#dairkige

[fatalitalegends]

Dairkige

Dair stood up, his eyes inexpressive, his person unresponsive.

"Lift the spell, Jona." He directed at Thanajon.

Thanajon was dumb with amazement. "What did you just call me?"

"You heard me, Jona. Give me access to the magick." Dair stared at Thanajon, challenging him. 

"What? What's happening? Dair?" Adgyr stood out and reached towards Dair.

"Don't!" Thanajon exclaimed. "Don't touch him." Thanajon warned Adgyr as he snapped his fingers. Dair inhaled deeply and looked up to the sky, savouring the power that flowed around him.

"It's been a while, Jona." Dair grimaced. "You're losing your touch though." Thanajon shook his head in response to that. His disbelief hung heavily in the air. 

"How is this possible? Are you really...?" Thanajon could not even finish his thought. Dair's grimace widened.

"Yes, Jona. It's only temporary though. You need my help finding Mitthyo don't you?" Dair's voice was slightly deeper and Adgyr noticed the difference.

"That... that's not Dair. Who is that? Who is it?" Adgyr turned from Dair, or who appeared to be Dair, to Thanajon. 

"I am Dairkige, Adgyr. But not the Dair that you know. I was Dair long before Dair existed. I am Xarcnos, locked away in this reincarnated body of mine. I have been dormant for millennia." 

"He's... but... what?" Adgyr stuttered in confusion.

"I'll explain it later Adgyr. Can you do it? Can you find Mitthyo?" Thanajon hushed Adgyr and asked Xarcnos.

Xarcnos nodded then shook his head. "You really are losing your touch Thanajon." He lifted his hand and clenched his fist. A blue tattoo flared to life on his forearm. Xarcnos reached through the bond, through a life bond magickally forged worlds ago and worlds away, and tugged. Xarcnos felt for the tether between him and Mitthyo. It felt loose, frayed.

"The pact is almost broken, the bond weak. I need to recreate it Thanajon. Will you help me?" Xarcnos reached out a hand. Thanajon nodded and clasped it.

Xarcnos Fragosus Vena Aquaria!

Magick exploded as Xarcnos invoked a key lost in time. The energy rippled out as the supermoon reached its peak in the night sky. A radiant beam of ivory fell upon the roof, all the magick of Earth was ready to respond to Xarcnos. 

A bond once forged from Death to Life Renewed this night, against all strife. A tattered thread, re-knit, rewound A magickal pact tonight rebound.

Xarcnos spoke the first lines, willing his bond with Mitthyo to be reforged. Thanajon added his own

From worlds apart they are now brought As one at last, as fate they ought The one is lost, shall now be found A magickal pact tonight rebound.

"We need a third. Adgyr, you knew Dair. We can only work from the body and the magick which existed. You must bind Mitthyo to the Dair of today, of the present, of this world." Adgyr nodded nervously and racked his brain to create lines which could help.

A heart so full, a friend so dear I live and know, with you, no fear His past, my present, lives through your sound A magickal pact tonight rebound.

Xarcnos and Thanajon smiled encouragingly at Adgyr. "Go on, finish the lines." Adgyr took a deep breath and shed a tear, completing, 

Awaken this moon, this union is done Two lives are now bound henceforth as one.

The radiant ivory turned blood red in the sky. A blood moon as mortals called it as the magick of Earth soared through time and space to reforge a bond weathered by millinnia of disuse. Weaving together each intricate history, each fragment of memory, each lost second in time.

"It's working!" Xarcnos exclaimed as he felt the bond strengthening. The dragon tattoo flared on his arm again, emitting a brilliant sapphire glow. 

"Mitthyo, I summon thee. Come to my side!" Xarcnos declared, reaching through the bond to his partner.

[fatalitalegends]

Supermoon

"There's going to be a supermoon tonight," Thanajon stated matter-of-fact-ly.

"That doesn't help Jona. Mitthyo is still missing." Dair paced around the suite urgently. He gazed outside his window, the winter sun in London gleamed meekly through the glass. His breathe was fogging against the panes.

"We could use the Supermoon to help find Mitthyo. Besides, I'd much rather we be somewhere where the Supermoon is actually happening. I don't like knowing that it's happening but not being able to see it." Thanajon had not come to terms with the fact that Dair was studying abroad this semester. He had much preferred the tropical sun after centuries of being trapped in a lightless, cold existence. Thanajon had embraced the sun with great enthusiasm and missed it greatly. He had been trying to find ways of getting Dair to return to Singapore as much as possible.

