† Asarath & Asariel †
Asarath didn't awake for five days.
When his eyes finally opened, the first thing he saw was his twin glaring down at him.
"What the fuck, Rath!" Riel jumped at him.
Rath flinched, expecting a slap or worse, but his brother only scooped him in his arms and hugged him tightly. "I thought the owl took you!" Riel sobbed in atypical dramatic fashion.
Rath laughed, pushing himself up. It'd been a long time since he'd seen his brother so distressed. Probably the last time Rath took a serious injury. He patted Riel's back. "It's alright. I'm fine."
"You slept for days!"
"I guess I needed to recover after not sleeping for a moon."
"Damnit Rath. You should have said something. I would have gone with you. I couldn't find you anywhere in the astral. I couldn't find the field, or the owl, or even the damned wolf."
"I was with the owl." He continued to pat his brothers back. The other man was in his bed. Signs of his constant presence littered Asarath's room. The tidy space had become a mess with his brother's presence. Tomes stacked in the corner table, the desk filled with unbound scrolls and papers that swept over the edges and onto the floor. The other half of the bed clearly slept in. Rath smiled. Asariel hadn't slept in the same bed with him since they were children. "That wolf really scared you, huh?"
Riel dug his fingers into Rath's side making him yelp. He pulled back. "Damn you! Yes!"
Rath laughed again, rubbing his new sore spot. "I understand. She is terrifying." He hadn't thought of it before, but Koha appearing to him as an unmoving owl was much less eerie than the wolf who stalked his brother every time he turned his back.
"She?" Riel's head tilted to the side. He may have been afraid of the predator in his dreams, but his curiosity driven mind would always have a question.
"Yes, brother. She was terrifying and magnificent."
Riel gave Rath a perplexed look. "What is she?"
"You won't believe it brother, but a human!" Rath cocked an eyebrow. "Or so she said."
"A terrifying magnificent human?" Riel could feel his brother's thrill, curiosity, and ...desire. "What happened?"
"I had a curiosity nap," Riel gave him a dirty look while Rath rolled his eyes, "and when I woke in the field, she was there instead of the owl. A little thing, black haired with those huge yellow eyes. And her aura!" He raved. "At first, she seemed like the owl– like a void. But then the red sky fell and she called it her power. She possessed vyra unlike any I'd ever seen. It was so strong and everywhere–I swear I could hear it singing in my blood."
Riel only grew more dumbfounded as he assessed his brother in the bond they'd always had. They'd been told it was common for fae sproutlings who shared a pod to have such ties to each other. Feeling and sharing each other's emotions. Sometimes one did not know where he started and the other began.
"I don't–"
"Oh!" Rath grabbed his shoulder as he cut him off. "The meeting with Emry!"
"Emry?" He couldn't imagine why his brother would give a shit about the rat. He hated him. Not that Riel didn't either. The man was snobby and pretentious.
Rath was radiating giddiness with a malicious grin. "Did he do anything weird?"
It spread to Riel and he found the corner of his lip pulling up lopsided. "Yeeess. For a moment he did act kind of strange?"
Rath bellowed in glee, slapping his knee. "Did he sit and stand and spin randomly?"
His brother's nose twitched and their thrill smogged up the room. "Did you…?" Command him? They'de never been able to hold the command over sung names. They simply sang; pretty but useless.
"No! It was her! I sang his name to her and she commanded it."
It was impressive. Unheard of. "The human knew how to sing name spells? One not given to her by its owner?"
"I only knew because she sang the spell song when she asked for my name. She was very adamant that she was not aware of what she was doing. So I did a little experiment."
Riel shook his head, a funny smile on his face. "And you didn't hurt our dear friend Emry? I'm surprised."
"She did not want to harm a stranger." Rath sheepishly rubbed his head. "Otherwise I would have requested she walk the bastard into the uncharted." They were the dangerous and unexplored areas of the Inbetween. Many excursions were led into them. Very few returned.
The twins shared a moment of pondering if the vypnyr lord would survive.
"Did she say her name?" Riel asked.
"Koha. She wouldn't give me her real one. She could hear my songs and she didn't trust me."
"And that was all?"
"That was only half of it. After she kicked me out of her dream, I landed in my astral bed to find a man pawing and slobbering all over an apparition of her!"
Riel lifted an eyebrow as Rath's jealousy leaked from him. His brother was seldom jealous of anything or anyone. "You didn't like that?"
"I hated it." He seethed between bared fangs. He usually loved to watch, to play in groups, ashamedly a little more fae among the two. Perhaps it was because he'd been secretly terrified to touch Koha, yet the man caressed and kissed her so freely. "But it was so hot and they complimented each other so fucking well. Like night and day!" Rath rubbed his face with a groan. "He was a gentleman, and did not let his dream fantasies run too wild."
