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[guidingnight]

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voice @gadriel

[thecodexabides]

I have the flowers and...other things you need. [For your sorcery. But he won't say that part aloud.]

Are you near your camp?

voice @deathtochronos

[guidingnight]

I am at my camp currently.

( a pause. )

I will finish my incantation before you arrive.

[thecodexabides]

All right. Thank you. [He will walk a little slowly, just to be safe. Besides, a wind was picking up, starting to mutter through the still mostly-bare branches of the trees, swirling around a mass of clouds starting to bank on the horizon. ]

Please tell me this is not you.

[guidingnight]

The wind? No. A storm may be coming on. Be swift if you wish to avoid it. My tent should house us.

...Is Elion with you? ( HE BETTER BE. )

[thecodexabides]

It feels...malign. [Then again, what doesn't in this place. He has so little familiarity with the natural world that a spring squall could very easily feel, well, personal.]

Of course. Though he is kept safe from the nightshade. [A beat.] You did not tell me I would be handling things that might endanger him. I have taken precautions.

[guidingnight]

A storm caused by the shadows, perhaps? The Shades of this realm seem perpetually restless. ( given what she had heard about Vesper's rise and Triton's likely attack to come soon, a wild storm did not seem unprecedented. )

I apologize. I am not used to familiars that might be harmed by it. I will apologize to him when you arrive.

>> action like we're not kinda there already?

[thecodexabides]

Perhaps. I do not know the way of these things. [Only that the drop in barometric pressure was substantial and things felt...off. He almost asked if she had any sort of protection magic--she had mentioned warding. Not for his sake, but for the tressym, who had caught the restlessness and had climbed out of the helmet and onto Gadriel's shoulder, inside the rim of his armor's collar.

A few moments later, he exited into the clearing of her small camp.] He is safe, but will be glad to see you anyway.

[guidingnight]

Shadows whispered constantly, spirits were restless, and even here outside of the realm she knew, she could sense and hear it all. She had tried to assuage some of them, but she did not get far — this Triton character was strong and clearly affecting the world greatly.

There were wards along the edge of her camp — things that would keep those more malevolent spirits away. The storm, however, she could do little for.

The cauldron in her camp had recently ceased bubbling with whatever she was concocting, and the witch was walking the perimeter when Gadriel arrived. She set her bird device aside to speak with him properly. "I am glad you're both safe. I will take the reagents. Head to the tent."

[thecodexabides]

The wind was whipping up now, hard enough that the tressym was sinking his claws into the bodyglove, his body pressed against Gadriel's neck. He held out a waterproofed box--he had promised her one, after all. Inside each item was in a bag, except for the nightshade, which he had put in a glass jar, just to be safe.

"The storm cannot harm me." As much as it creeped him out. "It is Elion I worry for." And he's very unused to worrying about anyone other than himself.

[guidingnight]

She took the box but did not check the contents yet, trusting he had gathered what he could.

"Best you both get into the tent, then. I will join you shortly while I secure the camp."

She motioned towards her tent — already battened down and ready to withstand the wind and potential rain. The inside was... unimpressive but neatly organized. A bedroll, what blankets she could scavenge, and a box of books.

[thecodexabides]

He had gathered everything--thanks in part to a map from Nina. His kind had been used before, by the Adeptus Mechanicus, to get samples for testing. This was simply a...slightly less unsettling version of the same.

"I am not leaving you out here to face the storm." Elion, yes, though. Elion got pitched inside the tent, where he, having more braincells than advertised, smartly stayed, happy to be out of the wind. "What is needful to secure your camp?"

[guidingnight]

Melinoë tucked the box in the tent with Elion, then turned back to Gadriel.

"We just need to be sure nothing will be thrown into the tent while we wait out the storm. Firewood secured and tucked away, no stray items around the cauldron. It should only take a moment—" on cue, thunder clapped loudly in the distance. "I will take one half, you take the other."

[thecodexabides]

"You take the cauldron." Sorry but he's staying away from the sorcery crockpot. Just in case. "I will take the perimeter."

He won't be long. There wasn't much on the margins of the camp that would cause problems, even if the wind shifted direction. The storm did not concern him for his own safety. A few months ago he simply would have, at most, clapped his helmet on his head to shield his eyes. But with Elion, and her to worry about (sure she was a goddess but how much weather did they really have where she was from?), things changed.

voice @Gadriel

[thecodexabides]

He's playing it cool, he's 1000% sure. Not panicking at all. Nope. Nothing weird or scary about waking up in a strange place full of strange people who are probably trying to either torture him or sorcery him (really, what's the difference?)

