[Kodai]

"You've... given your sight?" the Fallen seraph paused. "For the likes of one such as I?" It could not be believed, not without a price... a cost. Was it true that this creature at his lap changed the illusion ever so slightly so that he could see his beloved once again?

"And you saw her? Met her at Basantha? How... ironic," he couldn't help but laugh lightly. That's how they'd met first... Basantha, way back when it had seen better times, before this silent curse had enveloped it, back when it was nothing more than a tiny, insignificant shrine to the gods...

"I... I wish I could see..." Iiylumiel said, a hint of hope in his voice, placing his soft, pale hands upon the once-dragon's head...

[Kodai]

As Kai had done, the Fallen Angel fell forward unconscious as his hands were placed upon Kai, his mind now within the transformed Hollowheart's memory...


From the corner of her eye, Kodai noticed someone else standing nearby, someone familiar... "Baal? Have you come here, too?" she asked, glad to see that the Evelon Preservation Zoo owner was here. "Strange things are going on, as I'm sure you can see..."
Why... the feeling of burning is not leaving this one?! Kai mind-shrieked suddenly, the pain far too intense to let him use an 'indoor voice'. Kodai... Kodai!! This one is needing you!! This one is... needing you... He faded off into a whimper and tried feebly to lift his head and locate Kodai with pain-blinded eyes.
"It's okay, Kai, I'm right here," she tried to reassure him, taking his head and hugging it to her chest.
"H-Hey there Kodai," Baal's reverie was broken, and she glanced at Kodai for a moment, then did a double-take. "Oh my goodness! Your Hollowheart... did it do this?" she indicated the glowing mass before her that washed the room in an undulating blue light. She came over and knelt next to the large dragon, placing her hand on it's neck...
"Yeah... there used to be a wall there with a symbol on it. One of the monks told Kai to press his 'heart' to it and repeat some words he had said earlier... then the wall disappeared and created that... portal, I guess it is," she explained, looking into the glowing mass. "Some of the others and their pets went through it already... But I'm too concerned about Kai to go through it just yet."
At Baal's touch, the Hollowheart turned his head from Kodai's chest in order to look at her. You is being...Baal? Kodai is calling you Baal, yes? he was able to ask before bringing up more blood-ichor.
"Yes, my name is Baal," she replied, keeping her hand on the creature's neck, her gaze shifting up towards the one she came to recognize as Tekirh. "He'll be fine, he just has to keep from any strenuous movement at this point. Thank you Tekirh," she nods, and turns back to Kodai. "A monk you say?" Before she could recieve an answer, another approached, asking what lay beyond the shimmering wall. "I-I... I've a hunch," Baal said uneasily. "I don't fear for the people going in there... I fear for whatever is in there..."


Kai was taken aback slightly as Iiylumiel's weight fell on top of him suddenly, but managed to regain himself quickly to prevent himself from falling over as well. He held Iiylumiel as the latter had held him, his arms around the fallen one in a soft embrace...

[Kodai]

A coldness swept through the man's body as he tried to dredge himself up from the depths of this remembrance... It was... true? And she was alive.

He tried to shake himself loose. To remain here would only bring up more false hopes and leave him to dangle from thin threads over a pit of utter despair. With a strangled cry that was both half human and half creature, Iiylumiel shook himself back to consciousness, cold beads of sweat running down from his white-crowned head. He could feel the warmth and strength of the other holding him up.

"T-Thank you..." the dragon breathed heavily, as if the force of breaking the brief spell took a ghastly toll. The chains behind him were rattling with the effort. He could see the other's determination to set things right...

The seraph knew... This one's journey was not yet over. It was almost time for him to go...

[Kodai]

"You is seeing, then." Kai pulled back slightly in order to give Iiylumiel another soft yet somehow sad smile. He reached out carefully, gently running his fingers across the once-Seraph's face until he found Iiylumiel's forehead. Once found, Kai began to sweep hair and sweat out of the Fallen One's eyes... such a gesture... There seemed to be so much pain in his own life, yet he only sought to heal the pain of others... a strange creature indeed. "You is knowing... and so... perhaps a chain is being loosed, maybe even broken? ...Iiylumiel Fallen... This one is hoping that... you is finding the path to redemption... even if this one is not." Tucking a final strand of white hair behind Iiylumiel's ear, Kai withdrew his hand, letting it fall over Iiylumiel's heaving chest. "You is... being all right?" he asked, letting his hand rest there for a moment.

