This is Me

[Tan Li]

His beautiful companion held her hands on her hips and the look on her face made Li blush. He realized there was nothing he was in the process of doing that would have saved her had she been in any danger at all. A blush crept to his face and he held a finger up in pause as he turned back to his new student. "I look forward to the day in which you return to learn. Soon, I am here most days." Li spoke loudly, hoping that the other man would hear, perhaps it would ease his mind. "He found his peace. Sometimes it just takes time to find it." Li didn't really know what the other young man had found to weild the power so near flawlessly. There was no strength behind those flows, but skill he had much of.

Li returned his attention to Nhyssa with a bashful grin. "You are no damasal in distress, it was not my intention. I was a fool either way, I am not invulnerable to flame." Li started stretching quickly he would not keep her waiting any longer, she was his guest and these two weren't paying customers. At least he would take no money from them. Maybe though there could be a job offering if the need arose, he would need to discuss it with his business manager. A real god to teach real magic... that would put the dojo's name on the map so to speak. "Shall we continue?" He asked softly to his partner. He hoped Raffe would make himself comfortable it looked as though his friend was here for a while.

[Nhysa]

Nhysa only nodded to the warning issued by the man who joined her on the dojo floor. At least a little curiosity coloured her expression, but she accepted the shared space without fuss. A man’s gift was beyond her senses, which perhaps required more trust than she was accustomed to giving a stranger, but she felt no threat. Which was just as well given that without the kiss of darkness her own powers lie dormant. Even her shadowy companion phased away from her senses at this time of the morning.

She watched with half an eye as she stretched herself out, aware too of the men gawking while they spoke quietly in the corner. Not that it wasn’t an impressive routine, but she was trained to ignore superfluous distraction, which pretty lights and supple movement certainly were whilst in a training ring.

The sharp awareness of her senses did not cause her to flinch when the fireball sizzled loudly against the invisible wall. She did pause though, hands on hips, as Li half dashed towards her before he caught himself. A brow rose smoothly.

And, oh my, but wasn’t that blushing quite adorable.

A smile pursed her lips to amusement, her eyes remaining slitted until his sheepish attention returned to her. He was right, she was no damsel, but perhaps she did not mind his instincts so much -- ridiculous as they were, and only because the danger had not been real. “Yes,” she agreed lightly, smirking. “But such a darling one.”

Her sultry gaze explored him up and down as he stretched, openly appreciative, and her own posture shifted. She’d seen Li fight others, of course, as he had seen her too at the club, but they had never been matched against one another. She teased her lip between her teeth, eager. Then she curled the invitation of a beckoning finger. “Show me what you’ve got.”

[Tan Li]

Li chuckled at himself, he had been a fool, and Nhysa only made the statement slightly less embarrassing. Li was grateful he at least amused the strong woman before him as he settled into a stance. The power trickled from the man occupying the floor next to them, Li didn't need distraction as he started to circle Nhysa. His head wasn't on right, the power, there was fire flinging across the dojo, the water hissing when the fireballs splattered and fizzled to the ground. It was all very violent.

Focus. He told himself before Li threw the first punch and kick at his opponent. His focus should have been on his body, but from the corner of his eye another fireball flew in their direction and Nhyssa caught him in the chest with a jab and Li fell backwards staring at the power that he saw flying out around the dojo. "The balance is off in the room." He looked to Nhysa. "I yield."

Li waved his hand and a loud buzz sounded in the dojo. A bell to sound a change. The power stilled but still flowed from the man, he looked around confused. "I'm expect a customer." Li lied. "Schedule some time at the front desk if you'd like to work here again." He said from the floor

[Nox]

Nox could hear the conversation between Raffe and Li though he tried to ignore it. He changed the playlist again and let himself drown in the music and the fight now that his body worked the way it should. Though he felt uncomfortable, this wasn't his natural state and it would take time before he truly felt at peace with the new limb. But he could fight, he could maintain the power, and the darkness stayed at bay while his body endured the physical onslaught he was putting it through.

