The moon always loved the sun. . .

Now, are you sitting comfortably?

Ah, those were the days.

Come in. I wasn't expecting you so soon.

Oh, don't let that angel face fool you.

What's the matter? Has the cat got your tongue?

You mean they just vanished?

In this house, no door must be opened without the previous one being closed first.

That old piano was already here when we moved in.

Silence is something that we prize very highly in this house.

There's really no need to show me the whole house..

Whatever you do, don't open the curtains.

Now, come on, eyes closed, hands together.

[He/She/They] have a very serious allergy to light.

Are you going to leave me too?

Why should I leave you?

The others said they wouldn't, but they did. And then it happened.

What do you mean, [name]? What happened?

Mummy went… mad.

A big house like this is always in need of someone who knows the ropes.

That's why I come by, because this house means a lot to us.

So you say you know the house well?

The house.. one might almost say… unbearable.

I don't like fantasies. Strange ideas, do you know what I mean?

You mustn't pay any attention to them. It's just fantasies.

It said, they only believed in Jesus and then got killed for it.

In the next life, there is one waiting for us after we die?

There's the hell where the damned go, then there's Purgatory…

That's where children go who tell lies, but not just for a few days.

Try to imagine, the end of eternity.

Pain. Forever.

They get scared if they are separated.

What if I see a ghost?

Well, if you see a ghost, you say hello and you continue what you're doing.

[Name], wait for me outside.

You must learn to be on your own.

Where's your rosary? Listen, whenever you feel afraid, squeeze it with all your might. Your fear will go away.

There's no reason to be afraid.

What's the matter? Why were you crying?

I don't. If I'd been crying, I'd tell you.

Oh, really? So I imagined it, did I?

I think [he/she/they] a spoilt brat.

I've just come from the hall, and there's no one there.

Would you mind telling me how a person can get in and out of this room if it's locked?

Do not argue with me! Be quiet!

You saw me with your own eyes.

Do you think that I would overlook such a thing and endanger the life of [name]?

Don't be stupid. Ghosts aren't like that.

I've told you a thousand times. They go about in white sheets and carry chains.

I've seen them. They come out at night.

[Name], please stop putting on that voice.

I'm fed up! Do you hear me? I am fed up with you!

Today you're being punished and you'll do as I say.

I won't ask for forgiveness for something I didn't do.

You told me that there was someone else in the room!

Children who don't tell the truth end up in Limbo.

I can't embroider in such poor light.

[He/She/They] got to learn to swallow the pride and ask for forgiveness.

I'm beginning to feel totally cut off from the world.

This fog doesn't exactly help. Even the seagulls have gone quiet.

I couldn't bear another migraine.

What's going on up there? Did you hear it as well?

Tell me who's making that noise!

I told you there was someone in the room and you punished me!

It's watching us!

They just came past here. Didn't you see them?

They're everywhere. They say this house is theirs!

This is a very old house: the floorboards squeak, and the plumbing clanks, and…there were voices, I'm telling you.

I see the old woman the most.

Oh, God in Heaven! We have to search the whole house immediately, before it gets dark!

It's all right, nothing's going to happen to you!

She really scares me. It's as if she's not looking at you, but she can see you.

[Name] told me she's a witch.

I don't want any dark corners where someone could hide.

Perhaps they are ghosts who lived in this house before...

Don't be stupid. I've already told you ghosts go about in white sheets and carry chains!

[Name], why do you make up such stories?

Do you have any idea what this might be?

They're not asleep, they're dead.

I believe they used to take photographs of the dead in the hope that their souls would go on living through the portraits.

How could these people be so superstitious?

Grief over the death of a loved one can lead people to do the strangest things.

It's cold. Why don't you come and sit by the fire?

Everybody ends up leaving this damned island.

That was the last I ever heard of them.

You know sometimes when you leave a place, it's like it's there with you all the time.

I always felt like I never left this house.

These things are always the result of some sort of trauma. Something must have happened.