[Kodai]

To his surprise, Iiylumiel relished in the slight caress of the other at his knees. To actually feel something again, it was more than anything this once-dragon could have given him.

He took a glance at the chains shifting behind him. "Yes, I have seen. And I thank you for that, though the bonds that bind me here are all a work of that accursed god, sadly," he smiled, not seemingly bothered too much by the concept now. At least he had the chance to see his forbidden beloved once again... He could hear the concern in Kai's voice. "And yes, I'm fine now, it was just... a taxing experience."

There seemed to be no anger or fear behind his gaze anymore, all of that washed away momentarily, though he knew it would not last. If only... this once dragon could change the course of the world, or at least defile the plans of the deceptive god. Maybe... he deserved another chance, this Kai. Faintly, Iiylumiel could already feel the warmth of his power coalescing in his hands, his fingers now glowing a faintest blue hue.

"You have given your sight to me... Let my Eyes help you now as you return..." the Seraph spoke, now placing his hands atop the other's smooth shoulders...

[BaalsBaby]

((PART 2!! ))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A great eye opened, large and expansive as the moon, a tiny slit of a pupil shifted in rhythmic motions. It was a great blackness of eternity that gazed out from that slit, but it began to grow smaller in size. He could do it... He could...

There a was a tiny 'pop' in that space, the result of a relatively large mass becoming a rather smaller one. A pale figure lay slumped upon the floor, it was cold stone and pulsated like a cloud beneath him. Yessssssss.... He was again whole, but only for the time being... It was becoming harder to control. Beneath him, he could feel the pulsations different, something had been drawn here. Had he done that? He had not memory... That Iiylumiel...

There was a quickness of breath at the thought, had he taken such a precious thing from him... No... There were different matters to tend to. The figure on the floor raised himself, lean and perfect and shining, a former appearance from his previous life. This was a new one. He drew a hand up and across himself, strands of silken thread weaving to make itself a gray cloth about his bare figure.

Who was this person... who had come here?

[Kodai]

A quiver, a vibration... a pulse. Slowly, Kodai rose to her feet, yet she felt different somehow... as if she had cast off her mortal body and now stood within a dream. Shaking her head, she tried to clear her vision and suddenly noticed a figure standing there. Where had he come from? He didn't look at all familiar... yet somehow, there was something familiar about him. "Ahh... s-sorry..." she stammered, averting her eyes from the not-quite-fully clothed man. "I don't... know how I got here... Sorry if I've disturbed you..." She looked about for an exit, but could find none. Not that finding one would be useful, anyway... it was highly likely that she'd just become even more lost than she already was. "If you could tell me... where I am... maybe I could find my way out and not disturb you any more..."

[BaalsBaby]

The pale figure tilted his head some, an arm resting halfway in the air to support the heavy drapings of cloth, much like an emperor or one of such high stature. His eyes were milky and cold, and still slightly held the semblance of a beast within. Hair colored a light maroon, trimmed with white floated down before his face, and with a swift, fluid motion, he swept it from his vision.

"You... Who are... you? " the Fallen cleared his throat, echoing voice cascading along the walls like rainfall. "And how have come to this place? he continued, answering her question. He infolded his hands and splayed them at his sides, indicating the entirety of the large room there were in. "This... is a place of death. A place of the impure and forgotten... You are everywhere and nowhere..." The various tunnels and caverns that branched out from this damp, expansive room seemed to echo with his voice a thousand fold.

[Kodai]

What a regal man... how odd to find him in such a place. And yet, not strange at all... "I am... Kodai," the girl replied, humbled before this character. "I... don't know exactly how I got here... I guess I just wandered in. I heard a voice, and..." She paused, and gave a light gasp as the figure told her the nature of the place. "Of... death? Then... have I died? I don't remember anything happening to me... just... slipping into blackness..." Kodai tried to recall her journey through the tunnel, but could not remember it clearly. It was as if she couldn't think clearly... not here. "The impure and forgotten..." she echoed, inspecting the person before her more closely. Really, there was something about him that pulled at her, telling her that she knew him... but from where? "Um... who are you, if I may ask?" Her voice trembled slightly, but she did her best to appear collected.

