Two souls intertwined

                      "𝒲𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝐼'𝓂 𝑔𝑜𝓃𝑒, 𝓇𝑒𝓂𝑒𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇 𝓂𝑒?"

Hello there! It’s me, Aida with a blog featuring a collection of my OCs and some worldbuilding! Please give this a like/reblog if you’d be interested in interacting with dragons, fae, angels, and more! Please read my about and rules, and I hope to see you here!

I was too aware of my position, or the kind of creatures I was treating with- not normal ones, but if I tried to simply get back with my tail between my legs, what was I going to tell Zenos of all people if he asked about all of this?

If these dragons continued with their stubborn plan to go against me, I was already fated to die one way or another, it felt like, and it made me mad. It was one of those situations in which I didn’t have enough power to do anything of significance, and thus, I couldn’t help but close one of my fists as I frowned softly.

“Why? I have my own reasons. Mayhap someone as powerful as you can’t understand what the most unfortunate ones have to cling to. But pry no more. My decisions and my life, ‘tis nothing of your incumbency.” Well, my past wasn’t their incumbency, but I knew they weren’t going to simply sit back and watch how I made other people suffer, what was already a problem of its own.

“I know not why a stranger would even find some pity in a woman like me. But I can at least say I have some control over my own fate now. Wanting me alive or not, I will do what is necessary as an acting-viceroy. Can’t disappoint those who actually put some trust in me.” It was when the green flames flicked that I flinched slightly in pure reflex, and even if my eyes were fixated on it or the outfit they seemed to made for the other, I try to keep my chin up.

“Not like I am doing something against those poor rats right now. I make them pay for a reason. I do not go around torturing just for the pleasure of it.” While it was a half truth, it didn’t rest that any excuse was good enough to get against the people of Namai and the surrounding areas. “So rest easy…you can come for my head once I am acting up, no? Otherwise, wouldn’t that be rather unfair as well?”

“Why would we not understand? Just like your defense that we can’t possibly know you, you can’t possibly know us.” Citrine mused, gaze drifting to look out of a window. “We know well what it means to be unfortunate and have little to cling to.” A child forgotten by time, fled from abuse endured in a mining town. A child forgotten by time, betrayed by someone they had thought to be close to their found family. A child forgotten by time, who stayed within themself for lifetimes out of fear.

“People as long lived as us have had far more time to experience life’s hardships than a mortal.” Fayalite sneered, glaring at Yotsuyu. A child with an unnatural talent for magic. A child that started with no soul to explain the magic. A child branded as a demon. A child later saved.

“I am not after your head,” Citrine sighed. “I intend to save the people here, so that you can victimize them no longer.” They turned, getting ready to start leaving the castle. Their gaze drifting to Fayalite. “Are you ready, my love?”

      With hurry Cloud was already crouched on the ground, ready to begin fixing the bike. For a moment he thought to not say a word to them anymore, or the same familiar & often repeated phrase of ‘ it’s nothing ‘. But as the other began to pry, more  curious  than offended, he stopped to think he might just have something invaluable here. A lesson. An  opportunity  . “Just…“ Wrench in his hand he sighed. “Never seen one like you. Makes me wonder where you came from.“

“An understandable question, and one you deserve to know the answer to.” Citrine smiled gently, leaning back as they thought about how best to answer. “I won’t blame you if you find the answer hard to believe, but I ask that you at least try.”

Maybe I should be really grateful that they weren’t at my neck already. When it came to dragons I just heard of the stories in the West- and even when the war between Ishgard and Dravanians was popular enough, the East hasn’t had the displeasure of being at war with such creatures.

Wouldn’t like to start something now.

If anything, what was bothering me most is that they were talking as if they knew me already. As if they knew the full story of my life, like if they could change it, when the only one that could make a real change here was me.

Or so I thought.

“Don’t speak as if you knew me, stranger. We’ve literally met a few minutes ago. In these lands you either are the one in charge of your own destiny or you are not. I am making a change; a change that was needed and no one dared to make.” No, I got too far to change now, or even feel sorry for what I did. Through honeyed words everybody used to promise that things would get better, but every time I asked for help they would end up looking away.

At the very least, my posture relaxed even if I still looked at the other two with an air of superiority. If people in Ishgard could kill dragons, surely, there would be a way to hurt these as well…right? Not something you really felt like getting to, deep inside.

“You can…try. The Empire is strong. If you bleed…you probably can be killed. I may not be the one to do so, but the last thing I need, is for more rebels to try and take my power away again.” My relaxation was ephemeral, and as soon as it came, it disappeared. Not like the day has been the best with me either, so the stress was simply accumulating and finishing with my patience really fast.

“If I have to die while on this position, I will. But I won’t let anyone step over me. No one will…no one.” Stubborn, I could only wait for what could possibly be another failure. In the back of my mind I knew I didn’t deserve redemption, nor I wanted it.

