The Hollow Part Three: Horizons (Mature)

[Stare]

When Blaze was done Avis let the silence extend for a while between them. She blinked a few times, listening but refuting in her mind before she finally quietly responded.

"He doesn't trust me. He's never going to trust me. That's partly why he is doing all of this."

"Well he gives you the special attention anyway," Blaze huffed, folding her arms across her chest.

"And that makes you jealous."

"That makes me jealous," Blaze agreed, nodding.

She watched as Avis sat there awkwardly, between trying to reason and eating her dinner. The kenku rubbed her arm, unsure of what to say or do, and thus Blaze let out a sigh. She stood, brushing down her usual white blouse, far too small for her.

"I'm going to go. I'll see you likely when there's updates, I'm sure."

Avis gave her a brief smile with her eyes, then nodded. "I guess so," she agreed.

Blaze gazed at her for one long moment before nodding and turning. With a hard knock at the door she demanded it open.

As it did a piercing cry ran through the room. A cry of pain and of terror and fear. Avis winced, knowing that the cry could only be from the captured man. The one within the attack whom Brer had chosen to keep alive. At Vitruvion's orders.

Blaze turned and held eyes with Avis in that moment. The kenku saw her angst and her jealousy, but also her understanding. There was a small flash there, where pity suddenly swam into Blaze's eyes and Avis knew that it was not meant for the man. It was the realisation that the one doing the torturing was the one who had stolen them both from their lives and held them here against their will. It was an understanding that there might, one day, be a way out for Blaze, but for Avis right now, there was not.

Ducking her head, Blaze turned again, breathing softly. Another ringing scream ran around the halls and it was all she could do was close her eyes against it. Against the door directly to her right where the anti-chamber of desperation and filth was, where Avis had first ever been taken by Vitruvion. Blaze didn't wait for her guards with their quarterstaffs to gather. She strode to the other door that led across the corridor and into the next set of rooms, her guards hurrying to catch up with her and open the doors. Avis watched her until Brer came into view and told her he should really close and lock her door. And she sighed, then nodded. Turning back to her since she resumed eating the fine food, only hearing the highest, most piercing of screams from then on.

[Stare]

Eventually the screams fell to naught. It took an entire night for the man to finally fall silent and when he did Avis felt her heart sink. Another life taken, but one that had to be done if they were ever to find out who had planned the attack. And with a man like Vitruvion at the helm - the torture would continue until he had an answer. That or he would call on his strange and mysterious powers, whatever they were exactly, to instill the chill of his might on the man.

Further days passed, and Avis received no word nor visitors. She spent time spoiling herself - allowing time for a ridiculously long bath and a stride around the halls once she asked Brer nicely enough. Naturally the half-giant​ insisted on a severe amount of bonds, based on what she had done last time when they had been striding together. With her hands firmly lashed behind her back and a chain that led from her throat to his hand the two of them, along with Zulon quietly joining in, enjoyed a stroll and a chat about romantic fiction. They passed a couple of the other brothers - including Hugin who seemed to be particularly delighted on a new girl he had just caught that was a faun apparently. He was in lively discussion with one of his subordinates going towards Vitruvion's halls, likely to discuss Reign - or possibly even the attack. Avis did not care for Hugin anyway to pay full attention much. She kept going, chat in companionship, effort on Brer and Zulon.

Avis took to spending a long time in bed, either reading or dozing off to sleep. She had decided that if this was her lot, and she was to remain in this room mostly for the rest of her life - why then she's sleep as much as she can now. The romance novels brought adventure in her dreams and ideas of a future that would never be.

Of course, her stare still bothered her, but the lack of explanation left it in the realms of 'has been thought of too many times'. There she left it, and only briefly did she consider it's power, and just what interest Vitruvion had within in. So she concentrated on better things, on books and beginning to doodle her life away.

It was dusk the day he finally came, and her life position was settled. She knew it was dusk as Jared had recently brought her evening meal - still elaborate like the last few days had been. Avis had crawled into bed after a long day of sharing tales of her childhood to a barely speaking Zulon and reading, and now was as needing rest as a babe. With her eyes slipping closed and her, as usual, naked but for her feathers body curled up under the covers, she began to settle down and ready herself for a long night of sleep.

