t(-.-t) (the_warden) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-07-05 00:49:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, maia amell (the warden), morrigan |
I’m fine, my pride hurts more.
Who: Maia and Morrigan
What: Morrigan goes looking for her fiance
When: Late June
Where: an alleyway
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13 for injuries
Mistakes had been made. Maia wasn’t so proud as to pretend that wasn’t the case. She’d let herself get too into the fight, and desperate enough to call on powers she generally liked to avoid. She wasn’t bleeding anymore, but her legs felt numb, and she drifted in and out of a fog. It was like she wasn’t quite there, and when she entered the fog, it reminded her vaguely of the Fade.
There was something there, talking to her. Offering her everything she ever wanted. The cure to the Blight. A way to free Morrigan from her binding to her mother. Because she could do that. It was in her power, she had that power.
She just needed to reach out and take it.
What had started as mild anxiety had turned into outright fear of what had happened to Maia. Unanswered texts could be excused. But when Maia hadn’t answered when Morrigan had called? That was entirely worrisome. So Morrigan had taken to the air to try and find Maia. Her form of a choice was a hawk. It gave her better sight to see the ground below.
It took some time, Orange County wasn’t exactly small, but finally Morrigan spotted what seemed to be unnatural fog. She dove into it and assumed human form once in there. It seemed to be relatively familiar, as if the Fade was bleeding into the real world (not the first time Morrigan had experienced that), and she kept her guard up. She then spotted Maia.
“Maia!!” She cried out as she rushed to her fiancée’s side. And the sight was, well, horrific. “Maker, what happened?” She didn’t expect an answer, and she didn’t wait for one. Morrigan just started with a healing spell to try and heal Maia’s injuries.
“This bloke… “ Maia’s mind snapped back to the here and now. She looked into Morrigan’s eyes with a mixture of relief and fear, and just a little annoyance. “Raistlin, from the magic guild, he’s possessed. I’m fine, my pride hurts more. Actually, it’s talking to me right now and it’s being very convincing.”
It was impossible to hide that she’d used blood magic, not with the cuts on her left wrist and the stab wound on her right bicep. Her nose was bleeding too, and her lip split open. “My feet still there? I’m worried about my feet.”
Morrigan frowned. A possessed mage was never a good thing regardless of what dream world they came from. “Do not listen to what your pride is telling you. It is a demon trying to possess you and I will not have it.” She said sternly, focusing her healing on the cuts on Maia’s left wrist and the stab wound to her right bicep.
“Yes, your feet are still there. Are you unable to feel them?” That sent a cold shiver down Morrigan’s spine. It meant that Maia’s injuries were far more extensive than they initially seemed to be.
“M’sorry.” Maia tried to cup Morrigan’s face. “Tried to stop im. Tried to get it to leave his body. Stopped his heart, hoped to trick it into leaving him.” It hadn’t worked, and the effort had only drained her further. She looked down at her feet. “They’re numb.”
The demon had blasted into walls and metal a few time. She looked at Maia again. “Shields didn’t last long.”
Morrigan cursed under breath in elvish. This was not how this day was supposed to go. “Try not to move so much,” Morrigan said in a calm tone. She didn’t want Maia to jarr any of her unseen injuries. “Are you able to feel your legs at all?” Morrigan would start poking, but not before she got that answer. At least Maia could move her arms.
She nodded her head, repeating that they were numb. She didn’t know if that meant she felt them or if it meant she just thought she felt them. Her eyes fell to the wounds on her arms. “Ran out of juice. Needed blood.”
Which was probably pretty obvious, along with the whole stopping heart thing. But she wanted to say it out loud.
Again, Morrigan cursed, focusing harder on the wounds on Maia’s arms and managing to heal them. “Yes, we will discuss that later.” Blood magic. The battle must have been incredibly intense to cause Maia to resort to blood magic. But Morrigan didn’t let herself become too distracted.
“Do you feel pain anywhere in particular? Broken bones or anything of that nature?”
“I feel pain everywhere. Arms, back, head.” She could still hear the demon whispering, still hear that offer. Curing the blight and freeing Morrigan were tempting. “He says I can free you from your mother.”
Morrigan gently cupped Maia’s face in her hands and looked her in the eye. “Listen to me, Maia. Do not listen to what he offers. I care not what he says he can do. He is a demon first and foremost, they are not to be trusted. Whatever his price is for accomplishing that is not worth the trouble. We will find another way.” Just as Morrigan had a way to cure the Blight with Hawke’s help.
