Failed Duties [[Closed]]

[Eidolon]

It was brutal and quick. When the second creature fell, Eido pressed a hand to her ribs. Pain flared in response to the pressure, but she couldn’t tell if any of the blood of her hands was her own. She sheathed her blade and climbed over the bodies to reach the stranger, who was growling and swearing. An Atharim must have resources, and Eido would assist her to help; for surely she needed it. Even in the shadows she could see the blood bubbling through the hand clamped at her side. She crouched alongside her, offered her jacket to better staunch the flow for now, about to help the woman to her feet. This stranger had saved her life; a life not worth saving, and a debt that could not be repaid. Shame brought her eyes low, but it was the sudden rapid fluttering of her own heart that gave her pause.

Horror flooded her cold.

“No,” she murmured in panic. But the suffusion of power, dutifully ignored for six years, poured like rain from the heavens on parched earth at the moment of touch. She was aware of things she could not possibly know as the light moved around them like the flows of a river. Her hands pressed against hot blood and flesh. In fear she let it go. “Forgive me,” she murmured, unsure in what language the desperate words were uttered. It spilled torrentially for only a moment before it winked out as quickly as it came.

The tremble of Eido’s legs gave way afterwards. She fell heavily to sit alongside the woman. Exhaustion leadened her limbs, like she emptied every ounce of her own vitality into the stranger. Her head bowed, black hair ghosting either cheek. She breathed hard, in fear or supplication she did not know. She thought of Kota then, and it clenched like a fist over her heart, but she did not open her eyes. She was not tired simply in body; she was tired in spirit. “I submit to your judgement, sister.”