenged when it comes to distance and so on?" It did no harm to keep his ego unruffled and besides, they both knew that was what she was doing. Her hand in his squeezed gently. "Come on, Professor."

And, quickly, she regretted the suggestion. The emotions which fell in on her were unbearable, and Faith could no more stop the tears which fell than she could manage to put one foot in front of the other any more. She simply couldn't do it. With all her might, she tried to hold on to her feelings, tried not to let Padraig be put in a position where he would be experiencing what she was - she tried, desperately, to put them into her hands, but she couldn't. Looking up at him, she tried to tell him that, tried to vocalise that she was doing her very best, but she just couldn't hold on to her emotions any more. As she turned her gaze to him, she realised that he knew. Of course he did.

They stopped and he assured her of her strength, that she was stronger than anyone he knew. Faith stubbornly shook her head. It wasn't true. That he missed her, too, Faith knew that and as he spoke the tears fell down her face. He was right, she knew he was- but that it was Vri - Vri whose blessing she carried, that added to the sting of it for her. Yet, there was no doubting it, Padraig was right. There was a fundamental question here, and to that, there was only one answer. "We won't let them win, no." And then, of all things, he lifted her slight form into his arms and carried her.

Once, when last they were somewhere like this in fact, Faith would have argued. In fact, when he'd lifted her previously, she'd tried to make herself lighter - that had been when Vri had taken her memories, she recalled - it had been a lesson. And what she had learned was that, no matter what, they loved each other. Of course, Famula had then explained to them that this was because their souls were connected, promised one to the other through the ages. Still, as he had carried her upstairs, then, she had attempted to make his job easier. Now? She didn't argue or struggle, instead Faith wrapped her arms around his neck and held herself close to him. As he spoke though, damning them all, he felt her smile against him and, for all that the emotions of the place were overwhelming, stronger than that was the surge of love she felt. Of course, that meant that she held on tighter and, when he finally put her down, the crook of his shoulder was damp.

As they moved out of the corridor, though, and as he put her down, Faith realised that the emotions seemed to be linked to the voice. But it was his words that she responded to. "We are. Always have been." Lifting her hand to his cheek, Faith smiled, but said no more. Thank you was not sufficient, and besides - he knew what she felt, the overwhelming gratitude in her heart.

Back on her feet, she looked around at where they were. It was a truly bizarre, jagged and chaotic place. Like everywhere here, she knew. But there, far in the distance, there was an unmistakable sight. "Padraig, is that Treid?" If it was, he was still sleeping, but he looked like what they knew. Even from this distance, there was very obviously a gaping hole in his chest. Faith turned to Padraig and looked at him. "What should we do?"

[Padraig]

She might as well have been trying to hide the moon from him, while it was at its fullest on a crystal clear night. He felt what she felt, and the same was true in reverse. Sometimes Padraig wondered, would it be better if they could turn the connection off temporarily. Just sometimes. But then he never wished that they could.

So they agreed that none of those who wished to harm them, or to cause them to turn back, would win. They wouldn't let them. It didn't mean however that there wasn't a price. That's what this emotional onslaught was. One of the wages of war. But as she often carried him, in a sense, now Padraig carried Faith. And when he put her down again, he said nothing of the tears she'd shed on his shoulder. She already knew. The figure in the distance, from their current position, appeared to be very small. It was an optical illusion of course. And she was right. "Yes," he said. It was Treid. Without seeing the Immortal up close, he knew that was the case.

But clearly, the wish he'd made on the miracle stone had been left to some measure of interpretation. Followed literally, the Immortal's heart would have been slid back in place, and he'd have awoken completely already. That appeared not to be the case. Something of the utmost importance was missing. What should we do, Faith asked, and just then, Padraig frowned and looked thoughtfully down at his feet. There was something there. Something he might have mistaken for an errant shard of glass, one of thousands that had been swirling around them earlier. However unlikely it was, that it would have ended up here.

But strangely, though this place was already moonlit, the shard by the toe of his boot seemed to be emitting it's own light. And when he bent down to pick it up, it seemed almost alive. It hummed and pulsed with energy, and filled him with a sort of longing, the nature of which he hadn't quite felt before. "That bit Treid seems to be missing?" he said, holding out the shard in the palm of his hand, for her to see. "I wonder if we've found it." Should we try it? That was the question he didn't ask aloud, but she'd see it there in his expression.