[BaalsBaby]

"Yes this is darkness... A void of life... It seems you were brought by a force other than myself..." the figure nodded his head in a slow manner, never removing his gave. His hands now rested at his sides, sleek and slender limbs as if of a tree. "And I, lost one, am the Fallen Seraphim Nyssdriel, Vessel of the Tainted. My name should mean nothing to you, however, for I am now lost to time..." he remarked, though there was not a quiver of sadness, nor any hint of emotion at all.

[Kodai]

Brought here... if not by this man, then who? ...Wait. Had he just introduced himself as Nyssldriel? "N...Nyssldriel? You...?" Kodai's eyes were wide with shock, and she couldn't help but gape at him. This was... this was the Second Fallen Seraphim, the one whom had killed Iiylumiel on that fateful day? "Your name... your name is not unknown to me," she managed to whisper finally, still staring at him wide-eyed. "You are not forgotten... not by me... not by Kai." She looked away finally, wondering how the Hollowheart was doing. He was probably too entranced with moving Iiylumiel's body to have noticed her wandering off... but should she become missing, he would no doubt look for her. "He... I think he was going to try to put you to rest, too... he feels so badly about what happened... And then... something else happened today... it's all so strange."

[BaalsBaby]

Now this intrigued him... Kai... Kai.. That name had been whispered all across the Heavenly Vaults when he had served the great heavenly beings. There was no warmth is his body, but had he possessed any, it would have drained from him in the instant he recognized the word... A deviation of Kairebutasou?

"Nooo... You're that female... the owner of the dragon..." Nyssldriel stepped forward once, then stopped, the cloth billowing about him like a cloak of dusky wings. "You were there that day... The day I..." but he couldn't quite remember, there were flashes of events, but they were as torn string and could not bind together.

Looking unblinkingly at the female, there was something about her... It seemed to radiate from her like the sun, and pulsated in the multitudes of caverns. He could almost feel warmth in the flesh of his arms, but the dankness and darkness staved it away. "I seem... to feel as if you are someone from... my memories... Not just of that day... Something more..."

[Kodai]

That dragon... yes... "Kaibutsu... though, I think Iiylis called him something else? I don't remember..." What was it about this place that made memory so fleeting? "Yes... that day... you... you were killed... and... you killed... Iiylumiel..." This, at least, she could recall; it was too far ingrained in her mind for it to be forgotten easily. Rubbing her sleeved arms in an effort to warm them from the stark chill of the cavern, Kodai pondered Nyssldriel's last sentence. Someone from his memories? And not of that day? But how could that be? She was but eighteen years old, and he was a fallen angel, a being of nearly infinite life... "I... don't... know..." she said slowly, almost having to force the words from her tongue. "Ah... I... feel so... so tired..." Without warning, she stumbled and fell forward directly into the once Angel's chest, her face a pale red as if from fever and her breath escaping her in short huffs.

[BaalsBaby]

An illness? The figure stood like a stone monolith, catching the female against his chest without any recoil. "Is this human ill?" the figure spoke aloud to himself and stared down at the limp form resting against him. There was something within him that seemed to spark an infinitesimal fire of his former self. If there was anything the Fallen Seraph could do to alleviate some of the guilt he felt for his past actions, he could help this human who had somehow wandered into this forgotten sanctuary. If only he could draw the illness out...

Steadying her with his firm grasp, he leaned down and placed his lips softly upon the human's tender lips. There was no hint of any perversion. The angel was simply doing what he could to help...

Slowly, slowly, the magic from within him tried to draw out the source of this frail one's weakness...

[Kodai]

The girl's eyes were half closed, but as the magic began to flow from Nyssldriel's lips into her body, they began to flutter open ever so slightly. They seemed to have changed color, as well... what had once been a shining blue-grey was now a pale blue, almost white. Eventually, the flushed appearance of her face had gone, and she stared up at the Fallen Seraph. "Ahh... Nyssldriel... thank you..." That voice... it was not that of the human Kodai's. It was far too soft, too... angelic. "It's been awhile... hasn't it?" Her brow furrowed in confusion, and she took a step back, looking about at the surroundings. "Where... is this place? This is not... the Heavenly Vaults... nor even... ... ...and... why am I dressed... this way?" she asked suddenly, noticing her sleeved arms and beginning to twist about in order to inspect herself. "What... happened... to me? Nyssldriel..." Suddenly she staggered forward, clutching at her chest as if gripped with immense pain. "Ahh... ahh... ahh....."