Dair relented. "Fine. We can go back to Singapore. But only for the night." Thanajon practically leaped with joy. Thanajon was this close to leaving Dair in London while he returned back. With Mitthyo missing, he dared not leave Dair alone. 

Dair had been unstable, to say the least, since Mitthyo vanished. He had been having more and more panic attacks and the memories had stopped flowing. It felt like a part of him was missing. Dair kept trying to find Mitthyo, asking Thanjon to teach him all the tricks he knew. He had tried summoning him, like Thanajon taught him to, but it didn't work. He had been quite tempted to leap off a building again but Thanajon vetoed the idea instantly.

"We need to teleport back. Now you're sure that Mitthyo has taught you how to do it exactly." Dair wasn't technically a Lune anymore. His teleportation would have differed greatly from what Thanajon could use. Thanajon had no way of explaining how normal people teleported.

"Yes. I'm sure. Look." Dair teleported himself across the room. It became easier each time he tried it. Most fiction on earth had it right. Just focus and willpower can do the trick. The biggest trick of course, was actually being able to use magick.

"Fine. You ready? Remember, no one can see you. No one must know that you're back." Dair nodded in reply and grabbed his things. 

"Cendana College yes? On the roof?" Thanajon confirmed again.

"Yes." Dair willed himself halfway across the world, commanding the energy around him to fold the space. He stepped forward through space.

"Dair?" He immediately knew that he had made a gross error.

"Fuck," he murmured. Of course his will had wavered at the last minute. He had appeared back in college and transported himself successfully. He had just arrived one college away from where he wanted to be.

"Hi Adgyr. It's good to see you again."

[fatalitalegends]

Separation

Something was amiss. Dair hadn’t figured out yet, but he could sense that something was wrong. It gnawed at him, chewing and irritating his thoughts that day. As he finally fell asleep, his subconcious identified the problem.

Dair fell right into one of Xarcnos’ memories. There was no door, no corridor, no intentional selection. The memory played as Dair’s defences fell. It was the night that Mitthyo died.

Dair could see a grassland that stretched endlessly. There was no wind, but he could see where the magick had been used. Something struck him, an odd sense of absence. He glanced around and he saw it, a Lunar eclipse. He shuddered, a feeling of hopelessness creeping into his mind. 

There was a flare, someone was using magick. He walked towards the magick, aware that it was just a memory and nothing could harm him. He could see three figures, two kneeling and one on his back. He recognised them, of course, Thanajon and Xarcnos were hunched over Mitthyo’s body. Floating gently above was a spectre of Mitthyo, bound to the body by a thin thread of silver. Beside the three figures was a swirl of colours, brilliant, inviting, and dangerous.

It was raining, Dair walked closer to them. Thanajon had vanished and was speaking into Xarcnos’ head. Xarcnos carried out the instructions carefully, preparing himself for the Socius Custodius Pact, the thing which bound Mitthyo and Xarcnos together. Dair had always assumed the bond was naturally formed at birth, he hadn’t realise that Xarcnos had done it to bring his friend back.

“Xarcnos Fragosus Vena Aquaria. Two lives must join together as one, A binding, a union, tonight must be done. Death’s door must first greet us with open arms, resurrection alone will not cause us harm. Awaken the next hour whence the union is done, Two lives irreversibly bound as one.”

Dair saw the life drain out of Xarcnos, his soul, too, floated out of its body. The two souls merged as one, fusing their essences before slamming back into their respective bodies.

It was only now that Dair understood the bond that Xarcnos and Mitthyo had. They were quite literally soul-mates. He might not completely understand the mechanics of the bond just yet but he knew enough that the only reason he had all these memories now was because Mitthyo's life had somehow preserved Xarcnos' as well. They were one; and had been one for millenia.

Dair jolted awake in his bed. 

"Thanajon! Where are you?" His companion appeared in the room beside him.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Mitthyo. He's missing."

[fatalitalegends]

Fleeing

Dair grabbed his hair and pulled on it. His legs wouldn't work and he desperately needed them to. At this point in time, he could no longer tell if he was in a dream, a memory, a nightmare, or reality. All he knew was that he was experiencing it. 

He leapt upwards, grabbing at the ledge and falling short. Always falling short.

Have faith

Dair could only hope with all his heart as he jumped what he knew was the last. His legs were not functioning. They were dead weight. He had been trying to get over this wall for hours now. Jumping and falling, jumping and falling. 

