Keydis Lysistrata
Caeancora
Wordcount: 13245
It was thick and juicy, like rump roast. Laniger shank was one of the cheapest meats available, but also one of the toughest and gamiest. However, there was some magic in the way Lyon handled the salt, pepper, and... she wasn't quite sure what else. Honey? "I've missed your cooking, old man," Keydis called out over the din of the lodge. The bearded proprietor waved his acknowledgment from across the room.
How much things had changed.
Keydis Lysistrata was once just a guildless runaway hothead letting off steam by getting into fights every couple nights. Those who had known her back then almost wouldn't recognize her. The hair was the same, a dark brunette cut short and styled up in spikes, with the bangs dyed a bright red. The eyes were the same, violet with piercing intensity and thick eyebrows. Her skin had warmed to tan, after time in Aridus and in the Copiae Ocean. Even though she was, in a literal sense, no taller, Keydis carried a stronger presence that made her seem larger than life: she was buff, with confidence earned in battles and trials rather than cockiness borne from inexperience, and there was a certain swagger in her movements, casual yet measured, and to those who had been around, they recognized the body language of one who had trained their body to its peak.
From a runt wearing her uncle's old fur-lined coat to a woman clad in sturdy, sensible clothing and armor she had crafted on her own, master of her own small guild, the Aimless Blades. She wore black boots, hickory-colored pants with hardened leather plates, and a red leather vest over blue- and violet-stained scale armor. Around her waist, she had a sturdy leather belt as well as an Aridusian silk sash, red with yellow stripes and designs. Her right arm was wrapped in black leather bands, and she wore a fingerless black glove; the queer, violet metal covering the area around her elbow could just barely be seen through the straps. Her left arm was covered completely in a long red glove that went from the back of her hand to her bicep.
Then there was her cloak. Mantled with white fur, the sturdy black half cloak hung over her left shoulder and down to her knees. A smaller, crescent shaped cloak was draped over it, deep purple with the golden symbol for Terminus: an archaic symbol reminiscent of a ball of fire upon a circle, representing the protection from the cataclysm. A square was sewn into that cloak, just above the Terminus emblem: azure silk, with an argent, tear-drop shaped shield emblazoned with a cerulean chevron over a golden pitcher. The purple cloak marked Keydis as one of the city's chosen, sent to aid the Empire of Pelagia; the argent shield further distinguished her as one of the Trigon Coalition, those who had earned recognition for their efforts in helping disarm the Pelagian war.
Keydis carried a masterfully crafted sword at her belt on the left hip, partly hidden under the Aridusian sash, and a sturdy silver tonfa tucked through her belt on her right hip. Over her shoulder protruded the reinforced haft of her axe that doubled as an anvil. Anyone who had known her from before could attest to the fact that she was just as liable to use her bare hands as draw a weapon.
Guildmaster, recognized war hero, certified master smith... she had come a long way, and it felt like things were only going to continue getting better.
The brunette dug into her laniger and potatoes, the first hot meal since arriving back in Terminus. She hadn't even gone to check up on Nyct or meet with her uncle, yet. Red had gone off to check on paperwork for the guild -- something Keydis was woefully ill-equipped for.
Suddenly, Lyon was standing next to her. Keydis looked up at the burly, bearded laicar. She grinned up at him. "I said I missed your cooking, old man! Not that citrusy fish is bad, but--"
"Since you're here, you ought to take on a bounty for old time's sake," Lyon said, interrupting her.
"Soon enough! I'm fresh off the boat. See, you can still smell the salt." She held her cloak up toward him. "Give me a few days to get settled and--"
Lyon put a hand to her shoulder and shoved a paper into her hand. "I think you should look at this one right away." This time, Keydis noticed his tone; not just firm, but worried.
Keydis looked down at the paper. "Fuck."
Not too far north of Terminus, where the craggy foothills began to turn into mountains proper, the air was cold, biting. Wind howled across the rocks and hissed through the great pine forest covering the mountainside. Fresh snow shivered from overladen boughs, and the wind swept it into the sky where it spiraled in mystical patterns, twisting this way and that. The sky was cold, too, and gray. It was devastatingly quiet out here.
In the deep of the forest, nestled between towering northern pines, stood a small cave. Maybe fifty yards from it, a thin brook meandered by, the water's surface frozen over from bank to bank. Here, the remnants of tracks dragged through the pockmarked snow. It had snowed since the tracks were left, but not enough to entirely erase the evidence of a foreign presence -- and the nearby wildlife had already begun to skirt around the area. Something had recently taken up residence in that cave, hidden beneath the pines. Something that smelled of sickness and howled through the night.
