The Forbidden Art

Tellas nodded, "Let her return from her talk with him first."

Vera laughed, "No, no, no. I don't want you to-- whaddya mean not even Taeisha has gotten you that far?!" She exclaimed suddenly, "How far have you two gone?!"

Vera stopped and took a step back. She breathed for a minute, calming herself, and then blinked so she was standing right in front of him. She put her finger on his lips and said, "Don't talk until I'm done, okay? And, for now, please don't talk about Taeisha. It's okay when I do but not for you," Vera wrinkled her nose, "I'm still working through it."

Vera stepped back again and looked around the office.

"It's really nice," She said, meaning the office, "The colors really blend and AGH! What am I doing?!" She groaned, "Okay back on topic."

"I'm breaking up with you, Vexoz," She said suddenly. Yes, she knew they were never actually together and yes, she knew they definitely weren't together now, but cut her some slack. She had to come out with some sort of semblance of dignity.

She shrugged, "It was great and the sex was better..." She said and then shook her head, "What am I doing?" She asked.

"OKAY! Third time's a charm," She cracked her knuckles.

For the first time in a long time, Vera hung her head, a solemn aura coming off of her.

"Vexoz, I really thought I loved you. I thought you loved me too but..." Vera sighed, playing with her necklace, "Someone once told me that if you are in love with someone and fall for someone else, you should pick the second one because you never loved the first one in the first place," Vera peeked up at Vexoz under her eyelashes, "And to be honest, I don't think I'm capable of love. I'm selfish and flighty and I can't stay still or settle down... but hairy titties ca-- UGH sorry. Taeisha can. She offered for me to stay with her. Who the heck does that? She's either a great person or plotting to murder me in my sleep. Not sure which one," Vera said, wrinkling her nose.

"And... I'm not going to..." Vera started to say but decided against it, "I think I'm done. Did that about cover everything?"

Mira smiled and summoned Secarondight, looking around quickly to see if there was anyone around before looking back at Azrael.

"Ready"

Azrael made a fighting stance, the small space around his body distorted, energy pushing away from his body. His claws formed, and his skin became a bit pale. Mira was using a sword, but Azrael didn't need to worry much. He rushed forward with significant speed, closing the distance between them quite quickly. He stopped just before reaching Mira and sent out his right hand closed and pointed, become sort of an iron spear.

".... Vera........" This was the most serious he had ever seen her. Something had changed. She seemed to have grown up quite a bit in her time with Tellas....

"It doesn't matter anyways. I won't get a chance to get anywhere with Teaisha." Vexoz looked down at the floor with a sense of regret. Then, turned his gaze back to Vera. "We have a battle coming up, remember? I've chosen to fight on the front lines. Teaisha doesn't know yet, but I won't survive the fight...."

He walked around and examined a sword on the wall, sure it would be one of the last times he ever saw it. "A fortune teller told me that I would die alone on the battlefield, and that you would come back to the village."

Finally, Vexoz turned back to Vera, waiting to see how she would react to the information. "But it's good to know you understand."

Falks slowly walked through the Chosen village in his spirit form, like he had done every night for the past week. While the magic barrier stopped his body from being pulled through, it still offered a chance for him to spy.

Hearing two familiar voices, Falks walked through a few walls and saw Vexoz there with the girl from three months ago. Her name was Vera if he remembered correctly. He watched as they seemed to talk. Vera didn't seem very happy with Vexoz. Remembering what he saw that day, Falks new they should be together. He focused his powers, looking for Cee's soul orb that he knew was there.

Mira tried getting out of the way of the attack but the Crusnik got to her before she could do so, so she tried to block his attack with the sword. It wasn't exactly effective and he almost hit her, but she jumped back a bit before it happened and tried not to stand still for too long, trying to find a weak spot on Azrael's defenses

Azrael swirled around quickly and got a footing not to far off from Mira. He stood calmly as could be, a regal stance for a soon-to-be Arch-Crusnik. He took another fighting stance, and dashed again at Mira. As soon as she made a defensive stance he'd follow up with a side-kick. Yes, that worked.

"You're such a jerk!" Vera yelled suddenly, her mind just processing what he just said. She walked over to him and grabbing him by his shirt, "You're just going to lay down and die because some lady reading tea leaves said you would?!" Vera said, full of unknown fury. Her eyes started to fill up with tears but she blinked them away, refusing to shed any.