Hoping worked. Faith came through. He hooked onto the ledge and pulled himself up. Elbows tucked in and pushed himself over. He willed his dead legs into motion. One after the other. They carried him through sheer willpower, onwards. 

He caught sight of motion to his left. Adgyr was here. Adgyr was running with him. He had appeared from no where. Dair knew giving up was no longer an option. 

They were fleeing. Dair wasn't sure from what, but he knew they were fleeing. 

"Come on Adgyr!" He grabbed his arm and pulled. 

Adgyr was stirred into motion, his emotions just as high. Dair could feel the fear, from both of them. His heightened senses could hear their heartbeats racing. In the background, a storm of treading footsteps approached. Adgyr couldn't hear them but he could. They were coming and coming fast. 

Dair tried to recall a spell, anything that Mitthyo had taught him. He flung his hands out and imagined a solid wall manifesting behind him. Steady, impenetrable, and strong. Every few steps he repeated the same action, trusting his abilities, or at least, the abilities Mitthyo said he had. He imagined them immensely tall and thick. He imagined them impedimenting the onslaught. He imagined them stopping the chase. 

He could hear them work. His walls were working. The chase was slowing down. Adgyr's phone found that the perfect opportunity to ring. It was the results for an application both of them had made.

"I got it!" Argue stopped completely and smiled at Dair. Dair knew his walls weren't impenetrable. He knew they were being overcome. Each second they stop meant a greater chance of getting caught.

Then he saw them. The first of the creatures almost hit Adgyr. By some miracle, it missed. 

"Ad, great news, but we need to go." He grabbed his arm and pulled again.

"Relax Dair. I got it!" Adgyr was smiling so widely Dair couldn't help but feel his joy. "Besides, why are we running anyway?" 

Dair stared at the creature approaching from Adgyr's front. 

He couldn't see them. 

Dair was determined not to tell him. Mitthyo once warned him that telling someone about what he could see meant lifting the veil that kept them ignorant. Dair just imagined the creature being stabbed and bleeding to death. It happened. It died. And Dair was thankful it worked.

"Just trust me. Come with me." For the last time, Dair grabbed his arm and pulled. 

Just then, from behind, one of the creatures latched onto Adgyr. He was gone. Dair screamed so hard, he jolted himself back into reality. 

Dair was on his bed. He was awake. He knew nothing was wrong. He checked his phone. He didn't get it. He knew Adgyr did. He put his face in his hands. 

He cried.

[fatalitalegends]

Memory

Dair was trapped in one of those flashbacks.

His body had seized up to prevent him from doing anything rash. Mitthyo had cast some sort of enchantment which limited his actions when he had one of these episodes. And all he could do was live through the memory. ~~~~~ He was at sea, on a platform made of metal sheets and wooden pole. It resembled a primitive, abandoned oil rig. Around him, there were speed boats circling. Xarcnos was stuck on the artificial island. He looked down  to his right, a woman lay tied up. She was struggling against her restraints, trying to shout through the gag forced into her mouth. 

"I've got you as hostage. None of them would dare take action." Xarcnos knelt down and threatened menacingly. He flicked his hands and doused the woman in water. Somehow, Xarcnos's goal was to keep her drenched. As if water would hurt her. That dousing of water loosened the gag slightly and the woman growled. "You'll never keep the Foreas away. They will burn you alive and watch while the flames lick at your body." She spat a stream of fire directly at Xarcnos. Xarcnos raised his hand to catch the flames and crushed them within his palms. His magick might have vanished almost entirely but his aura still negated the fire. 

"Flames can't hurt me you witch. I'm the Roaring Cascade. Fire is nothing to me." Xarcnos boasted proudly. He had created a boundary around the rig, preventing any flames thrown by the Foreas from penetrating. Any of the speed boats which tried to cross the boundary immediately froze. That might not have kept the Foreas away but their continuous assault had built a physical barrier of boats at his boundary. 

Dair was aware that Xarcnos's victory would not last long. he could sense something approaching.

Xarcnos spun in time to see a boat of flames break through his barrier. The fire melted away any spell Xarcnos had managed to incant. The woman grinned maliciously and laughed, "you'll never make it out alive."

The woman burned herself, turning into flames and vapourising in front of him. Xarcnos cursed his own complacency and took off his ring.

"Reka, abaeo!" His ring morphed into a naginata which he spun around, getting ready for combat. The boat of flames had continued circling the island, causing the water to hiss angrily into vapour. Xarcnos cursed under his breath again. Vapour was something he was unable to wield, the laws of his home Court had prevented him from doing it. Through the vapour, he could see the woman, grinning at him, glowing with power. 

