#LyrenandLis

[lisaerys]

Light and Fire

The glimmering Light glowing between her fingers turned the medical bay white-gold as power curled into damaged flesh, seeking out where the hurt was worse. Lyren sat quiet and still as Lis worked but the energy beneath his skin was all the more obvious when her own was coursing through his system - especially with the way it reached out toward figures not there. From her own observation he probably didn't even realize the way he shifted his gaze at times, following something she couldn't see.

She was aware of what it looked like when someone was talking in their mind. She had observed it, been there. It wasn't quite the same. It was something else - something he wouldn't talk about. She took a breath as the Light faded. "Are you ever going to tell me?"

He stiffened, peering up at her through narrowed eyes. "About the relic hunt? I just did."

She leveled him with her best unimpressed look. It didn't phase him the way it had when they were kids (a universe away, a step to the left… for her) except to have him arch a brow in response. "You know that's not what I meant. The fact that three out of four members of your relic hunting team were badly hurt says enough of its own. But how about why you wanted so badly to go to a Titan facility? Or we could talk about Arenlia, and how you haven't even let me give her a physical. Or maybe why you never portal directly in anymore? Don't give me bullshit about not wanting to upset the delicate recovery of the island. You were starting to. You stopped."

"Then you already know," Lyren shrugged like an insolent brat she still remembered him as. "You said it right there. It's not bullshit."

He didn't even have the decency to avoid her eyes when he lied to her. She balled up her hands, taking another deep breath. "Lyren - "

"I need to go. I have work to do," he said, slipping by her.

"What are you so afraid of?" she asked - because he was. She knew it, he knew it, but he wouldn't just tell her and she no longer had the ability to just see it. It was natural, to reach for something that wasn't there, to go beyond, brush mental fingers against a mind frustratingly well warded against her. "Why won't you let me help?"

"That really won't help right now," Lyren laughed, bitter and sharp. "Or ever. You need to stop trying."

She scoffed. "I will if you actually tell me you don't miss it. Don't miss our belonging. I'm your sister. And you won't let me in, won't let me help. I can't help if you won't let me know. And if you can't tell me out loud - "

" - then maybe I have a good reason to not get you involved," Lyren snapped. Sparks flickered where he dug his fingers into the fabric of his robes. She tracked them until they hit the floor and smoldered there, far longer lived than they should have been. He didn't seem to notice. "It's nothing you can do anything about. If you really want to help - then stop poking it. Stay on the island and away from Quel'thalas for a time. That's - that's how you can help."

She raised her eyes to meet his, and could practically feel him begging with her, could almost hear the thoughts that would have once been there open and trusted.

Practically. Almost.

"I can't just stay here. You're not safe. I don't mean your relic hunts. Something is going on. And I can't just let it go. It's my job to protect you. And I failed in that once." She shifted forward a step, eyes pleading with him. "You died."

He flinched - and the sparks around his fingers became flames. She pretended not to notice. But it was impossible not to see the way the orange-red of his eyes blazed bright as he bit out, "That wasn't me. Not this me. And the you that died here wasn't you. My sister died that day and we're going through these motions that are pale imitations of what we once had. Your brother - "

"Is you," she said, cutting him off with ease. "However we came to be. We followed the same paths until that day." She smiled at his glare, stretching it into a grin. "And your tactics haven't changed that much since you were young, you know."

The noise he made couldn't quite be called a growl - there was an inhuman hiss behind it and she went still. She knew that noise. Where had she heard it?

She nearly missed him stomping off. "You're so infuriating! Just - damn it Lis! Stay on the island."

Of course, he was out of hearing range, cheating as he short range teleported out of the hall (so much for that bullshit excuse). She smiled ruefully after him as knelt, thoughtfully pressing her fingers to the floor of the medical bay where he had stood.

The metal was warm. Out of her pocket she drew out a feather. Very much like Sunsoul's pinions. Except significantly smaller. And now matched by another she had found more recently, even smaller and dull colored, fluffy like down. Both were too warm for her to have been holding them for weeks, like the first, or days like the second.

He wasn't very subtle, her twin. She wasn't even sure he really wanted to hide it so much as… couldn't speak it. She had more than enough clues to put together at least some of a picture. But Arenlia - darling little Areni. Her niece's appearance had coincided with her brother's newest emotional state which seemed to be stuck on two degrees from panic at all times.

And whatever was happening, it seemed anyone who did know about it was unable to fix it.

She would figure it out. Because she didn't have the luxury of failing again.