"What did you do to him?" Riel nodded along, captivated by the wild flux of his brother's emotions. Rage, jealousy, and lust all curling together in a rich evergreen poison.
"I wanted to taste her. How he had her. So I propositioned him," Rath smiled, delighted in himself. "I got to clean her from his pretty little mouth while I'd answer his questions and he'd answer mine."
"That sounds like you secretly just wanted to make out with each other and needed a reason." Riel pointed out playfully.
Rath snorted then purred, "Oh I wanted to. One half of him did and the other half was…" Rath didn't finish his sentence, thinking of the way the man started to growl at some point and it didn't end until they fell asleep tangled together.
"Half?"
"Mmm, he was double beinged. Called himself a demon."
Riel eyebrows shot up. "Really? A possession?"
Rath nodded with a scoff, recalling the way the demon was so confident that he was not a threat to them. "That thing probably could have killed me if it wanted to. Even in the astral. But it was more than happy to play instead."
"So what of the owl, Koha? Did you find out anything?"
Sinking down, he made himself comfortable in silken sheets and fluffy pillows. "When I saw her, it was clear she was imprisoned somewhere. He did not know much about her, thankfully, but he did know who Yuen was. And that made me realize that Koha smelled very familiar."
"Like that Kaseyran weed?" Riel barked out his last name.
"Even better," Asarth purred, deep and pleased with himself. The scents mixed in so well with hers that it had almost gone past his notice. He didn't know who he was more jealous of; the blonde or "Delta," whose juniper and thunder complimented Koha's spiraling autumn decay and pine sap.
He sunk his face back into his pillow. Mumbling he told his brother, "I'm going to go find her. After one more nap."
A pillow collided with the back of his head. "No! You've slept enough."
Rath laughed as his sweet worried brother quickly reverted back to his studious and parental personality. Riel peeled him from his bed and sent him to the baths.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Deep under the Palov estate the first gate had been rebuilt.
The old station had been abandoned thousands of years ago, left to crumble into ruin.What remained was a cracked polish stone floor, the remnants of rooms used for luggage holding and ticket sales, and the gate. Two pillars of crumbling marble.
A space of air between the gate hosted the remnants of an old hover-rail, set into the ground, and nothing else. It did not hold the same artistry that it once had. Hiring a craftsman was debated, but neither brother had wanted anyone in the station yet. The only other individual who knew of it was Angus. That was only because Riel felt obligated to inform the man why he had been imprisoned and interrogated by the fae.
Said man now stood with his arms crossed, looking much more healthy than he had when he arrived. As our scrunch marred his pale face. "Are you sure it's safe?"
Riel nodded confidently while Rath gave a shrug.
Angus didn't look like he was buying it at all.
"It is as safe as it can be. I've run some tests and sent a few animals through. They all came back fine. No damage." Riel was checking over notes and looking at the carvings he'd done in the rebuilt pillars. "You traveled just fine through a decaying one when you escaped the fae."
Angus only grumbled. Something about the assassin named Nimara and a string of curse words. He kicked a pebble and leaded against the wall.
Riel squatted down next to one of the large pillars and pressed into a diverted area causing a marble panel to pop out. He removed it to examine the plasma crystal inside.
When he'd discovered the schematics and the power source of the portal, he found both crystals still intact and glowing with energy. One had been simply knocked from its hold, but after millennia they still held their charge.
Making sure all the twisted copper wire had remained perfectly lined and there were no faults, he carefully slotted the power key into a key hole below the crystal. Each pillar groaned as puzzle-like stone workings began to cycle around the inner column of thick wires.
Riel clicked the panel back into place and soon the pillars were quiet; running smooth and soundless. He dusted off his hands and returned to Rath and Angus.
"Are you sure you want to come?" Rath asked Riel, a bag slung over his shoulder.
"Yes." He confirmed. "I'm not letting you meet the woman by yourself."
Asarath lightly laughed. He'd felt his brother's anxiety radiating off him all day. He truly was terrified of the wolf and he was sure the woman was not something to be taken lightly. "She did call us both to her dream lands, I suppose. So is it ready then?" He pointed between the portal.
"Mmhmm. The coordinations have been set to Enora. The northern region has a usable gate, if the map I have is correct." It was an old map, but Riel wasn't going to give his brother a problem to worry about.
Rath nodded, shrugged, then casually strolled through the gate. Light warped and flooded the room, then snapped out of existence and Rath was gone.
Angus huffed. "I'll keep an eye on the place. Just hurry back. I'm already tired of this damn cave,"
"I will." Riel affirmed. He did not want to go to midworld, and– if he was truthful with himself–he did not want to meet the woman. The whole situation had left a bad taste in his mouth and a pulling sensation in his gut. Nothing good would come where the fae were involved. That he was sure.