If Doma had to remember me as a monster, they will.

Citrine chuckled sadly, shaking their head. “So you have already given up on yourself. A sad thing to hear.” Their head then cocked to the side as she talked about killing them, the dragon chuckling again. “You would find yourself surprised. Perhaps temporarily, but death is not a thing of permanence for us.” A slight lie, but they weren’t going to just hand her the key information of their long lives. Especially not with the stance she was already taking.

Fayalite huffed upon hearing that she’d be willing to die for such a pathetic position. Eyes rolling upon noting that if their love had their way, she wouldn’t even die by their hands. “Your position is a pathetic one. Why would you want to die for something that’s built on causing suffering?” They just truly didn’t understand it. Just chalking it up to the atrocity that was mortal existence.

Their lips parted to say something else, about how she should feel honored that their love was even willing to reason with her. But that never came out, words dying at the feeling of another reassuring squeeze around their hand.

Citrine now sighed, “Even if this doesn’t go your way. You won’t die. Life is too precious to be extinguished. You may hate and scorn us after this, but I won’t let your flame be extinguished. Not while there still is time for you to accept yourself as worthy of being helped.”

The moment one of the dragons started to react, I couldn’t help but take a step back in pure reflex. It was fear that I was feeling, an almost primal reaction to getting hurt because others have done so before. Yet, at the same time, and even if my heart was racing, my frown deepened and I stood still.

In hopes of standing my ground, I crossed my arms and looked at the closer soldiers by the corner of my eyes, before my gaze would go back to be fixated on Fayalite, that grew angrier by the second.

While I could understand where they were coming from (and even when I myself despised my own kin), the Empire’s teachings were still there.

“Your reactions contradict your assumptions about what we may or may not be. But so be it.” A soft laugh would escape my lips, and thankfully for me, Fayalite seemed to start calming down when in presence of the other. For the sake of my health, it was better that way.

But I didn’t want to keep pushing them around, not so much. Even if I wanted to talk back or even show that I had my own power here, I wasn’t stupid enough to be so suicidal- these creatures in front of me seemed to resemble dragons from the west, so I didn’t want to gamble my luck here.

“The bloodshed was needed. Who will teach these rats how they should behave? Their misdoings is not something I will look away from, after all.” Innocent or guilty, it didn’t matter. But the moment that I could hear that they were feeling pity for me, I half-closed my eyes and tried to ignore all of it.

If anything, I thought that it was now that I was in a pretty good position- better than what I had to endure before, so they shouldn’t be feeling pity in the slightest.

“If you want to try and save these people, you can. But that will mean that if you get in my way, I will have to act against you. My orders were clear and I won’t go against them all so easily.”

“Shhhh...” Citrine hushed, tugging Fayalite close to themself before the smaller could fall into another angry tirade. “Look at me, Dealanach.” Once reassured that their partner was going to stay calm even just a bit longer, they turned to Yotsuyu after lacing their finger’s with their partner’s and giving a soft squeeze.

The redhead’s expression hardened as Yotsuyu continued to speak. Their partner even taking notice of this with a hitched breath, gold and red eyes darting over to Yotsuyu.

Fayalite almost felt bad for her, knowing what would likely happen should she truly anger Citrine. ...Almost. Sheer delight that she’d get her dues chased away any pity they would have held.

“I will save these people.” Citrine said, eyes still narrowed as they looked down at the viceroy. “And I beg you to reconsider your stance. You’re outmatched, and you know this well. I can tell.” They shook their head, one last attempt to reason with her.

“You may be too far gone at this moment, but that isn’t a permanent sentence. Everyone can be a good person if they just try. You may think you’re beyond helping. And that may be the case this day, but that can always changed. The only way someone becomes a lost cause is when they themselves deem themselves to be.”

“Ah, well, I hope you enjoy your visit to Dunhallow, it’s a beautiful place.” She replies, taking their hand and giving them a firm handshake, before following their gaze for a moment, staring up at the sky. It’s a nice day out, with the evening sun’s light filtering through the trees.

She shrugs and focuses on them again.

“Citrine’s a lovely name!”

For a first meeting, having my pipe forced away from my hand already made me to groan quite audibly. Not knowing the kind of people I was in front of, however, I had to hold myself and bite my tongue even if my glare possibly spoke by itself.

It’s not that I was completely defenseless- the soldiers around the Castle were keeping their eyes on the strangers, just in case, although in the worst case, none of the war-machines of the army were worth something against…them.

“And why, tell me, why should you care if I am killing myself?” My tone was surprisingly soft even if a small and awkward chuckle followed; I wasn’t really in the mood to deal with any more nonsense after the failed entrapment of Tamamo.