Dim flickering torch lights. Exhaustion. She was drifting off, almost in the point of sleep, when the door creaked open. There were no whispers, no asking if she was awake, just a short pause and - whistle - cloth flew with silent steps.

"Stare," came the murmur beside her ear.

Inching one eye open, heavy lided as it was Avis saw the hazy figure of the wjite-blonde haired man crouching beside her bed. A future she recognised, that she had not seen for days, and to be honest someone she really did not want to see right now.

"Jus' fallin' sleep," she mumbled. "Come back l-lahtersh."

A soft finger traced the curve of her right hand. Smoothly it rose and fell with the knuckles, and she enjoyed the feeling in that moment. There was no denying it felt nice, like a little hand massage as she drifted off.

"May I have your hand?" He asked gently.

"Hmmm?"

"Your hand."

[Stare]

"Sleeping, it's not ... Mmm hmm," she flopped her hand into his. A small request, she reasoned. Besides the massage was nice. Maybe he was just being nice just now. It was possible. Her sleepy thinking self thought so.

"I have a present for you," he breathed the words. "May I give it to you?"

"Present?" Her half-concious mind asked.

"Stare, I need you to say that you accept my present."

"Why'm you givin' me a present jus'"

"Do you accept it?" He pushed suddenly, speaking in louder, more insistent tones.

Her reaction was to jolt awake more, the part of her brain that dealt with irritations coming on. She opened her other eye and fixed him with a steely, awake but annoyed look.

"If it will make you shut up, then yes. I accept the damn present."

His lips spread into a wide smile. "Thank you," he said, and his hands then slipped something over hers. A small light metal cuff that was smoothly slid up her hand, and nestled into the room at her wrist.

A nice fit. Fine. She began to sigh. "You've given me the present, now can you please leave me to-"

Pressure then at her wrist. Warmth and a tingling feeling. Right arm, where the cuff had been slipped. Suddenly her body jolted awake and she started, looking down at her wrist. The cuff, made of some dull but gorgeous silver metal was literally adjusting itself as she watched. It was fitting in to fix exactly around the circumference of her wrist, fitting to the exact dimensions of its whole two inches of length, to close neat at the place near the heel of her hand. Prickling began to come as across the small inch space that had allowed the room for it to be slipped on and off silver lacing appeared, darting from nowhere, weaving in and out of unseen holes to tighten the cuff, keep it from slipping, holding the entire thing perfectly in place.

With a light pinching feeling it suddenly stopped. Avis' heart beat wildly as she stared at the now perfectly shaped icon of metal jewelry glistening at the base of her hand. The lacing - it seemed to be made of the same metal, and didn't have any knots or sense in the pattern where it began or finished. Instead, as Avis moved her left fingers to try picking at it, they held like tiny wires, not shifting, the whole thing fixed to her arm no matter how much she grabbed it and tried to twist it off. As she tried to wriggle it to find any room for maneouvre, all she found was the perfection of the fit, so careful and fantastic, that it made her realise there was only one explanation.

His eyes alive with a pleasure so fine, and an elation extraordinary, Vitruvion now sat by the bed in a chair he had apparently moved in her desperation to move the cuff. As she raised her head to stare at him in confusion, shock and awe his lips curled further with delight, watching her sit up slowly, the covers falling off her.

"What in the hells this?" She demanded in a nervous but determined voice.

[Stare]

Her right hand was raised, holding up the figment of her question.

Vitruvion gazed at her carefully, the sparkle though not dying in his eyes.

"It is a gift," he said in a calm and collected voice. "That you accepted. It is the culmination of our future."

"What the fuck is it, Vitruvion?"

His eyebrows rose, but he did not react, apart from a small sigh and his smile dying.

"I spent the last three days in continuous meditation ..." He paused, "In comune with my father."

Her eyes blinked rapidly. "Your ... Father?"

He inclined his head with a slow verification. "Indeed. The celestial half of my hybrid ancestry." He straigtened his back. "I posed the question of yourself to him, he answered and together we created that," he nodded at the cuff.

Entirely stuck, not knowing what to ask or what to say, Avis stumbled for a moment. She stuttered, wanting to ask about his father - his father! - and wanting to know more about what the hell he had given her. Opening her mouth with no sounds coming out she huffed and he waited absolutely patiently, hands folded in his lap.