He ignored what he heard and was grateful when they parted and Nox was left to the quiet of the sparring match next to him. Though the man was not his peak self that was evidence. And when the buzzer sounded Nox knew he'd overstayed his welcome. Balance... That was not something Nox ever thought about. He was one side of a coin, his sister the other, she balanced him and he'd never thought about it otherwise. Nox looked to Raffe and gave him a weak smile. "I hope he can help you." Nox had thought the Atharim connection and the man being a god would be more welcoming. And it had been until something shifted in the man. He stared wide eyed at Nox -- almost afraid. Probably more afraid of what he was capable of than what Nox was doing. He wondered if he scared Raffe the same way. Maybe bringing Raffe was the wrong thing to do.

Li Tan called after him. "I hope I'll see both of you again... soon." Nox was pretty sure he only meant Raffe. Fear was like that. Nox nodded and waved.

"You will come back?" Nox left off the 'without me' part of his question, he didn't want to make Raffe feel bad. "He learned control in a monastery. At least that's why I think he disappeared for many years. The Ascendancy was said to have learned from monks too. It was a beautiful monastery, though I suppose the ashes I saw were nothing to compare to what had been before the Atharim came to kill him."

[Nhysa]

Nhysa filtered out extraneous distraction without much difficulty. She’d been taught to focus through worse. Li did not fare so well, though.

His yield surprised her.

She didn’t remotely understand what he meant about the room’s balance -- beyond that he was clearly disturbed by the boy and his channeling. Nhysa only watched with vague interest as the boy in question went to collect his companion.

She squatted where Li had fallen, forearms resting loose against her thighs. “Why did you send him away?”

[Raffe]

Raffe was happy enough to wait after Li went to join the woman on the floor. He had plenty of things to mull over, and honestly the view was not so bad. It was not a dance anymore, but something far more dangerous looking, yet mesmerising all the same. Some part of his brain struggled to accept it was even real. They used the power to enhance the performances at Kallisti, but it was nothing like this.

A buzzer sounded and broke the spell. Raffe straightened from the wall upon which he had been slouched when Nox approached. His lips hitched into a natural smile, though it flickered a little into consideration at the immediate question.

“I’ll come back,” he said. He swiped a hand over the back of his neck. The discomfort was still there, but he wasn’t about to break a promise. He blanched a little at the talk of what was apparently left of the monastery the Ascendancy had learned his magic. The threat of the Atharim was a whole other problem, and one he didn’t really want to think about. Failing to control the power wasn’t the only thing that might kill him, after all. “How did the arm feel?”

[Tan Li]

Nhysa knelt down in front of him but Li watched the pair leave. He didn't stop to schedule any additional time. He could teach Mik, Mik had wanted to learn to fight, but Li hadn't been able to then. Perhaps when his counterpart came back he could exchange information with him. But Li wasn't sure he wanted to teach that here. He felt lost in the wake of the weaves that had fled with the reborn god he'd just met, even the walls that had been free standing were gone. But the taint of the fire shifted on the currents of the central air.

Li looked to Nhyssa and frowned. "That is why they hunt people like us." He knew exactly what the Atharim was, he had known when he found out and he flaunted his gift so openly. He came here bringing whatever might have followed him without fear. What monsters would follow in his wake. Li had never expected his mystical arts to pull in the already skilled -- more like his friend. Li wondered if the man would return. Li wasn't afraid of monsters, but that boy god was Atharim. Li should have inquired to how he lost the limb, or how the other man had come to the scar. Monsters to the children?

Doubt filtered through his usual serene calm. The mist creature had shaken him beyond a man he could recognize. "I wonder if he knows about the creatures that attacked us yesterday. He obviously still fights the good fight. How the Atharim have not found him..." Li's words trailed off, his thoughts getting lost in what he might have brought to his door step, what if other Atharim had followed him here. It wasn't like Li was afraid of them, he hadn't hidden his ability. But no, Li wondered if he should have. Wonder peirced his doubt, when he thought of what had happened to the man the authorities dragged away. Why was that man not locked up with his casual use of the power?