"You can't die! If you do, who will teach people how to fight? Asinoir could but knowing him, he'd push people till they died of exhaustion... or annoyance," Vera bit that last part off. She shook Vexoz with as much strength as she could muster. It might not have moved him much with his body carved of pure muscle, but she sure as heck could try.

"You can't give up!"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kailyn untangled herself from Drake with a sigh. She kissed his forehead and bounded over to the lake, undressing and cleaning herself under the running water. They had made this their favorite training spot so she kept a towel and extra clothing nearby. Afterwards, she dried herself off and got redressed in some loose, comfortable clothing. She tied a belt around her waist and a dagger to her calf. She probably wouldn't need one because of her abilities but it was better safe than sorry.

With her magic, she manipulated the ground around her to form a gentle tremor, spreading it out to reach those of her group who were far away. Then she lifted her hands and a giant spike of earth rose into the sky, showing where she was and where to meet.

She then meandered back towards Drake, detouring to the picnic basket at the edge of the clearing.

"He's lucky I love him," She grumbled as she made a sandwich. She walked over to Drake, took a bite of the sandwich, and then offered it to him. She smiled sheepishly at him after she swallowed.

"You never said I couldn't," She said in a singsong voice.

Mira was about to try to block Azrael's attack when she felt the tremor. She then dodged it instead of trying to block and looked at him for a moment before looking at the sky and seeing where the giant earth spike was.

"As much as I wish that we were able of continuing," Mira said "the war does not wait"

She then started walking towards the meeting place.

Vexoz just glared at Vera. "I'm not going down without a fight." Then, he grabbed Vera's arms and forced her to let go of him. "I will fight for this village! And if that means I get killed, then so be it!"

Something told him that Vera was still a little worried. But then, he looked around. She was probably going to hate him for bringing this up....

"Where is Teaisha? I thought she was suppost to be with you." Another name came to his mind. "In fact, where's Tellas? He's always with you!"

Vera was hurt by Vexoz's reaction but she refused to let it show. Her pride told her to lift up her chin and ignore him...

Because that was mature.

"It's none of your damn business!" She replied, storming out of his office and slamming the door behind her. She walked out of the building, huffing and growling as she did. She decided to take her frustration out on a nearby rock, kicking it with as much power as she could muster. The stone went flying and broke the glass window of a nearby shop.

"Whoops," She said sheepishly, running away and back towards the bar.

Azrael returned to normal as he felt the light tremor. He formed his wings and floated a few feet off the ground.

"Of course I'd like to continue this another time, but war calls." He floated sentiently and followed Mira towards the meeting place. When he got there he hugged Kailyn in a loving embrace and broke off. "Kailyn, such a long time. And you too Drake."

Teaisha looked and saw a furious Vera rushing twords them. A little reluctantly, she crossed the front of her robe so she wouldn't make fun of her modesty patches again.

It didn't seem like thier meeting went well. "Are you ok?" The Mana Spirit had an idea what might have happened and just hoped that Vera wouldn't bring up Vexoz....

Falks could feel Cee's spirit within Vexoz. Just as he was about to remove it, a slight tremor coursed through his spirit. He recognized it as the signal to return and closed his eyes. When he opened them again he was back in his body.

Falks raised his sword and with a flash of lightning was standing next to the spire of rock. "Damn that hurts." He said as he clutched his chest. He then turned to Kailyn. "We doin this Flatty?"

Vera was grumbling the whole way back to the bar. Her words sounded something along the lines of "Stupid", "Idiot", and "Jerk" along with a few curses thrown in between for flavor.

Vera came to a stop when Taeisha asked her if she was okay. Vera gave her a look that said "Are you kidding me" without speaking a word.

"You're just too perfect!" Vera blurted out, "I tell you I hate you, I insult you, hell, I even punched you, and you ask me if I'm okay?" Vera threw up her hands, "What the hell is wrong with you two?" She said, referring to Taeisha and Vexoz. She then motioned towards the weapons classroom, saying, "Maybe you can talk some sense into him with your perfect... perfectness!" She said with a growl. Somehow, she made sounding perfect to be insulting.

She went towards Tellas and hugged him again. She found strength inside of his fur.

"Tellas, I need to tell you something when she leaves," Vera whispered very quietly. It was so low, in fact, that it was impossible for any human to hear it. But she knew that Tellas' enhanced senses would be able to pick up on it.