I'm going to stay here a while longer.

I'm sorry I was so hard on you. Can you forgive me?

I checked that room myself. It was empty.

I felt as if there was someone else there! It wasn't human. There is something in this house!

I know you don't believe it. You don't believe it, do you?

I… I used to not believe those things.

I've always believed in those things. They're not easy to explain, but they do happen.

We've all heard stories of the beyond, now and then.

Sometimes, the world… of the dead gets mixed up with the world of the living.

The living and the dead, they will only meet at the end of eternity.

There isn't always an answer for everything.

I need you to search the whole garden for gravestones.

I need to know if there was a family buried here.

They said I should give you up for dead.

Where have you been all this time?

Did you kill anyone?

When people die in the war, where do they go?

I said that there are no intruders here.

Look what an awful face you've got when you cry.

I made this veil especially for you.

You can't go on like this. You must eat something!

It makes no difference. Why can't you ever do as you're told?

She won't stop until she kills us!

What happened? Why did you fight?

God help me. What's the matter with me?

What do you mean you know what has to be done?

Who do you think you are? You have no idea what has to be done!

I thought there was someone else in the house. I even thought that there were ghosts.

I don't know what you're talking about.

What are you going to do? Are you angry with me?

Why couldn't you have stayed here like the others did?

Your place was here, with us, your family!

Let me see. Are you alright?

You know what's happening here. You know because it happened to you too!

Someone wants to kill me!

If you never expose them to daylight, how do you know they're not cured?

You've wanted to take over this house ever since you arrived.

We'd better go and uncover the gravestones.

I've had enough. I'm going to the wood!

Are you going to run away?

You just don't want to be left on your own!

Don't go near! What if a ghost jumps out?

Graves don't have ghosts. Only skeletons.

Don't speak to them! They're dead!

I don't care what I said! Get away from them!

You're always teasing me and telling lies, and I'm sick of it!

I'm not teasing you! I'm telling the truth! Come here!

Go upstairs and hide. Whatever you do, don't separate!

We must all learn to live together. The living and the dead.

If you're dead, leave us in peace!

There's someone there. Where are you?

Why don't you want to be our friends?

What happened in this room? Why are you crying?

Is that how [he/she/they] killed you?

If you're dead, why do you remain in this house?

We're not dead! We're not dead!

They made contact. To the ghosts.

We can't possibly stay in this house any longer. It's clear these beings do not want us to live here.

Please, let us leave this house.

I knew. It had happened.

You were playing with the pillows, as if nothing had happened.

But now… Now… What does all this mean?

I'm no wiser than you are. But I do know that I love you.

Half the time, it truly seemed like Tykha wasn't quite there, like he had turned more to the side of the Sin Eater than the human part of him that X'kijin knew to be there. But he can't help the stifle of a laugh when Tykha declared that the Sin Eater preferred solid aether.

"Everything has aether in it," X'kijin answered, voice steady as he set about his craft. "Shouldn't matter to the thing if it's raw or not. Why turn it down? Free food is free food. Maybe it should think of as an appetizer or something."

The puddle that had formed near him worried X'kijin, but there wasn't much either of them could do for it. Neither of them seemed in the best state and while Tykha had more physical, visual symptoms of it, X'kijin's loss of control didn't exactly make him feel better. But the way that silver eyes were fixed forward on nothing in particular did little to make him feel better, even as he started to cook.

Words came, pointed and sharp, though X'kijin knew well that they weren't meant for him, not until Tykha directed his gaze back to him where there eyes met again.

"I mean... If it wants to eat me, it can consider this a taste test."

He'd always been told he'd smelled heavily of the spices he cooked with, it wouldn't surprise him if he tasted similarly enough to a Sin Eater ready to devour him.

If they were closer and X'kijin wasn't already carrying something besides, he might have reached out and steadied Tykha's hands as they walked back to the cave that they called home for the time being. Instead, a silence settled between them, interrupted only by the sizzle of the meat and the smell of spices that replaced the choking dust.