“I know, I just...isn’t that better than your mum?” Maia’s eyes seemed foggy and distant, until she blinked and the fog cleared. She took a shakey breath, her nails digging into Morrigan’s arm. “Right. Shouldn’t listen to demons anyway. All promises and lies and teeth.”
“A demon is not better than my mother.” Morrigan stated. It was just as bad, if not worse. Sure Flemeth had told her that she’d never needed to fear her, but that didn’t mean it was the truth and that Morrigan believed her. Because she didn’t believe her. She took a breath, preparing another healing spell.
“Alright, don’t move.” Morrigan set her hands on Maia’s back, or at least as much of it as she dared to touch. She then began to heal, hoping that it would be something she could fix, even if it took all of her strength to heal whatever damage had been done to Maia.
“Your mother is a demon,” Maia whined. Was she delirious, she wondered if she was. Which was embarrassing. Bested by some half-rate possessed mage. Whatever it was she was going to say next was cut off by a strained scream as her body tried to knit the damage away.
“Maker’s sweaty balls! It was better when my feet were numb!”
Even if this conversation was taking place under normal circumstances, Morrigan still wouldn’t argue that point. Morrigan still didn’t what exactly Flemeth actually was beyond the known facts of being a mage, the Witch of the Wilds and having the remnants of Mythal’s soul within her. But that was more than enough to equate to her being a demon.
“I am being as gentle as I am able. Let the magic work and the pain will fade.” In other words, she didn’t want Maia moving. Morrigan continued the spell, keeping her concentration on healing Maia. Though she’d probably need a sizable nap after they got back home. Maia probably needed one as well.
Don’t move. Easy. Great. Bloody wonderful. Maia squeezed her eyes shut, but she could start to wriggle her toes. Somehow she thought Morrigan’s magic couldn’t heal her if she’d really broken her back, so that was some relief. She lay her head back, groaning. “M’sorry. I’m so sorry.”
If things were really broken, Morrigan could heal it up to a point. She had healed plenty of broken bones the party sustained during the Blight. But a spinal injury was far more sensitive than a simple broken bone. She kept up the healing spell, though she was getting tired. Morrigan wanted to heal as much of Maia’s injuries as possible before getting them back home.
“What is important is that I am here now. We can discuss details once you are healed and we are back home.” It was not a conversation to have right this second.
“I saw something in the Fade,” Maia murmured, talking mostly to herself. She grasped Morrigan’s arm. “We need to go home. Barkspawn must be so worried!”
“Not until you are healed enough to move. And we will fly home.” Gryphon-style because a dragon taking off from an alley was far too conspicuous. At least a gryphon could be considered a bird from afar.
“Air Morrigan.” It sounded great to Maia’s ears, especially as she wasn’t even sure how well she could walk. She had a smart comment on the tip of her tongue, but what came out was entirely serious. “I’m not well, love.”
And she didn’t just mean the injuries.
When she finished healing, Morrigan sat down. She needed a few moments to recharge before she attempted to shapeshift. At Maia’s admission, Morrigan felt a little relieved. She’d been waiting for a serious admission to come up when Maia wasn’t drunk. Not that delirium brought on by serious injuries was the ideal way to bring it up.
“Does it have to do with the taint?” She didn’t have the energy currently to beat around the bush about what Maia meant.
“Yes, and no.” Maia leaned her head on Morrigan’s shoulder, nuzzling it slightly. “Mostly yes. But it was...so easy to slip into blood magic. I thought I was stronger than that. I was desperate.”
Morrigan took a slow breath and closed her eyes for some moments. “Tis the danger of blood magic, it can be addictive. Though the same can be said for any form of magic or power in general. It also must have been quite the harrowing battle for you to have been desperate enough to use it.”
“Second rate…” Maia muttered. “Nothing seemed to affect him. But I didn’t really want to hurt him either. The poor bloke didn’t deserve to be used up like that…”
“He was possessed?” Morrigan surmised it from how Maia phrased her words. And, well, it wasn’t like Morrigan hadn’t dealt with possessed mages before. She knew what tended to happen with them.
Maia nodded. “Not your usual demon. Something more stronger.” Demons were motivated by certain primal urges, but this creature seemed more complicated. She couldn’t place the words but she was trying to.
“Can we go home?”
“Of course, love.” Morrigan felt she could manage a shapeshift spell now. Though before she pulled away, she gave Maia a deep, relieved kiss to her lips. She was definitely glad that she was alive. After breaking the kiss, she got up and took a couple steps back before she transformed into her gryphon form. She knelt down so that it was easier for Maia to climb on.
Maia climbed into Morrigan. There were no straps, so she gripped the feathers on the back Morrigan's neck tightly. "Lets just...keep all this between ourselves. No need to embarrass me."