More speed boats had arrived. The Foreas had managed to convince the local population that Xarcnos was an invasive force, and had convinced them to fight on their side. The local population had no force of fire, their attacks would work on Xarcnos. He made a choice. He dodged one of the projectiles launched by the locals and morphed his weapon back onto his finger. Xarcnos raised his hand, pulling water from the ocean onto the island and melting into the sea himself.

Dair knew that he had made a fatal error.

Xarcnos was trapped in the water. The Foreas had flames strong enough to burn under the sea. Though it could not hurt him, it could certainly trap him. He had not foreseen their waterproof fire.

Xarcnos was surrounded by the fire. He pulled the water around him tighter, willing it to condense, preventing it from vapourising. He could see the woman smiling at him through the flames. They lugged him back to their base. Xarcnos was stuck. 

In spite of it all, Xarcnos was not scared. He was defiant and angry. He trashed about in his cage, trying to think of some trick, some loophole to the magick that entrapped him. 

Dair on the other hand was experiencing this in his own right for the first time. Dair was scared but he couldn't do anything because his physical body had been paralysed. Xarcnos's sense of helplessness was fueling his fear. He got increasingly anxious the closer they got to the base.

Xarcnos was desperately trying to sift through millenia of magick but failing. Nothing he was taught could deal with this fire. He felt the heat of the fire through the water he pulled so closely around his body. He was almost certain he would burn if he touched the actual flames. He prayed to Morgan for a miracle. He couldn't die, not like this. His fight was not over.

At the base, Xarcnos expected them to take him to their leader, or some torture chamber somewhere. They kept the flame cage burning and he kept the water condensed and close to him. He had to be careful about his offense, if the water vapourised he would be left vulnerable. He extended his senses out, gleaning beyond the fiery cage. He could sense no sources of water, no water at all except that precious little which protected him.

Xarcnos was led to a white room. The door closed and his fiery cage evaporated. Xarcnos was still calculating a way out. In his head, he prayed fervently and trusted his Lady Mistress would see him through. He started pacing the room.

The door opened with a crash and Dair snapped out of the memory, breathing heavily and in a state of panic. Grasping desperately at thin air, for comfort... for anything. But he was alone.

This was not the last time he would have to endure this.

[fatalitalegends]

Restoration

Mitthyo felt his heart leap up to his chest. He knew something was wrong. It wasn't like Dair's mind to stay silent unless he was sleeping. When he felt the jump, he teleported.

He was in mid-air, falling with Dair. He grabbed his shoulder and teleported them away, far away into the icy deserts of Antarctica. 

"What were you thinking?" Mitthyo's voice rang with rage. Neither of them were affected by the cold. Since Mitthyo and Thanajon arrived, Dair's abilities have manifested in wild ways, including the ability to breathe underwater and be unaffected by temperatures.

"You have limited, if any, command of magick and you were just gonna leap off the building and hope what? That somehow someone will catch you? What's wrong Dair, tell me please." Mitthyo's rage mellowed into a deep concern. He was used to the old Dair's dramatic mood swings. If anything, a suicidal act seemed commonplace. Yet the Dair of today was quiet, introspective and infinitely more scary than he could imagine. 

"I just wanted to see what it was like to feel a rush again..." Dair's voice trailed off as he gazed into the distance. The flood of memories seemed to have robbed him of a wealth of experiences. Anything he did was accompanied by a knowing memory of consequences. Different though his past was from his present, many things were transferable. The fear of falling was something Dair from the past never seemed to contend with. Growing up protected by his master and by the magick he learned to wield, Dair knew that he would never fall to his death. Dair of the present, on the other hand, grew up knowing the fears of Earth, the fear of heights, the fear of falling, the fear of dying. 

Dair trusted that ether Mitthyo or Thanajon would be keeping an eye on him. With the two of them slowly guiding him, he was slowly learning to embrace his mortal fears.

"Thank you for saving me." Dair sounded grateful yet he couldn't help injecting a bit of snark into his tone. 

"I'll always be here to catch you when you fall Dair, just try not to take it so literally next time." Mitthyo managed to vocalise an eye roll.

Dair smiled and stood up, "can I ask you something? How did Thanajon control my destruction the first day we met?" 