"Melinoë." Uh. Hi? Back from the dead totes normal, how have things been? "Can you...come find me?" Rescue him, he means.

[guidingnight]

Melinoë knew he was gone for good when she could not find him anywhere on the battlefield, and confirmed it fully when he did not return to their camp. She knew not where his gem was, but his soul was certainly not where it should be. Somewhere between. Waiting to return.

Maybe that's why she didn't sound overly surprised when he finally called.

"You should be with the healers of the Sylph if you have just resurrected. Do not let them touch you." She knew how well that would go. "I will be there shortly."

>>action?

[thecodexabides]

"They shall lay no hands on me." At least now. He didn't want to think what they might have done to him while he was unconscious.

They'd had no bed his size and after his weight crushed one of them they just kept him there, limbs dangling off.

Their mistake. When she arrived, Gadriel was naked, in a feral crouch, brandishing a broken piece of bedframe to keep the very perplexed healers at bay.

[guidingnight]

Maybe she should have been more specific when she said not to let them touch him. He didn't have to be feral about it.

"Gadriel." She said, both relieved and mildly frustrated by the current state of the healers quarters. To said healers, she raised a hand up. "Your help has been greatly appreciated. I will tend to him from here." First and foremost... clothes. There had to be something to cover him with. "You are safe, Gadriel. We need to get you dressed so we can return home."

[thecodexabides]

It was Gadriel, and also he just came back from death. Of course she needed to be literal as a cinderblock.

He's had a rough few days. "Tell them that if they corrupted me again, I will tear this place apart stone by stone." He...he could tell them himself since they're standing right there, but maybe they would believe her more.

"They have taken my armor." How dare they! Oh right, they probably didn't want him to fall right through the floor. Once they had retreated to a safe enough distance, Gadriel took the sheet from his bed and wrapped it around him. She's seen it all anyway, though so it's fine.

[guidingnight]

"You heard him." Was all she said to the healers who, at this point, just wanted the big lummox out of their medical bay. "Where have you stored his armor?"

One of them pointed to the other side of the room where said armor lay, long with his bodyglove. Melinoë retrieved that first and moved back toward him, taking a moment to look him over as she handed it to him. "Elion has been worried." She said, arms crossed. "How did it happen?"

[thecodexabides]

Who would want to kick a Space Marine out of their establishment? It was an HONOR to have a member of the Adeptus Astartes grace any place with his presence.

An honor he was happy to deprive them of, gladly taking his bodyglove and stepping into it. He stopped at the mention of Elion. He missed the orange furball. "Where is he?" He could use a hug from someone right now, and it sure didn't look like one was coming from her any time soon. "I was blocking a creature from killing my...my sister."

Oh no. Nina. She's going to be so mad at him.

[guidingnight]

Now who said she wouldn't hug him? She was just waiting for the opportune moment when they weren't getting him redressed. Or when he wasn't harassing healers.

"Back at camp with Toula. Deet had been watching him until I returned. I expected you back not long after, but..." Her expression faltered, sadness in those mismatched eyes. "You did not return. I should have known, when I felt something was off." Hence why she was not overly surprised to find him here, now. "I am sorry I was not there to aid you. You were missed — not only by Elion."

[thecodexabides]

"Deet needed something to do, someone to take care of, during all of this." Not everyone could fight, but everyone wanted to feel that they were a part of it. And Elion needed someone to watch over him as well.

"I am glad you were not there to see it." He was aware how ugly his first death was and he had come back from that. And he knew what a mess he was at his second death. "But I am sorry for your sorrow." He couldn't do anything to fix it.

[guidingnight]

"She did a fine job." Toula and Elion did not seem to have any objections, save that they were wondering where Gadriel had gone.

Melinoë shook her head. "You died with honor and no regrets, as you had vowed at your gathering. I am glad you have returned." Once his bodysuit was on, she stepped closer to wrap her arms around him.

[thecodexabides]

"She is troubled by her corruption. I am glad she found purpose here however temporary." He could relate to Deet's concerns, even though his corruption hadn't been contagious. And Elion was not gifted with brain cells but his instincts were good and if he liked Deet, she was good and pure where it mattered.

He was fastening the bodyglove around his neck when she reached to hug him and he essentially melted into the hug, arms folding around her, tucking his head against her shoulder. "My only regret was not knowing if you had survived." But that was how battle went, and here she was and it didn't matter anymore.

[guidingnight]

"She is corrupted? I admit I did not speak with her long." Just long enough to thank her and gather the cats so they could settle back at camp while they awaited Gadriel's return.

She looped her arms around his neck once he was low enough to do so, eyes shut, a hand resting against the back of his head. "I am here. We should head home."