For a moment I had to admit that I almost thought my answer offended them- with that magic sparkling, making me take a step back by pure reflex when not knowing what to expect, specially if they were speaking in a language I couldn’t understand.

It was once they started to introduce themselves that my tense shoulders relaxed slightly, however, my eyebrow raised when they started asking about the mess around Yanxia from earlier. Did they guess that we were the ones that did it?…

“Or why would I tell you what happened around here, savage? I can tell you are foreigners. All you need to know is that the Empire is the one ruling here, over Yanxia. At times the guardians of these lands need to be persuaded so everything is in order, you understand?” Well, maybe this was rather rude even when they could probably just crush me here, but in a way I wanted to let them know I was the one at charge around here.

And in that moment, Citrine just sighed and facepalmed. Well, they just witnessed this woman single-handedly kill any restraint they had helped their partner to maintain. “Ugh, gods give me strength...” They groaned, slowly looking over to Fayalite. Just as they expected, their partner was fuming.

Claws were forming partially, twitching in pure rage. The delicate balance they had in order to maintain their form steadily slipping. Fayalite growled, well aware of their anger making their form unstable, the tips of their wings looking as if they were starting to almost melt. Lifetimes of trauma clawing at their soul, vying to be free.

“Savages?!” Fayalite shrieked, barbed tail lashing. By then they had managed to short out their band with their anger, the motions of their tail not flinging about electricity. “You are the savage. We have more value in a single claw than you have in a single cell of your mortal body!”

They jolted slightly as a few flowers bloomed at their feet, sparing a glance back towards the red head as the scent and presence alone brought them back to their senses, back to coherent thinking.

“Gods give me strength...” Was now Citrine’s quiet mantra as they watched this go down. This was a disaster. “Well, by your words, I believe I know everything I need to about the situation at hand. You instigated the bloodshed.” For once, perhaps, they understood their love’s stance on mortals. Even if only slightly. Flailing about blindly in an endless repetition of mistakes, an endless cycle of hurt. A pitiful display to bear witness to...

“I pity you, I do.” Citrine murmured softly, looking down at Yotsuyu. They could only begin to imagine the hurt she endured to lead to this blind thrashing and hurt in return. “In another lifetime, perhaps we could have helped...” But as they saw things right now... “However, right now... You are far too gone.”

     Cloud understood Citrine’s wish, as well as the confidence, to return Gaia’s nature to its former glory — he did too. But there was only so much that a mere man could do, enhanced or not. “ —Well, you’re welcome to try, “ though he chuckled dryly as a response, Cloud wasn’t persuaded, firm in his belief that as long as the Lifestream remained in its wounded &  infected  state, nature couldn’t recover, even with magic, even with the power of the Ancients.

     Attention turned back to how they presented themselves — gigantic, seemingly ageless, out of this world, yet strangely so  human  . Nothing like Cloud had ever seen before. Yet, it evaded his tongue on how to bring the subject forth, & instead he shifted forward to walk to the other side of the room, picking a large chest full of tools for repairing the bike.

“Hmm?” The dragon hummed lightly as they took note of how Cloud had looked at them. “What is it that’s on your mind?” Citrine asked, tone remaining ever so gentle. “If you worry anything may be invasive, please don’t worry.”

The closer they got, the more the soldiers that were guarding the entrance would start to get slightly agitated by the tall dragon-creatures that were approaching the Castle. While some of them were trying to stay calm, it was obvious that some didn’t know how to feel about them- they were creatures they’ve never really seen before, even if some features would remind them of dragons and well, Au Ra.

But these kinds of dragons were new to the Garleans, and as one of them approached the soldier, all they could do was listen to what the dragon had to request. Quite rudely, one had to admit, but they were trembling a little and hesitating about what to say next.

“A-Ah! Uhm…I don’t know if Lady Yotsuyu will accept any visits.” Some of the soldiers of the surroundings were holding their weapons in hand, just in case. However, upon inspecting the strangers better, one of the soldiers approached the dragons and gestured with their hand for them to follow.

“Follow me. I’m sure Lady Yotsuyu would actually love to receive you two.” At least one of the soldiers had enough eyes to know that perhaps, these strange creatures could actually interest Yotsuyu…and so, they will be guided through the entrance of the Castle, that was, to put it simply, stupidly gigantic.

By the time that they all would arrive the entrance of the proper building, I would be awaiting them with pipe in hand- the soldiers of the entrance already sent me a message before the others could reach the entrance, and so, upon gazing at the creatures, I half closed my eyes and wondered in silence.

Well, perhaps Tamamo’s loss wasn’t going to matter so much, but I didn’t want to outright underestimate these two…not when they were strangers and creatures I haven’t seen before.