"What ... What is this? What does it do apart from apparently stay in my wrist?"

"It will, with time, adjust to any natural chance in your body, but yes, as you say, that cuff is now yours. To stay there." He gazed directly into her eyes. "It is your reminder of who you are from now on, Stare. It is a bond between us, a token that you are mine, from this day forth. Both legally and conjusively."

At his words she was scrabbling at her arm, trying to push the thing off. She clawed at it, grunted and groaned as she tried to prise her left claws under the thing and tear it off with all her strength.

"Stare, it is of celestial magic," Vitruvion said, raising his voice, to gain power over her desperate groaning, "It cannot be removed."

"Fucking take it off," she demanded, holding it out to him.

He just arched an eyebrow. "You agreed to be giving it to you. You think I would go through all of this to remove it now?"

"Take it off me right now," she shouted, thrusting it in his face.

Grabbing her wrist suddenly his face turned sour. He threw her back against the bed, eyes turning mad with anger. Shoved, she fell back, smashing against the pillows in a flurry of heat and ire, her heart racing and her eyes going wide.

"Not in a thousand years, Stare," he hissed, his more normal, dark self flittering in. Jaw clenched he stared back at her her with all the fury of a hundred lives. She was caught in sudden silent fear, not in pain but the throw had been damaging enough.

[Stare]

As she lay there, sprawled under his dark eyes he resumed his seat, rolling back his shoulders and keeping his eyes level with her. Once again he took the pose of a lord, his hands carefully positioned on his lap, his hair framing his face to perfection. Only his face told of the irritation within.

"You are mine," he repeated. "My property, mine to control. That cuff and this ring here," he gestured to a finger, where a thin band of the same grey metal was sitting. "They are connected. When I wish it we now share a mental link, that reaches from one corner of the globe to the other. I will be able to see what you are doing, know where you are. You cannot do the same back. Now-"

Suddenly she was leaping, hand out. Her claws were sharp and ready, reaching for his own finger he had gestured. Her face was a mask of desperation, reaching for the ring, to grab it under any circumstances, and tear it off him. Surely if-

A shock of cold, terrible pain rippled up her spine. It was the freeze if Berevar, the plunging of a body into frigid, killing waters. Pain was mixed in, savage, tearing agony that ripped open the skin and grasped with glacial cruel claws at her tendons and flesh, eating away at her bone with a ravishing hunger.

"And, that," came the voice of sour disappointment. "Really, Stare, you should have realised that would be a part of its power."

Weakly, and shivering, she gazed over at him from her curled position on the bed. The pain had now gone but it did not stop her from shaking and the tears rolling down her face. Her body was curled right into itself, feeling betrayed, hurt and ravaged.

Vitruvion pursed his lips and blinked a few times. "Even if you try to cut off your hand, there will be consequences. The cuff stays, and you are mine. I will be able to hear what you hear, see what you see, but you will not know when I am listening. I will be able to commune with you in your head and you will be able to talk back, if I am listening." He paused. "That is the only power it will grant you. As for the pain, that is a warning. Every time you stray too far, disobey an order, do anything I deem that goes against my wishes, then I can call upon it. It is my guarantee, my control." He looked down at her. "As we begin to explore what just the hell it is you are together and just what you can do, I will be there."

Thick tears fell from her eyes.

"Do you understand?"

She didn't answer. Instead she curled herself tighter into a ball, turning over so her back was too him.

Vitruvion breathed in slowly, and then grunted. He stood up to purposefully but strangely gently slide her unfighting firm up to the top of the bed, then he pulled the covers over her.

"Over the next few days," he said, "We will start adjusting. With this I shouldn't need to waste time binding you every time we go out. Brer and Zulon ... Well at the very least I will not need to hire a third man to keep an eye on you." He laid a hand on her hair gently, and she shook a little, biting back sobs. "For I am your eyes now." He paused and then stood up, straightening his back. To himself he nodded, and moved the chair back to where he had found it.

"For now, sleep," he said, "For tomorrow is a new day."

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Stare receives 3080 EXP and 385 GP!

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

All rewards added!