Once upon a time, Eloquii Aequoris had scoffed at the idea that he was a monster. He'd considered himself rough-and-tumble, sure. Roguish, absolutely. Slightly immoral, perhaps. But despite the horns ("Feathers!" he used to insist) on his head and his long, whipcord tail, despite the way people would skirt around him in the street or stop and stare after him as he walked by, he'd never seen himself as anything but a man. He had his quirks, but what laicar, velen, enlil, demvir, or spurii mix didn't? He looked odd, but everything but his tail could be traced back to a spurii heritage. The tail could easily be a childhood curse, an old spell gone awry, something like that, right?
El had made a science of dismissing and deflecting people's suspicions, all with a bright smile and amiable attitude. He was odd, yes, but human -- through and through.
How much things had changed.
Eloquii staggered from the cave, eyes wide and wild, scenting the air like a beast.
Let me know, Edax murmured in his ear. When you're done. When you're tired of fighting. I'll be here.
El shook his head. He exhaled, his breath hanging, visible, in the air as he stumbled his way towards the icy brook. It was cold. Freezing. But he didn't feel it. Couldn't feel it. Not anymore.
"You can do this! I know you can!" said the memory of his father's voice. "I know you can fight it."
Blue flames rippled over him, burning hot at his core. His breath came out in short, sharp, staccato puffs, as he sank to one knee before the stream. He hurt, all over. Liquid fire thrummed in his veins, scorching the whole of him. His head ached at a concentrated point behind his eyes. At first, it'd been enough to make him scream, cry, howl. He wasn't sure if the pain had lessened, since, or if he'd already adapted to it.
"I thought I could... But I can't. It sucks. I know," whispered the memory of his mother's voice.
She knew, Edax purred. She knew when she was lost. Why don't you?
The words reflected and refracted, a splinter of sound echoing in the void of space between his thoughts.
"SHUT UP!" Eloquii roared. He clutched at his head, fisted his fingers in the mottled mess of his hair. "Shut up! Shut up, shut up, gods, just..." He slammed a hand down on the brook's frozen surface. Spiderweb cracks appeared beneath his fist, crawling out in tiny, spindling trails.
He caught sight of himself, then.
Once upon a time, Eloquii had looked...odd. Odd, but believably spurii, for the most part. He'd been a mutt, to be sure, but it was only the tail that'd raised questions.
Now, El was undeniably something else. His face was barely recognizable to him.
Short, dark gray fur had grown over El's skin. Gone were the black scales that used to freckle his nose and covered his legs and feet. Gone were the black feathers that used to curl from his arms. His hair, once a light, bright, and brilliant blue, had been stained a deep black. Cat-like eyes stared back at him from the river's shivering reflection -- radiant, fire-blue irises and slit pupils that glowed white. Luminescent blue scales dappled his skin beneath his eyes and across the bridge of his nose. Shaky, disbelieving, he reached up to touch his cheek. It was a stranger's hand, gray and furred, wreathed in faint, flickering blue fire.
Distantly, El thought, Those were my father's scales. My mother's feathers. I had my mother's eyes. I had my father's hair.
Eloquii let out an aimless, furious snarl, and lashed out, smashing the ice in front of him. His arm sank in, soaking him to the elbow in frigid water.
"Fuck," he spat. "FUCK!"
Keydis shoved past the two men, both wearing the blue tabard of the Terminus city guards, and through the door behind them.
"You can't go back there!" one shouted.
The other grabbed her arm, growling out, "One more step and you're under arrest!"
Yanking her arm free, Keydis snapped, "Stay out of my way, morons, unless you want to get off your sorry rears and do something about this!" She held up the paper with the bounty for Eloquii Aequoris. It listed him as a vistra.
The guard hesitated, and Keydis pressed on. "Thought so."
"That doesn't mean you're allowed--"
Keydis found the door she wanted and nearly ripped it off its hinges, barely containing the anger coursing through her. More guards were inside, and over the sound of their voices, a piercing yowl rose up.
"Look, just get rid of it, will you?" one of the guards insisted, a tall velen woman.
One of the men next to her put a hand to his sword as he turned to glare at Keydis. "Who are you? What's the meaning of this?"