Questions were eventually levied against him, ones he couldn't easily answer, given the circumstances of his arrival here.

"Yeah, it's—"

His words cut off when Tykha groaned, fingers scratched into his head and hair, and X'kijin offered the only thing he rightly could that might help: One of the freshly cooked ovim steaks.

As if on queue, it seemed to cease what seemed to be an attempt to claw the Sin Eater out of his head if needed. Though X'kijin was pretty sure that wouldn't work, he didn't really consider himself smart enough to confirm or deny if it would, but at least Tykha took the ovim meat and—oh.

X'kjin started to crack a smile, started to laugh, had even opened his mouth to say that he'd never had anyone devour one of his meals so thoroughly or intently, though part of him wondered if that was maybe the Sin Eater's influence. But the sound that had started to come out of his mouth hitched and stopped at the sight of motion at his back.

"What the... hell...?"

X'kijin's brows furrowed as he reached forward, only to draw his hand back when something snapped outward and upward—

"Tykha, you've—"

He could tell by the expression on his face that he knew that something had happened, that something had sprouted from his back, grown out of his skin with the same ease as weeds did in a flowerbed.

"Don't— Don't try to move them, or..." X'kijin started before he stopped, wondered if Tykha even had control of such a thing. The thought occured to him that he should look at Tykha's back, check for whatever wound they might have created, though he wasn't so sure how easy to task would be or how he'd be able to treat them.

"Does it hurt? Are you hurt? Don't—" he reached out, grabbed his face, held his gaze to avoid the reaction when he turned around, saw and confirmed what had happened. "Don't think about it. How are you feeling?"

They were heavy. There was so much weight there at his back. What else was there? Warmth? That didn't seem right. . . Tykha knew that his body temperature was almost nonexistent ever since he felt the strange disturbance within his mind that the Sin Eater was beginning to gather up enough power to slide control from his grasp. And whilst there were moments where Tykha's body would take in the rays of the sun that burned within Amh Araeng. . . this was a different kind of warmth.

His breathing grew erratic, a quickened inhale and exhale as his eyes sifted up and down, endeavoring to find something, anything that would distract him. Those hands lowered, but only for so long did they remain there at his sides before he'd gotten the courage to lift them once more.

See what happens when you defy me, fool? When you deny me my pleasure, I'll simply take something of yours.

Up, and up, and up one of Tykha's hands went until it wove around to his back. Further still until those fingertips brushed against something he'd never felt before. Fluffed and warmed, precious and fragile: Feathers. Not just any feathers, but feathers that were flitting in the skeleton of a wing.

"I. . . have. . . wings," Tykha stuttered, eyes moving up to look finally into X'kijin's eyes. How he managed to remain in complete and total control made Tykha's stomach lurch and jolt, despite being full of ovim meat. "They feel. . . so heavy. . ." His eyebrows furrowed in the confusion, unsure as to why they carried so much bulk. Had they been growing the entire time and he managed to feel them now?

Do they hurt?

Are you hurt?

Tykha opened and closed his mouth, as forming words didn't seem to come with the effort. He wanted to say no, that he wasn't hurt, but that they did hurt. Like a sting that snaked up and down his body from a run that lasted far too long. He wanted to reach over and take hold of X'kijin's hands, the very ones that hadn't left his face. And yet -

Your body belongs to me. Give it to me.

A scream tore through Tykha's throat as he jerked violently away from the Voidsent, or rather X'kijin. The poor fellow even jolted backward, close to the location where he'd previously been cooking. Hopefully any portion of his body didn't touch whatever flames that had been stoked.

"I'm a monster! I'm a monster! It's going to kill me, they're going to kill me!"

Tykha spun in circles, arm flailing to his behind to grab at the wings that had now began to expand themselves to show their length. Through the feathers his fingers went, straight into the deepest portions of the fluff. Nails clenched, sharp and fresh.