Mitthyo teleported both of them back to the college grounds and began his lesson. "You remember the halo you spotted around the school?" He gestured above his head. Dair nodded onceand glanced upwards, staring at the golden sheen. "This barrier is apparently created whenever an area is encircled with gates which restrict access. Unknown to humans, Earth has apparently been following their trend and gathering its magick to conform to artificial barriers. It is a defense against magickal intrusions of course. Without anyone to shape magickal energy properly, these natural magickal barriers do practically nothing. Until we came that is.

"Magick in different regions respond differently according to traditions.Which is why in most magickal societies, there is a unique style which defines the society. The unique way of practicing magick is adopted by the land and after a while, they will respond to no other style. 

"Earth's magick has been regenerating since its apparent regression after the war. Which means magick on Earth has not been tamed at all."

"Then how did Thanajon control it? The magick was reacting to me wasn't it?"

"One of the basic languages of magick is emotion. That was how you were causing explosions. Unchecked emotions is the easiest thing magick responds to. When you unleash your emotions in a way magick can resonate with, the energy will respond. For instance, Lux." Mitthyo whispered the spell like a caress. I bauble of light appeared in front of him, cheerfully glowing. 

"Now, if I were to cast the spell with violence... Lux!" Mitthyo's voice rang throughout the Cendana courtyard. Magick stirred and an explosion of light manifested, blinding the pair. Mitthyo waved his hand and the light vanished. "I understand... so how exactly did Thanajon control it?" Dair walked around the courtyard, waving his hand in the air.

"Magick also responds to control. Thanajon was able to wield the magickal energy better than you were so it bent to his instruction. The true language of magick is intention. Pure, focused intention is stronger than any incantation. Magick exists all around us, Dair. All you need to do is will it into action. Of course, magick doesn't just respond to anybody's command. It takes effort, training, and careful instruction.Most humans who reside here have given up the hope that magick ever existed."

"So belief is a part of magick? But why then does it never work for people who keep hoping?"

"Because, in spite of all the hope that humans have, there exist a part, however small, which denies the existence of magick. Earth's magickal energy has grown too potent to be wielded by people with even the slightest disbelief. The magick here is looking for a master, a language to be aligned to. The last time we were here, Thanajon gave it just that language. It will take time but most of Earth's magick should respond easily to the language used by the Moon Others. This includes you and I." 

Dair smiled at that. He could feel the magick  that hung in the air around him, ready to respond to his will. He was prepared to go through the training required to manipulate magickal energy as easily as he did. To his benefit, he can already speak the language of the Moon Others thanks to his unlocked memories. He smiled to himself once more.

It was nice to have hope once again.

[fatalitalegends]

Flight

Pain. Silence. Torture.

Dair sat on the roof of his block. When he was younger he had found his solitude above the buildings around him. He learned how to pick locks and managed to sneak up without anyone bothering him. That was how he wanted to be now, alone. No. That wasn't how he wanted to be, it was how he had always been. Dair absolutely loathed solitude. He hated when he was allowed to be alone with his thoughts, with his mind. For a while, he thought it was something wrong with him. Then he started blaming his friends for letting him feel alone. Then he started blaming his parents. And then he returned to himself. Yet again, alone. Over the years, he had learned to deal with it, his loneliness. He ensured that he was always somewhere that he made an intentional choice to be at. His parents sent him to day care, so he rebelled and faked remedial and enrichments in school. 

He had learned to cope with solitude the only way he knew how, by making it his own choice.

If he knew his friends were gonna leave him soon, he had to beat them to it. He had to be the first to go so that the result of loneliness was a result of his choice. He spent every waking moment surrounding himself with a cocoon of joy and laughter, of random optimism, to draw friends to him. Somehow, his friends never lasted. Perhaps, on some level, they could sense that the person they were interacting with was just a shadow, a false idol. And so, slowly but surely, they left. 

That's not to say that he didn't have any friends. Dair always had friends, people who were worried about him, people who would come if he bothered to call. But he was scared, so scared that his friends would ignore his call that he chose not to call instead. He kept all the darkness and sorrow within him, not letting it break through the facade of happiness he had created. He didn't want anyone to feel as though they owed him something, but he craved that attention all the same.

He remembered that day. When aeons of memories flooded his mind, he couldn't hold up his veneer of cheerfulness anymore. Dair cried outside of the comfort of four solid walls and a door. His tears flowed freely and he fell into the arms of the one he loved, hating himself for burdening Adgyr. He asked him to make it stop and begged him to silence the voices in his head. He remembered. 