They stood in an evidence room, with an array of tables and shelves lining the walls filled with wire baskets. Half of the baskets were full and the tables were covered entirely. This would be where evidence for recent or ongoing investigations would be kept. The three guards inside stood to block her way while the two from earlier rushed in behind her.
"I am Keydis Lysistrata, guildmaster of the Aimless Blades." Keydis held up the bounty paper. "This idiot is one of mine, and I'm going to deal with him personally."
"Wait, how do we know..?"
Another yowl rose up and then Felo ran over from behind the guards. The black ottercat rushed up to Keydis, rubbing against her thighs and crying out yet again. Keydis plucked the quill-covered beast off the ground and let it perch on her shoulder. "Show me the evidence recovered from the scene. If this shit means nothing to you," she continued, gesturing toward the symbols on her cloak, "then we'll get Havital Vicarious down here, but one way or another, I'm leaving with whatever you've got. I can use it to track him.
"I've done it before."
The guards looked at each other, but finally the velen woman gestured for Keydis to come forward. "Grenn, go notify the captain. Remi, Varens, don't leave the front unattended." After they left, the woman walked up behind Keydis as she stood over the table.
There was no need to ask which pieces of evidence to look at. Aura Maris, the greatsword she had crafted for El herself, lay on the table covered in dark, dried blood. A familiar hat, also stained. Somehow El had become separated from Felo, and the ottercat stayed with the possessions that carried El's scent. There was a sheaf of papers with the items, and Keydis skimmed through it for the important details on the assault.
"Have you fed him at all?" Keydis asked suddenly, as the agitated ottercat crossed from one shoulder to the other and back again.
"I, we… no. I don't think so." With a glance at the remaining guardsman, the velen wordlessly sent him off to find something. Once they were alone, she put a hand on Keydis' shoulder. "Listen, my name is Thelis. We haven't met, but I've heard a lot about you, mostly from your uncle. There's… something I need to tell you. About him."
"It will have to wait," Keydis snapped. She grabbed the hat and hung it off her belt, then hoisted the sword over her cat-free shoulder. "I told this bastard what I'd do to him if he ever used this sword to draw innocent blood!"
She turned to leave and Thelis called out, "Wait, it's important!"
"So is this." With that, she was gone, pausing only to grab a chunk of fried fish for Felo from the unnamed guard as he rushed back into the room.
This stubbornness, whispered Edax, it isn't like you.
You don't know what I'm like, El snapped. And didn't I tell you to shut up?
Don't know what you're like? I've been with you since you were seven years old. I've been a part of you for most of your life.
You're not noble, you're self-serving.
You're not a fighter, you're a thief.
And you are not brave, Eloquii. You're just reckless.
There's no reason for you to fight me. There's no point in suffering like this. I'm not asking to take control of you, only-
You're not noble, you're self-serving.
You're not a fighter, you're a thief.
And you are not brave, Eloquii. You're just reckless.
There's no reason for you to fight me. There's no point in suffering like this. I'm not asking to take control of you, only-
You're done getting what you want, you fucking parasite.
...
...Wake up, El.
...Wake up, El.
Eloquii jerked awake from a thin, restless sleep, bleary-eyed and delirious. He had no idea how long it'd been. A few minutes, hours, days? Blue light flickered and danced across the cavern walls, painting it in eerie shadows. He pushed himself up into a sitting position with a ragged sigh. The flames hadn't stopped since this whole nightmare started; they were heatless and, as far as he could tell, harmless -- but their light made it near-impossible to get any rest.
He was tired. He was exhausted. And worse, he was starving.
Ironic that hunger was what had kickstarted this disaster in the first place, and now it was starting to look like El was going to starve to death in the woods.
I won't let that happen, said Edax.
"Oh my gods," El muttered. "No one fuckin' asked you."
He pulled himself to his feet one miserable inch at a time, his tail sweeping a wide arc on the ground behind him. His stomach let out a loud, pitious growl.
"I know," he hissed. "I know, I know, I know-!" But food had been a problem even before this started, and he could hardly go down to the city and ask the nearest vendor to whip him up a hunk of roast laniger now.
His gut twisted with hunger at the thought of freshly-cooked meat. El leaned against the cave wall, temple pressed to his fist. What was he doing? What was he doing?
Food. He needed food. Plenty of hunters and gatherers managed just fine living outside city limits; there was food to be had, he just had to look for it. He thought briefly, longingly, of the forage found along the tropical coasts he was most familiar with. He was...not there.
