The story so far:
---- Aija is a Volunteer at the Pristine School at Innermost. She works along with Zuri and Ze, who are her friends. Aija witnesses a strange event one night – light emanating from Rez's body. The kidnapper is after her soul, next, but he leaves her alive and goes away. Another man finds her, he wants to take her somewhere else - Aija though wary of him agrees. Aija learns of the existence of the aliens – the Ytai. Also, about the R'ies and H'eon, Harvesting and Àvo from Etrie. Etrie tells her that the man, who Harvested Rez (Thieron), will now go after her. He tells her that the spy/kidnapper's name is Luka. Etrie asks her to work along with him. Aija agrees to work along with Etrie on Harvest Stopping Missions.
---- Thieron kidnaps Aija. She finds out that Nala works for Thieron. Ze, who was following her to rescue her, gets captured along with her. Thieron binds Aija to himself.
---- Luka asks Aija not to talk of Zuri to Nala, especially in front of Thieron. She agrees for Zuri's sake. Luka goes to Etemir to scout for souls. He is caught by Etrie but manages to escape. Etrie is furious about Aija and Ze.
---- Thieron is planning the Harvest of the soul that Luka scouted.
---- Aija and Ze try to escape, but Thieron stops them.
---- Thieron and Aija go to the Open. They meet Alton Ivar,
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****23.3 - Thieron****
Thieron woke in the middle of the night.
Aija was still in bed and she was asleep. He changed into sweatpants and removed the lenses in his eyes that made his eyes blue. He often wore the lenses through the night even when he slept, but his eyes were starting to feel dry and he was truly getting a headache, now.
He looked at himself in the mirror; his two different colored eyes stared back at him. Staring and wishing wouldn't change his eye colors. There were no Spirits, Gods, and Goddesses to listen to his wishes and make them come true.
****
Thieron woke to a faint burning on his wrist. He jolted up straight looking for Aija. She wasn't in bed.
"Zuh'tih!" he cursed.
Even after he warned her! The pain flared up and he gritted his teeth. She must have gone pretty far; though he sensed that she was in the Mansion.
"That girl!" he said as he followed the tether of the bond. He ran and felt the burning of the *Uil'dran soften. He found her close to Alton's office room – on the floor in Dhor-Wo's grasp.
"Let her go!" he yelled as the bond quietened.
Dhor-Wo looked at him and laughed. He whispered something into Aija's ear, let her go and walked away.
Thieron grabbed her and turned her to him wild with anger. "What did I tell you?" he growled. His electricity pricked his skin, and it touched her skin, drawing a shiver from her.
Aija stared at him, not saying a word. Her eyes fell on his.
"Answer me!" Thieron demanded.
"Your eyes..." she whispered.
Thieron then remembered removing the lenses as she slept. She had never seen him without them; never seen the true colors of his eyes – each a different color; not the blue the lenses turned them into.
"I know they're hideous," he growled pulling her up from where she sat.
She frowned. "But, they are beautiful," she whispered almost unintentionally.
His heart rammed heavily against his chest. Her voice held raw truth, and her cheeks flushed ever so slightly as she realized what she had told.
His fury dissolved as warmth crept in. Stars above, what was she doing?
He dragged her back to the room and locked it using compulsion. He should have done it earlier, but she had been sound asleep when he had woken hours after he saw her lying on the bed; he had assumed she would sleep through the night and that he would be the first to wake.
But, there was perhaps no assuming when it came to Aija. She was unpredictable. She had been compliant the whole day only to cause trouble in the night.
****
"Stay right here," Thieron warned her the next morning at *Var-Inu's farm, letting her go at the entrance. "You know what happens if you wander off by yourself."
She nodded quietly and he went inside. He hoped she had the sense to stay close to him this time. He went into the old brick house filled with furniture.
Var-Inu was seated at his table, feet stretched out on the table reading a DigiBook. He was dressed in jeans and a black tee looking casual.
Without looking up from the device he said, "That's an immensely powerful Uil'dran you have created."
Nothing went past Var-Inu. He looked like he was in his early thirties in human years. But, he was older than that in Ytèan years. Thieron was much younger than the man, and was a several hundred years old himself compared to a human; though, if he were born human, he would still be twenty-one. He did match a twenty-one-year-old human in all, but true age.
Thieron sat at the table, "I'm glad to hear that from you."
Var-Inu placed his DigiBook down and looked at him, his eyes reading his thoughts.
"I want to see the human girl."
Thieron was reluctant. But if he needed anything from Var-Inu, the man had to have his wish fulfilled. He brought in Aija. She was calm; he hadn't expected her to be so carefree in Var-Inu's presence.
The man looked at her and smiled. "Your name?" he asked.
"Aija Niyarah," she replied standing straight, adjusting the mask. She left out Oshiro. Thieron had compelled Ze to tell him their full names when Aija had still been unconscious from the Uil'dran's creation. And, he had found out that Aija belonged to the Oshiro family. There were three other Oshiros, but he had made Ze tell him which one she belonged to.