[Nox]

[[ continuing here ]]

[Nhysa]

“No, it isn’t, dearest one.” Her dark gaze was unblinking. She touched his chin so as to be sure she commanded his attention, and spoke firmly. “They hunt us because they are afraid, and what men fear they seek to snuff out. Ironically, it is the surest way I know to create a monster. On both sides of the divide.”

She had no idea what Li imagined she did for a living, and neither had he asked, despite how much of his own life he had already shared. Nor did she believe he would ask, but she thought he must have some understanding that she was a weapon. She had not baulked at strangling him unconscious the night before, nor had any great trouble in doing it. The fingers that so gently cupped his chin had taken countless lives, and felt no remorse for it. But like any powerfully lounging predator, capability did not equal intent. 

Of course the boy was dangerous; Nhysa had not been blind to the flying fireballs, even if she had been adept at ignoring them. But danger only ought to be accorded respect, not fear. No child asked to be born different. No creature deserved to be maligned simply for what they were. The Atharim were wrong.

“You are afraid,” she observed. Her tone was not particularly comforting, but neither was it scathing. Rather, she simply spoke aloud as she fathomed him out.  “And that is why you sent him away.” Her grip shifted, and a finger pressed against his lips. She had not finished, and did not wish to be interrupted, even with a correction.

“How many times do you think that may have happened to the boy since he left your cult? Cast away. Hunted. Feared.” She had a soft spot for the odd and outcast; for anything, really, that made its home in the shadows. Li already knew that though, for they had philosophised at length over the wolfkin they had observed at the Almaz. In any case, she suspected the boy had chosen Li’s dojo with purpose, and had perhaps hoped for a kinder welcome. Especially if he had any inkling of the tattoo that would have once marked them brothers.

“This kingdom is yours, Li. You choose what does and does not happen here. But you put an open invitation across the door, dear one, and you cannot complain if it attracts a little trouble.” A smirk lifted the corners of her lips, and the finger against his mouth moved to tap him playfully on the nose. She was about to shift to offer him a hand up, but a question occurred then, tilting her head with the new consideration instead. “The Ascendancy offered clemency for Atharim that denounced their loyalties and registered with the Custody. Did you accept?”

[Tan Li]

Nhysa was right -- of course she was right. Fear. In all aspects of it he was afraid. A boy, he was barely in his twenties, Li wasn't that much older, but there was enough of a gap in experience -- or was there really?

Li shook his head. "I'm sorry." He'd disturbed their fun. His fear he would admit to that. The boy had never once put any of them in danger. it was strange how the sudden change in fear turned the young man into a boy. He even had a name, but some how acknowledging it made it more real -- his fear more real. "I will never, nor do I want to be that." It wasn't a statement of disgust, it was fear. Fear of the man he'd become -- fear he'd become just like his own father. Fear... "That is too much temptation for my inner darkness." And that was the rub...

Nhysa was right, and he should apologize to the boy, no the young man -- to Nox. He had a name. He knew it. He would not forget it now.

Nhysa's shift paused as she cocked her head slightly asking a question he had forgotten about. "I did. It is why I am here no longer shooting the last project. It was why I got fired." And there had been a good reason he had forgotten the forms he'd filled out. "I don't know what good it did other than losing my career. There has been no government contact, no one knocking on my door asking questions. No one said I'll protect you. No one saying come help us. The government in any nation only wants to know who is a threat, the offer of help was a ploy. If the Atharim came knocking I seriously doubt there would be any assistance. Fill out fucking forms and nothing comes of it but your name in a hat waiting for the Atharim to find you and kill you. Both lists are a death sentence." Li's anger overrode his fear. He'd signed in good faith, and lost everything. Of course the studio said nothing of why he was really let go and Li wasn't one to make a scene. He didn't care, it wasn't about the money -- well not all about the money if he was being honest with himself.