Still. A forest meant, what? Nuts? Seeds? And animals, as well. He knew absolutely jack and shite about hunting, but he had magic. If he could get close enough to something, maybe...maybe...
Spurred on by a newfound sense of purpose, Eloquii staggered from his cave -- and into the whipping, howling wind outside. His tangled hair kicked wildly about his face, his bloodied clothes whipped this way and that.
With a sharp, frustrated growl, El set off, dragging new tracks through the forest.
Inns and taverns had their doors slammed open, one after another, each time with Keydis calling out, "Enlil, grey feathers, goes by Mica -- is he here or not? Don't waste my time, this is official business!"
After Keydis had hit eight locations without success, and as she was on her way to the ninth, suddenly Mica appeared from a darkened alley, silent as a ghost. His feathers were mottled grey, and raven-black talons clutched a polished falchion. The man's face had a dark tan, and he wore skin-tight black leather armor. Even with his sword drawn and ready, though, there was an edge of fear in those pale green eyes. "What reason do you have to be calling me by name?"
"You want to pit that poker against this?" Keydis asked, lifting the hilt of El's greatsword. There was a twitch in the enlil's expression and Keydis nodded. "Oh yeah, you recognize this. You've seen what it can do. I'm calling you out because I need some Bell-damned answers and word is you're the eyewitness. We'll start simple, then: are you an eyewitness, yes or no?"
Mica scowled. "Yes," he answered tersely, keeping his sword drawn.
"Good, now tell me what you saw," Keydis demanded.
"Spurii bastard went on rampage, that's what I saw!" Mica snapped.
Keydis stepped closer, the metal scales over her chest nearly touching the enlil's extended sword. "Obviously. I want to know why. El's a dumbass but not a bloodthirsty one."
Mica's frown deepened, frightened look transforming into an intimidating glare. "Maybe you don't know him as well as you think." Relenting, though, he offered, "He and Canor had a disagreement. Before you go hurling more threats, Canor didn't lay a finger on him!"
The brunette nodded and added, "Because you stopped him, right?" She had already asked around, so she had the gist of the situation. She just needed more information.
Caught off-guard, the enlil hesitated, but then nodded. "Right."
"Then what happened?"
"Eloquii attacked without warning."
"Bullshit."
"He went swinging that behemoth like a madman!"
"Try again."
"Listen, damnit, if you--!"
Keydis snapped one arm out, sinking her fist into Mica's throat. The enlil dropped to his knees, sputtering and wheezing, tears rolling down his cheeks. The brunette crouched down to get on his level, El's sword still resting on her shoulders. "Choose your next words very carefully," she warned in an icy tone, backed up with a hiss from Felo, perched on her other shoulder.
Mica gasped and gulped in air, turning red in the face. "Canor… ahh… he… huff..."
Keydis waited impassively.
Finally the enlil gave in. "The spurii demanded a duel! Ha, ah, and Canor… accepted. But as soon as he did, Eloquii rushed him down, didn't give him a lick of a chance. That sword passed through his armor like it wasn't even there, and then there was blood, so much blood..!"
Felo hopped off Keydis' shoulder and nosed at one of Mica's belt pouches. "What's in there?" Keydis asked. Instead of waiting for an answer, she reached over and opened the pouch.
Inside was a familiar key tied to a broken cord, spackled with blood.
"I can explain," Mica was beginning to say, but Keydis just plucked the key from his pouch and stared at it for a moment.
"Explain it to the guards, then. You lied to them, tried to lie to me, and now you're tampering with evidence." Keydis held up the makeshift pendant, able to sense some of the ambient energy remaining on it. "Lucky for you, this is what I need. Get lost."
Mica didn't waste any time making good on their escape, disappearing back into the shadows.
Keydis stared at the key in her hand, remembering the frenzy Eloquii went into during the fight on the beach. She'd dismissed it as just a natural snap, but now she was concerned.
There was some kind of magic lingering in the key. Now she just had to remember what Annora had taught her about finding the source.
El blinked wildly, briefly blinded as he came out of a thicket and onto a plain of glistening white snow. The sunlight reflected off the snowdrifts, bright and blinding -- and El's new eyes seemed hyper-sensitive to light already.
He staggered to one side, clumsy in the knee-deep snow, and pressed his palms over his eyes.
"Fuck," he growled. He removed his hands only after the worst of the afterimages had faded, and shielded them over his eyes as he opened them. It was still almost too bright to stand. Abandoning the set of bufalus tracks he'd been following, El edged back into the shadowy tree cover, a new thudding pain kicking up behind his eyes.