Var-Inu smiled; his eyes glinting like he knew her secret. Thieron shifted his weight from leg to leg wanting for this to be over.
"The Ro'ein's touch is on you," he told her in Ytèan. Aija blinked unaware of what he had told her.
Thieron's eyes rounded in disbelief. He looked at Aija more carefully. Is that why she was as powerful a soul as she was?
"You may wait outside, dear girl," Var-Inu told her, voice mellow as he spoke CommLang.
Aija nodded, looked up once at Thieron and left.
"Is that the truth?" Thieron asked once she was out.
Var-Inu grinned. "Use her to retrieve the *Àvo, she will be useful."
Thieron nodded. He had to take her with him anyway. If Var-Inu saw that she was useful – it was the truth.
"Why are you here?"
"I need Izemirn," Thieron informed, "translators and anything that'll be helpful on Ytèan."
"What do I get in return?" Var-Inu scratched his stubble, thinking.
"Name it," It wasn't money this time Var-Inu was seeking else he would have named a price already.
"I'll inform you of it when the time comes. It'll be a favor."
Thieron nodded once.
"When do you leave for Ytèan?"
"After the Ker'zan, if it goes well."
Var-Inu studied him for a moment before saying, "Things do have a way of working out for you."
Var-Inu offered lunch, but Thieron wanted to get out of the Open as quickly as possible; so he refused the offer. He found Aija sitting on the front porch steps looking out at the fields of maize. She looked peaceful and lost in thought. He looked at her aura; there was a shade of lavender swirling around the deep purple – she was daydreaming.
He cleared his throat, "Let's go,"
She startled, and he saw her aura as the lavender was replaced by the cream-yellow of surprise.
They walked back to the car parked amid fields of maize when he remembered that *Dhor-Wo had whispered something to her last night. He hadn't focussed on what the Ytai had been saying in his rage, and he belatedly realized that he hadn't heard what exactly the Ytai had told her.
"What did Dhor-Wo tell you last night?"
She looked up at him as they walked. "That you don't work for Ah'n."
He stilled, as his heart beat wildly against his chest.
"That you are Ah'n," she whispered stopping ahead of him; looking back. "Is it true?"
He sought to steady his breath, but in vain, as he looked at the unrelenting thunderstorm in her eyes.
"Yes," he whispered.
She didn't look surprised; she must have been expecting it.
Thieron heard a high pitched screech just as he was about to usher her towards the car. Aija had heard it too; she looked sideways in the direction where the screech had come from.
Thieron pulled out two blades and gave one to her. She took it from him, without hesitation even though she had no idea what she would be dealing with. He looked back at the farmhouse and back at the car. The car was closer.
"Run!" he commanded. "Run to the car!"
Aija ran. She didn't question him; she had understood the urgency of the situation. He ran behind her as he heard the high pitched shriek of the Savage now closer to them.
"Run!" he shouted as the Savage came into view a little ahead of them.
He dragged her faster by her arm just as the Savage attacked them. He flung his blade at it, it hit the Savage right in the head. It fell to the ground, it wasn't for long though.
Aija got into the car and he closed the door behind her, compelling it locked. She looked at him shocked when he didn't get in after her. She hit the car's window as if to catch his attention but his eyes were on the Savage writhing on the ground.
He removed the blade from it and struck it a few times more, and hit it with his lightning just to make sure it stayed down. The crops rustled and he turned to find Var-Inu. He was holding a wooden stick alight with fire on one end and he lit the Savage with the fire. It shrieked loudly, and they closed their ears watching it burn.
"They are growing desperate," Var-Inu said once the high-pitched screams had died out. "They must be truly starving if they have the courage to come into more populated areas of the Open."
Thieron looked at the black sinewy, thing looking sickly as it burned. The fire spread a little and Var-Inu stamped it out.
The Leadership so easily ignored the existence of the Savages and Creatures as they lived in the Far Open. But, of late they had started venturing into the more populated Open, closer and closer to the Cities' perimeters.
The Gale squad in the Open often handles such incidents, but they couldn't be expected to be everywhere all the time. Living in the Open was dangerous, but many just couldn't afford living inside the Cities.
Thieron felt bad for the Creatures and Savages. They had once been animals and humans respectively. Due to the radioactivity and biochemical warfare during the Wars, they had muted. It was sad, particularly for the animals, for they suffered because of human greed.
"We need to heal the Earth, soon," Thieron said. "It's the only way to reverse these human-induced dangers."
Var-Inu regarded him in silence.
"You still think humans deserve a chance?" Thieron asked.
Var-Inu exhaled, weariness taking over.
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Character/Terminology Reference
Uil'dran Ter/16
Var-Inu Ot/Chr 3.w
Àvo Ter/10
Dhor-Wo Ot/Chr 3.j