-=-=-=-=


"Azrael!" Kailyn exclaimed happily, hugging him back, "It's good to see you."

"Mira! Falks! How have you two-- what did you just say?!" Kailyn growled, forming a blood sword in her hand, "Oh no, you did NOT just call me Flatty."

Falks laughed. "Yes, yes I did. But let's forget that until after the battle. After a bit of spying I think I have an estimate on the Chosen numbers and it's not good. We need to take out their leaders, then they should scatter which will help us greatly."

Drake frowned, and stared at Falks.

"Really? ..." He said, pissed at the man that stood in front of him. He breathed deeply, and placed his hand on Kailyn's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it... We have other things to be worried about right now..."

He turned to Azreal, now calm, and collected like always, and gave him a hug.

"It's so good to see you again..."

He pulled himself away from his Crusnik friend... Who happened to be more of a brother to him, and smiled as Robin came into view.

=-=-=-=-=

Robin jumped down from the tree lightly, and landed perfectly on her feet. She stood, and looked around, deciding to head towards the group. She quietly walked, not making a sound, so that no one would know she was there unless she was seen.

Robin soon came across the group, and saw Drake, Azreal, and the others. She smiled, and headed straight for Drake. The first thing she did, was give him a hug, and exclaim "Drake!"

She let go of the embrace quickly though, and gave the group a smile.

"I assume everyone is doing well?"

Azrael pulled Robin to the side away from hearing from others. He held her hands and kissed her forehead.

"Robin, before we do this fight...I must tell you of my past. If you hate me by the end of this I'm fine with it, but I need to tell you this. It's important to me."

Robin smiled grimly, and kissed him once more.

"I can't stop loving you... No matter what you have done in the past..."

She brought him closer to her, and sat down under a shade tree. She motioned for him to join her, and sat eagerly, waiting for what he had to say.

Tellas glanced at Taeisha as a silent request for her to talk to Vexoz before looking back to Vera and letting his arms move to hug the redhead, "I understand, Vera," He whispered to her in a soothing tone.

"Perfect!" Teaisha shouted, almost as angry as Vera. She had completely missed Tellas's silent request. "If it wasn't for Vexoz, I would have beaten the snot out of you! I mean, I felt sorry for you. Everything you loved was gone!" Teaisha angerly stripped off her Spirit Cloth before accusingly pointing a finger at Vera's face.

"YOU left HIM! Did you honestly think nothing would come from that? That there wouldn't be any consiquences from leaving someone like him behind!?!?" The Mana Spirit put her hands on her hips. "Oh wait, you know what? I'm NOT sorry!" She shouted at Vera. "Maybe, just maybe, you deserve everything that happened to you!"

Teaisha had almost a moment of hesitation before continuing. "I want to do the right thing, but I love Vexoz. And if you have a problem with it then you only have yourself to blame!"

While the Mana Spirit finished talking, she froze Vera's feet to the ground again. Then, without botheing to take her Spirit Cloth with her, started walking away from it all.

Tellas growled but made no move or further sound of distaste at the Mana Spirit, "She's gone, Vera. Want to talk about that thing now or shall I move us to a quiter place?"

Azrael sat down beside her and sighed.

"Well, my mother was an Arch-Crusnik and my father a human. They were madly in love and they married. Although I was born from an Arch-Crusnik and a human my genes consist of mostly Crusnik genes. The human genes helped my aging pass off to look more human, but it stopped at my twenty-fourth birthday. My mother and father were killed by Jäger when I was only eight. I was raised in a church by a priest that knew my mother so that was all good.

Up until I was about twenty-five I was able to eat normal food like fruits and chicken and drink flavored drinks. However, when I did turn twenty-five my human genes ceased to exist, and I became a full Crusnik. The Jäger Patrolling Unit came over a few days after and massacred everyone at the church for harboring me there. I was forced to leave during the attack, and I quickly found out the area was crawling with vampires. That is, until I got hungry.

Eventually by the time I turned two hundred I was being hired as a mercenary to hunt and kill vampires for money. It was all a win/win. I got paid to eat. However, one day changed my life. The then ruling Vampire Queen Mircana had invited me to her court for a special occasion. I arrived, and she asked to marry me so I wouldn't have to be running around for contractors."

Robin blinked, and pulled Azreal closer. She imagined what he had to have gone through.

"I still love you..."

She kissed him, and pulled him closer to her, she comforted him as much as she could, and asked him to continue.