The spurii let out a ragged sigh and leaned himself against the nearest pine; his flames curled and licked harmlessly at the bark. Any other time, he would've found the phenomenon captivating -- right now, the blue flickering barely registered.
El squinted up into the conifer's narrow, needle-filled boughs. "Got any nests up there?" he asked, wearily. "Big fat ol' nestin' birds? Maybe a couple dozen eggs?"
Unsurprisingly, the tree had no response.
"I'm this close to trying to eat pine trees," he muttered, and moved on.
It was late in the day, the setting sun slanting warm golden light and shivering shadows through the tree limbs, when Eloquii stumbled across an outcropping of leafless bushes. The bushes grew tall and hearty, and their bare branches were thick with ice-crusted red berries.
El slanted a narrow look at them. "Red," he said to himself. His head hurt, his legs hurt. His tail was clumped through with snow where it'd been dragging behind him, and his stomach cramped at the sight of potential food. "Red's fine, right? White -- it's white berries that aren't safe up in the mountains. ...Right?" In the end, it really didn't matter what color they were. His hunger had rapidly shifted from 'painful' to 'agonizing', and El doubted he'd be able to stop himself even if he knew without a doubt the berries were deadly.
As he reached out to drag a handful off their branches, his hand froze, outstretched.
No, said Edax.
A numb shock punched through him, his blood coursed cold through his veins. He hadn't thought... He hadn't known...
"Don't you dare," El said. Fury shook through his voice. "Don't you dare!"
I said I wouldn't let us starve to death, the pravum said in his ear. I won't let you kill us with poison, either. Let go. Let me-
With an absolutely furious snarl, El wrenched back control of his hand, pulling away from the bush so hard he fell over backwards in the snow.
His shout startled a flock of birds out of a nearby tree and -- without a single coherent thought -- El tore open a portal. An arc of green energy cracked through the air, missed, and snapped several branches clean off the pine. El sat there, breath heaving, for several long moments as it sank in. Edax had stopped him. Edax had stopped him. Which meant the pravum could stop him.
Eloquii stood. His tail whipped back and forth, carving a broad arc in the snow. "If...If you try," he rasped, so angry he could barely speak, "to take control of me again, I'll cut my own throat just to know you're bleedin' out in the snow with me."
No you won't, Edax whispered. Even now, you're desperate to survive. Foolish with it. You refuse to let go, but holding on is killing you. Killing us.
"Fuckin'... Shut up!"
You can't even control yourself, Edax growled, impatience coloring its voice. You're burning yourself up -- and me with you. I didn't want to do it like this. I warned you, parvulus.
"SHUT UP!!"
So burn yourself out. And when you are finished, I will do what you refuse to. I will fix us.
There was calm confidence in Edax's voice, a sense of inevitability.
El slumped to his knees, shaking.
The night found him there, still. Curled in the snow beside a bush of berries, the patch of forest around him lit by his flickering blue fire.
The Grand Metropolis was a city alive with both magic and technology, abuzz in a way that could be overwhelming to those sensitive to the spiritual and the otherworldly. Rumors abounded that this was one reason why the Arcanum's spiritual leaders resided in the towering Specula Sorcere, high above the rest of the city. Keydis, however, was not particularly inclined toward the spiritual. For her, she preferred simple things, using her eyes and ears and feeling the touch of steel on steel.
Annora insisted that might make her better suited to the trick she had developed while ruin-delving.
Keydis sighed and for a moment, she wondered how Annora was doing. The brunette was sure she had made the right decision by exiting from Annora's pilgrimage, and it was Annora who had been the one to rescue her after her clash with Caeancora, but she couldn't help wondering what had happened to her. Especially now, when she was on the hunt for El, just like the hunt that had initially brought them together.
Lots of things had changed since then.
Keydis looked down at the key in her hands. It still carried a hint of some unknown magic, something that made her fingers tingle when she cleared her mind, as Annora had shown her. As long as she'd known El, he'd always had a variety of keys on his person, but while some came and went, this one in particular was always present. It was the one that had caused him to go berserk in Flumen Petram. For all that time, though, she'd never particularly made an effort to get to know El. Part of it was being sure that if she knew more about him, she'd probably need to throw him in jail herself, but it was still pretty shitty as a friend. As odd as it was to spell it out as such, she did consider him a friend.