With tears in his eyes he jerked his hand out, taking a chunk of the feathers with it. Crimson sprayed across the white, tickling the edges of his fingers as his terrorized state drowned his senses.

"Make them go away, get them off! I don't want them! Make them stop, tell them to stop!"

He could hear X'kijin in the background as he kept going, this time for the other wing as the other had gone slightly at a limp. Out, out, out he didn't want these feathers anymore.

Drenched hands wove into his hair, strands peeling from brown to white as his fear coursed the disease faster through his veins. This was what the Sin Eater wanted, let the panic and fear overcome his control and the shift would happen.

Mine, mine, mine. Oh you smell so beautiful, your aether is so damaged, oh you're a corrupted little fucker, aren't you?

Another scream, feathers flinging up into the air and flittering slowly onto the ground into tiny piles around Tykha until he staggered and grabbed at X'kijin, hyperventilation as he clung for any semblance of peace. His eyes dilating and burning with a sheen of white until-

It stopped.

The wings drooped to his sides. spent beyond belief. Tykha had grabbed the Sin Eater across the throat, squeezing violently until he heard a snap. His legs gave out when it relented, eyes rolling into his head when he met the ground. The tears remained, the wings remained. . . but his hair had lost the progression it'd been given. He was tired, he was so tired. . .

DANDELION | overcoming hardship, healing, resilience, hope

LALANNA ORONIR - Scion Of The Seventh Dawn OC

Main Blog/WOL is @vierandancer. NOT SPOILER FREE.

It was... awkward, to say the least, to carry an enemy on his back, but it was sorely needed. Without his spear, he couldn't do much where combat was concerned and it's not like Ty could attack him without damning himself in the process. Unless the guy had enough will to drag himself up to the top of the ravine with a broken leg.

He hummed to Ty's answer. So magic did have its limitations. X'kijin had seen a few people use it in combat, once or twice, but it was limited to the half-Garleans and conscripts in the army that happened to have a magical aptitude. Lucky for X'kijin—or unlikely?—they recognized his unnatural height and handed him a spear to extend his already wide reach.

X'kijin could hear the pain in his voice, the way his words slowed, even as he struggled to get on his back. Clenched fists and gasps of air that X'kijin knew personally all too well. He'd broken a bone or two in his time in the army—and X'kijin ultimately considered himself one of the fortunate ones. Plenty of conscripts had lost whole pieces of themselves, be it limbs or senses, whether by training accident, an injury on the field or being "taught a lesson".

"Yeah, I can do that, just... try not to pass out," he said, thought his ears flicked a second later when a face buried into his neck. Well, that was... new. Definitely.

But he had the okay to move, at least, albeit slowly.

"We'll find something. No telling what's down here."

Could be all manner of beast and they'd probably both be dead if either faction stumbled upon them, though X'kijin doubted either side would be that pressed about two unimportant soldiers.

Ty pointed somewhere, at something just barely at the edge of X'kijin's vision that he realized a moment later was the aforementioned missing spear. Not that he could really grab it right now—"If you bring me over there, I can get it out."

"Huh?" X'kijin asked, the single syllable able to convey enough of his suprise that Ty simply insisted upon it. He... severely doubted that, given the man was both a mage and dizzy besides.

"Okay..."

The man was a bit... overconfident, wasn't he? X'kijin doubted he'd be able to dislodge it from the rock with the full use of his body without a bit of effort. It had been thrown all the way over here, after all. The force of that would've driven it deep enough to require a bit of strength. The added debris would certainly make it... a bit...

Instead, he watched some of the small, stray rocks that had clustered around it tumble pathetically to the ground floor as Ty did, in fact, pull it out with nary more then an exhausted huff.

"Botan— You're like five fulms tall and you just—"

Well, that was... unexpected. He wasn't sure if that made him feel better about the situation or worse, but at least X'kijin was the one that knew how to use the spear, if nothing else.