When Mitthyo entered his mind, and said that he could help, Dair gave in willingly. Mitthyo had taught him how to arrange his mind and to make it orderly, to prevent the memories from taking his sanity. After Mitthyo showed him how, Dair sifted through the order and realised that he had done this before. He had been through all of this before. The past he had supposedly forgotten when the war, as Mitthyo called it, broke out had been locked away. Mitthyo spent almost two weeks explaining to Dair about his entire history, helping him to grasp the reality of magick. It was Mitthyo and Thanajon's presence which had undone Morgan's final gift to Dair, the erasure of his memories.

All Dair could do now was to deal with it, in solitude.

Adgyr was no longer with him, he had his own things to deal with as well. In many ways, Dair could see the similarities between them. Maybe that's what drew them together in the first place. But that day, when all he could do was to hold Dair's hand, he broke. Adgyr had thought that he could save everyone, that his own problems were secondary to others'. When Dair was in so much pain and he was helpless, he broke. He felt like a failure. 

Dair knew that Adgyr didn't want to leave, it wasn't his intention, but Adgyr was in pain too. Dair had undone the control Adgyr taught himself to command. Mitthyo was helping Dair cope with the pain. Mitthyo knew that it was his presence which had caused all the memories to flood back. While he explained the Socius Custodius pact to Dair, he felt like he was recalling things from a whole lifetime away. The same way Dair guided him through all this years ago, he was now helping Dair back. Because Mitthyo had physically lived through the war, albeit from a forced exile, his memories were drawn directly from what Dair had experienced. Upon his return, the pact had synchronised their memories. What happened across millenia for Mitthyo slammed into Dair in a matter of seconds. 

Dair sat still, looking across the distance, letting his mind wander. He could feel Mitthyo's presence at the other end of their bond. It comforted him in someway, knowing that he will never be alone again. 

He stood up, made a choice, ran to the edge of the roof and leaped.

[fatalitalegends]

Re-bound

Adgyr and Dair sat down at the sofas. Dair was panting hard, across his forehead perspiration started to form, dripping down, mingling with his tears. Adgyr held Dair tighter against himself, as if his body could shield him from all the troubles in the world. All the while Dair continued sobbing, harder and harder. All he could think about was pain and hurt. The feelings came out of nowhere but that did not stop it from crashing upon him all the same.

"Make it stop... please..." Dair looked up at Adgyr. His eyes were swollen from crying. Adgyr was at a loss, grabbing Dair tighter still.

"Shh...shh..." Adgyr cooed at Dair, "everything is going to be alright. Tell me what's wrong?" 

Dair could hear the words Adgyr was saying to him but he could not understand them. All Dair felt was an immense pain, twisting him from the inside. It chewed away at his sanity. Dair clutched his head, trying to will away the torrent of sounds and images which the two foreign men seem to have brought upon him.

"Make it stop..." Dair's plea turned into an angry snarl. As if a dam broke, Dair released an ear-splitting scream,attempting to drown out the voices in his head. Again and again he screamed. Each time he did, Dair unknowingly released a wave of power, stirring the magick in the air around him into a violent turbulence. Each scream shattered a cornerstone of the wards surrounding the college. 

Mitthyo and Thanajon heard the first of the screams and ran up against the gates, sending their own magick against the wards to break them. Beyond the metal bars, both of them could see the magickal energy in the air being stirred into chaos. With each scream, the soft golden halo around the gates dimmed a bit more, until finally it was gone altogether.

"Profligo" Mitthyo flung at the gates. The cold steel shattered and the two men dashed inside, turning left and sprinting towards Dair. 

Adgyr saw the strangely dressed men running up towards Dair and turned his back towards them, curling inwards protectively around Dair. Mitthyo placed his hand against Adgyr's back and sent into his mind "I can help. Give him to me." Adgyr reluctantly let Dair into the hands of the stranger and moved to the side, still tightly grasping onto Dair's arm.

Mitthyo placed both his hands around Dair's head and sent his mind in. Inside, there was barely any semblance of order. Dair's untrained mind had no way to cope with the flood of memories which his Mitthyo and Thanajon had awaken. Mitthyo shielded himself from the vortex and searched for Dair's being.

"Come on brother, where are you?" The instant he thought of that, the sapphire dragon on his arm flared and Mitthyo was torn from the vortex next to Dair's being. Dair was curled up in a fetal position, comforting himself by rocking on his tailbone. Back and forth, back and forth while hishead was tucked tightly between his knees. Mitthyo approached cautiously and knelt in front of Dair.

"Hey, I am Mitthyo. I'm here to help you alright? You need to listen very carefully."