That made what she had to do all the harder. El had gone berserk and attacked Canor with the sword she had personally forged for him. He had broken the one rule she had given him. As the leader of the guild, Keydis couldn't allow that to stand, and couldn't sit idly by to let others take care of the problem. She had to do it herself, even if that meant putting him down permanently.
"The method of madness," Keydis murmured aloud, thinking of how Annora had described it. She closed her eyes and focused on that queer tingle on her fingertips. It was feeble, a mere drop amid the downpour of signals filling the city, and it would be insane to think that someone as dense as her could follow the trail it left behind. All the other magic and machinery and people became little more than noise to her, though. The only thing that was real was what she held in her hand, the key that was so intertwined with El.
With El's sword over her shoulder and his ottercat perched on the other, Keydis began moving. She wasn't even sure if she was heading the right way, but she trusted her gut, soon moving into a light jog, dodging around the people on the streets as she worked her way through the city, heading north and west. It was still too early to tell for sure, but Keydis found her eyes tracking upward toward the mountain range that encircled the city.
Throughout the day, Keydis kept on the move, stopping periodically to grab food or drink. Felo would start yowling if she stopped for too long, and she was afraid of losing the faint trail as it was, so she was always back on the move quickly. By evening, she was certain; he had to be up in the mountains. All of the good places to hide in Terminus were deeper toward its center. Every time she passed a poster with his face on it, Keydis grit her teeth, pushing ahead, ignoring her own exhaustion.
El was tired.
He was...so tired. How long had he been out here? A week? More? He was tired of walking. Tired of being hungry. Tired of hurting. Tired of the blue, always flickering in his peripherals. Time kept slipping from him, great handfuls at a time. When he slept, it was thin and fitful, plagued by old memories couched in the distorted landscapes and murky logic of dreams. He'd wake with a start, unsure if he'd slept minutes or hours.
Edax barely spoke to him anymore -- it seemed to have realized that every time El heard the pravum's voice, the resulting burst of anger kept him motivated to resist.
Left alone to wander the mountainside, alone with his own thoughts, it was harder.
Fatigue dragged at him, heavy in his limbs, a thick pressure in his chest. He wasn't even sure what he was looking for, anymore. He didn't have the tools or the knowledge to trap live game, or the foraging experience to find any nuts or berries the local wildlife might have stashed away. He'd been following the river -- heading north, upstream -- ever further away from Terminus. Either he'd wrench back control over himself, he'd thought, or he'd walk all the way to the damn wastes. Leave his corpse to freeze in the icy tundra.
And if you get back control?
At first El thought it was Edax, and a fresh wave of irritation swept over him. But, no. It was just his own thoughts, tinted with the pravum's calm condescension.
Even if you get control. Even if you stop glowing. Even if your appearance goes back to what it used to be. It's not like you can go back. You already--
A flash of memory kicked him; Canor's eyes, wide with shock. El lost his footing on the rocky embankment tracing the river's edge, staggered and stumbled, struggling to right himself.
I already...
El shook his head, like he could shake off the memories. He walked faster. It was snowing, and the wind was kicking up -- it felt like a storm was brewing.
A storm had been brewing. It howled around him now, a whirlwind of freezing snow and biting wind. He hadn't been north long enough to experience many blizzards; and this was his first time being caught out in one. He could barely feel the cold, but at some point he'd lost the river -- and even with his newly enhanced vision, he could barely see his own feet where they were planted in the snow.
Stop.
El ground his teeth, hunkered his shoulders, and pushed forward. Faster now.
Parvulu...El!
Like someone had reached out and grabbed him, El jerked to a stop. He stood there, panting, thinking about the threat he'd made. He'd warned Edax. He'd told it-
Look!
"Fuckin'..." El muttered -- the wind whipped the words from his mouth the moment he spoke them. "..What?"
Then he saw.
Before him, a scant few feet away, lay a sheer drop. He didn't know how far down it went, though he got the sense that he was standing on a precipice of sorts. Wind howled over the cliff's edge, tearing sheaves of snow into the empty void of space. There the snow glittered and swirled, pulled into intricate patterns by the tossing blizzard storm. In a way, it was beautiful. Breathtaking.
El stared out into the expanse and thought of jumping.
El.
There was something new in Edax's tone. It pulled El's gaze up, made him blink.
We need to go.
"...You just told me to stop," El snapped.
Eloquii, we're in danger.
"...What?"
Then El felt it too; an odd sensation, a prickling on the back of his neck. He stiffened, turned around.
There, just visible through the buffeting snow, stood Keydis Lysistrata.