And the rocks certainly didn't add any comfort to that, the way he damn near banished them away with flames like it was dust swept away by a broom.

"Really... I'd heard about red magic, but never knew many red mages," he said, though he omitted the truth being that the only one he'd met was another Garlean conscript who'd supposedly been trained by an Ala Mhigan traitor. If the situation as a whole didn't already rub Ty the wrong way, he was quite sure that would. "Didn't know it could do... whatever that was."

He gestured in the direction of what Ty had done only with his head, hoped that was plenty to get his point across cause like hells he had any other way to describe that besides "fire push rock".

It's the question that takes him by surprise. It had been a long time since someone had asked after his well being, save for a select few soldiers that he'd fostered something akin to a friendship with, though he'd hesitate to use those exact words.

"Oh, yeah, probably," he said, so casually one might've thought he had been asked if it was going to rain soon. "But I don't know who you are and since you're asking, it'll probably make my life worse."

Some part of him hoped that the soldier didn't blame him for getting them down here in the first place. Something about reaching for the hand of your enemy to save them could've costed him more than a leg shatter. He'd come out lucky. . . thanks to his Mother.

Maybe he'd have to spite her later for it, jokingly of course. He owed a lot to her, and maybe he wondered just how different his life would be if she didn't expend her hand to him.

The Red Mage, sporadically; kept attention left and right of them as they traversed. With X'kijin overburdened with something on his back, and Tykha holding his weapon besides; he had more things to worry about than looking for shelter. Two individuals being stuck in the same situation could easily create a bond between them. Or a quickened death depending on how soon someone wanted to tear the other apart. Tykha had no further reason to harm the other.

He'd splinted him, for gods' sake. What was there to dislike? Besides the fact that he was conscripted, something that Tykha absolutely couldn't stand. The taller Miqo'te didn't even appear as though he enjoyed doing such, just that what was the other option?

A smile, nevertheless, propped up across Tykha's mouth and he whispered; cheek resting against his shoulder once more: "Let's just say, the title of champion is something others like to throw around about me. I don't care for it much, I've done many things in the name of protecting the people of Eorzea. Garlemald doesn't like it, so I can only assume you by default don't have to like it or me either."

That should be enough to know who he was, right? He'd already seen him destroy the linkpearl, trimming off any amount of contact outside of X'kijin he had. If someone with a shattered leg was a threat to a Garlean soldier, mayhap an occupation change was in order.

"They'll find you, I assume. They'll find you and who knows what will happen until then. I'm surprised you were fine taking me under your wing, so to speak. Had I been a healer I would've been able to flee. You might snap my neck in the middle of the night, then you'll be a champion." Tykha laughed and then pressed his face into X'kijin's shoulder, huffing a sigh. "Dizzy. . ."

Humor wasn't going to work. Tykha just settled for being quiet, ears twitching and brain sensing, just in case he was able to locate something. His lay of the land mastery was perfect for this.

Finally he gripped the other's shoulder with his hand and then pointed to the far right of where they were walking. There were a few bushes, and a tree or two amongst the rubble and rocks.

"Those bushes, there's berries there - and the tree. You can press a spout through the bark there and gather water. That'll help. I've some stuff on me. Don't ask why. . . sometimes I do botany randomly out in the wilderness. Just trust me. I've a few sacks we can use to stash."

Besides, he was starting to feel better. He wasn't entirely helpless with a shattered leg. He mostly wanted to get off for a moment, gather his bearings. When the soldier set him down against a boulder, Tykha hopped over on one foot toward the tree. He pressed against it, taking a breath and retrieving a spout and a sack, handing one to X'kijin.

"Catch it, when it starts coming. Then we can go for the berries." It was working beautifully, Tykha realized as the sack began to inflate; just as he was taking berries from the bushes beside him. Edible, not poisonous; and just grown as well. . . "Let's walk a little farther, hopefully we can find a cave or something. This place gets cold when it's night, right?"