Citrine’s head slowly tilted to the side, mismatched eyes looking over the pipe in Yotsuyu’s hand. Vines blossomed from out of seemingly nowhere, gently plucking the pipe away- with some degree of force if need be- and moving the pipe out of reach. “Come now, you’re killing yourself with that thing.” They said with a gentle smile.

Fayalite just stared at Yotsuyu. She seemed to be around their height... They stared even more intently, very quickly sizing up the type of person she was. Someone vile... Typical of mortals, her eyes told them everything they needed to know. “Ignis?” They murmured, looking up at the redhead.

“Mo ghràidh?”* Mismatched gaze flitted up briefly as sparks of electricity danced in the air above them, to which green flames danced in response. The two seemed to carry out a conversation with the magic.

Eventually, Fayalite huffed and looked off to the side with crossed arms. As usual, their partner was wanting to handle things with tact and care.

       ———  “ Oh!  No, it’s okay!  ”   Ted quickly said, smiling back at them. 

     The last thing he wanted was for them to think they were at fault somehow, most of all since Citrine was the guest here. That would be just awful if he even messed up being a good host and friend.

     A bit of everything, huh?  Ted couldn’t help but giggle at that.  “ That’s alright!  At least you’re super prepared and stuff. It’s mostly subtraction I’m having trouble with… Also two digit addition. ”

Citrine sighed softly, smiling down at Felix. He really was a good kid, much too good for the environment he was currently in. They reached to ruffle his hair again, lowering themself to sit down on the ground to be closer to eye-level.

Subtraction and two-digit addition, huh? Simple enough. The dragon grinned, reaching over to sort through the materials they had brought, plucking a few things from the stack. “Well, aren’t you in luck? I certainly have some things for that!”

“Intruding? No, I don’t believe you are.” Ulraste replies, motioning to the basket she’s carrying as she speaks. “I simply came here for a picnic is all, I usually set up around this spot.”

“…I don’t believe I’ve met you before, though, Dunhallow’s population grows everyday.” She remembers the days when she knew everyone in town, but those days are gone. “I’m Ulraste.”

Citrine smiled, shaking their head when Ulraste mentioned now knowing them. “I wouldn’t expect you to have met me before, I’m not from around here.” They stretched, mismatched gaze drifting up to look up towards the sky.

Just a few hours have passed since the confrontation against Tamamo- not many of the soldiers and shinobi that accompanied me back there could survive, but the few that did, were now severely injured, and scared.

Even I was still in shock of the sudden attack to which we went unprepared when the wrath of the beast happened sooner than I was expecting. And so now I walked the halls of Doma Castle with the intention of resting for the day, to get mentally ready about what could be my punishment if Zenos learnt about what happened.

Little did I know that, by the entrance of the Castle were waiting two individuals that curiously followed the trail of chaos and blood that we left behind- and that the soldiers at the entrance, already noticed their presence and were keeping an eye or two on them.

If they did anything strange, my men could contact me, and if not…well, I was just going to hope I wasn’t going to get any more nasty surprises for the day.

Was just simply existing considered strange enough? At least, on the red-head’s part. They towered even over a Roegadyn at eight feet tall, wing-span of feathery wings tucked at their back likely equally impressive. Horns in white sweeping and curling in at the sides of their head, tail in white ending in a tuft the same color as their hair. Though, despite their monstrous height, they actually didn’t look that threatening at the moment.

It was their small partner to be worried about. Tapping away at the silver band at their wrist until the screen went black and they heard a beep. They kept an eye on the taller for a few moments until noting that the redhead was distracted. It was then they moved over to one of the guards, hand latching on his jaw as they forced his eyes to look into theirs.

Skin above their eyes seemed to melt and tear away, revealing two extra pairs. Sclera black and only slitted pupils shining through. “Take us to the gaudy bastard who thinks themself high enough for any of this~ Got it?” They punctuated their demand with a current of electricity jolting through their skin and to the unfortunate soldier.

With that the extra eyes seemed to melt away back into skin, the dragon turning their band back on and all currents being routed back into the ground. They grinned, going over to link their arm with the red-head’s and nuzzle close. “Let’s go find some clues up there! I know I’m curious to know what happened back there.”

The flowers are a beautiful array of purples, yellows, and blues, with a few of them glowing brightly when disturbed, while others fold in to themselves.

Ulraste stops in her tracks when she sees them, her picnic basket hanging from her arm. She can’t help but chuckle when she sees how enamored they are with the plants. 

“They are lovely, aren’t they?”

Citrine looked over their shoulder, head tilting to the side slightly. “Oh, hello! Am I intruding on anything?” They asked, nodding to the basket linked around Ulraste’s arm.

citrine forges both their and fayalite’s weapons, which is why most of said weapons look rather elegant (but no less functional)

fayalite regularly protests the weapons looking pretty, but citrine insists that if fayalite has to look at it everytime they get in a fight with someone/something (which is almost daily), it should at least look nice.